Nina Revoyr at Skylight Books

Last Thursday I ventured up to Skylight Books in Los Feliz to attend a launch party for Nina Revoyr's new novel The Age of Dreaming. Revoyr is the author of Southland, an LA Times bestseller in 2006. Southland is a mystery novel which doubles as a history lesson in relations between the Japanese-American and African-American community in 1960s-70s South Central Los Angeles. It remains a favorite novel to me, and Mike the Poet lists it as one of his "best books about Los Angeles" in his chapbook.

Getting to Skylight was pretty painless. I caught the Rapid 754 from Vermont/Adams to Vermont/Maubert. It took approximately 40 minutes, including the bit of walking it took to get from bus stop to destination. Highlights:

• Waiting for the bus on a bench with two older, wizened black men, talking about the difficulties of being Asian in the US. One of them asked me if I wished that I hadn't been born here, because it makes things harder. He told me that he wished that we could all just have peace.
  
• There were four very well-groomed, flamboyant teenage boys riding the bus with me after the exodus of commuters got off around 6th Street. One of them put on lip gloss using the mirror on the still-moving bus, and had a vague "Santa Fe"/Rent moment. Ah, how glorious to be young and confident and know that you are foine.

Skylight Books reminded me a bit of Modern Times Books in San Francisco. I loved the space and the fact that they have 'zines for sale. Zine-ing is not dead! I really didn't take enough time to look around, though, since I was mostly focused on the event. Unfortunately I didn't put my camera to use there and so I have no photos with which to remember the cheese, crackers, fruit, wine, and mini-cupcakes I consumed during the reading.

Living in Southern California makes you a bit jaded about meeting celebrities, but I must admit that I was very much "author-struck." REvoyr mentioned Downtown during the reading and while she signed my book, I was glad to be able to tell her about my bike rides down Broadway, imagining the glory days of the old theaters. I'm very excited about The Age of Dreaming and all of the Downtown/Hollywood history that it invokes.

Skylight Books
1818 N. Vermont Ave.
90027

Route:
Rapid 754 from Vermont/Adams to Vermont/Maubert

Cost Summary:
Bus fare: $1.25
The Age of Dreaming: $16.50
Total: $17.75