Flea, power pop and more: 5 events for L.A. book lovers

Readers with a taste for popular music have their pick of local book events this week: Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea will discuss his memoir and a slew of authors will wax poetic on power pop.

There’s also a Comic Arts festival, a kitschy holiday book launch and more.

Here are five of the best book events for the week ahead.

Comic Valhalla

The sixth annual Comic Arts L.A. festival returns this weekend with two days of programming that celebrates comics, graphic novels and the sequential arts. Standout events include a conversation with author Raúl the Third, whose “Lowriders to the Center of the Earth” won the Pura Belpré Award for illustration from the American Library Assn., and a panel on Latinx comics. Attendees also will have two chances to catch comic book artist and Instagram queen Yumi Sakugawa, who will present a workshop on the intersection of money and creativity.

11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Homenetmen Ararat/Elevate Fitness Complex, 3000 Dolores St., Los Angeles. Free.

Red-hot memoir

Flea, the bassist and cofounding member of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, will discuss his memoir, “Acid for the Children,” at Live Talks L.A. on Monday. The book chronicles the musician’s formative years, Los Angeles in the 1970s and ’80s, and the experiences that formed a world-famous rock star and book lover. “‘Acid for the Children’ remains a vital, only-in-L.A. account,” writes Chris Barton in a recent story about five of the best new music books.

8 p.m. Monday. Aratani Theatre at the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center, 244 S. San Pedro St., Los Angeles. $20-$55.

Holiday kitsch

Pop culture personality and Americana enthusiast Charles Phoenix discusses and signs his latest title, “Holiday Jubilee: Classic & Kitschy Festivities & Fun Party Recipes,” at Vroman’s on Tuesday. The colorful coffee-table book mixes vintage Kodachrome slides of holiday celebrations with Phoenix’s original recipes. For example, readers learn how to make the turducken-inspired “Cherpumple.” It’s a three-layer cake (spice, yellow and white) containing three separate pies (cherry, pumpkin and apple).

7 p.m. Tuesday. Vroman’s, 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena. Free.

Power to power pop

What exactly is power pop? The authors of “Go All the Way: A Literary Appreciation of Power Pop” will illuminate this love-it-or-hate-it musical genre, which has wormed its way into most of our ears (and some of our hearts) over the last five decades, at Chevalier’s on Tuesday. Hear Heather Havrilesky on Blondie, Daniel Brummel on Weezer and Rex Weiner on September Gurls as they read from the book. The contributors will be in conversation with editor S.W. Lauden.

7 p.m. Tuesday. Chevalier’s, 126 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles. Free.

‘Beyond the Shadows’

Photographer Judy Glickman Lauder signs “Beyond the Shadows: The Holocaust and the Danish Exception” at the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust on Wednesday. Presented in conjunction with Lauder’s exhibit of the same name, the book features a 30-year body of work documenting concentration camps, Holocaust sites and survivors. “Beyond the Shadows” also includes texts by Holocaust scholars Michael Berenbaum and Judith S. Goldstein, as well as a previously unpublished writing by Elie Wiesel.

7 p.m. Wednesday. Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust, 100 The Grove Drive, Los Angeles. Free.

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