Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

Lila M. Higgins

Gregory B. Pauly

Jason G. Goldman

Charles Hood

Heavy Paperback (2 to 4 lbs)

California

Explore the Amazing Nature in and Around Los Angeles

"Put on your hiking shoes, pack your binoculars, and rediscover the City of Angels." --Westways Magazine

Los Angeles may have a reputation as a concrete jungle, but in reality, it's full of amazing wildlife. You just need to know where to find it!  Equal parts natural history, field guide, and trip planner, Wild LA has something for everyone. It looks at the factors that shape local nature--including fire, floods, and climate--and profiles over 100 local species, from easy-to-spot squirrels and praying mantids to more elusive green sea turtles, bighorn sheep, and mountain lions. Also included are descriptions of day trips that help you explore natural wonders on hiking trails, in public parks, and in your own backyard. 

Wild La

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Not For Tourists

Not for Tourists Guide to Los Angeles 2021

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Anne Tyler

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

A Novel

Eighty-five-year-old Pearl Tull recalls the desertion of her husband and her attempts to raise three children, who must come to terms with themselves and their father after their mother's death.

Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant

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Danielle Steel

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

When Marin County mother and freelance writer Tanya Harris gets the chance to write a major Hollywood screenplay, she finds herself thrust into an unfamiliar world that forces her to reconcile her two lives as a suburban mom and award-winning screenwriter

Bungalow 2

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Marian Keyes

Maggie has always been the white sheep of the Walsh family. Unlike her comically dysfunctional sisters, Rachel (heroine of Rachel's Holiday) and Claire (heroine of Watermelon), she married a decent man who adored her and found herself a solid career. Where Rachel was reckless and Claire dramatic, Maggie settled early for safety. Or so she believed -- until she discovers that her husband is having an affair and her boss is going to fire her. Suddenly, her perfectly organized life has become a perfect mess.

Devastated, she decides the only thing to do is to run for the shelter of her best friend, Emily, who lives in Los Angeles. There, with the help of sunshine and long days at the beach, she will lick her wounds and decide where life will take her next.

But from the moment she lands in the City of Angels, things are not quite what she expected. Overnight, she's mixing with movie stars, even pitching film scripts to studios. Most unexpectedly of all, she finds that just because her marriage is over, it doesn't mean her life is. In the end neither the City of Angels nor Maggie Walsh will ever be the same again.

Angels

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Therese Anne Fowler

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

THE INSPIRATION FOR THE TELEVISION DRAMA Z: THE BEGINNING OF EVERYTHING I wish I could tell everyone who thinks we're ruined, Look closer...and you'll see something extraordinary, mystifying, something real and true. We have never been what we seemed. When beautiful, reckless Southern belle Zelda Sayre meets F. Scott Fitzgerald at a country club dance in 1918, she is seventeen years old and he is a young army lieutenant stationed in Alabama. Before long, the "ungettable" Zelda has fallen for him despite his unsuitability: Scott isn't wealthy or prominent or even a Southerner, and keeps insisting, absurdly, that his writing will bring him both fortune and fame. Her father is deeply unimpressed. But after Scott sells his first novel, This Side of Paradise, to Scribner's, Zelda optimistically boards a train north, to marry him in the vestry of St. Patrick's Cathedral and take the rest as it comes. What comes, here at the dawn of the Jazz Age, is unimagined attention and success and celebrity that will make Scott and Zelda legends in their own time. Everyone wants to meet the dashing young author of the scandalous novel—and his witty, perhaps even more scandalous wife. Zelda bobs her hair, adopts daring new fashions, and revels in this wild new world. Each place they go becomes a playground: New York City, Long Island, Hollywood, Paris, and the French Riviera—where they join the endless party of the glamorous, sometimes doomed Lost Generation that includes Ernest Hemingway, Sara and Gerald Murphy, and Gertrude Stein. Everything seems new and possible. Troubles, at first, seem to fade like morning mist. But not even Jay Gatsby's parties go on forever. Who is Zelda, other than the wife of a famous—sometimes infamous—husband? How can she forge her own identity while fighting her demons and Scott's, too? With brilliant insight and imagination, Therese Anne Fowler brings us Zelda's irresistible story as she herself might have told it.

Z: a Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald

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Benjamin Black

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

"When you're done binge-watching The Crown, pick up this multifaceted wartime thriller."
--Kirkus Reviews

As London endures nightly German bombings, Britain's secret service whisks the princesses Elizabeth and Margaret from England, seeking safety for the young royals on an old estate in Ireland.

Ahead of the German Blitz during World War II, English parents from every social class sent their children to the countryside for safety, displacing more than three million young offspring. In The Secret Guests, the British royal family takes this evacuation a step further, secretly moving the princesses to the estate of the Duke of Edenmore in "neutral" Ireland.

A female English secret agent, Miss Celia Nashe, and a young Irish detective, Garda Strafford, are assigned to watch over "Ellen" and "Mary" at Clonmillis Hall. But the Irish stable hand, the housemaid, the formidable housekeeper, the Duke himself, and other Irish townspeople, some of whom lost family to English gunshots during the War of Independence, go freely about their business in and around the great house. Soon suspicions about the guests' true identities percolate, a dangerous boredom sets in for the princesses, and, within and without Clonmillis acreage, passions as well as stakes rise.

Benjamin Black, who has good information that the princesses were indeed in Ireland for a time during the Blitz, draws readers into a novel as fascinating as the nascent career of Miss Nashe, as tender as the homesickness of the sisters, as intriguing as Irish-English relations during WWII, and as suspenseful and ultimately action-packed as war itself.

The Secret Guests

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Julie Langsdorf

“Julie Langsdorf mines wit from the ways that people manage (or don’t) to live in close proximity. Her smart, enjoyable suburban comedy is observant and knowing about social selves and hidden selves, and the ways in which they are sometimes made to overlap.” —Meg Wolitzer, author of The Female Persuasion “A smart, riveting look at what happens to a community when competing visions of the American Dream collide and combust. Langsdorf is a keen observer of human frailty and desire and her characters are darkly funny, recognizably exasperating and deeply memorable.” —Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney, author of The Nest “Lively and entertaining.... This ambitious and intriguing work about the American suburbs is perfect for fans of Ann Patchett or Meg Wolitzer.” —Publishers Weekly The White Elephant looms large over the quaint suburban town of Willard Park: a gaudy, newly constructed behemoth of a home, it soars over the neighborhood, dwarfing the houses that surround it. When owner Nick Cox cuts down Allison and Ted Millers’ precious red maple—in an effort to make his unsightly property more appealing to buyers—their once serene town becomes a battleground. While tensions between Ted and Nick escalate, other dysfunctions abound: Allison finds herself compulsively drawn to the man who is threatening to upend her quietly organized life. A lawyer with a pot habit and a serious midlife crisis skirts his responsibilities. And in a quest for popularity, a teenage girl gets caught up in a not-so-harmless prank. Newcomers and longtime residents alike begin to clash in conflicting pursuits of the American Dream, with trees mysteriously uprooted, fires set, fingers pointed, and lines drawn. White Elephant is an uproarious, tangled-web tale of neighbor hating neighbor (and neighbor falling head over heels for neighbor). Soon, peaceful Willard Park becomes a tinderbox with nowhere to go but up in flames.

White Elephant

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Lucy Foley

Jess needs a fresh start. Her half-brother Ben didn't sound thrilled when she asked if she could crash with him for a bit, but he didn't say no. Only when she shows up he's not there. The longer Ben stays missing, the more Jess starts to dig into her brother's situation, and the more questions she has. Jess may have come to Paris to escape her past, but it's starting to look like it's Ben's future that's in question. Everyone's a neighbour. Everyone's a suspect. And everyone knows something they're not telling. Author of "The Guest List." Print run 300,000.

The Paris Apartment

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Jonathan Franzen

Heavy Hardcover (2 to 4 lbs)

Enid Lambert begins to worry about her husband when he begins to withdraw and lose himself in negativity and depression as he faces Parkinson's disease.

The Corrections

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Pat Conroy

A Memoir

A “miraculous” (Newsweek) human drama, based on a true story, from the renowned author of The Prince of Tides and The Great Santini The island is nearly deserted, haunting, beautiful. Across a slip of ocean lies South Carolina. But for the handful of families on Yamacraw Island, America is a world away. For years the people here lived proudly from the sea, but now its waters are not safe. Waste from industry threatens their very existence unless, somehow, they can learn a new way. But they will learn nothing without someone to teach them, and their school has no teacher—until one man gives a year of his life to the island and its people. Praise for The Water Is Wide “Miraculous . . . an experience of joy.”—Newsweek “A powerfully moving book . . . You will laugh, you will weep, you will be proud and you will rail . . . and you will learn to love the man.”—Charleston News and Courier “A hell of a good story.”—The New York Times “Few novelists write as well, and none as beautifully.”—Lexington Herald-Leader “[Pat] Conroy cuts through his experiences with a sharp edge of irony. . . . He brings emotion, writing talent and anger to his story.”—Baltimore Sun

The Water Is Wide

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Doris Kearns Goodwin

Oversized Hardcover (4 to 6 lbs)

The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

An analysis of Abraham Lincoln's political talents identifies the character strengths and abilities that enabled his successful election, in an account that also describes how he used the same abilities to rally former opponents in winning the Civil War.

Team of Rivals

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Etaf Rum

The acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of A Woman Is No Man returns with a striking exploration of the expectations of Palestinian-American women, the meaning of a fulfilling life, and the ways our unresolved pasts affect our presents. Raised in a conservative and emotionally volatile Palestinian family in Brooklyn, Yara thought she would finally feel free when she married a charming entrepreneur who took her to the suburbs. She's gotten to follow her dreams, completing an undergraduate degree in Art and landing a good job at the local college. As a traditional wife, she also raises their two school-aged daughters, takes care of the house, and has dinner ready when her husband gets home. With her family balanced with her professional ambitions, Yara knows that her life is infinitely more rewarding than her own mother's. So why doesn't it feel like enough? After her dream of chaperoning a student trip to Europe evaporates and she responds to a colleague's racist provocation, Yara is put on probation at work and must attend mandatory counseling to keep her position. Her mother blames a family curse for the trouble she's facing, and while Yara doesn't really believe in old superstitions, she still finds herself growing increasingly uneasy with her mother's warning and the possibility of falling victim to the same mistakes. Shaken to the core by these indictments of her life, Yara finds her carefully constructed world beginning to implode. To save herself, Yara must reckon with the reality that the difficulties of the childhood she thought she left behind have very real--and damaging--implications not just on her own future but that of her daughters.

Evil Eye

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E. B. White

William Strunk

English

"So friendly, so classic, so delightful . . . Kalman has taken 'the little book' and made it even more elegant and uplifting." —Los Angeles Times The only style manual to ever appear on a bestseller list now refreshed by one of our most beloved illustrators Every English writer knows Strunk and White's The Elements of Style. The book’s mantra, make every word tell, is still on point. This much-loved classic, now in its fourth edition, will forever be the go-to guide when in need of a hint to make a turn of phrase clearer or a reminder on how to enliven prose with the active voice. The only style manual to ever appear on bestseller lists has explained to millions of readers the basic principals of plain English, and Maira Kalman’s fifty-seven exquisite illustrations give the revered work a jolt of new energy, making the learning experience more colorful and clear.

The Elements of Style Illustrated

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Sandra Tsing Loh

Sandra Tsing Loh, a self-described neurotic, nonachieving, downwardly mobile “Dumpy,” has started to come out of denial over the fact that she does not live in Provence. Not only does she not live in Provence, she doesn’t even live in a nice part of Los Angeles. This upper-lower-middle-class suburb in the sun-swept grid of the San Fernando Valley, consistently ranked one of the worst places to live in America, whose night sky is flamed by a million fast-food neon signs and whose streets are chockablock with carnicerias, taquerias, and pupuserias, will, she’s pretty sure, never be Provence.

In A Year in Van Nuys, we find Sandra, an obscure writer, blocked at page 100 of her Great American Novel — the one that, when finished, will bring her fame, fortune, and the requisite country house in Provence. She’s 35 and she has eyebags like Bert Lahr, a too-rich, too-thin sister who torments her about her lack of initiative, and a $300-an-hour Malibu therapist. She writes for a failing women’s website — Amelia.com — makes a disastrous appearance on CNN, entertains a network’s idea about making a sitcom of her life, especially her eyebags, and watches new and old acquaintances alike succeed wildly at various pursuits. And this is merely the tip of the iceberg of a year in Sandra’s life. Divided by season — The Winter of Our Discontent, Spring Without Bending Your Knees, Summer Where We Winter, and Fall of Our Dearest Expectations — Sandra’s narrative charts a hilarious course through the anti-Hollywood, a morbid inferno that none other than Robert Redford called a “furnace that could destroy any creative thought that managed to creep into your brain.”

The result of this journey? Not thinner thighs, smoother skin, or a kind of space-age Zen Buddhist acceptance. (Notwithstanding the fact that a wise [gay] man notes that even Madonna has an inner Van Nuys.) No, the true grail turns out to be, unbelievably enough, Maturity. Which coincides, sadly, with the official end of Youth. Which, after a brief mourning period, turns out to be an odd relief for Sandra. After all, when one is no longer burdened by Youth, or Promise, or Potential, or even worldly Interest, a writer finally finds . . . the rush is over. Sandra has all the time in the world. And on a sunny blue-sky morning, a story begins to occur to her — of a 35-year-old, with Bert Lahr eyebags, who was blocked in the course of a Great American Novel in a colorful, tattered little outpost called Van Nuys . . .

A Year in Van Nuys

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Back When We Were Grownups

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Saint Maybe is the rich and absorbing story of a young man's guilt over his brother's death and his struggle to atone for the wrong he feels he has done. On a quiet street in Baltimore in 1965, seventeen-year-old Ian Bedloe lives with his family in an "ideal, apple-pie household," enjoying the comfort of family traditions and indulging in all the usual dreams of the future. Until one night, when Ian's stinging words to his brother bring tragedy -- and from that careless moment on nothing can ever be the same. Anne Tyler takes us along Ian's painful and poignant quest for forgiveness, from the Church of the Second Chance to Ian's gratifying, solitary work as a carpenter. Raising the three children that are thrust on him, he finds himself amazed, drowning in family and duty. Then, out of the very heart of the domestic clutter, a light begins to flash.

Saint Maybe

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Amy Thomas

A Year in the City of Light (And Dark Chocolate)

The author chronicles her year living in Paris as a copywriter, describing her samplings of desserts and pastries in the patisseries, cafâes, and restaurants throughout the city.

Paris, My Sweet

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Breathing Lessons

Nancy Thayer

From the "New York Times"-bestselling author of "Moon Shell Beach" comes a moving new novel about an unexpectedly magical summer for three generations of women.

Summer House

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Pat Wingert

Barbara Kantrowitz

"Very readable, comprehensive, up-to-date... an excellent guide." - Isaac Schiff, MD, Harvard Medical School 

Deeply optimistic, reassuring, and essential, the book the North American Menopause Society called "required reading" is now revised and updated, with over 20 percent new material that incorporates the latest medical findings, cutting-edge research, and best-practices advice. Expertly separating fact from fiction in the latest "breakthrough" medical studies, it shows you what to pay attention to, and what you can ignore. Learn about the role of hormones and the latest advances in hormone therapy. The truth about hot flashes and how to deal with getting one at work. The impact of menopause on sexuality and how to manage an up-and-down libido. There are chapters on heart health (how to protect it), moods (how to ride them out), and exercise (how to stretch without strain). And finally, why this period of life can be a natural springboard to staying healthy, feeling great, and looking beautiful for the next act of your life.

Your Questions, Your Answers:

 * Is it possible that I could get another period after more than a year without one?
 * Losing weight at midlife feels like an uphill battle--what's the healthiest approach?
 * How do I perform a breast self-exam?
 * Is hormone therapy necessary--and if so, which one is right for me?
 * How effective are Kegel exercises, and how do I do them?
 * I'm starting to get adult acne--is this normal?

The Menopause Book

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Pat Conroy has created a huge, brash thunderstorm of a novel, stinging with honesty and resounding with drama. Spanning forty years, this is the story of turbulent Tom Wingo, his gifted and troubled twin sister, Savannah, and their struggle to triumph over the dark and tragic legacy of the extraordinary family into which they were born.

Filled with the vanishing beauty of the South Carolina Low Country as well as the dusty glitter of New York City, The Prince of Tides is Pat Conroy at his very best.

The Prince of Tides

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Ruth Frechman

75 Anti-Inflammatory Recipes to Manage Symptoms

Find relief from arthritis with simple, soothing recipes A healthy, anti-inflammatory diet can help reduce your joint pain and improve your overall health. This cookbook simplifies an arthritis-friendly diet, with truly easy recipes that require minimal prep and a limited number of basic ingredients. What sets The Easy Arthritis Diet Cookbook apart from other arthritis books: The arthritis-diet connection--Learn how dietary changes can ease common arthritis symptoms; tips for sticking to a healthy diet; and which foods to enjoy, moderate, and avoid. A focus on ease and convenience--Explore flavorful recipes designed to minimize time and effort, with handy labels for dishes made from 5 or fewer ingredients, one-pot meals, or recipes that take 30 minutes or less to prep. A variety of delicious dishes--Enjoy tasty anti-inflammatory dishes for every meal, from a Spicy Peach Ginger Smoothie for breakfast to Lemony Roasted Chicken and Root Vegetables for dinner. Prepare effortless meals that help relieve your arthritis symptoms with this hassle-free anti-inflammatory cookbook.

The Easy Arthritis Diet Cookbook

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Gwyneth Paltrow

Mario Batali

Delicious, Easy Recipes Celebrating Family and Togetherness

An Academy Award-winning actress shares a love of food that she learned from her father, in a book with personal recipes and 125 full-color photos of the author, her loved ones and the food they prepare. 125,000 first printing.

My Father's Daughter

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VSJ BOOKS

Browse by categories

Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County; Lila M. Higgins; Gregory B. Pauly; Jason G. Goldman; Charles Hood

Wild La

Not For Tourists

Not for Tourists Guide to Los Angeles 2021

Anne Tyler

Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant

Danielle Steel

Bungalow 2

Marian Keyes

Angels

Therese Anne Fowler

Z: a Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald

Benjamin Black

The Secret Guests

Julie Langsdorf

White Elephant

Lucy Foley

The Paris Apartment

Jonathan Franzen

The Corrections

Pat Conroy

The Water Is Wide

Doris Kearns Goodwin

Team of Rivals

Etaf Rum

Evil Eye

E. B. White; William Strunk

The Elements of Style Illustrated

Sandra Tsing Loh

A Year in Van Nuys

Anne Tyler

Back When We Were Grownups

Anne Tyler

Saint Maybe

Amy Thomas

Paris, My Sweet

Anne Tyler

Breathing Lessons

Nancy Thayer

Summer House

Pat Wingert; Barbara Kantrowitz

The Menopause Book

Pat Conroy

The Prince of Tides

Ruth Frechman

The Easy Arthritis Diet Cookbook

Gwyneth Paltrow; Mario Batali

My Father's Daughter

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