What we’re reading: The page-turning thrills of a chef’s memoir and a sci-fi bestseller
Good morning, and welcome to the L.A. Times Book Club newsletter.
When Keith Corbin writes about growing up in a world awash in drugs, guns and gangs, it burns with the intensity of the best pulp fiction, says author Jervey Tervalon. “But it isn’t fiction — it’s the life he lived.”
Tervalon praises the authenticity of Corbin’s new book, “California Soul: An American Epic of Cooking and Survival,” a gritty chronicle of the chef’s unexpected journey from drug dealer to prison inmate to co-owner of one of L.A.’s most celebrated restaurants.
On Aug. 23, Corbin will join the L.A. Times Book Club for a conversation with Times food editor Daniel Hernandez about the inspiration for his California soul food, his hard-won redemption and his desire to pay it forward.
“So much of Corbin’s writing … is what crime writers aspire to do, but the language and conventions of crime writing sometimes seem stilted or manufactured. Reading ‘California Soul’ is a different experience,” Tervalon says.
“Corbin’s story comes through without self-consciousness and in his own language, a language that isn’t the vernacular of the generic streets but the patois of those of us who grew up in Black Los Angeles.”
Corbin’s youthful life as a drug dealer landed him in prison, but that turned out to be the beginning chapter of his story rather than the end. After his parole, he landed work at a refinery and quickly earned a promotion, only to be fired when a background check turned up his felony record. He needed a job and heard about a new restaurant in his old Watts neighborhood that was hiring. “It was about paying bills,” he says during a conversation with Laurie Ochoa in The Times kitchen.
That desperate choice changed his life. The restaurant was Locol, created by chefs Daniel Patterson and Roy Choi in an effort to bring “chef-driven, quality food at a low price to a food desert,” Corbin says. He went to work there as a line cook and learned from his new mentors. Locol closed in 2018, “but I wouldn’t be where I am today without it,” Corbin says.
Join us for this month’s book club night with Corbin at 7 p.m. PT on Aug. 23 at the ASU California Center, located in the historic Herald Examiner Building downtown. Get tickets to attend in person or virtually.
Before book club starts, ASU will offer a guided tour of the newly revived landmark, which was built by publishing titan William Randolph Hearst more than a century ago. Space is limited; sign up on Eventbrite when you get your tickets.
Tell us: What questions do you have for Keith Corbin and Daniel Hernandez? Send your questions and comments to [email protected].
Get the recipe: The Times’ Food section features Corbin’s Vegan California Gombo from his Alta Adams menu.
September book club
Mark your calendar for Sept. 27 when bestselling novelist Silvia Moreno-Garcia joins us to discuss her new science fiction thriller, “The Daughter of Doctor Moreau.”
Born in Mexico and now living in Vancouver, Moreno-Garcia has been evolving across genres for years, moving with ease among fantasy, mystery, science fiction, horror and noir stories. President Obama included her novel “Velvet Was the Night,” a recent L.A. Times Book Prize finalist, on his 2022 summer reading list. She also is the author of “Mexican Gothic” and “Gods of Jade and Shadow.”
“The fictions of Silvia Moreno-Garcia abound in shapeshifters,” says reviewer Paula L. Woods. “And they are central to her latest novel, ‘The Daughter of Doctor Moreau,’ which reframes the classic H.G. Wells story of terrifying human-animal hybrids as a thrilling and romantic anticolonial adventure set in the Yucatán Peninsula.
“If you read her work as deeply as it deserves to be read — beyond its page-turning thrills … you’ll see that what lies beneath is even more astonishing: a perspective on Mexican history as broad and inclusive as any you’re likely to see in fiction — never mind a bestseller list.”
On Sept. 27, Moreno-Garcia will be in conversation with Times editor Steve Padilla at 6 p.m. PT. Sign up on Eventbrite.
If you enjoy these community discussions: Please consider becoming a benefactor of the new Los Angeles Times Community Fund, which supports our signature literary programs: the L.A. Times Book Club and annual Book Prizes.
Keep reading
The long shadow of ‘The Satanic Verses.” Columnist Patt Morrison discusses her several interviews with Salman Rushdie, his books and the 1989 fatwa on the author’s life in the wake of last week’s near-fatal attack during a lecture.
The future of publishing. Authors Guild President Douglas Preston explores how an antitrust trial underway in Washington, D.C., could reshape the books we read — and who writes them. “Less competition is going to change the dynamic,” Macmillan Chief Executive Don Weisberg testified.
Going home. Times reporter Melody Gutierrez writes about what she discovered returning to her abandoned childhood home near Twentynine Palms. Her story quotes Jerry Burger, author of “Returning Home: Reconnecting With Our Childhoods,” who notes that many of us feel particularly strong emotions about the place we lived between the ages of 5 and 12. “It seems to be those are key years,” Burger says. “For many people their identity is tied up with that place, with that time.”
Comic book epic onscreen. A lively new TV adaptation makes the most of Neil Gaiman’s “The Sandman,” writes critic Robert Lloyd.
New lit podcasts. Check out previous book club guest Susan Orlean’s “Book Exploder,” a spinoff of the Netflix series “Song Exploder,” that features authors such as Min Jin Lee, George Saunders and James McBride “breaking down one passage from one of their works, showing how much work goes into every paragraph of a book,” writes Alison Stewart at wnyc.org. Also, Times books contributor Bethanne Patrick has just launched the “Missing Pages” podcast: “Patrick reinforces the lesson of never judging a book by its cover by untangling some of the publishing industry’s biggest scandals,” says the Guardian. I’d love to hear about other podcasts and audiobooks book clubbers are enjoying. Share your suggestions in an email to [email protected].
“If it’s banned, read it.” Craig Johnson, author of the popular Longmire series (the next installment, “Hell and Back,” arrives in September), shares his favorite banned books in a recent interview. “I’m always consistently amazed by this, because I guess my first question to these people that are trying to ban these books would be, ‘Have they read them?’”
Summer reading with Boris: “Summer for me can be a bit of a busman’s holiday, as I fill up on fall books we’re planning to cover,” says Times Books editor Boris Kachka. “This year that’s everything from Cormac McCarthy’s dizzying upcoming novels, ‘The Passenger’ and ‘Stella Maris,’ to ‘Which Side Are You On,’ Ryan Lee Wong’s punchy tale of a young activist and his Korean-born mother arguing politics as they drive all over L.A. But it’s also a season for catching up on meaty, demanding older books. I’m delightedly digging deeper into Mike Davis’’“City of Quartz,’ a fascinating crash course in L.A. history from a labor-left angle — but really every angle. You get the intellectual history, the union and anti-union movements, the bird’s-eye view of industrial and political forces jockeying to soak up the sun and diverted water for themselves as they sell an impossible dream.”
Booked up: Finally, the new L.A. Times Book Club merch is here, and the collection includes hats, socks and a cool crewneck that “Dirty Dancing” star Jennifer Grey showed off at our July book club night in Hollywood.
ICYMI, you still can watch Grey discuss her memoir, “Out of the Corner,” and see her relive the infamous lift scene with co-start Patrick Swayze. “It’s like watching home movies for me,” she told interviewer Amy Kaufman. “I remember every moment.”
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