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Dear Treasured Friends and Customers,

After 26 glorious years, 14 of them spent happily inside Aroma Café, Portrait of a Bookstore is gracefully retiring. How could we say goodbye after 26 years of such success? In the words of Orson Welles, “If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story.” This is our happy ending. Our official closing date is May 17, 2012.

On May 17, 1986, Julie and Frank von Zerneck, along with their children Danielle and Frank, Jr.,  gave birth to this bookstore, which grew to be a haven, a home-away-from-home, for so many members of this community. One of the smallest bookstores in the world, “small but mighty,” as we’ve always been called, our selection of books was impeccably curated, worthy of the praise of any astute bibliophile. Our gift shelves were always laden with the best greeting cards in town, beautiful toys, jewelry, gifts for the home, gifts for readers and writers, gifts for the heart and soul, even gifts for people who had no more use for gifts. Each of these was chosen with the utmost care, with our beloved customers’ tastes and needs in mind. “Everyone who walks in through that door is a guest in our home,” has, for all these years, been Julie’s mantra. And, indeed, this was our home and you have been our family.

Over the years, we have watched local writers work in our garden on their manuscripts, get published and arrive on bestseller lists. We have watched babies come into the world, learn to read in our children’s nook and grow up to start families of their own. We have cherished every moment of our time in this community. Surrounded by love, support and inspiration for the last 14 years inside Aroma Café, we have loved, most of all, being here to listen to each person passing through share the details of their lives with us. Each of you has been incredibly special to us. We will remember forever and ever the years that we were blessed enough to live at 4360 Tujunga Avenue.

Thank you, each and every one of you, for the years, the memories and the love.

– Julie and Frank von Zerneck, Danielle von Zerneck, Frank von Zerneck, Jr., Lucia Silva, Aida Chaldranyan, BJ Hegedus, Donna DeLacy, Lilly Holden, Jane Goe, and the rest of the POAB Staff

 

Every wonderful thing in our store will be 50% off  starting April 16.

The hugs will be free.

Some wacky and fantastic things happening around here. Most notable among these is that we have put red dot stickers on so many objects that one of us had a red-dot-filled dream last night (not making that one up!).

Red dot means 40% discount. On all the things you’ve been coveting. And the things you don’t know you’ve been coveting. Also, the things I’ve been coveting. It’s a happy time no matter how you look at it.

10am to 10pm. But if you come at 10:10pm and you look even a little hopeful, we’ll let you in and hand you the broom. Then show you what’s on sale.

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This is what a red dot might look like.

What my family is reading this week:

Me (Lucia):

Case Histories, by Kate Atkinson

At the repeated urging of Doug Dutton and my friend and co-worker, BJ, I finally picked this up at the library. Do I love it? No. Is it great? No. Can I stop reading it? Absolutely not. I wait for my daughter’s nap so I can snuggle up next to her and speed-read this with cookies crumbing up the bed next to me — summer candy!

A Moment in the Sun, by John Sayles

This is what I read in the evenings.  Best thing I’ve read in a longggg time. Stellar, masterful, brilliant — it deserves far better descriptors than my sleep-deprived brain can conjure up at the moment. I did a little better here.

My husband (Micah):

A Moment in the Sun, by John Sayles

We tried this one as a read-aloud in the evenings, but both of us kept stealing away with it and speeding ahead. It’s a race to the finish, which I’m sure Micah will win.

Seconds Out, by Martin Kohan

I read this article about Martin Kohan in The Guardian some months ago, and I immediately ordered a copy in the original Spanish for Micah. It finally arrived yesterday! I’m hoping it’s as good as I expect it will be. We have the brand-new English translation at Portrait.

Our daughter, Eva Ophelia:

The Snowy Day, by Ezra Jack Keats

This is a cornerstone of our bedtime routine, and it was a favorite of ours long before Eva was born. Luckily, she loves it just as much as we do. Especially when the snow falls — “plop!” on top of Peter’s head.  (By the by, did you know that Ezra Jack Keats was actually Jacob Ezra Katz,?)

Little White Rabbit, by Kevin Henkes

Our latest library-favorite, this is a nice book for very little ones — a real storyline, great illustrations, and just a little text on each page.

Monday, January 10, 2011 at 5:00 PM

The LA Times Book Editor & Author of The Lost Art of Reading, Ulin

One of the Coolest Crime Novelists Around & Editor of Los Angeles Noir, Hamilton

One of LA’s Most Exciting Poets & Author of Unraveling at the Name, Factor,

join us for an evening of discussions, readings and a question and answer session, moderated by the editors of the book in question, Kate Gale and Veronique de Turenne.

The Devil’s Punchbowl: A Cultural & Geographical Map of California Today is an anthology edited by Red Hen Press’s Managing Editor, Kate Gale, and Los Angeles Times reporter and editor Veronique de Turenne. Essays were commissioned from writers living in California, who were asked to reflect on an aspect of the state’s geography, natural or man-made: Alcatraz Island and its prison; Manzanar and Mt. Whitney; Big Sur and Joshua Tree; Los Angeles’ oil derricks and Mountain View’s Google headquarters; the farms of the Central Valley and the redwoods of the Northern Coastland. Does Alcatraz, from its important role in Native American activist history to today’s defunct prison, retain meaning beyond a tourist attraction? How is the expanding border fence between Southern California and Mexico affecting, economically and psychologically, the individuals who live near it? California’s outsized cultural and economic impact on both our country and the rest of the world necessitate a continual taking stock, to prevent losing ourselves in the state’s constant transformations. The Devil’s Punchbowl captures a pivotal time in our country’s history, as some of the state’s most recognized, complex, and accomplished writers describe their relationship with California’s ever-changing geographic, economic, and psychic landscape.

Call (818) 769-3853 with questions.

4360 Tujunga Avenue
Studio City, CA 91604
inside Aroma Cafe

Call me an old fogey but I have just recently tired of novels with random plots, mini stories of sundry characters, and storylines that I have to work too hard to “get into”. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the creativity and mental challenges many contemporary writers present, but for relief I have delved back into some of the writers of the 1950’s and 60’s.  Two of my favorites are Philip Roth and John Updike.

“My Father’s Tears” by Updike is a book of short stories and the last work published before his death in 2009.  It’s a wonderful collection of polished solid stories- by this I mean they quickly draw you in and compel you to stay.  The subjects vary from a family on vacation in Morocco in 1969, innocent in their abilities and expectations, to a 50th high school reunion and a remembered walk home with a “first love”.  I could fall in love with his story titles alone: “Spanish Prelude to a Second Marriage”, “Delicate Wives” or “Free”.  Each piece is like a wonderful meal complete with dessert. For further reading of Updike I highly recommend his Rabbit series.  I believe it appeals because it illuminates that which makes men tick, in all their confusion, angst, good intentions, attempts at love.  Rabbit, as I see him,  is the universal man of any time or age.

Philip Roth’s body of work is a bit overwhelming but so worthwhile, starting with his Pulitzer Prize winning “American Pastoral.”  Currently I am reading his very first novel “Letting Go“, not as well known as “Portnoy’s Complaint” or “Goodbye, Columbus,” but so much broader.  All of his later themes are in this novel of two men whose lives continue connecting after college.  It is a detailed depiction of the 50’s and 60’s, a time when America was changing in historical ways. These were the days of illegal back alley abortions, and the consequences thereof, and a strident adherence to keeping up appearances. There are many references to the cost of things and wages of the times, which can cause the reader to smile in disbelief.  I highly recommend taking a step back in time with this fine writer and read either his well known “Goodbye, Columbus” or dig in for a long read with” Letting Go.”

Whichever story(ies) you choose, both authors give you snapshot after snapshot of a place and time and the beating hearts of each. These snapshots come equipped with magnifying glasses which illuminate the soul of what is truly American.

Posted by Donna