Happy New Year!!

Make a New Year's Resolution to finally read that pile of books sitting on your nightstand, or come on down and pick up one of our bestselling books at Metropolis.

Several books that we are currently enjoying are:

An Alphabetical Life by Wendy Werris

Brother I'm Dying by Edwidge Danticat

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by James Simpson

Atonement by Ian McEwan

Happy Holidays!!

From Metropolis Books....

One year in Business!!

This weekend we are celebrating our first year in business, stop by and see us and enjoy a glass of Champagne or Sparkling Apple Cider!

Do you Believe in Ghosts?

Join us December 8th. at 3:00 p.m. As we welcome Ghost Hunter and Author, Jeff Dwyer as he signs and discusses his latest regional Ghost Hunting book, "A Ghost Hunter's Guide to Los Angeles." His previous books explored ghost hunting in the cities of New Orleans and San Francisco. Don't miss this event!!

Holiday Book Ideas

Here are a few books that would make wonderful gifts!

The "Star Wars" pop-up book.

The Ken Burns companion book to his PBS series, "The War"

The new Alick Waters cookbook, "The Art of Simple Food" and the latest book by the author of the "Post Secret" series, "A Lifetime of Secrets".

I will post more gift book suggestions later.

Hot selling books!!

These titles have been flying off the shelves at the store!

"Daring Book for Girls" along with the "Dangerous Book for Boys"
"The Historic Core of Los Angeles"
"Spook Country"
"Water for Elephants"
"Eat Pray Love"
"God is Not Great"
"Love in the Time of Cholera"
"People's History of the United States"
"The Secret Lives of Men and Women"
and Clive Barker's latest, "Mister Be Gone"

Upcoming Events at the Bookstore

Tuesday Nov. 20th. at noon author and personal finance expert F. Bill Billimoria will sign and discuss his book, "Golden Pond or Up the Creek"

Don't miss this event if you are in the Downtown area.

Guess who came down to sign books at our store?

That's right Clive Barker, and here are the photos!!

Clive was nice enough to sign my inventory of books, while he was in Downtown at a private reception for his upcoming show which opens, November 8th. at Bert Green's Fine Art Gallery. Clive was so kind an gracious, it really was wonderful having him in the store.

The December Book Club Selection

Our Book Club has selected "Wish Club" by Kim Strickland as our book for December. All Book Club members and nonmembers get 15% off of the list price of the Book Club pick. Here is a brief summary of the book.

The five women (Claudia, Lindsay, Gail, Mara and Jill) make up a book club. Each enjoys the camaraderie of the get together as they chat about life while drinking wine; they even occasionally discuss a book. After reading a novel involving witchcraft and trying a light spell as a joke, Lindsay brings Benton's Grimoire, a book on witchcraft, to the next meeting although that tome is outside the normal reading material for the quintet. Fascinated by the spells, they jokingly test the incantations starting with stopping the rain; to their amazement it worked. Awed they tried to cure diabetes inflicting a cat; it works. Excited, the five decide to make their personal lives better with a series spells. Claudia asks for a baby and the writing a novel. Gail, the mother of three, wishes for some quiet time. Lindsay wishes to lose weight so that she participates in the Women's Foundation fashion show. Mara asks for money and for her former singing career to start over. Finally Jill wishes to be inspired by the perfect man when she paints. However when the Wish Club members begin to get their desires fulfilled; they find their lives out of control. Panicking they need to find a real witch to return them from the Wish Club back to the Book Club. Based on the concept that sometimes you get what you wish for, this well written lighthearted amusing chick lit tale stars five likable women who learn powerful life lessons. The changing needs of the quintet make the tale fun to follow as Kim Strickland cleverly insures each of the protagonists maintain their underlying basic personality even as their desires keep modifying. Fans who enjoy a charming whimsical fantasy will wish to join the WISH CLUB whose members ultimately wish to revert back to when they were a simple book club.

Why no bookstore cat?

A lot of people ask me, "Why no cat in the bookstore?" I'm a cat-lover so it does seem odd, in fact I have three indoor cats and one feral that I've been taking care of for years. Well the answer is, all of my cats are somewhat unpredictable. Athena, my tabby is sweet, but would be out the front door following home the first person to pet her. Coltrane our beloved black and white is a bit skittish. We've had him for 5 years and only one of my friends has ever seen him and our little Manx Minerva, is well, special. She's tiny, cute and well deadly would be the best way to describe her. You never see her coming, she usually strikes your heel first and then bites the top of your foot. I just can't see my customers enjoying that. Well, if I ever do adopt a normal cat maybe I will bring them into the bookstore.

A few hot titles...

Here are just some of the hot titles that are flying off our shelves here at Metropolis Books:

"The Historic Core of Los Angeles", By Curtis C. Roseman, Ruth Wallach, Dace Taube, Linda McCann, and Geoffrey.

"Coltrane" by Ben Ratliff-The story of a sound.

Any and all books by Noam Chomsky, and Howard Zinn, as well as the new Alan Greenspan book, "The Age of Turbulence"

Richard Langes, collection of short stories entitled "The Dead Boys" is also selling out, I still have a few signed first editions.

Just in time for Halloween, I have several Gothic and Victorian thrillers as well as contemporary ghost stories fiction and nonfiction.

Jeff Dwyer will sign and discuss his new book, "A Ghost-Hunters guide to Los Angeles on December 8th. We also have a large collection of Mary Shelley, Ann Radcliff, Wilkie Collins, Bram Stoker, Stephen King, Clive Barker, Shirley Jackson, and M.R. James. Come check out our selection.

Book Club

Our book club is currently reading Candice Millard's "The River of Doubt". The true account of Theodore Roosevelt's journey down an unexplored river in the Amazon. The book tells the tale of the ill-fated expedition that nearly killed the former president in 1912.

Metropolis Books

I'm co-owner of Metropolis Books, a general bookstore located in the Historic Core of Downtown Los Angeles. Our Bookstore has been opened since December of 2006, and as we approach our one year anniversary, we can't believe how quickly the time has passed.

This weekend we are hosting two author events, On Saturday we will welcome poet Lynne Thompson, who will be reading from her debut collection, "Beg No Pardon".

Also on Sunday we will host author Randy Cepuch, who will read and discuss his nonfiction work, "A Weekend with Warren Buffet and other Adventures at Share Holders Meetings." Lynne Thompson will appear at 4:00 pm, and Randy Cepuch's event will start at 2:00 pm.