The Stay Home and Read a Book Ball
The Most Anticipated Event of the Year Returns.
The Stay Home and Read a Book Ball, now in its 37th edition, stands as the Library Foundation of Los Angeles’ longest-running and most beloved event. On Sunday, April 6, 2025, Angelenos across the city are invited to select a title from their ever-growing To Be Read lists, settle into a cozy nook—whether at home, in a park, or within the welcoming walls of a library—and immerse themselves in a great story as they support the life-changing work of the Los Angeles Public Library.
You're invited to stay home and read.
WHEN
Get lost in the pages of a fantastic book now through Sunday, April 6, 2025.
WHERE
The Stay Home and Read a Book Ball is all about enjoying a book from the comfort of your own space while supporting the Los Angeles Public Library. Cozy up in your favorite reading nook or support a local cafe.
HOW
Your bookish adventure begins today. Listen, download, or check out your book of choice on the Libby app, at your favorite bookstore, or atop the TBR stack calling your name.
Then, journey down to the donation form and support the Library Foundation of Los Angeles with a generous donation.
Make sure to post photos of your reading adventure solo or with friends, human and furry ones alike, on social media using the hashtag #LFLABookBall and tagging @LibraryFoundLA on all social media platforms.
RSVP for the Ball, Donate Today
A Letter from our Annual Chair
Isabel Allende, Annual Chair
Isabel Allende—novelist, feminist, and philanthropist—is one of the most widely-read authors in the world, having sold more than 80 million books. Chilean born in Peru, Isabel won worldwide acclaim in 1982 with the publication of her first novel, The House of the Spirits, which began as a letter to her dying grandfather. Since then, she has authored more than twenty eight bestselling and critically acclaimed books. Translated into more than forty two languages, Allende’s works entertain and educate readers by interweaving imaginative stories with significant historical events.
In addition to her work as a writer, Allende devotes much of her time to human rights causes. In 1996, following the death of her daughter Paula, she established a charitable foundation in her honor, which has awarded grants to more than 100 nonprofits worldwide, delivering life-changing care to hundreds of thousands of women and girls. In 2014, President Barack Obama awarded Allende the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, in 2018 she received the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the National Book Foundation. She lives in California.
Meet the 2025 Honorary Chairs
Rosecrans Baldwin
“One of the best parts of LA is that it’s changing all the time, and that we all can play a part in making it better. The Los Angeles Public Library is essential, not just as a place to find wonderful new books, but as a provider of social services. Supporting the library is supporting everybody.“
Bio
Rosecrans Baldwin is the bestselling author of Everything Now: Lessons From the City-State of Los Angeles, winner of the California Book Award. Other books include The Last Kid Left and Paris, I Love You but You’re Bringing Me Down. His debut novel, You Lost Me There, was a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice.
Robin Coste Lewis
“I remember the first time I stayed up all night and read a book. I was in high school. I had a flashlight. By morning I was a new person. With just 26 letters of the alphabet, arcs and lines, a book can change our whole life—because a book is both a bridge and world combined. Please join us in celebrating one of the greatest inventions of humanity.”
Bio
Robin Coste Lewis won the National Book Award for Voyage of the Sable Venus, her first collection of poetry. The book was also a finalist for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Award, and it was named one of the best books of the year by The New Yorker and The New York Times. She is also the coauthor, with Kevin Young, of Robert Rauschenberg: Thirty-Four Illustrations for Dante’s Inferno.
The former poet laureate of Los Angeles, Lewis holds a PhD in Poetry and Visual Studies from the University of Southern California, an MFA in poetry from New York University, an MTS in Sanskrit and comparative religious literature from the Divinity School at Harvard University, and a BA from Hampshire College in post-colonial literature and creative writing. Her work has appeared in various journals and anthologies, including The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Paris Review, Transition, and The Massachusetts Review. Lewis has taught at Hampshire College, Hunter College, Wheaton College, and the NYU Low-Residency MFA in Paris. She is currently writer in residence at the University of Southern California.
Headshot credit: Photo © Abigail Rudner 2022
Héctor Tobar
“My Guatemalan immigrant father learned to read in English at the Cahuenga Branch, and I got my first library card at the old Hollywood Branch. In my family, the Los Angeles Public Library is in our blood. Viva la biblioteca!”
Bio
Héctor Tobar is a Los Angeles-born author of six books, including, most recently, Our Migrant Souls: A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of Latino, winner of the Kirkus Prize and other honors. His nonfiction Deep Down Dark was a New York Times bestseller and adapted into the film The 33. His novel The Barbarian Nurseries won the California Book Award Gold Medal and was a New York Times Notable Book. Tobar’s fiction has appeared in Best American Short Stories, and he earned his MFA from UC Irvine, where he is currently a professor.
At the Los Angeles Times he was a foreign correspondent and columnist. Tobar has been a Guggenheim fellow, a Harvard Radcliffe fellow, an op-ed writer for the New York Times, and a contributor to The New Yorker, National Geographic, and The New York Review of Books, among many other publications. He is the son of Guatemalan immigrants.
Mychal Threets
“Reading at home? One of my all-time favorite activities! Physical books, audiobooks, eBooks, comics, graphic novels, manga… reading is reading! Stay home and read whatever brings you joy ✨”
Bio
Mychal Threets is a librarian, literary ambassador, and the library’s number one fan (according to himself, admittedly). He grew up in Fairfield, CA, right between Sacramento and San Francisco. He was raised in his local library as a home-school kid.
He got his first library card at the age of five and was hooked on libraries from there. He got his first library job as a library shelver at the library he grew up in and worked his way up to become Supervising Librarian of that very same library.
He is very open about his mental health. He talks about it in hopes that it’ll help others in their mental health journey. He is adamant about encouraging people to believe him when he says he’s happy they are here.
He considers it an honor to the library people who raised him that he is a recipient of the 2023 “I Love My Librarian” award from the American Library Association, one of School Library Journal’s 2024 Movers and Shakers, and one of TIME Magazine’s 2024 Next Generation Leaders.
$10,000+
Allison and Eric Samek
$2,500-$10,000
Liz Raposo
$1,000-$2,499
Maysoon Alsandook
Teresa M. Castelli
Madeline R. Cripe
Constance Gavin
Michael T. M. and Dana W. Jones
Myrna Oliver
Robert E.G. Ronus
Laura and Carlton Seaver
Mr. and Mrs. V. Shannon Clyne
$500-$999
Dana M. Baldwin
Marie H. Beall and Richard S. Gruner
Mr. and Mrs. David Brearly
Stanley and Ronda Breitbard
Virginia Campbell
Paula A. Ely
Claudia and J. Stuart Fishler
Laura Glass
Chris Hebert and Debra Silverman
Mr. and Mrs. Michael L. Hittleman
Dr. David A. Hovda and Dr. Cydney Stewart
Betsey and Richard Kauffman
Nancy Koven
Mr. and Mrs. George D. Legg
Michael Lindsey and Wendy Carson
Stacy Lieberman and Jonathan Ritter
Pamela Mischel
Nancy L. Morrin
Patton Oswalt and Meredith Salenger
Shirley and Charlene Quan
Marcia Reed and Michael Morrison
Judy Munzig
Ms. Lois Rosen
David and Susan Rosenblum
Dr. and Mrs. Alan R. Schneider
Chris Herbert and Debra Silverman
Kim and David Sonnenblick
Elayne Techentin
Holly Whatley and Stephanie Vassallo
Lee and Deborah Walcott
$250-$499
Mr. and Mrs. Alfredo Annino
Noel H. Applebaum
Elayne Bernstein-Landy
Kathryn J. Black
Yvonne Bogdanovich
Ernestine Bousquet
Tanya and Alex Cappas
Celia Chapman
Terry Cisco
Pamela L. Citron
Diane Deshong
Courtney and Tom Fennimore
For Los Angeles
Howard J. Fulfrost
Rebecca Graves
Sylvia H. Harrison
Kathy Henkel
Marc and Toni Hertz
Doris Hess
Kathy Igo
Heather Jones
Patricia B. Kao and Richard Benoit
Sarah E. Kiefer
Mr. and Mrs. Charles M. Knobler
Ellen Kubo and Allen Kirschenbaum
Katherine L’Amour
Dr. Cheryl D. Lew
Teri Primack Marias
Laura Maslon
Cathleen Meyers
Yoko Mimura
Carol M. Mitchell
Susan and Glen Olson
Sharon Oxborough
Sandra K. Peters
Jo Pitesky
Brenda R. Potter
Thomas L. Ray
Laura and James Rosenwald
Frank Scherma and Cari Masuda-Scherma
Joan Schipper
Sharon J. Schmidt
Amy Schulenberg
Rosalind Jarrett Sepulveda and Lamar Sepulveda
Margery Simkin
Jonny and Bradley Skinner
Mr. and Mrs. Russell C. Swartz
J.H. Terada
Lois D. Thompson
Tyree Wieder, Ed.D.
Leanna Wood
If you have any questions about the Stay Home and Read a Book Ball, please reach out to Riccardo Ruffolo, Director of Development, at riccardoruffolo@lfla.org or 213.292.6242.
