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Authors in L.A.: Parenting lessons from Anne Lamott and more

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Some new parents have more than just the usual parenting titles on their shelves; there’s a good chance that they also have Anne Lamott’s memoir of motherhood, “Operating Instructions.” That candid little record of her experiences with her baby son Sam has been a reassuring companion for many people in those wondrous, stress-filled early days of life with a baby.

Her new book, “Some Assembly Required: A Journal of My Son’s First Son,” which Times book critic David L. Ulin wrote about recently, now continues the story as she watches Sam cope with first-time parenthood. Lamott visits the L.A. area this week with a book signing and discussion about ‘Some Assembly Required’ sponsored by Vroman’s Bookstore and held at All Saints Church in Pasadena. See below.

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Other highlights of the week also include an appearance by former Hole guitarist Eric Erlandson at Skylight Books in Los Angeles to discuss his elegy to Kurt Cobain ‘Letters to Kurt,’ a lecture and discussion of the art of biography at the Huntington Library in San Marino and a visit by poet Glyn Maxwell, who reads his work as part of UCLA’s Hammer Reading series.

A novelist as well as an award-winning poet, Maxwell is a master of understatement who’s well worth hearing in person. What kind of ‘master of understatement’ is he? Just consider, for example, the way he puts the poet’s mighty, lofty vocation into the following humble terms in his poem ‘Tale of the Mayor’s Son’:

…the books will pile up in my world, and someone’s hat will find its way to me and I will wear it.

For event times and dates, as always, check directly with bookstores and other venues in case of any changes or cancellations.

3/26 7 p.m. Joe R. Lansdale signs ‘Edge of Dark Water’ (hardback) and ‘Devil Red’ (paperback) at Dark Delicacies.

3/26: 7 p.m. Friends of the Signal Hill Library presents a macabre double bill with a talk and signing by Kenneth McKenzie (co-author of “Mortuary Confidential”) and Steve Goldstein (“L.A.’s Graveside Companion”) at the Signal Hill Park Community Center.

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3/26: 7:30 Amelia Gray reads and signs her novel ‘Threats’ at Skylight Books.

3/27: 7 p.m. Crystal McCrary signs her book “Inspiration...Profiles of Black Women Changing Our World” at EsoWon Books.

3/27: 7 p.m. Tom Epperson discusses and signs ‘Sailor’ at Book Soup.

3/27: 7:30 p.m. Liza Mundy (‘The Richer Sex’) discusses the topic ‘What Happens When Women Rule the World?’ as part of the Zocalo Public Square series.

3/27: 7 p.m. Chip Jacobs discusses and signs ‘The Ascension of Jerry’ at Vroman’s Bookstore.

3/28 7 p.m. Hogan Gorman discusses and signs ‘Hot Cripple’ at Book Soup.

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3/28: 7 p.m. Charles Richards discusses ‘The Psychology of Wealth’ at Santa Monica’s 3rd Street Promenade Barnes & Noble.

3/28: 7 p.m. Melvin Childs signs his book “Never Would Have Made It...The Rise of Tyler Perry” at EsoWon Books.

3/28: 7 p.m. Anne Lamott discusses and signs ‘Some Assembly Required’ at All Saints Church in an event sponsored by Vroman’s Bookstore.

More author events after the jump

3/28: 7 p.m. Hammer Readings presents poet Glyn Maxwell.

3/29: 7 p.m. Barb Stuckey discusses and signs ‘Taste What You’re Missing’ at Vroman’s Bookstore.

3/29: 7 p.m. George Snyder discusses and signs ‘On Wings of Affection’ and ‘Down the Garden Path’ at Book Soup.

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3/29: 7:30 p.m. Eric Erlandson, guitarist and co-founder of the band Hole, will discuss and sign his debut book ‘Letters to Kurt’ at Skylight Books.

3/29: 7:30 p.m. Hermione Lee, president of Wolfson College, Oxford, and prize-winning biographer of Virginia Woolf and Edith Wharton, presents a lecture on the art of biography ‘From Memory: Literary Encounters and Life Stories’ at the Huntington Library and Gardens.

3/29: 8 p.m. LiveTalks L.A. presents Los Angeles Times editorial cartoonist and columnist David Horsey in conversation with artist Robbie Conal, Track 16 at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica.

3/30: 7 p.m. Moshe Kasher discusses and signs ‘Kasher in the Rye’ at Book Soup.

3/30: 7 p.m. William Broad discusses and signs ‘The Science of Yoga’ at Vroman’s Bookstore.

4/1: 3 p.m. A.G.S. Johnson discusses and signs ‘The Sausage Maker’s Daughters’ at Diesel Bookstore.

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4/1: 4 p.m. Skylight Books celebrates April as poetry month with L.A. poets reading from Walt Whitman’s ‘Leaves of Grass.’

--Nick Owchar

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