On Saturday, I hosted a group of local authors to celebrate Chevalier’s Books, LA’s oldest independent bookstore, which recently reopened for pick-up orders.
Chevalier’s is our neighborhood bookstore, hosting many of our launch parties — including Arlo Finch — so we’re excited to see its doors semi-open.
The theme for our Zoom conversation was “summer reading.” We gave our picks for kids, teens and adults, with special focus on books about understanding race in America.
Guests include Stuart Gibbs, Leslie Margolis, Aline Brosh McKenna, Thomas Lennon, Sarah Mlynowski, Julie Buxbaum, Kayla Cagan and Julia Claiborne Johnson.
You can see their reading lists on Chevalier’s site, with links to order directly from Chevalier’s or bookshop.org.
My picks are below, along with a few additions I made as we were recording.
Support your local indie bookstore! Like Chevalier’s, many are partially open, and can easily get any book you’re looking for.
Young Readers:
– Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems
– Raccoon Sick Day by C.E. Miller
– Hair Love by Matthew Cherry
Middle Grade:
– My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George
– The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
– Marvel Encyclopedia by Stan Lee (DK)
– Incredible Cross-Sections by Stephen Biesty
YA:
– Dune by Frank Herbert
– Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
– Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond
– Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension by Matt Parker
Adults:
– Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
– The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley
– Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion by Jia Tolentino
– Free-Range Chickens by Simon Rich
– Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel
– Atrocities: The 100 Deadliest Episodes in Human History by Matthew White
– The Hardest Job in the World: The American Presidency by John Dickerson
– Raising White Kids by Jennifer Harvey