Tonight I’ll be reading from Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits at Beyond Baroque in Venice, California. Here are the details:
Laila Lalami
Thursday the 20th
7:30PM
Beyond Baroque
This reading is co-sponsored by the Levantine Cultural Center. Aside from the reading, there may even be some live music.
Audience: About 30.
Anxiety index: 5 (out of 10).
Surprise guest(s): Gil E., my ex-boss at ASI. And Fred S. who was in one of my writing classes at UCLA back in 2001.
Book given away: Veronica by Mary Gaitskill.
No. of Moroccans who said hello: 1/2.
I hadn’t been back in Los Angeles more than an hour when a Land Rover honked at me for actually stopping at an intersection. Ah, I’m back home, I thought. The smell, the sounds, the smog, the three or four languages I could hear at the coffee shop while I was waiting for my order, the big headlines that read “Storm Watch 2005” because there’s been, like, two inches of rain, the surly actors slash waiters, the lights of the big city all around me–I’d missed it all. And, above all, I got to see all my family and friends and catch up with everyone.
It was a special treat, too, to be able to read at Dutton’s, which was one of my regular hang outs during the many years I lived in L.A. There were quite a few familiar faces at the reading, and I had a great time talking about the book and answering questions.
Laila Lalami
Tuesday the 18th
7:00PM
Dutton’s Brentwood
I lived in L.A. for eleven years, and a part of me will always consider it a hometown of sorts, so it feels wonderful to be back. Hope to see you at the reading!
Literary radio show Word by Word now has its own blog. Host Jordan Rosenfeld recently asked me a preview question about my writing. For the full interview, tune in to KRCB on November 2nd.
The November issue of Glamour, with It Girl Natalie Portman on the cover, has a brief review of Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits in the magazine’s Must Read List.
Audience: 15
Anxiety index: 4 (out of 10).
Surprise guest(s): A regular Moorishgirl reader who lives in Bellingham.
Book given away: A Thousand Years of Good Prayers by Yiyun Li.
No. of Moroccans who said hello:0
Village Books is a large independent bookstore in the historic district of Bellingham. Although it was a smaller crowd, the Q&A lasted even longer than at larger readings. There were a lot of questions about my book, about immigration out of and into Morocco–particularly in light of recent events in the Spanish presidios of Ceuta and Melilla.