Author of 'La Rose' and 'Dorothy Jones, A Jazz Age Trip Through Oz' joins us in the bookstore to discuss her inspirations.

Dorothy Jones, the quintessential renaissance woman of Jazz Age Harlem, operates an upscale dress shop by day and an exclusive underworld speakeasy by night from her posh Sugar Hill brownstone. Unable to resist the request of her business associate and mentor, Johnny, Dorothy agrees to hostess an event at her speakeasy for the mob boss, welcoming a few new men into his organization.

While sitting at the bar as her guests networked, Charlie, Dorothy’s longtime friend and bartender, serves her hallucinogenic martinis made with Johnny’s bath tub gin. After a few drinks, Dorothy awakes to find her speakeasy crash landed in the Land of Oz. Although she finds the strange land intriguing, Dorothy is anxious to return to Harlem to attend a dinner party. Sporting her new ruby stilettos, provided courtesy of the deceased Witch of the East, Dorothy begins her journey along the Yellow Brick Road to the Emerald City, in hopes of meeting with the Wizard.

However, Dorothy doesn’t get very far in the five inch stilettos, so she enlists the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Lion, who are more than happy to assist Dorothy for reasons she can neither fathom nor conceive. For unbeknownst to Dorothy, once her stiletto heels click upon the golden bricks of the Emerald City, she will alter the course of Oz for all time.

A transplanted Chicagoan, Claudia now resides in Southern California where she wages the daily internal debate of 'why is it always 70 degrees here?' A graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign with a Bachelors of Arts in English, Claudia enjoys the ocean sunsets, wine tastings and oil painting. Most of all, Claudia enjoys chatting on the telephone and Facebook with her niece, Jordan.

La Playa Books goes a little wild and joins the OB Chili Cook-Off. We'll be bringing kids books, puzzles, and our famous 50 cent carts to Newport Ave. Please stop by and say hello!

Please join us for our July book club meet up. We'll be reading 'Swell' by Jill Eisenstadt.

La Playa Books is happy to present local author James Clay. Author of 'Dusty Barnett' and 'Songbird of the West,' James will speak to us about writing and the history of the western genre.

James Clay spent his childhood watching Hopalong Cassidy on TV and devouring Fran Striker's Lone Ranger novels. His further good fortune was ample access to pulp magazines and paperback original westerns, where the genre grew and flourished.

Some years later, while toiling by day as a literary agent, James discovered the fun of visiting the old west again in his own writings. As a full time western writer, he has authored eleven sagebrush sagas and loves to parlay about the old west both real and imagined.

James lives in San Diego with his wife and two cats, all of whom, he notes, are very patient with him.

La Playa Books is delighted to present Michael Hardcastle-Taylor and 'The Windsors I Knew.'

Jean Hardcastle-Taylor, typed her memoir, "The Windsors I Knew", in 1965. Her original 200- page typescript was stored away in northern California until it was "born" at the Hotel Del Coronado in Coronado, California in 2009 by the purest of luck.

Published in 2016 by her eldest son Michael, the book is a rare, first-hand account of her time as private secretary to the Duke and Duchess of Windsor when they served as Governor and First Lady of the Bahamas during WW II. The Duke of Windsor was King Edward VIII of Great Britain and the British Empire for less than one year, most of 1936. He abdicated his throne to marry Wallis Simpson in France the following year. None of the Duke's family attended his wedding to a woman who was by then a twice-divorced American socialite. When Edward VIII abdicated, his younger brother became King George VI, and when George VI died in 1952, his eldest daughter became Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

Enjoy an evening of history with Michael's presentation and refreshments.

La Playa Books presents our '2nd Thursdays in the Village' evening. Local author Emmanuel 'Burgie' Burgin presents an after-hours car extravaganza. His book, published by Arcadia Press, delves into the history of drag-racing in San Diego.
More information to follow.

Aloha from La Playa Books!

Learn about the turbulent ending of the Kingdom of Hawaii from noted author and historian, Dr. Sandra Bonura. She will present through the eyes of a young American teacher who aligned with Queen Liliuokalani. Learn what Pope, the founder of Kamehameha Schools for Girls, sacrificed to empower Hawaiian women following the end of their sovereign nation. This is a never before told tale. Her newly released biography, “Light in the Queen’s Garden”, will be available. Don’t miss this colorful presentation including a recording excerpt of the last queen of Hawaii’s daughter, heard for the very first time on the mainland.

Dr. Sandra Bonura is captivated when education, history & Hawaiʻi merge and this is seen in her books, 'Light in the Queen’s Garden, Ida Pope, Pioneer for Hawaii’s Daughters', 2017 UHP, 'An American Girl in the Hawaiian Islands', UHP, “Queen Lili’uokalani’s Beloved Seminary,” HJH (51) and “Lydia K. Aholo-Recovering the Lost Voice, HJH (47).

She’s a frequent storyteller on the importance of using many primary sources to gain perspectives on historical events. To that end, Bonura’s viewpoint is in a new film on Lili`uokalani.

Join La Playa Books again at the fantastic Union Tribune Festival of Books! In its second year, the Festival of Books provides a beautiful space to meet authors, join in literary discussions and celebrate everything BOOKS!