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STEVEN

Staff member photo: Steven

Name: Steven Salardino

 

Favorite paragraph: "The lean days of determination. That was the word for it, determination: Arturo Bandini in front of his typewriter two full days in succession, determined to succeed; but it didn't work, the longest siege of hard and fast determination in his life, and not one line done, only two words written over and over across the page, up and down, the same words: palm tree, palm tree, palm tree, a battle to the death between the palm tree and me, and the palm tree won: see it out there swaying in the blue air, creaking sweetly in the blue air. The palm tree won after two fighting days, and I crawled out of the window and sat at the foot of the tree. Time passed, a moment or two, and I slept, little brown ants carousing in the hair on my legs." - John Fante, Ask The Dust

(Steven is on leave starting February 10, 2022.)

 


 

Book Recommendations: 
Staff Pick Badge
Magic Ramen: The Story of Momofuku Ando By Andrea Wang, Kana Urbanowicz (Illustrator) Cover Image
By Andrea Wang, Kana Urbanowicz (Illustrator)
$18.99
ISBN: 9781499807035
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: little bee books - March 5th, 2019

"The world is peaceful only when everyone has enough to eat." I love ramen so much.


To Each His Own By Leonardo Sciascia, W.S. Di Piero (Introduction by), Adrienne Foulke (Translated by) Cover Image
By Leonardo Sciascia, W.S. Di Piero (Introduction by), Adrienne Foulke (Translated by)
$16.95
ISBN: 9780940322523
Availability: Backordered
Published: NYRB Classics - October 31st, 2000

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Endless Endless: A Lo-Fi History of the Elephant 6 Mystery By Adam Clair Cover Image
$30.00
ISBN: 9780306923944
Availability: Not in Stock. Available to Order.
Published: Hachette Books - January 18th, 2022

There is something incredibly sweet about the history of these bands and this collective. Neutral Milk Hotel, Olivia Tremor Control, Apples In Stereo, etc...the sounds that were merging/melding within this group of friends and comrades created some really special music. The book will make you nostalgic for a world that existed 20-25 years ago whether you were there or not.


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The Uncollected Stories of Allan Gurganus By Allan Gurganus Cover Image
$25.95
Possibly out of print. Email or call to check availability and price.
ISBN: 9780871403780
Published: Liveright - January 12th, 2021

All these stories have surprised me with their originality—I could not tell what would happen next and I cracked up or cried when it happened. Gurganus is a master of the short story, reminding me of Flannery O’Connor and Roald Dahl … tales exploring the uniqueness of everyday people and their morality.


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Made in California, Volume 1: The California-Born Diners, Burger Joints, Restaurants & Fast Food That Changed America, 1915-1966 By George Geary Cover Image
$40.00
ISBN: 9781945551918
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Prospect Park Books - August 17th, 2021

Everyone growing up in Los Angeles will have memories involving Bob’s Big Boy or See’s Candy or Lawry’s Prime Rib. Nostalgia mixes with history and a little drool in this history of California’s culinary claims to fame.


Staff Pick Badge
The Rock from the Sky By Jon Klassen, Jon Klassen (Illustrator) Cover Image
By Jon Klassen, Jon Klassen (Illustrator)
$18.99
ISBN: 9781536215625
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Candlewick - April 13th, 2021

We are lucky to be alive in the time of Jon Klassen. The way he uses the interplay between illustration and text is masterful, as seen in his previous books including his “hat” series. Themes of friendship, fate, and the future are explored beautifully and humorously in this modern classic.


Staff Pick Badge
All That the Rain Promises and More: A Hip Pocket Guide to Western Mushrooms By David Arora Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9780898153880
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Ten Speed Press - February 1st, 1991

There are a few books that always make great gifts and that everyone should have on their shelves: Manly P. Hall’s The Secret Teachings of All Ages, Mr Boston’s Official Bartender’s Guide, a Hoyle’s book of card games, and All the Rain Promises and More. It might not be the biggest or most complete listing of mushrooms found in the west, but look at that cover! It is definitely the most fun.


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Binge: 60 stories to make your brain feel different By Douglas Coupland Cover Image
$22.95
Possibly out of print. Email or call to check availability and price.
ISBN: 9781039000520
Published: Random House Canada - October 5th, 2021

For being the quintessential Gen-Xer, it is a bit remarkable that I never read Coupland’s Generation X. But I have read a lot of his other stories, novels, and essays (I even read his book on Terry Fox), and I am excited for this new book. He always makes me laugh and see the world (and myself) a little differently.


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Dodie Bellamy Is on Our Mind By Jeanne Gerrity (Editor), Anthony Huberman (Editor) Cover Image
By Jeanne Gerrity (Editor), Anthony Huberman (Editor)
$25.00
Possibly out of print. Email or call to check availability and price.
ISBN: 9780980205572
Published: Semiotext(e) - February 25th, 2020

Read Dodie Bellamy. Then explore some more by reading this book. She has been one of my favorite writers since I bought the little Hanuman press book containing two of her stories. All her writing burrows into my head with a needle so thin I don't know it is there until the words are INSIDE ME. She is magic to me.


Staff Pick Badge
Fup By Jim Dodge Cover Image
$12.00
ISBN: 9781597141581
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Heyday Books - May 1st, 2014

Someone reminded me that I recommended this book to them right after their mother passed away and it worked as a meditative soother/distractor. That is the power of a good fable. So read about the best fence builder, a duck named Fup, and Ol' Death Whisperer - the moonshine whiskey of immortality. It just might help you through this world of grief and suffering.


Staff Pick Badge
Seek You: A Journey Through American Loneliness (Pantheon Graphic Library) By Kristen Radtke Cover Image
$30.00
ISBN: 9781524748067
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Pantheon - July 13th, 2021

Kristen Radtke's illustrated essay explores the feeling and stigma of loneliness from a personal and modern historical perspective. She ingeniously circles around the subject, narrowing in and zooming out, speaking to where we find connection and why. Coming out of lockdowns and out from under our masks - this book hit home for me.


Staff Pick Badge
Donald Barthelme: Collected Stories (LOA #343) By Donald Barthelme, Charles McGrath (Editor) Cover Image
$45.00
Possibly out of print. Email or call to check availability and price.
ISBN: 9781598536843
Published: Library of America - June 29th, 2021

Staff Pick Badge
Index of Women (Penguin Poets) By Amy Gerstler Cover Image
$20.00
Possibly out of print. Email or call to check availability and price.
ISBN: 9780143136217
Published: Penguin Books - April 6th, 2021

A new book from Amy Gerstler is something to celebrate. A poet that can make the strange and beautiful profound in new and unpredictable ways. The personal is political and vice versa. It is truly wonderful for us that Los Angeles has someone as talented as Amy sharing our sun and smog.


Staff Pick Badge
Klara and the Sun: A novel By Kazuo Ishiguro Cover Image
$30.00
ISBN: 9780593318171
Availability: Not in Stock. Available to Order.
Published: Knopf - March 2nd, 2021

Masterful storytelling. Ishiguro's book is told from the point of view of an Artificial Friend and explores what it means to be human. But it is so much more. It works on you from the inside, propelling you into a world so close to our own that it is eye-opening. This is one of those books that makes my mind swim in possibilities and questions, yet doesn't let me slowdown to contemplate them because I am enjoying the story so much. It's moving, suspenseful, beautiful, and hard to pin down...picking up weight as we move through it. I look at the sun a little differently now. 


Staff Pick Badge
Tarot. the Library of Esoterica By Jessica Hundley Cover Image
$40.00
ISBN: 9783836579872
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Taschen - June 29th, 2020

The first book in the new Library of Esoterica series is a fascinating exploration into the history, artwork, and meaning of the Tarot. This is an art book that surveys many ancient, modern, and contemporary decks and the artists that created them, and can also be used to help divine meaning from a tarot reading. I love the way it is designed and organized in conjunction with the order of the deck, and the essays are interesting and enlightening.


Staff Pick Badge
Seek You: A Journey Through American Loneliness (Pantheon Graphic Library) By Kristen Radtke Cover Image
$30.00
ISBN: 9781524748067
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Pantheon - July 13th, 2021

Kristen Radtke's illustrated essay explores the feeling and stigma of loneliness from a personal and modern historical perspective. She ingeniously circles around the subject, narrowing in and zooming out, speaking to where we find connection and why. Coming out of lockdowns and out from under our masks - this book hit home for me.


Staff Pick Badge
Becoming Los Angeles: Myth, Memory, and a Sense of Place By D. J. Waldie Cover Image
$30.00
ISBN: 9781626400795
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Angel City Press - September 15th, 2020

D.J. Waldie is a treasure for all of us that love Southern California. A lifelong Lakewood resident, he writes about all parts of Los Angeles, from the big to the banal, with the insight and focus of a precise and meditative scientist. All through the eyes of someone still discovering meanings in our personal and cultural histories during this strange time.


Wicked Enchantment: Selected Poems By Wanda Coleman, Terrance Hayes (Editor) Cover Image
$25.95
ISBN: 9781574232370
Availability: Not in Stock. Available to Order.
Published: Black Sparrow Press - April 7th, 2020

Eat the Document: A Novel By Dana Spiotta Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9780743273008
Availability: Not in Stock. Available to Order.
Published: Scribner - November 28th, 2006

How to Take a Japanese Bath By Leonard Koren, Suehiro Maruo (Illustrator) Cover Image
By Leonard Koren, Suehiro Maruo (Illustrator)
$9.95
ISBN: 9781611720495
Availability: Not in Stock. Available to Order.
Published: Stone Bridge Press - September 18th, 2018

MacDoodle St. By Mark Alan Stamaty, Mark Alan Stamaty (Afterword by), Jules Feiffer (Introduction by) Cover Image
By Mark Alan Stamaty, Mark Alan Stamaty (Afterword by), Jules Feiffer (Introduction by)
$24.95
Possibly out of print. Email or call to check availability and price.
ISBN: 9781681373423
Published: New York Review Comics - April 2nd, 2019

Selected Poems By Kenneth Patchen Cover Image
$15.95
Possibly out of print. Email or call to check availability and price.
ISBN: 9780811201469
Published: New Directions -

I Know What I Am: The Life and Times of Artemisia Gentileschi By Gina Siciliano Cover Image
$34.99
ISBN: 9781683962113
Availability: Not in Stock. Available to Order.
Published: Fantagraphics - September 10th, 2019

Staff Pick Badge
This is Not a Novel and Other Novels By David Markson Cover Image
$19.95
ISBN: 9781619027145
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Counterpoint - March 15th, 2016

Known for Wittgenstein's Mistress - "pretty much the high point of experimental fiction in this country" (says David Foster Wallace) - David Markson is a major literary figure that often flies under the radar. All three of the “not novels” collected in this book are wonderful but the one that most harpoons my heart is The Last Novel. Published a few years before Markson’s death it is particularly profound in its discussion of a writer’s mortality. These books are my versions of “unputdownable”. I find myself suspended somewhere inside all of history, art, creativity, the page, etc, as my own personal triumphs, fears, frustrations, and loves get muddled with Markson’s. I feel guided, but free...I imagine as “Writer” meant it.


The Malady of Death By Marguerite Duras Cover Image
$16.00
ISBN: 9780802130365
Availability: Not in Stock. Available to Order.
Published: Grove Press - January 13th, 1994

The PLAIN Janes By Cecil Castellucci, Jim Rugg (By (artist)) Cover Image
By Cecil Castellucci, Jim Rugg (By (artist))
$18.99
ISBN: 9780316522816
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Little, Brown Ink - January 7th, 2020

Sexing the Cherry (Winterson) By Jeanette Winterson Cover Image
$14.95
ISBN: 9780802135780
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Grove Press - August 10th, 1998

Fancies and Goodnights By John Collier, Ray Bradbury (Introduction by) Cover Image
By John Collier, Ray Bradbury (Introduction by)
$24.95
ISBN: 9781590170519
Availability: Not in Stock. Available to Order.
Published: NYRB Classics - May 31st, 2003

Staff Pick Badge
The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze (New Directions Classic) By William Saroyan Cover Image
$17.95
ISBN: 9780811213653
Availability: Not in Stock. Available to Order.
Published: New Directions - October 17th, 1997

William Saroyan is Mark Twain to me. In his words and stories I hear a version of the person I would have liked to be. His adventures are small and romantic—about life, writing, and the common bonds between all us humans. His writing from the 1930s still feels contemporary and fresh—comfort food in these times.


Ask the Dust By John Fante Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780060822552
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Ecco - February 7th, 2006