Lunching with literate ladies of Laguna

Another page was added recently to the city’s many charitable

chapters.

About 40 women attended the first Ladies Who Lunch ... and Read

fundraiser for the Laguna Beach Library. Mayor Elizabeth

Pearson-Schneider and Friends of the Library President Martha Lydick

hosted the luncheon at Tivoli Terrace.

Participants were asked to introduce themselves and submit the

names of two of their favorite or recently read books they would

recommend, with speakers’ names to be drawn from a hat (more about

hats later).

Diane Kloke, who has belonged to a book club with

Pearson-Schneider for 16 years, said “River Town: Two Years on the

Yangtze,” by Peter Hessler, resolved many of the differences between

what she expected to see when she traveled to China and what she

actually saw on the “totally” guided trip.

Michelle Falkowski recently reread “The Fountainhead” by Ayn Rand.

“It made me think differently about houses,” Falkowski said. “A house

has a soul, like a person.”

Laguna Beach County Water District General Manager Renae Hinchey

also delved into Asian culture. She recommended “Geisha -- A Life”

and “Samurai’s Garden.”

“My friends, Patricia Turnier, an avid reader, and Janet Pressman,

a volunteer at the Friends of the Library bookstore, read everything

and pre-screen and recommend books to me,” said realtor Bobbi Cox, a

generous contributor the Friends. “When I hit on an author I really

like, I read everything that author writes.”

Read anything by Nelson DeMille, she said.

Irma Wolfson shared her favorable opinion of a book not yet for

sale: Joan Didion’s “Year of Magical Thinking.” Wolfson said people

in the book business often get advance copies of books. She is a

former manager of Latitude 33 and already involved with the bookstore

Jane Hanauer is planning to open in the Pottery Shack.

“Belly Laughs” made Allison Tosti laugh. She confided that she is

pregnant -- although the ladies had to take her word for it.

“That is a poor excuse for a belly,” said Bree Burgess Rosen, who

once had to completely rewrite the script of “Lagunatics” to account

for her unexpected but obvious pregnancy.

Cindy Prewitt recommended “Bookseller of Kabul.”

“Lipstick Jungle” by Candace Bushnell, who wrote the book on which

“Sex in the City” was based, is what City Treasurer Laura Parisi said

she reads when she isn’t boning up on how to discipline her teenager.

Parisi also has started “Secret Lives of Bees,” recommended by her

hair stylist.

Cynthia Weitz gave a report on “My Sister’s Keeper.”

Pearson-Schneider is reading biographies, fulfilling a vow to read

about every American president.

“Politics have been really ugly from the beginning,” she said.

The luncheon was such a success that Pearson-Schneider and Lydick

were urged to organize one every six months.

“Start looking for hats,” Pearson-Schneider said from beneath the

brim of her “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”-style black straw cartwheel.

As an extra fillip to the luncheon, some of the ladies wore hats.

“Looking at these hats, a rainbow has nothing on this group,” said

Lydick, who topped off her outfit with a beige straw fedora.

Laguna Beach Seniors Inc. President Pauline Wolpin wore a purple

straw, velvet-trimmed hat.

“It was my wedding hat, 54 years ago,” Walpin said.

Anne Wood wore a picture hat she said protects her eyes from the

sunlight. Councilwoman Cheryl Kinsman wore a baseball cap.

City Clerk Martha Anderson looked lovely in her beige straw

picture hat, but being a perfectionist, she wasn’t happy that the hat

didn’t exactly match the trim on her suit.

All of Kloke’s hats were inherited from her late mother-in-law,

Eloise Kloke, an administrator at UCI.

“She got dressed up for every occasion,” Kloke said.

Pearson-Schneider presented a $50 Cedar Creek gift certificate to

Pamela Simpson, whose leopard-print toque, trimmed with a beige silk

flower, was as stylish as her reading.

She described a favorite book, “Bergdorf Blondes,” as “Sex in the

City” meets “Bridget Jones.”

“This luncheon [and the hat contest] was Elizabeth’s idea -- she

got it rolling and organized at the same time she was running the

city, dotting all her I’s and crossing all her T’s,” Lydick said.

Not to mention that Pearson-Schneider was in the middle of moving

into a new home.

“Our library has lost a lot of funding from the county,”

Pearson-Schneider said. “Our Friends fund summer reading programs for

children and teens, and they buy more books [for the branch] than the

county does.”

Laguna Beach County Water District Commissioner Debbie Neev said,

“I have twin boys, and I love the summer reading programs.”

Children’s librarian Rebecca Porter knows how important the

Friends are to the children of this town.

Branch manager Mariana Hof knows how important the Friends are to

the entire operation.

Besides the purchase of books, the Friends also pick up the tab

for some necessary capital improvements to the library ignored by the

county, which only accepts responsibility for the roof, air

conditioning, heating and staff. Repainting, landscaping -- nope.

Lydick is preparing for the Oct. 27 Friends of the Library annual

dinner meeting and silent auction -- a major fundraiser for the

library,

“You want to know what pain is,” Lydick said.

“It is opening your mail box everyday and finding it filled with

books -- and you can’t read them. They have to be in pristine

condition for the auction.”

The auction was begun two years ago by the simple but

time-consuming expedient of writing to authors and asking for

donations. That year, authors donated 188 books.

Last year, local author Ted Taylor was honored at the dinner. As

of the luncheon, Lydick has had 127 responses, but expecting many

more to come in October.

For more information about the Friends of the Library, membership

or dinner reservations, call (949) 497-7053.

* OUR LAGUNA is a regular feature of the Laguna Beach Coastline

Pilot. Contributions are welcomed. Write to Barbara Diamond, P.O. Box

248, Laguna Beach, 92652; hand-deliver to Suite 22 in the Lumberyard,

384 Forest Ave.; call (949) 494-4321 or fax (949) 494-8979.