Vroman’s Live

Bookstore boasts stellar lineup for June

By Arroyo Staff

The bookstore Vroman’s is hosting virtual and in-person programs throughout June.

Register through vromansbookstore.com. Anyone with questions is asked to contact email@vromansbookstore.com.

Vroman’s Virtual events will be presented through Crowdcast.

Alex Segura and Ed Brubaker present “Secret Identity” and “The Ghost in You: A Reckless Book” 6 p.m. Thursday, June 16

“Secret Identity”: It’s 1975 and the comic book industry is struggling, but Carmen Valdez doesn’t care. She’s an assistant at Triumph Comics. Valdez is close to fulfilling her dream of writing a superhero book.

That dream is nearly a reality when one of the Triumph writers enlists her help to create a new character, “The Lethal Lynx,” Triumph’s first female hero. When her colleague is found dead, all of their scripts are turned in to the publisher without her name.

To register, visit crowdcast. io/e/alex-segura-and-ed-2.

In-person events

Most in-person events are free and held at Vroman’s, 695 E. Colorado Boulevard, Pasadena, unless otherwise noted. Register at vromansbookstore.com.

David Sedaris presents “Happy-Go-Lucky” 6 p.m. Monday, June 6

As “Happy-Go-Lucky” opens, David Sedaris is learning to shoot guns with his sister, visiting muddy flea markets in Serbia, buying gummy worms to feed to ants, and telling his nonagenarian father wheelchair jokes.

But then the pandemic hits and he’s unable to tour and read for audiences. As the world gradually settles into a new reality, Sedaris is changed.

The opening act is essayist and author of “Mother Noise: A Memoir” Cindy House. Tickets start at $29, and they include one copy of “Happy-Go-Lucky.” Visit eventbrite.com. Masks must be worn.

Nina LaCour discusses “Yerba Buena” 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 7

When Sara Foster runs away from home at 16, she leaves behind the girl she once was, capable of trust and intimacy. Years later, in Los Angeles, she is a sought-after bartender. Across the city, Emilie Dubois is yearning for the community her Creole grandparents cultivated but unable to commit.

On a whim, she takes a job arranging flowers at the restaurant Yerba Buena and embarks on an affair with the married owner.

The morning Dubois and Foster meet at Yerba Buena, it’s clear the damage they carry pulls them apart repeatedly.

Carter Bays discusses “The Mutual Friend” 7 p.m. Wednesday June 8

In the summer of 2015, Alice Quick needs to get to work. She’s 28 years old, grieving her mother, barely scraping by as a nanny, and freshly kicked out of her apartment.

If she can just get her act together and sign up for the MCAT, she can start chasing her dream of becoming a doctor.

She has a number of distractions, however, including love.

Brigid Kemmerer discusses “Forging Silver into Stars” 7 p.m. Friday, June 10

Magic has been banished in the land of Syhl Shallow for as long as best friends Jax and Callyn can remember. They’ve learned that magic killed Callyn’s parents, leaving her to raise her younger sister.

Meanwhile, Jax and Callyn learn magic has returned to Syhl Shallow — in the form of a magesmith who’s now married to their queen. Now, the people of Syhl Shallow are expected to allow dangerous magic in their midst, and no one is happy about it.

Emily Levesque discusses “The Last Stargazers: The Enduring Story of Astronomy’s Vanishing Explorers” 7 p.m. Monday, June 13

Award-winning astronomer Emily Levesque shares the stories of modern-day stargazers in this new nonfiction release.

“The Last Stargazers” is a love letter to astronomy and an affirmation of the crucial role that humans can and must play in scientific discovery.

Lindsey Fitzharris discusses “The Facemaker” 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 14

Mankind’s military technology had wildly surpassed its medical capabilities. Bodies have been battered, gouged, hacked and gassed.

“The Facemaker” tells the story of plastic surgeon Harold Gillies, who dedicated himself to reconstructing the faces of injured soldiers under his care.

Gillies, a Cambridge-educated New Zealander, became interested in plastic surgery after encountering the human wreckage on the front. Returning to Britain, he established one of the world’s first hospitals dedicated entirely to facial reconstruction. There, Gillies assembled a group of practitioners to heal injured soldiers who were shunned by society.

“The Facemaker” places Gillies’ ingenious surgical innovations alongside the dramatic stories of soldiers whose lives were wrecked and repaired.

James Burrows, in conversation with actor Billy Gardell, discusses “Directed by James Burrows” 4 p.m. Saturday, June 18

Legendary sitcom director James Burrows has spent five decades making America laugh.

“Directed by James Burrows” discusses the casting process as well as how memorable shows were created.

Burrows also examines his challenges, career victories and defeats, and provides advice for aspiring directors, writers and actors.

Sage advice from the man who helped launch the careers of Ted Danson, Kelsey Grammer, Woody Harrelson, Jennifer Aniston, Debra Messing and Melissa McCarthy, to name a few.

Burrows talks fondly about the inspiration he found during his childhood and young adult years, including his father, legendary playwright and Broadway director Abe Burrows.

This event will be held at Pasadena Presbyterian Church, 585 E. Colorado Boulevard, Pasadena. Tickets start at $10 at eventbrite.com.

Robin Benway, in conversation with Abdi Nazemian, discusses “A Year to the Day” “It’s Been a Year: A Year of Missing Nina” 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 21

Leo left a party with her older sister, Nina, and Nina’s boyfriend, East. Now Nina is dead, killed by a drunken driver.

East, who loved Nina almost as much as Leo did, is the person who seems to most understand how she feels, and the two form a friendship based on their shared grief. But as she struggles to remember what happened, Leo discovers that East remembers every detail of the accident — and he won’t tell her anything about it.

Kelly Lytle Hernández discusses “Bad Mexicans: Race, Empire, and Revolution in the Borderlands” 7 p.m. Wednesday, June 22

“Bad Mexicans” tells the dramatic story of the magonistas, the migrant rebels who sparked the 1910 Mexican Revolution from the United States. Led by Ricardo Flores Magón, the magonistas were a motley band of journalists, miners, migrant workers and more who organized thousands of Mexican workers — and American dissidents — to their cause.

Determined to oust Mexico’s dictator, Porfirio Díaz, who encouraged the plunder of his country by U.S. imperialists such as Guggenheim and Rockefeller, the rebels had to outrun and outsmart the swarm of U.S. authorities vested in protecting the Diaz regime.

The U.S. departments of war, state, treasury and justice, as well as police, sheriffs and spies, hunted the magonistas across the country.

Capturing Magón was one of the FBI’s first cases. But the magonistas persevered. They lived in hiding, wrote in secret code, and launched armed raids into Mexico until they ignited the world’s first social revolution of the 20th century.

Natalia Molina, in conversation with Michael Begler, discusses “A Place at the Nayarit: How a Mexican Restaurant Nourished Community” 7 p.m. Thursday, June 23

In 1951, Doña Natalia Barraza opened the Nayarit, a Mexican restaurant in Echo Park.

With “A Place at the Nayarit,” historian Natalia Molina traces her grandmother’s work.

Remembered as Doña Natalia, she immigrated alone from Mexico to Los Angeles, adopted two children, and ran a successful business.

She also sponsored, housed and employed dozens of other immigrants, encouraging them to lay claim to a city long characterized by anti-Latino racism. Together, the employees and customers of the Nayarit maintained ties to their old homes while providing safety and support.

The Nayarit was much more than a popular eating spot: It was an urban anchor for a robust community, a gathering space where ethnic Mexican workers and customers connected with their patria chica (their “small country”).

That meant connecting with distinctive tastes, with one another, and with the city they now called home.

Through deep research and vivid storytelling, Molina follows restaurant workers from the kitchen and the front of the house across borders and through the decades.

Cassidy Lucas discusses “The Last Party” 7 p.m. Friday, June 24

Los Angeleno Dani Sanders is disappointed about turning 50.

Her career has stalled; her 19-year-old daughter with developmental issues is regressing; and her ex-husband Craig, a fertility doctor, upends her life.

Though she doesn’t feel much like celebrating, she can’t say no when her best friend Mia Markle, a flamboyant and strong-willed actress, insists on planning a “creative” birthday weekend in the wild, wealthy bohemian enclave of Topanga Canyon.

On the weekend of the summer solstice, Sanders and her six closest friends gather in the hills above the canyon at Celestial Ranch, where they’ll spend three days hiking, practicing meditation and reiki, and eating.

They will also indulge in a little DMT, a short-acting psychedelic drug meant to open their senses and transport them to a higher plain. But as the weekend unfolds, long-buried tensions, unresolved grievances and old secrets emerge, leaving Sanders desperate for clarity about her life.

Cassidy Lucas is the pen name of writing duo Julia Fierro and Caeli Wolfson Widger.

Liz Lawson and Kathleen Glasgow, with E. Lockhart, discuss “The Agathas” 7 p.m. Thursday, June 30

Last summer, Alice Ogilvie’s basketball-star boyfriend, Steve, dumped her. Then she disappeared for five days.

She’s not talking, so where she went and what happened to her is a mystery in Castle Cove. Now, another one of Steve’s girlfriends has vanished: Brooke Donovan, Alice’s ex-best friend. And it doesn’t look like Donovan is coming back.

Enter Iris Adams, Ogilvie’s tutor. Adams has her own reasons for wanting to disappear, though unlike Ogilvie, she doesn’t have the money or the means.

That could be changed by the hefty reward Donovan’s grandmother is offering to anyone who can share information about her granddaughter’s whereabouts. The police are convinced Steve is the culprit, but Ogilvie isn’t so sure, and with Adams on her side, she just might be able to prove her theory.