Our Book Clubs

Hello Reader,

La Playa Books currently offers two virtual book clubs, moderated and organized by our new book buyer, Mimi Hannan.  One meets the first Monday of the month, in the evening (Wine & Conversation Book Club).  The other meets the first Wednesday of the month in the mid-morning (New & Noteworthy Book Club).  To find out more and join our bookclub mailing list, plase email Mimi directly at mimi at laplayabooks dot com (or click on the link)

Our Wine & Conversation Book Club meets the first Monday of the month on Zoom.

Our February meeting will be held Monday, February 6th at 6pm. We will be discussing Harsh Times by Mario Vargas Llosa, Translated by Adrian Nathan West.

Please see your book club email before the meeting date for details on how to join in via Zoom.

 

Our New & Noteworthy Book Club meets the first Wednesday of the month on Zoom.

Our February meeting will be held Wednesday, February 8th at 11am. We will be discussing Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor.

Please see your book club email before the meeting date for details on how to join in via Zoom.

 

The titles for the upcoming meetings are now available in the store for 20% off to book club members.

 

If you're interested in titles our book clubs have read over the past few years, please visit our special Book Club Reading List for a list of titles. For more information, please email us at info@laplayabooks.com

Harsh Times: A Novel By Mario Vargas Llosa, Adrian Nathan West (Translated by) Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9781250858955
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Picador - November 15th, 2022

The true story of Guatemala’s political turmoil of the 1950s as only a master of fiction can tell it


Staff Pick Badge
Age of Vice: A Novel By Deepti Kapoor Cover Image
$30.00
ISBN: 9780593328798
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Riverhead Books - January 3rd, 2023

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK

“Dazzling...Finally free from the book’s grip, now all I want to do is get others hooked.”— The Washington Post

“Cinematic…A luxe thriller…As a storyteller, Kapoor is a natural.”-- The New York Times


Made in China: A Memoir of Love and Labor By Anna Qu Cover Image
By Anna Qu
$16.95
ISBN: 9781646221523
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Catapult - August 2nd, 2022

Editors’ Choice, The New York Times Book Review
 
“The immigrant child longs to be understood and unload her truths, while simultaneously being tasked with preserving her parents’ humanity. . . Qu. . . honor[s] these complexities.” —Chanel Miller, The New York Times Book Review
 


Demon Copperhead: An Oprah's Book Club Pick By Barbara Kingsolver Cover Image
$32.50
ISBN: 9780063251922
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Harper - October 18th, 2022

A NEW YORK TIMES "TEN BEST BOOKS OF 2022"

An Oprah’s Book Club Selection • An Instant New York Times Bestseller • An Instant Wall Street Journal Bestseller • A #1 Washington Post Bestseller 


Staff Pick Badge
The Boys By Katie Hafner Cover Image
$27.00
ISBN: 9781954118058
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Spiegel & Grau - July 26th, 2022

"Hafner's taut and utterly delightful debut is a novel of multitudes.... What a wonder of storytelling."--Weike Wang, New York Times
New York Times Editor's Choice Good Morning America Reading Pick LitHub Most Anticipated Book Christian Science Monitor Summer Reading Pick


Damnation Spring By Ash Davidson Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9781982144418
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Scribner - May 3rd, 2022

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

Named a Best Book of 2021 by Newsweek, the San Francisco Chronicle, The Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times

“A glorious book—an assured novel that’s gorgeously told.” —The New York Times Book Review
“An incredibly moving epic about an unforgettable fa


Come Fly The World: The Jet-Age Story of the Women of Pan Am By Julia Cooke Cover Image
$16.99
ISBN: 9780358699187
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Mariner Books - April 26th, 2022

Glamour, danger, liberation: in a Mad Men era of commercial flight, Pan Am World Airways attracted the kind of young woman who wanted out, and wanted up

Required to have a college degree, speak two languages, and possess the political savvy of a Foreign Service officer, a jet-age stewardess serving on iconic Pan Am between 1966 and 1975 also had to be between 5&p


Counterfeit: A Reese's Book Club Pick By Kirstin Chen Cover Image
$27.99
ISBN: 9780063119543
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: William Morrow - June 7th, 2022

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK


Horse: A Novel By Geraldine Brooks Cover Image
$28.00
Not available at this time
ISBN: 9780399562969
Published: Viking - June 14th, 2022

“Brooks’ chronological and cross-disciplinary leaps are thrilling.” —The New York Times Book Review

Horse isn’t just an animal story—it’s a moving narrative about race and art.” —TIME


Trust By Hernan Diaz Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9780593420317
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Riverhead Books - May 3rd, 2022

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES TOP TEN BOOKS OF 2022
ONE OF THE WASHINGTON POST TOP TEN BOOKS OF 2022
ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2022
LONGLISTED FOR THE 2022 BOOKER PRIZE
WINNER OF THE 2022 KIRKUS PRIZE


Fencing with the King: A Novel By Diana Abu-Jaber Cover Image
$26.95
ISBN: 9780393867718
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: W. W. Norton & Company - March 15th, 2022

One of The Millions' Most Anticipated Books of the Month

A mesmerizing breakthrough novel of family myths and inheritances by the award-winning author of Crescent.


The Swimmers: A novel By Julie Otsuka Cover Image
$23.00
Not available at this time
ISBN: 9780593321331
Published: Knopf - February 22nd, 2022

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE WINNER From the award-winning author of The Buddha in the Attic and When the Emperor Was Divine comes a novel that "starts as a catalogue of spoken and unspoken rules for swimmers at an aquatic center but unfolds into a powerful story of a mother’s dementia and her daughter’s love" (The Wa


Rock Me on the Water: 1974--the Year Los Angeles Transformed Movies, Music, Television and Politics By Ronald Brownstein Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9780062899224
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Harper Paperbacks - March 22nd, 2022

"An electric story filled with gripping personalities, compelling backstage histories, and a clear message for the divided America of today: the forces that fear change can win for a time, but in America the future always gets the last word. A lyrical recreation of a magical moment.”—Jake Tapper


Sparks Like Stars: A Novel By Nadia Hashimi Cover Image
$17.99
Not available at this time
ISBN: 9780063008298
Published: William Morrow Paperbacks - February 8th, 2022

“Suspenseful…emotionally compelling. I found myself eagerly following in a way I hadn’t remembered for a long time, impatient for the next twist and turn of the story."NPR


Legends of the North Cascades By Jonathan Evison Cover Image
$16.95
ISBN: 9781643752488
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Algonquin Books - January 11th, 2022

“A beautifully rendered and cinematic portrait of a place and its evolution through time . . .


The Violin Conspiracy: A Novel By Brendan Slocumb Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9780593315415
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Anchor - February 1st, 2022

GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK! • Ray McMillian is a Black classical musician on the rise—undeterred by the pressure and prejudice of the classical music worldwhen a shocking theft sends him on a desperate quest to recover his great-great-grandfather’s heirloom violin on the eve of the most prestigious musical competition in the world.


The Last Story of Mina Lee: A Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick By Nancy Jooyoun Kim Cover Image
$16.99
ISBN: 9780778388036
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Park Row - December 28th, 2021

A REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Riveting and unconventional, The Last Story of Mina Lee traces the far-reaching consequences of secrets in the lives of a Korean immigrant mother and her daughter


A Certain Hunger By Chelsea G. Summers Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9781951213435
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Unnamed Press - October 18th, 2021

One of Vanity Fair's Books That Will Get You Through This Winter
"One of the most uniquely fun and campily gory books in my recent memory... A Certain Hunger has the voice of a hard-boiled detective novel, as if metaphor-happy Raymond Chandler handed the reins over to the sexed-up femme fatale and really let her fly. --The New York Times


Fight Night By Miriam Toews Cover Image
$24.00
ISBN: 9781635578171
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Bloomsbury Publishing - October 5th, 2021

"Move over, Scout Finch! There’s a new contender for feistiest girl in fiction, and her name is Swiv." -USA Today, "Best Books of the Year"

"Toews is a master of dialogue." -New York Times Book Review, Editors' Choice

"A revelation." -Richard Russo


Missionaries: A Novel By Phil Klay Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9781984880673
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Penguin Books - October 5th, 2021

One of President Obama's Favorite Books of the Year | A New York Times Notable Book | One of the Wall Street Journal Ten Best Books of the Year

"Missionaries is a courageous book: It doesn’t shy away, as so much fiction does, from the real world.” —Juan Gabriel Vásquez, The New York Times Book Review


Harlem Shuffle: A Novel By Colson Whitehead Cover Image
$28.95
ISBN: 9780385545136
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Doubleday - September 14th, 2021

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys, this gloriously entertaining novel is  “fast-paced, keen-eyed and very funny ... about race, power and the history of Harlem all disguised as a thrill-ride crime novel" (San Francisco Chronicle).


The Cold Millions: A Novel By Jess Walter Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780062868091
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Harper Perennial - October 5th, 2021

“One of the most captivating novels of the year.” – Washington Post 

NATIONAL BESTSELLER A Library Reads Pick An Indie Next Pick


Transcendent Kingdom: A novel By Yaa Gyasi Cover Image
$16.00
ISBN: 9781984899767
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Vintage - July 6th, 2021

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Yaa Gyasi's stunning follow-up to her acclaimed novel Homegoing is "a book of blazing brilliance" (The Washington Post)—a powerful, raw, intimate, deeply layered novel about a Ghanaian family in Alabama.

A TODAY SHOW #ReadWithJenna BOOK CLUB PICK! • Finalist for the WOMEN'S PRIZE


The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina: A Novel By Zoraida Córdova Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9781982102555
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Atria Books - July 5th, 2022

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

Perfect for fans of Alice Hoffman, Isabel Allende, and Sarah Addison Allen, a family searches for the truth hidden in their past in this “expertly woven tale of family power, threaded with as much mystery as magic” (V.E. Schwab, #1 New York Times bestselling author).

The Montoyas are used to a life without explanations.


Stranger in the Shogun's City: A Japanese Woman and Her World By Amy Stanley Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9781501188534
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Scribner - July 6th, 2021

*Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Biography*
*Winner of the 2020 National Book Critics Circle Award*
*Winner of the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography*

A “captivating” (The Washington Post) work of history that explores the life of an unconventional woman during the first half of the 19th century in Edo—the city that w


If I Survive You By Jonathan Escoffery Cover Image
$27.00
ISBN: 9780374605988
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: MCD - September 6th, 2022

FINALIST FOR THE 2023 PEN/FAULKNER AWARD. NOMINATED FOR THE 2022 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION, THE 2022 NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE JOHN LEONARD PRIZE, THE 2023 PEN/JEAN STEIN OPEN BOOK AWARD, THE 2023 PEN/BINGHAM PRIZE, THE 2022 STORY PRIZE, THE 2023 CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN FICTION, AND THE 2023 ASPEN WORDS LITERARY PRIZE


We Are the Brennans: A Novel By Tracey Lange Cover Image
$26.99
ISBN: 9781250796226
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Celadon Books - August 3rd, 2021

**INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER**

In the vein of Mary Beth Keane’s Ask Again, Yes and Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney's The Nest,
Tracey Lange’s We Are the Brennans explores the staying power of shame—and the redemptive power of love—in an Irish Catholic family torn apart by secrets.