Sidewalking: Coming to Terms with Los Angeles by David L. Ulin (2015-10-06)
"These essays are self-contained yet overlapping . . . . Each nimbly skips between memoir, history and literary and cinematic references to understand the ways L.A., makes and remakes itself."--A Los Angeles Times Top Book Club Pick In Sidewalking, David L. Ulin offers a compelling inquiry into the evolving landscape of Los Angeles. Part personal narrative, part investigation of the city as both idea and environment, Sidewalking is many things: a discussion of Los Angeles as urban space, a history of the city's built environment, a meditation on the author's relationship to the city, and a rumination on the art of urban walking. Exploring Los Angeles through the soles of his feet, Ulin gets at the experience of its street life, drawing from urban theory, pop culture, and literature. For readers interested in the culture of Los Angeles, this book offers a pointed look beneath the surface in order to see, and engage with, the city on its own terms.
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Community Reviews
We recorded our podcast about a week ago, and I'm still thinking about this book. Sidewalking isn't about Los Angeles or urban planning or walking - though it is about all those things - it's about how you come to terms with the place you love. For David Ulin, an Angeleno by choice, it meant walking, serendipity, reading, interrogating how the city is its own place and how it's every city. I read this too quickly, too dazzled by the writing to fully appreciate it.
I recommend this book - to savor and discover your own sense of wonder in the place you live. For Angelenos beware this might not be a city you recognize - it shouldn't be. We aren't all @latimes book critics who can have long interviews with Michael Govan from @lacma. So it might not be my LA, but Ulin's story is so LA. This book will stay with me, circling there in the recesses of my brain.
Highly recommended. And if you're interested our #podcast #bookclub is available on #iTunes #GooglePlay #soundcloud, just search "USC Bedrosian" and it'll be the Oct 2016 episode. A big thanks to Liz Falletta, Chris Redfearn, and Raphael Bostic for a lovely conversation.
#amreading #sidewalking #losangeles #mydayinla #citylife #walking
I recommend this book - to savor and discover your own sense of wonder in the place you live. For Angelenos beware this might not be a city you recognize - it shouldn't be. We aren't all @latimes book critics who can have long interviews with Michael Govan from @lacma. So it might not be my LA, but Ulin's story is so LA. This book will stay with me, circling there in the recesses of my brain.
Highly recommended. And if you're interested our #podcast #bookclub is available on #iTunes #GooglePlay #soundcloud, just search "USC Bedrosian" and it'll be the Oct 2016 episode. A big thanks to Liz Falletta, Chris Redfearn, and Raphael Bostic for a lovely conversation.
#amreading #sidewalking #losangeles #mydayinla #citylife #walking
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