READING L.A.

Andrea Van Leesten, attorney:

“Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff” by Richard Carlson (Hyperion).

“I can open this book to any page and find something to help me reflect on my day. When situations or people don’t measure up, you need to let go, relax, not blame anyone. The book reminds you that the small things in life count too.”

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Leon Artzner, emergency room physician:

“The Thirteenth Sign” by Lisa Kent (Skyline Publications).

“Kent has written a suspenseful, imaginative account of high-society murder I especially liked the variety of unusual characters she presents; they’re not unlike the people who sometimes rush into an emergency care facility.”

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Jane Wilson Barboza, teacher-educator:

“The Empress of One” by Faith Sullivan (Milkweed).

“In this story of a child who watches her mother’s steady decline into mental illness, Sullivan shows immense sympathy for her characters. It’s a complicated portrait, set in the ‘30s and ‘40s in a small Minnesota town. I read it in one sitting.”

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Bonnie Youngdahl, attorney:

“The Speed of Sound” by Scott Eyman (Simon & Schuster).

“My father worked in film from the 1930s to the 1970s, from silents to talkies. This book recounts the development of sound motion pictures and begins to answer the many questions I never asked him.”