We are pleased to offer books in various genres for all ages by local authors. Check out the rotating selection of titles below, available for purchase in-store near the front counter.
featured titles
"If you are over 45 you have no idea what you DON'T know about the younger generations. This is a humorous but practical guide to better understanding the profound effect of growing up with the internet, social media, and video games. It illuminates the deeper transcendental effects of growing up in the digital age that only a 25 year old Millennial could tell you. It also outlines an extremely practical approach to the modern college landscape, that every family should know. And it's really funny. "
"There's so many reasons to love this book. And it's hilarious. I will be recommending it to my clients with kids." Lynn, Marriage and Family Therapist
CiVon graduated LCHS in 2011 and attended Art Center College of Design. He is now a freelance concept artist, author, and founder of the Dinostorus.com.
Cancer isn’t just a disease. That word is too soft. It weaves its tendrils through everything that you are, becoming a way of life, a living reminder that you are finite and fragile. It claims you, trying to steal your wildly spectacular and infinitely wonderful breath.
This is what happens when Cancer grabs you by the hand and demands you dance.
Johnny Brookbank is a guy with a weird beard, 4 kids, 1 wife and 10 fingers, all of which he is grateful for. He’s lived in a few different places but currently hails from La Crescenta. He sometimes speaks in third person but I try not to do it too often.
PRAISE FOR THE BOOK: Raw, real and unfiltered. Nothing is held back. You feel the emotions. All of them.
Fifteen year old Dakota Dagger is on the fast track to self-discovery. Living on the Greek island of Santorini soon becomes a distant memory when his parents’ plane crashes, leaving Dakota an orphan. Immigrating to the United States, Dakota settles in Southern California. He lives with his maternal grandparents, who introduce him to his Sioux heritage. Financial hardships, falling in love for the first time and depression lead Dakota to discover his innate ability to capture photographic images through his unique perspective. The story entertains, teaches and reminds us that the rite of passage is an adventure.
The Moon and Stars draws you into its world. This coming of age story manages the characters’ personal losses, triumphs, and young love with care. – excerpt from review by Brandon Quinton
R. Calhoun Sargent has lived in the Upland area of the Inland Empire of Southern California all his life. A graduate of California Polytechnic University in Pomona, he went on to earn a teaching credential. He taught elementary school at first, then spent the majority of his career teaching middle school.
Sarge, the nickname that has stuck with him since his teaching days, combined his experience teaching middle school with memories from his own teen years in writing “The Moon and Stars”. Developing his character Dak took Sarge back to that difficult yet wondrous time of transition from middle school to high school. The story is set in current time yet draws in readers of all ages with references to more simple times .
Readers will be happy to know that Sarge is currently working on a sequel to “The Moon and Stars”. In addition to writing, he enjoys hiking in the local mountains and deserts, traveling to unique and lesser-known places here in the West, and spending time with friends. Music and art have always been an important part of his life and informed his writing. Sarge has two grown children and a grand-son, and is active in his local community.
Reviews:
ARC of book granted to me in exchange for an honest review. Great read from start to finish. The super natural plot mixes the old world with the new world and the abundance of characters (many that are familiar to all) are thoughtfully weaved throughout making for an intriguing story. It’s important that you as the reader are able to closely follow the many twists and turns you get taken on (and pick up on the subtle clues presented to you) so you get the full impact when all collide into a spectactuluar ending.
Received an advanced copy and will writ a review. This is a love story of Pierce King and Gillian. Caught up in a magical upheaval of the Earth. How they were torn apart and manage to get back together is the magical journey of this book. Lots of plot twists that will have you thinking, “what is going on”? A rollicking good tale. Read it!!
Originally from Glendale, CA, Brendan Walsh graduated from the College of Wooster, OH, with a B.A. in May, 2017.
His latest novel, Immortale, was recently published by City Lights Press. Noble Animals Book 2, The Serpent League, is scheduled to be published by City Lights Press early this March.
When Brendan is not writing or working at his day job, you can find him reading and watching movies. He writes everyday with the goal of having a career as a novelist, screenwriter, or comic book writer.
Reviews:
A fast-moving tale about the perils of unbounded ambition and the bravery of a rag-tag group of students willing to team together to stop it. Walsh is a young writer but he shows great promise in his craft. I'd recommend this book for fans of urban fantasy or dark sci-fi; you won't be able to put it down in the final act!
An exciting and fast-paced adventure about a bunch of college kids trying to save today’s world, but very reminiscent of the mythologies, mysteries, and monsters of the past. The Raven Gang is both visually and thought-provokingly interesting – a really good read.
Originally from Glendale, CA, Brendan Walsh graduated from the College of Wooster, OH, with a B.A. in May, 2017.
His latest novel, Immortale, was recently published by City Lights Press. Noble Animals Book 2, The Serpent League, is scheduled to be published by City Lights Press early this March.
When Brendan is not writing or working at his day job, you can find him reading and watching movies. He writes everyday with the goal of having a career as a novelist, screenwriter, or comic book writer.
By all appearances,Henry's new foster family is perfect, but it isn't long before the abuse starts. In the basement where he sleeps, Henry's nightmares send him on a frantic search for someone named Charlie. But who is Charlie? And what does he have to do with Henry?
Charlie’s life is pathetic. His criminal past and substance problems make him the prime suspect in a murder. A hasty decision to skip town brings him face-to-face with pimps, drug pushers and junkies, and ultimately Henry, the little boy who changes his life forever.
Boy Unraveled shines a light on the terrible reality of child abuse and all that is wrong with the foster care system. This gripping psychological thriller lures you into the twisted minds of its characters, unravels a web of darkness, and makes you realize that everything you thought you knew was a lie.
This book had it all: religion, paranormal, deceit, murder, proselytism...and that’s just scraping the surface.– on line review
CHRIS BOUCHARD is a bestselling author, ghostwriter, and creative coach who has assisted hundreds of literary, visual, and performing artists throughout the storytelling process. He appreciates art in all of its forms, draws his inspiration from classic literature and contemporary satire, and writes stories that explore the inner workings of the human mind.
Flashes of light. An unseen menace. Messages from the void. Secrets at the edge of the solar system that threaten to destroy the future.
Mandira Research Station beckons at the heliopause–the brink of interstellar space. After Forster sees flashes outside that no one else can, the captain of an incoming ship is attacked by an invisible foe. Forster and his enigmatic coworker Efron search for a missing daughter who might be the cause of it all. Can the team stop the force from taking over Mandira, and the entire solar system?
“Readers are taken to the far edges of the known galaxy, the so-called Heliopause, to the Mandira Research Station. . . . What follows is a fast-moving adventure that involves aliens, telepathy and more than a couple of surprises.” – Kirkus Reviews
J. DIANNE DOTSON has been dreaming up entire worlds and their characters since she was a child, and formed an astronomy club when she was 10. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree and worked for several years in both academic laboratory and nonprofit clinical research. She also painted watercolors and made quilts. She currently lives in southern California with her husband and children. This is Dotson’s first book.
To be or not to be? Good question. Here's another: What if we all chose to be what we choose to see in the world? What would we see? Imagine if everyone chose to come from a place of love, where helping one another and kindness were their own currency. A place where we all understood that we are all in this together, and that there is far more we can accomplish by joining forces rather than existing only for ourselves. This world may sound like a fanciful utopia, but it doesn't have to be. We all have the power, within ourselves, to make the world a brighter, more hopeful place.
The secret to happiness is not much of a secret at all. Many great thinkers and leaders understood this. We remember the words of people like Buddha, Jesus, Mother Teresa, Socrates, Plato, Martin Luther King Jr., Ghandi, and so many others, because they lived lives of love for all of humanity. They understood universal truths and lived their lives inspiring others through their words and their deeds. This is why we know their names. This is why we remember and revere them, long after they have departed from this earth.
When this life ends, as it will for all of us one day, what will we be remembered for? What memories do we want those who love us to hold and cherish? How many lives will we have touched while we were here? Will we have touched those lives in love or in something else? What am I going to put out into the world? These are questions I ask myself often. I think they are good ones to ponder.
There is no question that we cannot receive without giving. I also understand that helping others nourishes the soul. I will continue to look at the world through my love-colored lenses. It is a very beautiful world, and I love every moment--even the difficult ones. Strive to be these seven words every single day. Some days we may feel like we do not have the energy to be even one of them, but try anyway. When we give a little bit of ourselves to others each and every day, expecting nothing in return, what we find is that there is in fact a return--a very large and beautiful return in your heart. It works. It really does.
Dawn has written a masterful and moving book on the powerfulsimplicity of Love. Her words of wisdom are grounded in her true experience of living a life from love, and she shares how each and every one of us can experience true fulfillment and happiness every day from who we choose to BE. – Laura J. Swan, MA
DAWN A. WITTE is the founder of the Desire to Inspire Foundation and co-founder of I Give On: The Giver’s Marketplace. Being a mom is her proudest role and title. Because of her love of children, she started the Desire to Inspire Foundation which provides children around the world with a mother’s love and care. She is working to eradicate hunger and poverty everywhere.
The book, Steve: A Shelter Cat was inspired by C.C. Calton’s own cat “Houdini” who was adopted at The Best Friends Organization in Mission Hills. As soon as she and her husband met this odd little guy, they fell in love with his long teeth and squishy chin. A few weeks after adoption, his unique personality surfaced and revealed a goofy and sweet demeanor. The message of the book is to shed light on how special needs and senior animals are just as worthy of love and to educate all on the importance of pet adoption.
A Temple of Science is a retrospective on the 100th anniversary of the 100-inch Hooker Telescope at Mt. Wilson Observatory. The telescope saw first light in November 1917 and remained the largest in the world until 1949. Astronomers Edwin Hubble and Milton Humason used the telescope to literally discover the entire universe, discover the first observational evidence for an expanding universe, and lay the first observational foundations for the modern concept of Big Bang Cosmology. As a scientific instrument, the Hooker telescope radically, and forever, altered our conceptual understanding of the universe we live in.
Dan Kohne, Stefanos Polyzoides, Tim Thompson and Robert Anderson have written essays for the book covering the history of Mount Wilson Observatory and the influential and brilliant minds that have been connected with it over the years.
Dan Kohne is a trustee of the Mount Wilson Institute. Stefanos Polyzoides is an architect and urbanist, a principal in Moule & Polyzoides of Pasadena, CA, and was an Associate Professor of Architecture at the University of Southern California (1973-1998). Tim Thompson is a physicist and astronomer, retired from a 28-year career at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, has been associated with Mount Wilson Observatory since 1981, and is currently a trustee of the Mount Wilson Institute.Robert Anderson is a docent with the Mount Wilson Institute.
It’s never too late to get back into fitnessand reverse the aging process. At 68, Moor-Doucette competed as a Bikini Diva/ Sports Model, and, at 75, ended up an undefeated six-time International Senior Division INBA Bikini Diva Champion. In her book, Saba walks us through her process with empowering affirmations, visualizations, eating tips, exercise tips, and anti-aging and lifestyle tips that will keep you looking young and fit.
Emmy award winning, licensed life coach Saba Moor-Doucette has been in just about every facet of show business since age six. She has worked as a dancer/choreographer, actress, stunt girl, stand up comedienne, writer, producer, and director. She entertained the troops in Vietnam and even enjoyed doing bare back Rope & Ladder in the circus. Now 75 years young and the reigning Bikini Diva, she has made it her mission to share her story and help women and men of all ages to be inspired and stay fit for life.
I Stretch & Strengthen provides a basic exercise routine for rehabilitation and for continued development of flexibility and strength. The routine does not require equipment and can be used while traveling and at home. The book is a guide to learn more about your body and brings you a step closer to self-awareness, personal growth and insight. The human body…psyche, spirit and structure are one, and in being so when one aspect is neglected, others fall prey to imbalance, illness and injury. I Stretch & Strengthen presents exercises for the body’s physical and emotional needs, leading to vitality and the opportunity to live a passionate life.
BOB ALONZI has been a Certified Advanced Rolfer in private practice in Santa Monica for over 30 years. His personal interest in physical activity has led him to specialize in athletic and traumatic injuries along with injury prevention and rehabilitation. He has worked with a wide range of professional and recreational athletes in major sports and also treats aerialists, gymnasts, and modern and classical dancers. Bob is an avid cyclist and enjoys endurance sports, hiking and kayaking. His regular exercise routine includes Pilates, Yoga, Pickle Ball and Gardening.
Helder’s Story: A Death with Dignity is the loving account of a man’s extraordinary battle against cancer and, more importantly, his joy for life. Helder Pereira was such a vibrant, vital figure that many of those who knew him found it difficult to believe that he was so ill for many years. Stricken by both addiction and cancer, Helder used the lessons he learned in fighting the first to keep the second at bay for an extraordinary number of active, happy and inspirational years. In this direct chronicle of her husband’s life, Carol Pereira pulls back the curtain a bit, revealing the effort required to choose happiness and the difficult choice to take the aid-in-dying medication. Without dwelling on one thing or another, Mrs. Pereira captures both the relentless nature of the struggle and the ebullience of a man, and a family, that refused to surrender, even at the last. This is a story of inspiration and determination. This is a story of family. This is Helder’s Story.
As a mother of four recreational soccer players, Carol Pereira has been active in her community, most noticeable served on the Region 88 Board of Directors for American Youth Soccer Organization for several years. She is a native Californian and lives in the foothills of Angeles Crest forest.
Part business manifesto and part memoir, The Dividends of Decency shows by example how companies can achieve success when following established codes of ethics rather than deceit and dishonesty. Sheppard’s book provides a unique business profile of two decidedly different individuals with distinctly contrasting values. Sharing anecdotes and personal experience, Sheppard demonstrates that principles and profits are not mutually exclusive, and that the former can significantly improve the latter as well as enhance business and community relationships.
“Examples of values-based CEOs who achieved outstanding success for their companies are not just easy to find,” Sheppard notes, “they’re prominent throughout the business media.” Then, with a directness typical of his book’s candor he adds, “If you can’t make it in business by maintaining a reasonable degree of ethics, find something else to do.” Amid so much controversy generated by the Trump Presidency, The Dividends Of Decency stands as essential reading for those seeking a bright post-Trump future for the United States of America.
DONALD LEE SHEPPARD emerged from humble beginnings in a Northern Ontario mining town to become a leader in employee benefits consulting and communications. He rose through the ranks of companies such as Manulife, William M. Mercer, and Johnson & Higgins, and later, built and sold his own employee communications consulting firm. Currently the CEO of Sheppard Properties, LLC in La Cañada Flintridge, he is actively involved in charitable ventures and has received several awards for his community service.
In Philip I. Moynihan’s latest book, overpopulation, insecticide use, pathogens, modern technology, and metaphysics are just a few of the topics up for discussion at a mountain house in the middle of a devastating blizzard. Willy Piggmann has graciously opened up his home to two travelers in need of shelter. In return Brian and Anne O’Neil contribute their own unique expertise to the lively discussions led by Willy and his other guests. Moynihan’s book is presented as fiction, but the issues the group discusses are very real and relevant to society today.
…a powerful rallying cry to anyone worried about climate change, technology and reproductive freedoms! Extremely well-researched, it introduces …concepts in terms easily understood by the serious reader. – on line review
Philip I. Moynihan, PhD, spent forty-five years as an aerospace engineer, including thirty-eight working at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He has since retired and enjoys writing and communing with the local wildlife, as well as spending time with his wife, Penny, and cat, Annie, at their home in La Cañada Flintridge. He is also the author of The Ravens of Snover Canyon.
PERK AND BING AND SQUIRREL’S STING - Perk and Bing live happily in their sticky beehive, collecting honey in acorn shells and throwing away the nuts within. One day, they find their acorns are missing. Who would steal them and why? Help them solve the mystery and watch as they learn about caring, sharing, and friendship.
JENNIFER MARTIN has been a teacher for over twenty-six years and enjoys including educational, entertaining and magical storybooks in her curriculum. She lives in Southern California with her husband and their two playful pets.
Illustrator CURT WALSTEAD studied at Art Center College of Design, Pasadena. He is an animation storyboard artist, freelance illustrator, and plush toy designer. His resume includes such showsas Dora the Explorer, Dragon Tales, Baby Looney Tunes, and Clifford's Puppy Days. He lives in Southern California with his wife.
You Only Live Once is a comic thriller: a contemporary take on Don Quixote about a mental patient who believes he’s a James Bond-like super spy.
“A brilliant homage to everyone’s favorite super-spy, and a hilarious, action-packed thriller about a man suavely dancing along both sides of the thin line between heroism and madness.” —Matt Forbeck, New York Times bestselling author of Halo: New Blood
Haris Orkin is a novelist, a playwright, a screenwriter, and a game writer. His play, Dada was produced at the La Jolla Playhouse. Sex, Impotence, and International Terrorism was chosen as a critic's choice by the L.A. Weekly and sold as a film script to MGM/UA. His original screenplay, A Saintly Switch, was directed by Peter Bogdanovich and starred David Alan Grier and Vivica Fox. He is a WGA Award and BAFTA Award nominated game writer and narrative designer known for Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3, Call of Juarez: Gunslinger, Tom Clancy's The Division, and Mafia 3.
Who hasn’t helped mom or dad around the house?
Children will relate to this delightful bilingual story and learn some French along the way.
When was the last time your children asked to help around the house? Folding laundry, gardening or washing your car? Did you hesitate? Did you picture the worst?
Those little faces, full of confidence and determination, “I can do it!” - it made your heart melt! You want them to help and you love it when they ask... BUT… sometimes helping turns into a bigger mess and more.
Anne-Marie Martens & Marjorie Joys are children's book authors and the recipients of the "Living Now Award
2017" and the "Family Choice Award 2018".
Anne-Marie is a teacher and a mother of four. She has taught French for over 35 years to children of all ages. Marjorie is the mother of a four year old and has taught French through games and books to children for over 10 years. This duo also owns Avenue Petit Lou Organic & Natural Children's Boutiques, an online business.
They are originally from Belgium.
A collection of student letters, emails, and texts spanning 125 years, Letters Home from Stanford evokes a sense of the heritage, history, and shared experience common to students across colleges, generations, and the country. Far from being just about Stanford, Letters Home speaks to a time in our lives when many of us leave home for the first time, setting out to discover purpose, meaning, self—and how to do the laundry. Ultimately, the book is about being human.
Prior to his death this year, newspaperman Ron Funk, whose grandfather once owned the Glendale News-Press, called Letters Home from Stanford "a wonderful and important book".
Per Tony Award-winning playwright (M. Butterly, Chinglish) and L.A.-native David Hwang, "Letters Home from Stanford is essential reading for anyone seeking to anticipate or revisit the joys and challenges of the life passage known as college."
Alison Carpenter Davis grew up in Los Angeles, where she attended the then-Westlake School for Girls. She went on to graduate from Stanford in 1979 with degrees in Psychology and Communications. Her essays have appeared in Stanford magazine, the Chicago Tribune, the International Herald Tribune, and The Des Moines Register, among others. She was formerly an editor at Outside magazine and an adjunct professor at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. She believes in the power of stories to connect people across generations and the dinner table.
other local titles
Children's - Young Adult
Madison Girifalco, The Girl Who Picked Up But Never Put Down (children's picture book)
Jessica Gale Hoeschen, Hmm..I Wonder? (children's picture book)
Salvo Lavis, James Munn, Wild Wild Weasel (children's picture book)
Rose Nielsen, Blondie and the Hidden Treasure (children’s picture book)
Contemporary Fiction
Tim DeRoche (& illustrated by Daniel Gonzalez), The Ballad of Huck and Miguel
Non-Fiction
Libbe HaLevy, Yes, I Glow in the Dark: One Mile from Three Mile Island to Fukushima and Nuclear Hotseat
Conchita Thornton Marusich, In Search of William Wolfskill
Tamar Matossian, What’s Autism?
Ellie Wildermuth, Prepare! Life Goes On: Be Ready for Life's Unexpected Challenges
Dr. Don Yeomans, Near-Earth Objects: Finding Them Before They Find Us
Memoir
Yatindra Bhatnagar, A Fairytale Love Story
Joel Peterson, Dreams of My Mother (fictionalized memoir)
Mystery
Graphic Novel
Gillian Cameron, Calogrenant: Book the First - Oh! What a Knight! and Calogrenant: Book the Second - Maiden Britannia and Calogrenant: Book the Third - Forging Ahead
Poetry
Vibiana Aparicio-Chamberlin
Chanel Brenner
"Uncle" Ruthie Buell
Lin Nelson Benedek
Teresa Mei Chuc
Nicelle Davis
Kim Dower
Jawanza Dumisani
Lois P. Jones
Elline Lipkin
Alice Pero
Thelma Reyna
Keith Richmond
Lynne Thompson
Yun Wang
Romance
Science Fiction & Fantasy
Lambert Cheung, Red Phoenix Legends
Patrick Deu Pree, Reign of the Golden Goddess