A Casual Anthology

Paperback LA is a casual anthology of tales and riffs, of words and pictures. It's like having a friend who tells you about this great book or article they just read and then sends you some good bits so you don't have to wait to get the flavor. You can read it by the pool if you're staying in a motel, and talk to your friends in between selections. You can put it on your nightstand and read a little to get your mind moving in a different direction when you wake up in the middle of the night worrying about something or other. We've been saving up the good bits for years, and we keep finding more. You know: those phrases or passages or chapters or moments or jokes that just seem right. Descriptions or scenes that strike us as true, whether or not we've been in the place or lived the scene. Paperback LA will include pieces by Eve Babitz and Susan Sontag; Vin Scully's call of Sandy Koufax's perfect game; excerpts from such seminal LA fiction as Hector Tobar's Barbarian Nurseries and seminal humor as SNL's "The Californians"; photography essays; and new work by such writers as Gary Phillips, Victoria Dailey, and Gustavo Arellano.