- Title: Founder of Bookish in the Valley, a book club and literary event series featuring wine pairings.
- Location: San Fernando Valley
- Venues: Private homes, wine bars, online.
- The job: White moderates book club conversations, author events, and silent-reading meetups.
- Brass tacks: At her wine bar book club events, White selects both the title and the pairing, then brings the author in for a conversation shaped by questions gathered from the group. Books are paired with wines to mirror tone and theme—a moody and earthy red for a thriller, say, or a white bubbly with a romance novel.
- Primary clients: Women from an array of backgrounds, including costumers, teachers, a violinist for the LA Opera, a doula, an editor, a book influencer, and a financial analyst.
- Past picks: What Kind of Paradise, by Janelle Brown; Heart the Lover, by Lily King; Discontent, by Beatriz Serrano.
- Genre: White is drawn to novels in which characters make the wrong choices for the right reasons.
- Tone: “Bookish readers are anything but pretentious. They are not tech bros discussing tannins and acidity.”
- Ethos: “Living in L.A., we are surrounded by stories!”•
This article appears in Issue 35 of Alta Journal.
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Jennifer Lewis is the editor in chief and publisher of Red Light Lit, a small press and reading series established in 2013. She is the author of the short story collection The New Low, published by Black Lawrence Press.
