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Above Los Angeles
by Robert Cameron

ISBN 091868448X (0-918684-48-X)
Hardcover, Ingram Pub Services

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Book summary:
Wonderful aerial photographs, historical and present day of Los Angeles.
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- Above Los Angeles: ISBN 091868448X (0-918684-48-X)
  Hardcover, Ingram Pub Services
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Adios Muneca
by Raymond Chandler

ISBN 8420672335 (84-206-7233-5)
Softcover, Alianza Editorial Sa

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Book summary:
Considerada por algunos críticos como la mejor novela de Raymond Chandler (1888-1959), la indagación en la corrupción que supone ADIÓS, MUÑECA (1940) supuso un paso más para el autor en su personal interpretación de las convenciones del género negro. Si en «El sueño eterno» (BA 0700) era un caso de chantaje el que servía de urdimbre para la acción de Philip Marlowe, en «Adiós, muñeca» será la búsqueda que emprende, tras salir de la cárcel, de su «pequeña Velma» el singular gigante Moose Malloy («Incluso en Central Avenue, que no es la calle más discreta del mundo en materia de vestimenta, pasaba tan inadvertido como una tarántula en un trozo de bizcocho») la que desencadene un siniestro recorrido que desenmascara los resortes del poder en una ciudad en la que «las leyes se hacen para los que pagan». [via]
More editions of Adios Muneca:
- Adios Muneca: ISBN 8420672335 (84-206-7233-5)
  Softcover, Alianza Editorial Sa
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Angels
by Marian Keyes

ISBN 0060008032 (0-06-000803-2)
Softcover, HarperCollins Publishers

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Book summary:
A new Marian Keyes novel is always something to celebrate, and her sixth novel, Angels, will have you cheering. From the first couple of sentences: "I'd always lived a fairly blameless life. Up until the day I left my husband and ran away to Hollywood, I'd hardly ever put a foot wrong" to the hugely satisfying last page, you're immediately involved in the story of Maggie Walsh's life; of how it went wrong, and then went right again.
The Walshes starred in a previous Keyes novel, the delightful Rachel's Holiday; Maggie is Rachel's older sister, (one of five) and the only one who "never did any of that nasty sleeping around business". Instead she got married to her first boyfriend Paul Garvan and everything was fine, until they suffered a couple of "setbacks". Unable to face sorting out the difficulties, Maggie hightails it to Los Angeles to stay with her old pal Emily. Emily is a script writer, her short film A Perfect Day was a big hit in Ireland, but her working life is a little tougher in the land of sunshine and fat-free Pringles. The two girls, along with a supporting cast of wannabes, scary film studio folk and slacker next door neighbours, get on with sorting out their emotional issues in a stylishly witty, wonderfully warm fashion. Maggie's devilish ex-boyfriend and the commitment phobic Troy add in a delightful frisson of sexual tension.
Marian Keyes observations on the foibles of love and LA are laugh-out-loud funny, but there's a beguiling tenderness there too. By the time you reach the final full stop you'll be sighing with contentment, and just wishing that Marian would get a move on with the next book. --Eithne Farry [via]
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Baby Be-Bop
by Francesca Lia Block, David Diaz

ISBN 0064471764 (0-06-447176-4)
Softcover, HarperCollins Canada, Limited

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Book summary:
Dirk MacDonald, a sixteen-year-old boy living in Los Angeles, comes to terms with being gay after he receives surreal storytelling visitations from his dead father and great-grandmother.
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Black Betty
by Walter Mosley

ISBN 0671884271 (0-671-88427-1)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster

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Black Dahlia Avenger: A Genius for Murder
by Steve Hodel

ISBN 0061139610 (0-06-113961-0)
Softcover, Harpercollins

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Book summary:
For 56 years, the Black Dahlia murder case remained one of the most notorious and high-profile unsolved crimes of the 20th century. Now, Steve Hodel, a 24-year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department, believes he has finally solved the case. On January 15, 1947, 22-year-old Elizabeth Short"The Black Dahlia"was found dead in a vacant lot in Los Angeles, her body horribly mutilated, bisected at the waist, and posed in a bizarre manner. The horrific crime shocked the country and commanded headlines for months as the killer taunted the police with notes and phone calls. Despite the massive manhunt, the murderer was never found.
Hodel began working on the case after he retired from the LAPD when he chanced upon an intriguing piece of evidence that led him on trail that he had no choice but to follow since it pertained directly to him. As he dug deeper, he came to believe that the killer was also responsible for over a dozen other unsolved murders in the Los Angeles area around the same time. He also found copious evidence of corruption at the LAPD, leading him to accuse the department top brass of covering up the Black Dahlia murder in order to conceal a deeper conspiracy involving crooked politicians and gangsters.
Despite a lack of physical evidence (which had been destroyed), Hodel is able to connect numerous dots and make a plausible case, complete with lurid tales of wild orgies that were attended by celebrities such as the artist Man Ray, the director John Huston, and a host of other Hollywood elites. He also discloses his killers obsession with the Marquis de Sade and Jack the Ripper and how he modeled his own crimes on their behavior. In particular, there is a disturbing connection between the work of Man Ray and the horrific circumstances of Shorts murder. It is doubtful that this will be the final word on the Black Dahlia murdertoo much myth surrounds it and much of his evidence is circumstantial--but Hodels labyrinthine tale adds much to this intriguing case. --Shawn Carkonen [via]
More editions of Black Dahlia Avenger: A Genius for Murder:
- Black Dahlia Avenger: A Genius for Murder: ISBN 0060589957 (0-06-058995-7)
  Softcover, Harpercollins
- Black Dahlia Avenger: A Genius for Murder: ISBN 0061139610 (0-06-113961-0)
  Softcover, Harpercollins
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Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water
by Marc Reisner

ISBN 0670199273 (0-670-19927-3)
Hardcover, Penguin Group USA

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Book summary:
The story of the American West is the story of a relentless quest for a precious resource: water. This is the story of the early settlers, lured by promises of paradise. The author documents the rivalry between government giants and other institutions, in the competition to transform the West. [via]
More editions of Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water:
- Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water: ISBN 0670199273 (0-670-19927-3)
  Hardcover, Penguin Group USA
Cinnamon Kiss
by Walter Mosley

ISBN 0446612723 (0-446-61272-3)
Softcover, Grand Central Pub

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More editions of Cinnamon Kiss:
- Cinnamon Kiss: ISBN 0786278552 (0-7862-7855-2)
  Hardcover, Thorndike Pr
- Cinnamon Kiss: ISBN 0446612723 (0-446-61272-3)
  Softcover, Grand Central Pub
City of Night
by John Rechy

ISBN 0802130836 (0-8021-3083-6)
Softcover, Grove Pr

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Book summary:
John Rechy, recipient of the Publishing Triangles William Whitehead Lifetime Achievement Award, wrote City of Night in 1963. This radical and daring work, which launched Rechys reputation as one of Americas most courageous novelists, remains the classic document of the garish neon-lit world of hustlers, drag queens, and men on the make who inhabited the homosexual underground of the early sixties.
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More editions of City of Night:
- City of Night: ISBN 0394621697 (0-394-62169-7)
  Softcover, Grove Press
- City of Night: ISBN 0802130836 (0-8021-3083-6)
  Softcover, Grove Pr
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Clandestine
by James Ellroy

ISBN 0380805294 (0-380-80529-4)
Softcover, Harpercollins

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Book summary:
This Book is in very nice condition, no markings and crisp binding [via]
More editions of Clandestine:
- Clandestine: ISBN 0380811413 (0-380-81141-3)
  Softcover, Harpercollins
- Clandestine: ISBN 0380805294 (0-380-80529-4)
  Softcover, Harpercollins
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The Closers
by Michael Connelly

ISBN 0446616443 (0-446-61644-3)
Softcover, Grand Central Pub

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Book summary:
"A city that forgets its murder victims is a city lost. This is where we don't forget," Detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch is told by his new boss, as he ends a three-year retirement and rejoins the Los Angeles Police Department at the start of The Closers, the 11th installment of Michael Connelly's Edgar-winning series. Having long ago demonstrated his knack for cracking previously unsolved homicides, Bosch is assigned to the newly re-branded Open-Unsolved Unit (aka "cold case" squad), and charged with resolving the 17-year-old abduction and slaying of a mixed-race teenager.
Rebecca Verloren, 16, was discovered missing from her Chatsworth home on a July morning in 1988. Her corpse and the gun that ended her life were later found on a hill behind the house. An autopsy revealed that she'd recently undergone an abortion, and a piece of skin tissue--presumably the killer's--was found trapped inside the murder weapon. Only now, though, has DNA science matched that tissue to Roland Mackey, a dyslexic 35-year-old tow-truck operator with no obvious connection to the deceased. It's up to Bosch, once more partnered with Kizmin Rider, to determine whether Mackey offed Becky Verloren, or was at least an accessory to that tragedy. But the more Bosch and Rider dig into this dusty crime, trying in part to determine whether racial animosity might have been involved, the more pain and resistance they encounter. Becky's white mother maintains the teen's old bedroom as a shrine, while her shattered father, an African-American chef, has vanished into LA's homeless community. Of the two original investigators on the case, one has since committed suicide, and Bosch suspects that the other--now a police commander--is helping to keep the lid tight on some old departmental secrets, perhaps linked to our hero's nemesis, Deputy Chief Irvin S. Irving.
Understandably rusty after three years sans shield, Bosch makes his share of personal and professional mistakes here--including one that supplies The Closers with a lethal, plot-turning climax. But the greater problem is that Connelly exhausts so much time and effort following his protagonist through the tedium of modern police procedures, that he neglects what readers have liked more about this series in the past: its persistently deft exploration of Bosch's lonely, haunted soul (which remains mostly out of sight in this tale), and the author's frequent flights of lyrical prose (also not much in evidence). Would-be novelists wanting an example of a solidly constructed cop tale need look no further than The Closers. But readers hoping to learn why Connelly is so well-respected in this genre should turn, instead, to previous Bosch titles such as The Concrete Blonde, Angel's Flight, or City of Bones. --J. Kingston Pierce [via]
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A Cold Heart
by Jonathan Kellerman

ISBN 0345452569 (0-345-45256-9)
Softcover, Ballantine Books

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Book summary:
In Cold Heart, the latest thriller from bestselling author Jonathan Kellerman, Dr. Alex Delaware picks up on clues missed even by his closest friend, LAPD detective Milo Sturgis. Leave it to this canny shrink to figure out that the only thing two otherwise unconnected murder victims have in common (they're both artists making comebacks after early career burnouts) may hold the key to their deaths. Even for Alex, this unlikely link is a stretch, especially since Baby Boy Lee was stabbed outside a nightclub and Julie Kipper was bludgeoned in the bathroom of an art gallery. But when a concert pianist dies on the eve of his greatest triumph, Alex is sure that the murders are not only the work of the same killer but also connected to the unsolved slayings of a Boston ballerina and an L.A. rock singer. By an even greater coincidence, two of the victims were tangentially involved with Alex's former lover, Robin Castagna, which provides the good doctor a few well placed paragraphs to ruminate on what went wrong in their romance as well as rescue her from the serial murderer who's targeted her as his next victim.
As usual, Kellerman manages to make even a far-fetched plot like this one ring true, but after 17 Alex Delaware mysteries, his series protagonist holds few surprises for the reader, who longs for something to shake Dr. D. out of his smooth complacency. Losing Robin didn't do it--maybe the new woman in Alex's life will. --Jane Adams [via]
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The Coming of the Night
by John Rechy

ISBN 0802137423 (0-8021-3742-3)
Softcover, Grove Pr

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Book summary:
John Rechy's new novel is a return to the themes and scenes of his classic, best-selling City of Night and a bittersweet memorial to a lost world -- gay Los Angeles in the moment before AIDS. It is 1981, a summer night, and an unscripted ritual is about to take place. Young, beautiful Jesse is celebrating one year on the dazzling gay scene and plans to lose himself completely in its transient pleasures. He is joined by Dave, a leatherman bent on testing limits. A young hustler, an opera lover lost in fantasies of youth, a gang of teenagers looking for trouble -- as the Santa Ana winds breathe fire down the hills of Los Angeles, stirring up desires and violence, these men circle ever closer to a confrontation as devastating as it is inevitable. Lyrical, humorous, and compassionate, The Coming of the Night proves again that as a novelist and chronicler of gay life John Rechy has no equal. "The question Rechy asks is still potent: Would you die for sex? Rechy's sizzling literary response, The Coming of Night is as exciting as it is chilling." -- Pamela Warrick, Los Angeles Times; "[Rechy] very nearly touches greatness . . . feeling his way toward that place within each of us where the ecstatic teeters on the edge of psychic abyss. . . . A substantial artist." -- Frank Browning, Salon.
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More editions of The Coming of the Night:
- The Coming of the Night: ISBN 0802116507 (0-8021-1650-7)
  Hardcover, Grove Pr
- The Coming of the Night: ISBN 0802137423 (0-8021-3742-3)
  Softcover, Grove Pr
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Crescent
by Diana Abu-Jaber

ISBN 039305747X (0-393-05747-X)
Hardcover, W W Norton & Co Inc

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Book summary:
It's a positive relief to read a novel that treats Iraqis as real people. Diana Abu-Jaber's second novel, Crescent, is set in Los Angeles and peopled by immigrants and Iraqi-Americans. Thirty-nine-year-old, half-Arab Sirine is a chef in a Lebanese restaurant. Her uncle works at the university with Han, an Iraqi-born academic who begins frequenting Sirine's restaurant, drawn by her beauty and her exquisite cooking. Part of the book's charm is in its determination to impart the sheer glamour of Arabia, here personified in Han's face: "Sirine watches Han and for a moment it seems that she can actually see the ancient traces in Han's face, the quality of his gaze that seems to originate from a thousand-thousand years of watching the horizon--a forlorn, beautiful gazing, rich and more seductive than anything she has ever seen." Too, the book addresses head-on the one-dimensional view Americans possess of Iraq. I used to read about Baghdad in Arabian Nights," says one American character. "It was all about magic and adventurers. I thought that's what it was like there. And when I got older Baghdad turned into the stuff about war and bombs--the place on the TV set. I never thought about there being any kind of normal life there." As she falls more deeply in love with Han, Sirine discovers that part of being Iraqi now means learning to live with not knowing: not knowing where people have disappeared to, not knowing if your family is alive or dead. In the book's thrilling, romantic denouement, these lessons come perilously close to Sirine's Los Angeles home. Crescent brings alive a vibrant community of exiled academics, immigrants on the make, and optimistic souls looking for love. --Claire Dederer [via]
More editions of Crescent:
- Crescent: ISBN 039305747X (0-393-05747-X)
  Hardcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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Crime Wave
by James Ellroy

ISBN 037570471X (0-375-70471-X)
Softcover, Random House Inc

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Book summary:
You wouldn't expect slick GQ to perform the greatest magazine service to hard-boiled crime writing since the heyday of Black Mask, but the evidence is before your eyes: Crime Wave, James Ellroy's collected GQ works circa 1993-99.
Though Crime Wave contains two stories in the exhilaratingly sleazy voice of the fictitious scandal rag Hush-Hush, and the novella-length "Hollywood Shakedown," a tale of sex, drugs, and murder starring '50s crooner-accordionist Dick Contino, the book is predominantly nonfiction. There's one flavorful piece, "Bad Boys in Tinseltown," about the day in 1967 when Ellroy--then a speed freak who broke into fancy houses to steal stuff and sniff women's underwear--read an article by Curtis Hanson raving about Bonnie and Clyde and was inspired. Then Ellroy flashes forward to 1996, when he visits Hanson as he directs the triumphant film version of L.A. Confidential.
GQ talked Ellroy into writing about the event that made him a maniac, and then an obsessive writer: his dissolute mother's unsolved murder in 1958, when he was 10. His investigation of her death began with the chilling GQ article "My Mother's Killer," which grew into the book My Dark Places. (If you haven't heard Ellroy read it on audiotape, you haven't shivered.) His investigation of another woman's murder, "Body Dumps," is in some ways better, because there's a suspect to eviscerate in prose. "Sex, Glitz, and Greed," written about O.J. during the trial, is an odd fit in this collection, but when Ellroy is on his own turf--L.A.'s seamy, undead past--nobody can touch him. --Tim Appelo [via]
More editions of Crime Wave:
- Crime Wave: ISBN 037570471X (0-375-70471-X)
  Softcover, Random House Inc
Day of the Locust
by Nathanael West

ISBN 0451523482 (0-451-52348-2)
Softcover, New Amer Library Classics

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Book summary:
The Day of the Locust is a 1939 novel by American author Nathanael West, set in Hollywood, California during the Great Depression, its overarching themes deal with the alienation and desperation of a broad group of odd individuals who exist at the fringes of the Hollywood movie industry.

In 1998, the Modern Library ranked The Day of the Locust #73 on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. Time magazine included the novel in its list of 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005, and noted critic Harold Bloom included it in his list of canonical works in the book The Western Canon. [via]
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Echo Park
by Michael Connelly

ISBN 0316734950 (0-316-73495-0)
Hardcover, Little Brown & Co

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- Echo Park: ISBN 0316734950 (0-316-73495-0)
  Hardcover, Little Brown & Co
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Expiration Date
by Tim Powers

ISBN 0765317524 (0-7653-1752-4)
Softcover, St Martins Pr

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Book summary:
Koot Parganas has stolen the ghost of Thomas Edison, preserved in a hidden glass vial. Now he's on the run through the dark underside of Los Angeles, among characters who extend their lives and enhance their power by catching and absorbing the ghosts of the recently dead. Like The Anubis Gates and On Stranger Tides, this fantasy has an astonishing power that remains long after the last page is turned. [via]
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Farewell, My Lovely
by Raymond Chandler

ISBN 0394758277 (0-394-75827-7)
Softcover, Random House Inc

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Book summary:
Private Detective Philip Marlow is in trouble. He witnesses a murder and knows who the killer is, but for some reason the police don't want to find the murderer, so Marlowe decides to find out for himself. "Penguin Readers" is a series of simplified novels, film novelizations and original titles that introduce students at all levels to the pleasures of reading in English. Originally designed for teaching English as a foreign language, the series' combination of high interest level and low reading age makes it suitable for both English-speaking teenagers with limited reading skills and students of English as a second language. Many titles in the series also provide access to the pre-20th century literature strands of the National Curriculum English Orders. "Penguin Readers" are graded at seven levels of difficulty, from "Easystarts" with a 200-word vocabulary, to Level 6 (Advanced) with a 3000-word vocabulary. In addition, titles fall into one of three sub-categories: "Contemporary", "Classics" or "Originals". At the end of each book there is a section of enjoyable exercises focusing on vocabulary building, comprehension, discussion and writing. Some titles in the series are available with an accompanying audio cassette, or in a book and cassette pack. Additionally, selected titles have free accompanying "Penguin Readers Factsheets" which provide stimulating exercise material for students, as well as suggestions for teachers on how to exploit the Readers in class. [via]
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Fearless Jones
by Walter Mosley

ISBN 0446610127 (0-446-61012-7)
Softcover, Grand Central Pub

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Book summary:
Penzler Pick, June 2001: Those of us who have been waiting for Walter Mosley to return to mystery writing--and there are many of us--have cause to rejoice. Not only has Mosley written a mystery, he is introducing a new character who could turn out to be as popular as Easy Rawlins.
Fearless Jones has a lot in common with Easy, but he also has some characteristics reminiscent of Socrates Fortlow, the "hero" of Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned. When the story begins, the reader is transported to the Los Angeles of the 1950s, a dangerous place and time for a black man. But Paris Minton seems to have beaten the odds. He owns a moderately successful and very satisfying business--a used book store. He spends the time he's not in the store scouring libraries for discarded books and selling them in just enough quantity to be independent and happy. Yes, he is visited on a regular basis by members of the LAPD who want him to prove to them that he did not steal the books, but that is a small price to pay for independence.
Minton's peaceful life is interrupted one day when a beautiful woman walks into his store and asks for the Reverend William Grove. In no time flat, Paris has been beaten into unconsciousness by a man following her and has been rewarded by the woman with sex. The lovely Elana Love is obviously trouble, but Paris jumps in feet first and, as a consequence, his store is burned to the ground. It is obviously time to call in Fearless Jones, a man well named. Jones is afraid of nothing, but there is a little matter to be taken care of before he can help. He's in jail and Paris must raise bail to get him out. Once he does that, the pair embark on a wild ride through Los Angeles on behalf of Elana Love. As always, Mosley depicts the hard-boiled L.A. in a powerful and distinctive way, and we can only hope that this is the first of a series. --Otto Penzler [via]
More editions of Fearless Jones:
- Fearless Jones: ISBN 0316592382 (0-316-59238-2)
  Hardcover, Little Brown & Co
- Fearless Jones: ISBN 0446610127 (0-446-61012-7)
  Softcover, Grand Central Pub
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The Fragmented Metropolis: Los Angeles, 1850-1930
by Robert M. Fogelson

ISBN 0520082303 (0-520-08230-3)
Softcover, Univ of California Pr

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Book summary:
Here with a new preface, a new foreword, and an updated bibliography is the definitive history of Los Angeles from its beginnings as an agricultural village of fewer than 2,000 people to its emergence as a metropolis of more than 2 million in 1930--a city whose distinctive structure, character, and culture foreshadowed much of the development of urban America after World War II.
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More editions of The Fragmented Metropolis: Los Angeles, 1850-1930:
- The Fragmented Metropolis: Los Angeles, 1850-1930: ISBN 0520082303 (0-520-08230-3)
  Softcover, Univ of California Pr
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High Window
by Raymond Chandler

ISBN 0394758269 (0-394-75826-9)
Softcover, Random House Inc

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Book summary:
Ed Bishop stars as Philip Marlowe in this powerfully atmospheric BBC Radio dramatization of Raymond Chandler's novel about the cynical, worldweary, wisecracking shamus whose honesty in a dishonest world sent him down the mean streets again and again in search of some kind of justice. Linda Conquest was very tough, very kissable, and very missing, along with one very valuable old coin. But for some reason the interested parties didn't seem too interested in finding either of them. Especially when the trail led to the underworld and beyond. And by then Marlowe was knee deep in dead men...
[via]
More editions of High Window:
- High Window: ISBN 0394721411 (0-394-72141-1)
  Hardcover, Vintage Books
- High Window: ISBN 0394758269 (0-394-75826-9)
  Softcover, Random House Inc
The History of Forgetting: Los Angeles and the Erasure of Memory
by Klein, Norman, M.

ISBN 1859841759 (1-85984-175-9)
Softcover, Verso Books

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More editions of The History of Forgetting: Los Angeles and the Erasure of Memory:
- The History of Forgetting: Los Angeles and the Erasure of Memory: ISBN 1859848206 (1-85984-820-6)
  Hardcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
- The History of Forgetting: Los Angeles and the Erasure of Memory: ISBN 1859841759 (1-85984-175-9)
  Softcover, Verso Books
I Was a Teenage Fairy
by Francesca Lia Block

ISBN 0064408620 (0-06-440862-0)
Softcover, Harpercollins Childrens Books

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Book summary:
Once upon a time, in the bubble-gum-snapping, glitter polish-wearing, lip-gloss-applying San Fernando Valley, a gentle girl named Barbie met a feisty fairy named Mab: "Maybe Mab was real. Maybe there really are girls the size of pinkies with hair the color of the darkest red oleander blossoms and skin like the greenish-white underbellies of calla lilies.... But it doesn't matter if Mab is real or imagined, Barbie thought, as long as I can see her." Mab, with her crabby commentary and no-holds-barred opinions, gives Barbie the strength she needs to face the horrors casting a shadow over her life in sunny, shimmering California. How else could Barbie survive her over-perfumed, over-tanned, overbearing stage mother, dragging her daughter to modeling agencies in the gold-plated hope of reliving her younger days as a beauty queen? Or the "cadaver-pale skin" and "fleshy mouth" of Hamilton Waverly, the "crocodile pedophile" photographer who makes Barbie feel "like the doll she had been named for, without even a hole where her mouth was supposed to be"? Mab glimmers and gabs by Barbie's side throughout her teen years as she becomes a successful fashion model, falls in love, and endures all the troubles that come along for the ride--in addition to facing the black secret of her past.
Francesca Lia Block, author of the magical Weetzie Bat books that are collected in Dangerous Angels, and the empowering, punchy Girl Goddess #9, has once again crafted a mystical tale whose ethereal, original language will wrap readers in its gossamer grip. Block carries us to the weeping heart of despair, but would never be so cruel as to leave us there: Barbie gets a new, skyward-gazing name, Selena Moon, and readers get a glimmersome vision of living happily ever after. (Ages 13 and older) --Brangien Davis [via]
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L.A. Requiem
by Robert Crais

ISBN 0345434471 (0-345-43447-1)
Softcover, Ballantine Books

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Book summary:
More than 10 years ago, I was shocked to learn that some puerile piece of fluff had won the Edgar for Best Paperback Original, when it was so obvious to me and virtually everyone else in the Western Hemisphere that the award should have gone to The Monkey's Raincoat, the book that introduced Elvis Cole, private eye, and is to this day one of the funniest books I've ever read.
The terrific Elvis Cole series has grown through the years, each book better than the last, but nothing prepared me for the quantum leap (yes, it's a cliché, but it belongs here) that Crais has made with L.A. Requiem. It's not as funny as the other books in the series, but it's a beautifully plotted detective story, rich with police procedure, and it will keep even the most sophisticated reader at sea right until the end. And that's what elevates this book to the level of literature.
This one is more about Joe Pike, Elvis's silent sidekick, than it is about Elvis. We learn, through Pike's own eyes, how his childhood made him the way he is today. It's also about a friendship so strong that it threatens Elvis's relationship with his beloved Lucy. It is a tender but dark book--a serial killer book--but it doesn't attempt to outgross the other serial killer books on the shelf. It is funny at times and chilling at other times, making it one of the rare books that can't help but linger in the memory long after it's been read and put away. --Otto Penzler [via]
More editions of L.A. Requiem:
- L. A. Requiem: ISBN 0385495838 (0-385-49583-8)
  Hardcover, Doubleday Publishing
- L.A. Requiem: ISBN 0345434471 (0-345-43447-1)
  Softcover, Ballantine Books
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The Last Coyote: Library Edition
by Michael Connelly

ISBN 1568952724 (1-56895-272-4)
Softcover, Wheeler Pub Inc

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Book summary:
Harry attacked his commanding officer and is suspended indefinitely, pending a psychiatric evaluation. At first he resists the LAPD shrink, but finally recognizes that something is troubling him and has for a long time. In 1961, when Harry was twelve, his mother, a prostitute, was brutally murdered with no one ever accused of the crime. With the spare time a suspension brings, Harry opens up the thirty-year-old file on the case and is irresistibly drawn into a past he has always avoided. It's clear that the case was fumbled and the smell of a cover-up is unmistakable. Someone powerful was able to divert justice and Harry vows to uncover the truth. As he relentlessly follows the broken pieces of the case, the stirred interest causes new murders and pushes Harry to the edge of his job... and his life. [via]
More editions of The Last Coyote: Library Edition:
- The Last Coyote: Library Edition: ISBN 1568952724 (1-56895-272-4)
  Softcover, Wheeler Pub Inc
Little Sister
by Raymond Chandler

ISBN 039475767X (0-394-75767-X)
Softcover, Random House Inc

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"The Little Sister" is a classic detective novel by the master of hard-boiled crime. Her name is Orfamay Quest and she's come all the way from Manhattan, Kansas, to find her missing brother Orrin. Or leastways that's what she tells PI Philip Marlowe, offering him a measly twenty bucks for the privilege. But Marlowe's feeling charitable - though it's not long before he wishes he wasn't so sweet. You see, Orrin's trail leads Marlowe to luscious movie starlets, uppity gangsters, suspicious cops and corpses with ice picks jammed in their necks. When trouble comes calling, sometimes it's best to pretend to be out..."Anything Chandler writes about grips the mind from the first sentence". ("Daily Telegraph"). "One of the greatest crime writers, who set standards others still try to attain". ("Sunday Times"). "Chandler is an original stylist, creator of a character as immortal as Sherlock Holmes". (Anthony Burgess). Best-known as the creator of the original private eye, Philip Marlowe, Raymond Chandler was born in Chicago in 1888 and died in 1959. Many of his books have been adapted for the screen, and he is widely regarded as one of the very greatest writers of detective fiction. His books include "The Big Sleep", "The Little Sister", "Farewell", "My Lovely", "The Long Goodbye", "The Lady in the Lake", "Playback", "Killer in the Rain", "The High Window" and "Trouble is My Business". [via]
More editions of Little Sister:
- The Little Sister: ISBN 0345322177 (0-345-32217-7)
  Softcover, Random House Publishing Group
- Little Sister: ISBN 039475767X (0-394-75767-X)
  Softcover, Random House Inc
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A Little Yellow Dog: An Easy Rawlins Mystery
by Walter Mosley

ISBN 0671019864 (0-671-01986-4)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster

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Book summary:
The saga of Easy Rawlins that began in 1990 with Devil in a Blue Dress, continues in A Little Yellow Dog. Working as a janitor at Sojourner Truth Junior High School, Easy is asked to care for a small dog owned by the attractive Idabell Holland, a teacher at the school. When Idabell's husband is murdered, Easy finds himself mixed up with a gang of criminals engaged in looting Los Angeles schools and smuggling heroin from France. Idabell and Easy fall into a sexual liaison, but in the wake of it, Idabell is found stabbed to death in the passenger seat of Easy's car. While at first Easy thinks the murders are a "simple falling out of thieves," a surprising twist on the level of "The Maltese Falcon" reveals the truth. [via]
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Los Angeles and the Automobile: The Making of the Modern City
by Scott L. Bottles

ISBN 0520073959 (0-520-07395-9)
Softcover, Univ of California Pr

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- Los Angeles and the Automobile: The Making of the Modern City: ISBN 0520057953 (0-520-05795-3)
  Hardcover, Univ of California Pr
- Los Angeles and the Automobile: The Making of the Modern City: ISBN 0520073959 (0-520-07395-9)
  Softcover, Univ of California Pr
Lost Light
by Michael Connelly

ISBN 0446611638 (0-446-61163-8)
Softcover, Grand Central Pub

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The vision has haunted him for four years--a young woman lying crumpled in death, her hand outstretched in silent supplication. Harry Bosch was taken off the Angella Benton murder case when the production assistant's death was linked with the violent theft of two million dollars from a movie set. Both files were never closed. Now retired from the L.A.P.D., Bosch is determined to find justice for Angella. Without a badge to open doors and strike fear into the guilty, he's on his own. And even in the face of an opponent more powerful and ruthless than any he's ever encountered, Bosch is not backing down. [via]
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The Narrows
by Michael Connelly

ISBN 0446611646 (0-446-61164-6)
Softcover, Grand Central Pub

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FBI agent Rachel Walling finally gets the call she's dreaded for years.The Poet has returned.Years earlier she worked on the famous case tracking the serial killer who wove lines of poetry into his hideous crimes. Rachel has never forgotten the Poet-and apparently he has not forgotten her. Former LAPD detective Harry Bosch gets a call, too, from an old friend whose husband recently died.The death appeared natural, but this man's ties to the hunt for the Poet make Harry dig deep.What he finds leads him into the most terrifying situation he has ever encountered. So begins the most deeply compelling, frightening, and masterful novel Michael Connelly has ever written, placing Harry Bosch squarely in the path of the most ruthless and ingenious murderer in Los Angeles's history. This spectacularly dramatic and shocking novel will have Michael Connelly's readers desperately hungry for the next book from 'one of America's best writers' (Cleveland Plain Dealer). [via]
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Paint it Black: A Novel
by Janet Fitch

ISBN 031601771X (0-316-01771-X)
Hardcover, Little Brown & Co

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Book summary:
Following the huge success of White Oleander, where Janet Fitch portrayed the coming-of-age of Astrid, a young girl placed in foster care after her mother murders a former lover and goes to prison for life, she has once again created an indelible portrait of a young woman in Paint it Black. Josie Tyrell is a teenage runaway, an artist's model, and an habitué of the '80s LA punk rock scene. She is a white trash escapee from Bakersfield, having left a going nowhere life there. Now, sex, drugs and rock n' roll inform her days and nights. Paint it Black is the perfect title choice because Josie's lover is never coming back, as the song says.
Josie meets Michael Faraday, son of concert pianist Meredith Loewy and writer Calvin Faraday, long divorced. He is everything that she is not: refined, wealthy, well-traveled, brilliant by fits and starts. He is also a Harvard dropout, leaving school so he can paint; his new obsession. He refuses help from his mother, who is furious about his decision to leave school, but it doesn't bother him to have Josie working three jobs to support them. He is given to black moods, frozen in amber by his perfectionism, contemptuous of those who do not agree with him about art and life. Josie adores him. One day much like any other, he leaves their house, saying that he is going to his mother's so that he can paint in solitude. Instead, he goes to a motel in 29 Palms and shoots himself in the head.
What follows is days of watching Josie in a near fugue state from grief, drugs, booze, and going over and over her love for Michael, trying to grasp how he could do what he did. After all, didn't they share the "true world," Michael's characterization of their cocoon of love and exclusivity?
Meredith calls her and says, "Why are you alive? What is the excuse for Josie Tyrell? I ask you." Ultimately, they form a tenuous relationship, because all that is left of Michael lives in the two women. Josie even lives with Meredith for a while. When Meredith is ready to go on tour again, she asks Josie to go to Europe with her. Before she can do that, she must go to 29 Palms and try to understand, finally, why Michael's depression pushed him over the edge. That puzzle is not solved, nor can it be, but the end of the story is a hopeful, upbeat, new beginning. Janet Fitch has beaten the curse of the sophomore slump with this dynamite second novel. --Valerie Ryan [via]
More editions of Paint it Black: A Novel:
- Paint it Black: A Novel: ISBN 0316182745 (0-316-18274-5)
  Hardcover, Little Brown & Co
- Paint it Black: A Novel: ISBN 031601771X (0-316-01771-X)
  Hardcover, Little Brown & Co
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Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe
by Michael Lark

ISBN 0684829339 (0-684-82933-9)
Softcover, Fireside

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Book summary:
Remember those great film adaptations of Raymond Chandler's work? Who could forget Humphrey Bogart as Philip Marlowe in The Big Sleep or Dick Powell playing the same character in Farewell, My Lovely? In Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe: The Little Sister, illustrator Michael Lark has given us a brand-new incarnation of Chandler's famous fictional detective, a "comic book" version of Chandler's 1949 mystery. When Orfamay Quest hires Marlowe to find her missing brother, the case at first seems pretty straightforward, but--beset by mobsters, blackmailers, and murder--Marlowe soon discovers that a missing person is the least of his troubles.
The Little Sister was not one of Raymond Chandler's best efforts, but Michael Lark has effectively tailored the text to clarify the original story, emphasizing through his "comic noir" artwork the dark, dangerous environs, both physical and psychological, in which Philip Marlowe still moves. [via]
More editions of Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe:
- Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe: ISBN 0684829339 (0-684-82933-9)
  Softcover, Fireside
Rising Sun
by Michael Crichton

ISBN 0345380371 (0-345-38037-1)
Softcover, Ballantine Books

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Book summary:
During the grand opening celebration of the new American headquarters of an immense Japanese conglomerate, the dead body of a beautiful woman is found. The investigation begins, and immediately becomes a headlong chase through a twisting maze of industrial intrigue and a violent business battle that takes no prisoners.

From the Paperback edition. [via]
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Sunset Express
by Robert Crais

ISBN 0345454944 (0-345-45494-4)
Softcover, Ballantine Books

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The Tortilla Curtain
by T. C. Boyle

ISBN 014023828X (0-14-023828-X)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA

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Book summary:
Winner of the Prix Medicis Etranger
Topanga Canyon is home to two couples on a collision course. Los Angeles liberals Delaney and Kyra Mossbacher lead an ordered sushi-and-recycling existence in a newly gated hilltop community: he a sensitive nature writer, she an obsessive realtor. Mexican illegals Candido and America Rincon desperately cling to their vision of the American Dream as they fight off starvation in a makeshift camp deep in the ravine. And from the moment a freak accident brings Candido and Delaney into intimate contact, these four and their opposing worlds gradually intersect in what becomes a tragicomedy of error and misunderstanding.
[via]
More editions of The Tortilla Curtain:
- The Tortilla Curtain: ISBN 014023828X (0-14-023828-X)
  Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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Violet & Claire
by Francesca Lia Block

ISBN 0613301773 (0-613-30177-3)
Hardcover, Bt Bound

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Book summary:
Francesca Lia Block has gained a tremendous following writing stories about the young denizens of Los Angeles that are simultaneously ethereal and utterly tangible. Titles such as The Hanged Man, Dangerous Angels, Girl Goddess #9, and I Was a Teenage Fairy explore the heaviest issues facing teens--including all variety of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll--with the light touch of skillful poet. In Violet and Claire, Block once again exposes us to both the best and the worst of the City of Angels, as we trace the rise and fall of a female friendship from thrilling expectations to soul-squelching excess.
Set against the glittering background of Hollywood, Block's work has long been marked by an intensely visual style, so it is perhaps appropriate that this story opens like a screenplay: "FADE IN: The helicopter circles, whirring in a sky the color of laundered-to-the-perfect-fade-jeans. Clouds like the wigs of starlets--fluffy platinum spun floss." The script theme continues with chapter subheadings such as "EXT: HIGH SCHOOL QUAD--DAY" and "INT: LIMO--NIGHT" while teenage wannabe filmmaker Violet and gossamer-winged poet Claire take turns telling their story. Everywhere Violet is dark, Claire resonates light. And as they make the arduous journey toward adulthood by way of the silver screen dream, it is this essential oppositeness that both draws the two together and drives them apart. Luckily, there's a Hollywood ending for the yin-yang duo, "the photo negative of each other, together making the perfect image of a girl." (Ages 12 and older) --Brangien Davis [via]
More editions of Violet & Claire:
- Violet & Claire: ISBN 0613301773 (0-613-30177-3)
  Hardcover, Bt Bound
Where We Are Now: Notes from Los Angeles
by D. J. Waldie

ISBN 1883318386 (1-883318-38-6)
Softcover, Angel City Pr

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More editions of Where We Are Now: Notes from Los Angeles:
- Where We Are Now: Notes from Los Angeles: ISBN 1883318386 (1-883318-38-6)
  Softcover, Angel City Pr
White Butterfly
by Walter Mosley

ISBN 1560547243 (1-56054-724-3)
Hardcover, Thorndike Pr

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Book summary:
Andrew Vachss called Devil in a Blue Dress, Walter Mosley's debut mystery featuring Easy Rawlins, a tough black private detective in L.A.'s Watts section, "the most self-assured, uniquely-voiced first novel I've ever read." The Wall Street Journal said of its sequel, A Red Death: "Remarkable...proves Mr. Mosley's debut was no fluke." Readers and critics agree that Walter Mosley is writing novels fit to stand alongside the giants of the L.A. hardboiled tradition.
[via]
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Whitewashed Adobe: The Rise of Los Angeles and the Remaking of Its Mexican Past
by William Deverell

ISBN 0520246675 (0-520-24667-5)
Softcover, Univ of California Pr

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Chronicling the rise of Los Angeles through shifting ideas of race and ethnicity, William Deverell offers a unique perspective on how the city grew and changed. Whitewashed Adobe considers six different developments in the history of the city--including the cementing of the Los Angeles River, the outbreak of bubonic plague in 1924, and the evolution of America's largest brickyard in the 1920s. In an absorbing narrative supported by a number of previously unpublished period photographs, Deverell shows how a city that was once part of Mexico itself came of age through appropriating--and even obliterating--the region's connections to Mexican places and people.
Deverell portrays Los Angeles during the 1850s as a city seething with racial enmity due to the recent war with Mexico. He explains how, within a generation, the city's business interests, looking for a commercially viable way to establish urban identity, borrowed Mexican cultural traditions and put on a carnival called La Fiesta de Los Angeles. He analyzes the subtle ways in which ethnicity came to bear on efforts to corral the unpredictable Los Angeles River and shows how the resident Mexican population was put to work fashioning the modern metropolis. He discusses how Los Angeles responded to the nation's last major outbreak of bubonic plague and concludes by considering the Mission Play, a famed drama tied to regional assumptions about history, progress, and ethnicity. Taking all of these elements into consideration, Whitewashed Adobe uncovers an urban identity--and the power structure that fostered it--with far-reaching implications for contemporary Los Angeles.
[via]
More editions of Whitewashed Adobe: The Rise of Los Angeles and the Remaking of Its Mexican Past:
- Whitewashed Adobe: The Rise of Los Angeles and the Remaking of Its Mexican Past: ISBN 0520218698 (0-520-21869-8)
  Hardcover, Univ of California Pr
- Whitewashed Adobe: The Rise of Los Angeles And the Remaking of Its Mexican Past: ISBN 0520246675 (0-520-24667-5)
  Softcover, Univ of California Pr
Women
by Charles Bukowski

ISBN 0061177598 (0-06-117759-8)
Softcover, Ecco Pr

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Book summary:
Low-life writer and unrepentant alcoholic Henry Chinaski was born to survive. After decades of slacking off at low-paying dead-end jobs, blowing his cash on booze and women, and scrimping by in flea-bitten apartments, Chinaski sees his poetic star rising at last. Now, at fifty, he is reveling in his sudden rock-star life, running three hundred hangovers a year, and maintaining a sex life that would cripple Casanova.

With all of Bukowski's trademark humor and gritty, dark honesty, this 1978 follow-up to Post Office and Factotum is an uncompromising account of life on the edge.
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Writing Los Angeles: A Literary Anthology
by David L. Ulin

ISBN 1931082278 (1-931082-27-8)
Hardcover, Penguin USA

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More editions of Writing Los Angeles: A Literary Anthology:
- Writing Los Angeles: A Literary Anthology: ISBN 1931082278 (1-931082-27-8)
  Hardcover, Penguin USA