Inside the complicated stories behind a hot L.A. restaurant and Hollywood stars
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Keith Corbin is a celebrated chef and co-owner of Alta Adams, one of L.A.’s hottest restaurants. He also was born into the drug business in a housing projects in Watts.
“My uncle used to carry me around and sell drugs out of my diaper,” he writes at the start of “California Soul: An American Epic of Cooking and Survival.”
In gritty, graphic detail, Corbin shows readers his journey from teenage gangster to maximum-security prison inmate to paroled line cook at an ambitious new restaurant that offered inexpensive meals and jobs in his neighborhood.
Corbin’s upcoming book chronicles success, failure, family and addiction, and how he created his version of California soul food in Los Angeles.
On Aug. 23, Corbin will discuss “California Soul” with Times food editor Daniel Hernandez. This book club evening will be hosted in partnership with Arizona State University at the historic Herald Examiner Building downtown. The conversation starts at 7 p.m. and tickets are on Eventbrite.
In his memoir, Corbin explains that he started cooking while awaiting trial in the Los Angeles County Jail. Stuck in a cell 23 hours a day, he experimented to make “spreads” from cups of noodles, pork rinds, chili lime packets, saltines, Fritos ground to dust — “basically figuring out how to make foods that tasted gross on their own taste pretty damn good when you mixed them all up.”
“In the thriving jail economy,” he writes, “if you were known for making decent food, you could trade on that talent.”
Meet Jennifer Grey
“Jennifer Grey wasn’t sure she wanted to keep our appointment,” reporter Yvonne Villareal writes. “A few hours before, the news alerts had begun flooding in: The Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade, eliminating a constitutional right to abortion that had existed for nearly 50 years. And there’s no handbook that explains how to promote a memoir the day such a seismic ruling comes down.”
In the emotional interview that followed, the “Dirty Dancing” star opened up about the movie’s upcoming sequel, her memoir and how her own abortion changed her life. Grey’s iconic film — set in 1963, a decade before Roe vs. Wade — features a powerful pro-choice message within its coming-of-age story. A dancer at the resort where Frances “Baby” Houseman (Grey) and her family are staying is facing an unplanned pregnancy. Baby borrows money from her unsuspecting father to pay for an illegal abortion.
“I love that part of the storyline because it was really a feminist movie in a rom-com,” Grey says. “It was a perfect use of history.”
On July 27, Grey will join us to discuss her memoir, “Out of the Corner,” with Times senior entertainment writer Amy Kaufman at Hollywood’s Montalbán Theatre. She’ll also sign books. Get tickets.
What would you like to know? Please share your questions for Grey and Kaufman in an email to bookclub@latimes.com.
Book to screen
The Television Academy just announced the 2022 Emmy nominations. And entertainment audience editor Amy Wong has compiled this handy rundown on nominated shows based on books, including two of our book club reads:
- “Station Eleven.” The series adapted from Emily St. John Mandel’s classic pandemic novel racked up seven nominations. The show “departs significantly in details, events, characters and characterizations,” wrote Times critic Robert Lloyd. But he also deemed it one of the best shows of 2021. (Mandel joined book club readers in spring 2020 at the start of the real-world pandemic. Check out the discussion and our End-of-the-World Reading List.) Where to watch: HBO Max.
- “Maid.” The limited series inspired by Stephanie Land’s memoir, “Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive,” received three nominations, including a lead actress nom for Margaret Qualley. “I’m glad they fictionalized it, though there are a lot of aspects that are emotionally the same,” Land said of the series. “There were moments that were not what I experienced but it was powerful for me to see all the same.” (If you missed it, check out our January book club discussion with Land.) Where to watch: Netflix.
- “Under the Banner of Heaven.” The true-crime drama series is based on John Krakauer’s book about the origin and evolution of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, juxtaposed with a 1984 double murder case. Andrew Garfield is nominated for his portrayal of Det. Jeb Pyre. Krakauer, credited as a consultant on the show, faced criticism from the Mormon Church for his 2003 book. “They hated my book, and I think they’re gonna go crazy about this,” he said. Where to watch: Hulu.
The academy, however, overlooked “Pachinko.” The limited series based on Min Jin Lee’s historical fiction novel received heaps of praise from critics and book lovers alike, but it received only a technical mention in the outstanding main title design category. Shoutout to Yuh-jung Youn, Minha Kim and Lee Minho, who all gave stellar performances that deserved more recognition. Where to watch: Apple TV.
Keep reading
Department of guilty pleasures. “Virgin River,” based on the bestselling series of 21 novels by Robyn C. Carr, returned to Netflix this week for a fourth season of new melodrama and stunning landscapes. (The story is set in a remote town somewhere near Eureka but actually is filmed in Vancouver and other parts of British Columbia.)
About Delia Owens. Why is the “Where the Crawdads Sing” author wanted for questioning in a murder? Sonaiya Kelly explains what you need to know.
Reflections. Mike Davis has terminal cancer. But his big worry is what is happening to our world. “Although I’m famous as a pessimist, I really haven’t been pessimistic,” the author of “City of Quartz” tells columnist Gustavo Arellano. “You know, [my writing has] more been a call to action. An attempt to elicit righteous anger against those whom we should be righteously angry against. But now, there is a certain sense of doom. This is not the time or history that my kids should inherit, you know?”
Shape-shifting visions. Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s new novel, “The Daughter of Doctor Moreau,” reframes the classic H.G. Wells story of terrifying human-animal hybrids as a “thrilling and romantic anticolonial adventure” set in the Yucatán Peninsula, writes reviewer Paula L. Woods.
Cloak and dagger. Author Hector Tobar reviews Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Paul Pringle’s “Bad City,” a scathing glimpse of scandals at USC and The Times: “Pringle has provided us with a book that reveals how power works in Los Angeles.”
Hotel California. Novelist Liska Jacobs spares no one in her new novel. “The Pink Hotel is by turns a love story, a social satire, an elegy for the planet, a farewell to the glamour of Old Hollywood, and, above all, a morality tale,” writes Annabelle Gurwitch in Alta magazine.
The importance of inappropriate reading. As more school districts consider book bans, author and former Times books editor David L. Ulin recalls the “open shelf rule” in the home where he grew up. “This meant my brother and I were allowed to read anything, no matter how inappropriate or beyond our years,” he says. “We never had to ask.”
Bestseller machine. Books reporter Elizabeth A. Harris explores the power and quirks behind #BookTok. “Books that take off are mainly fiction, and are generally a few years old,” she writes in the New York Times.
California poet. “Right now, so often we are going numb to grief and numb to tragedy and numb to crisis,” says new U.S. poet laureate Ada Limón. “Poetry is a way back in, to recognizing that we are feeling human beings. And feeling grief and feeling trauma can actually allow us to feel joy again.”
Finally: During the last two years, the pandemic kept us from travel and adventure. But our community book club took us everywhere with a wide range of world-class authors joining the conversation. If you enjoy our book club and have participated in our many free events since the start of the pandemic, please consider signing on as a community sponsor for the new L.A. Times Community Fund, which supports the book club and annual annual book prizes. With your help, we can keep going and growing — and host more book events, both in person and virtually.
Thank you to all the readers and community partners who already support The Times’ signature literary and literacy programs. We look forward to seeing everyone at our summer book club nights!
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