Our Lady of the Angels: The Virgin of Guadalupe on the Walls of Los Angeles
On storefronts, alleyways, and street corners across the city, murals of the Virgin of Guadalupe grace the walls of Los Angeles in a tapestry of faith, identity, and culture. Our Lady of the Angels: The Virgin of Guadalupe on the Walls of Los Angeles captures the sacred and everyday presence of Guadalupe murals across the […]
Out of the Gutters: How California Comix Saved Comics
Out of the Gutters: Obscenity, Censorship, and Transgression, edited by Jorge J. Santos and Patrick S. Lawrence, explores US comics that have been challenged for their boundary-breaking content. Covering well-known underground figures like R. Crumb and Charles Burns, newcomers such as C. Spike Trotman and Emil Ferris, and mainstream creators including Chris Claremont and Archie […]
California Eden: Heritage Landscapes of the Golden State
For many people, the concept of landscape is associated with gardens, especially estate gardens. California Eden reaches far beyond the elite circle of private estates; this book highlights a wide range of landscapes from the professional to the vernacular and delves deep into the cultural and historical significance of these landscapes, revealing the untold stories […]
Eugene O’Neill and Long Day’s Journey Into Night at Tao House—a California Story
Few people realize that Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night, which won the 1956 Pulitzer Prize, was written in California in 1939-41. After winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1936, O’Neill and his third wife, the actress Carlotta Monterey, built Tao House just outside Danville, California. Realizing that his writing career was coming […]
Troublemaker: The Fierce, Unruly Life of Jessica Mitford
Troublemaker tells the wild and unlikely story of Jessica Mitford, fifth of the six famous Mitford Girls, a British aristocrat-turned-American Communist, famous for exposés like The American Way of Death; this biography brings her astonishing self-transformation to life with a riveting, often hilarious account of trading wealth and status for a life of radical activism. […]
Celebrating People’s History
The Celebrate People’s History poster series has organized and curated by Josh MacPhee since 1998. The over 200 posters in the ongoing series are rooted in the do-it-yourself tradition of mass-produced and distributed political propaganda, but detourned to embody principles of democracy, inclusion, and group participation in the writing and interpretation of history. Over more […]
Print Your Own Broadside Affair
Join Book Club members and invited guests for fine wine, delicious hors d’oeuvres, desserts, and a signature cocktail as you letterpress print your own broadside on the Book Club’s Columbian hand press with Li Jiang, Lemoncheese Press. This year the broadside will celebrate the 150th anniversary of American novelist, journalist, adventurer, and activist Jack London’s birth. This is an in-person event. Space is limited and […]
2026 Oscar Lewis Awards
The Oscar Lewis Awards were established by the Book Club of California in 1994 in honor of Oscar Lewis (1893-1992), author, historian, and club secretary. Join us as we recognize this year’s honorees for their contributions to the Book Arts and Western History. This is an in-person and virtual event. Space is limited and a […]
Black Urban Landscapes of the Second Great Migration
Building on themes from her forthcoming book, Chasing the Sun: Staging Life, Belonging, and Displacement in the Black Bay Area (University of Washington Press), Oakland-born-and-raised historian and poet Wendy M. Thompson explores the ways that the Bay Area’s built environment has played a core role in the formation of race, belonging, and black California identity. […]
Hollywood Signs: The Golden Age of Glittering Graphics and Glowing Neon
Hollywood Signs demonstrates that signage is more than functional; it’s a work of art in its own right. Vintage and contemporary color images of world-famous signs, such as the enormous neon dragons of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and the neon Brown Derby hat, demonstrate the incredible craftsmanship and artistry of each and every design. Hollywood Signs […]