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The Book Pages: Maggie Shipstead brought a book to Tahiti. She’s glad she did.

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When he was still in school, Alex Vassar lost his driver’s license while traveling, and says that when asked to produce ID he only had a shopper’s club card.

Sensing that wasn’t going to cut it, he offered that he also had a library card. Or two. Wait, four. Four library cards.

“I’m like, Yeah, I got four library cards, and they were like, You know what?” says Vassar, recalling the bemused response to this impressive array of borrowing power. “They were like, that’s cool.”

These days, library fan Vassar, perhaps unsurprisingly, works as Communications Manager for the California State Library, and he and I spent an enjoyable hour on the phone trading library stories a bit like Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss and Roy Scheider comparing scars in “Jaws.”

Like Robert Shaw's Quint, Roy Scheider's Brody, and Richard Dreyfuss' Hooper in the 1975 movie 'Jaws,' we traded impressive stories about the number of library cards we had. (AP Photo)
Like Robert Shaw’s Quint, Roy Scheider’s Brody, and Richard Dreyfuss’ Hooper in the 1975 movie ‘Jaws,’ we traded impressive stories about the number of library cards we had. (AP Photo)

I’d called Vassar to find out more about something I’d learned about at my local branch: Along with all the other things libraries offer besides books, California libraries now offer passes to state parks, so if you’re a California library card holder you can check out a park pass that allows you free entry to 200 participating state park units. For free, people.

It’s a three-year pilot program that sent 5000 park passes to California public libraries, and though you might have to wait for your turn – much the way you do when you join a virtual queue to check out a newly released bestseller – you can get access to state parks for free in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties (as well as many others).

“California is an amazingly beautiful state, and for the past two years, many of us have spent a lot of time indoors. This is a great opportunity to become reacquainted with your local library, as well as California’s great outdoors,” said Vassar.

For more information, try this Parks and Rec informational page or reach out to libraries in Los Angeles County, Orange County, Riverside County and San Bernardino County.

This weekend offers a bounty of TV shows based on books you might want to check out (or, to be honest, that I want to check out).

“The Lincoln Lawyer,” a series based on Michael Connelly’s Mickey Haller novels, stars Manuel Garcia-Rulfo and Neve Campbell and premieres today on Netflix.

“The Essex Serpent,” a series based on Sarah Perry’s novel, premieres on Apple TV+ today with Tom Hiddleston and Claire Danes.

“Conversations with Friends,” a series based on Sally Rooney’s debut novel that stars Alison Oliver, Sasha Lane, Joe Alwyn and Jemima Kirke, premieres Sunday May 15 on Hulu.

And “Operation Mincemeat,” based on Ben Macintyre’s nonfiction account of a World War II gambit that involved dropping a dead body with fake invasion documents off the coast of Spain, premiered Wednesday on Netflix with Colin Firth, Matthew Macfadyen and Johnny Flynn as a pre-James Bond Ian Fleming.

These are all books I’ve either read or want to read (and that’s kind of the same thing, right?), so I’m looking forward to checking these out.

I’ll also throw in a completely unsolicited recommendation for Macintyre’s World War II nonfiction, especially “Agent Zigzag” and “Rogue Heroes.” If you need an absolutely ripping yarn or a great gift idea for the upcoming Father’s Day, you would do well to check out his books.

How about you — what are you watching, or reading, this weekend? Email me questions, comments, or recommendations at epedersen@scng.com and I may share it in future newsletters. (As well, read on for some great book recs from another reader of the newsletter).

Thanks, as always, for reading.

Maggie Shipstead brought a book to Tahiti and she’s glad she did

LA-based author Maggie Shipstead's books include the novel
LA-based author Maggie Shipstead’s books include the novel “Great Circle” and the short story collection “You Have a Friend in 10A.” (Photo courtesy of the author/ Cover courtesy of Knopf)

Maggie Shipstead is the author of the novels “Seating Arrangements” “Astonish Me” and her most recent, “Great Circle,” which was named one of the Southern California Newspaper Group’s 10 Notables of 2021. Her latest is a book of short stories, “You Have a Friend in 10A.” Samantha Dunn talked to her for the Books section, and she was kind enough to answer questions about books and provide recommendations for more.​​

Q. What are you reading now?

I’m often reading a few different books. On my library app right now, for example, I have The “Cold Vanish” by Jon Billman, “The Verifiers” by Jane Pek, and “And Then We Grew Up: On Creativity, Potential, and the Imperfect Art of Adulthood” by Rachel Friedman. I also just got the audiobook of “Empire of Pain” by Patrick Radden Keefe.

Q. How do you choose what to read next?

I’m definitely driven much more by mood and inclination than any sense of obligation. I keep a list on my phone of books that I want to read, so I might consult that. Books get on the list when I read reviews that sound interesting or if someone recommends something. I also have a bookshelf mostly dedicated to books I’ve been sent or given or that I bought but haven’t read yet, and I might take a look at that. I think of it as the make it or break it shelf, because if a book languishes there for too long, I give it away.

Q. Can you recall a book that you read and thought it had to have been written just for you (or conversely, one that definitely wasn’t written for you)?

I can think of lots of books I read in one or two sittings, which only happens if a book fully engages your brain, which I think is a similar thing. Just sitting here and looking at my bookshelves, some that jump out at me are: “Wild” by Cheryl Strayed, “Normal People” by Sally Rooney, “The Descendants” by Kaui Hart Hemmings, “The Invisible Circus” by Jennifer Egan, “Le Divorce” by Diane Johnson, “Little Children” by Tom Perrotta, “Wonder Boys” by Michael Chabon. These books are all really successful, so I’ve never felt like my connection with them was special or unusual—they’re successful because they felt personal to lots of people.

Q. What do you find the most appealing in a book: the plot, the language, the cover, a recommendation? Do you have any examples?

As far as what makes me pick up a book in the first place, a cover can definitely do that, although I couldn’t articulate exactly what speaks to me. Plot tends to be important to me. Not that a book has to be action-packed—or even have much of a plot at all—but I do tend to be most drawn to realistic fiction about human relationships. For example, two books during early COVID that I read about and immediately ordered were “Monogamy” by Sue Miller and “Writers & Lovers” by Lily King, which are both Boston-area (where I lived for five years) novels about bookish women and their romantic relationships and are both pretty quiet but still riveting. I don’t like it when people evaluate books based on “relatability”—like, fiction doesn’t have to be about you, that’s the whole point—but I am also not immune to its siren song.

Q. What’s a memorable book experience – good or bad – you’re willing to share? 

I had one of those thank-goodness-for-this-book moments recently. Back in March 2020, I was supposed to go on a cruise in French Polynesia for a travel magazine, but that was obviously canceled. We rescheduled twice; almost two years later, in February 2022, I finally went on the trip. I had a negative PCR test within 24 hours of boarding my flight, but by the time I arrived in Tahiti and got swabbed at the airport, I was positive. So I had to quarantine for a week in a hotel in Papeete, and thank goodness I had Elizabeth George’s most recent mystery, “Something To Hide,” with me. It’s 700 pages long and made a lot of time fly. I’ve been reading her books since middle school, and love them, and this one made tropical quarantine feel cozy instead of tragic.

• • •

Reader Recommendations

I’ve just finished “Ministry for the Future” by Kim Stanley Robinson, which turned out to be an unexpectedly optimistic book about a hypothesized future after the climate crisis, despite a grueling opening.

Before that was Doug Tallamy’s “Nature’s Best Hope.” It’s supposedly about planting the right things to help local ecosystems survive climate change, but he’s an entomologist, so I came away with a much greater appreciation for insects as well as for native plants, and a growing curiosity about where my crickets went. I used to crack a window so I could listen to them as I fell asleep, but some years back they went silent, and I haven’t heard from them since.

Before that was “Building Community Food Webs,” a great book by Ken Meter built on vast personal experience. Los Angeles is entirely dependent on food supply lines that are looking uncomfortably tenuous these days (COVID-19, earthquakes, port congestion, drought, fire, yikes!), so advice on building at least a little bit of local resilience is welcome.

And right now I’m listening to Mark Arax reading his latest, “The Dreamt Land,” about that perennially fraught subject, California water. Most of what I know, or think I know, about the subject I learned piecemeal and out of context. He’s a great writer and a master of context; he’s pulling together a lot of stuff for me.

– Submitted by Cindy Cotter

• • •

Actor Dennis Hopper's career as a photographer continues to grow in acclaim a dozen years after his death at 74. The 1961 photograph
Actor Dennis Hopper’s career as a photographer continues to grow in acclaim a dozen years after his death at 74. The 1961 photograph “Double Standard,” seen here, is considered one of his most famous, and was used as the title of the 2010 exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art curated by artist Julian Schnabel that was the first comprehensive survey of Hopper’s artistic career. The story of this photograph, Hopper’s art career, and his role as an influential supporter of the emerging art scene in Los Angeles is told in Mark Rozzo’s new book, “Everybody Thought We Were Crazy: Dennis Hopper, Brooke Hayward, and 1960s Los Angeles. (Photograph by Dennis Hopper/Hopper Art Trust)

LA in the 1960s

Dennis Hopper, Brooke Hayward anchor “Everybody Thought We Were Crazy.” READ MORE

• • •

Drummer Matt Sorum has written a new memoir,
Drummer Matt Sorum has written a new memoir, “Double Talkin’ Jive,” about his life and time anchoring bands like The Cult, Guns N’ Roses and Velvet Revolver. The book will be released May 10. (Photo by Mark Maryanovich)

Bang on the Drum 

Matt Sorum, drummer for The Cult and Guns N’ Roses, has a rock ‘n’ roll memoir. READ MORE

• • •

Angelyn Bugawan of Oceanside, from left, preserves this Comic Con Revolution cosplay moment with Tess Vargha (Present Mic Ana), Taylor Pruitt of Riverside (Elia) and Zilvia Barrows of Orange (Tsumigi) at the Ontario Convention Center on Saturday, May 18, 2019. (Photo by Cindy Yamanaka, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)
Angelyn Bugawan of Oceanside, from left, preserves this Comic Con Revolution cosplay moment with Tess Vargha (Present Mic Ana), Taylor Pruitt of Riverside (Elia) and Zilvia Barrows of Orange (Tsumigi) at the Ontario Convention Center on Saturday, May 18, 2019. (Photo by Cindy Yamanaka, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

Comic Con Revolution

Ontario event will feature cosplayers, comic writers Mark Waid, Chris Claremont, more. READ MORE

• • •

“Sea of Tranquility,” the new novel by “Station Eleven” author Emily St. John Mandel, is the top-selling fiction release at Southern California’s independent bookstores. (Courtesy of Knopf)

The week’s bestsellers

The top-selling books at your local independent bookstores. READ MORE

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What’s next on ‘Bookish’

On the next free Bookish event May 20 at 5 p.m., host Sandra Tsing Loh talks with Don Winslow, Mark Rozzo and Melissa Chadburn.


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