Katie Arnoldi

Katie Arnoldi has lived in Malibu all her life, yet she still buzzes like a schoolgirl over its many-splendored beauty. "Just look at that break," Arnoldi exclaims as a clutch of surfers rides a long, glassy wave just a few feet away from her house. The novelist, who first appeared on the literary scene with 2001's "Chemical Pink," a novel about female bodybuilding (drawing on Arnoldi's own experience as a Southern California bodybuilder), shares a brief anecdote about her days as a competitive surfer.

Words & Ideas Compiled by Grace Krilanovich. SUNDAY Amra Brooks : The author of " California" will read and sign the reprint of her 2008 novella. Sarah Manguso will also read and sign her book "The Two Kinds of Decay. " Family, 436 N. Fairfax Ave., L.A. 7 p.m. Free. (323) 782-9221. Tongue and Groove Reading Series : Conrad Romo hosts an evening of readings by authors Katie Arnoldi ("Point Dume"), Skip Press ("Rainy Day Tales"), Samantha Dunn ("Not by Accident")

Words & Ideas Compiled by Grace Krilanovich. SUNDAY Amra Brooks : The author of " California" will read and sign the reprint of her 2008 novella. Sarah Manguso will also read and sign her book "The Two Kinds of Decay. " Family, 436 N. Fairfax Ave., L.A. 7 p.m. Free. (323) 782-9221. Tongue and Groove Reading Series : Conrad Romo hosts an evening of readings by authors Katie Arnoldi ("Point Dume"), Skip Press ("Rainy Day Tales"), Samantha Dunn ("Not by Accident")

Katie Arnoldi has lived in Malibu all her life, yet she still buzzes like a schoolgirl over its many-splendored beauty. "Just look at that break," Arnoldi exclaims as a clutch of surfers rides a long, glassy wave just a few feet away from her house. The novelist, who first appeared on the literary scene with 2001's "Chemical Pink," a novel about female bodybuilding (drawing on Arnoldi's own experience as a Southern California bodybuilder), shares a brief anecdote about her days as a competitive surfer.

She was not born this way, looking like a man. Just a few years back you might have seen her any day on Venice Beach--an adorable young woman, about 120 pounds, who loved the healthy life and wanted only to be something special to someone. She found her someone at Gold's Gym. He was a rich and kinky man who convinced her that she had what is known in bodybuilding lingo as "the genetic gift"--the build of a potential champion.

TURN off the road, pass through blank-faced gates and the house rises at the end of a drive -- an angular blank canvas silhouetted against the sky. Through an aperture in all that whiteness -- actually a pair of mammoth glass doors, perfectly aligned at the home's front and back -- sun dances on the Pacific, boats bob on the horizon, and Santa Catalina Island comes into focus. Only then does realization strike: You are at land's end. That is the first surprise at the house of the Arnoldis -- author Katie and artist Charles, who designed it after getting a bit of advice from a friend named Gehry.

I read with total disbelief the cover article "Painted With Light" [March 27] about Charles and Katie Arnoldi's beach house. I appreciate the fact that Mr. Arnoldi wants to incorporate his art into his home, but the result is in total contrast to what the ocean and beach exude. There is no life, no movement, no warmth, no beach personality. I have lived at the ocean my whole life, and a few stark plants scattered among gravel and cement is not what the beach is all about. The ugly driveway going past the potato sculptures ending at a house that looks like it belongs in the desert?

The cannabis connection? Southern California evokes many images — palm trees, sun, surf, sand … marijuana farms? Along with Mark Haskell Smith's novel "Baked," other new novels also describe the perils of the pot trade and have a SoCal-centric focus. These include Katie Arnoldi's "Point Dume" (Overlook Press), whose cast of characters includes surfers and a dealer poaching pot from a giant grow-farm in the hills above Malibu, and "Savages" (Simon & Schuster)

Black Olives A Novel Martha Tod Dudman Simon & Schuster: 192 pp., $23 STRANGE little novel -- time stops, the world stops, while Virginia, a late-middle-aged woman living in a small town in Maine, hides in the back seat of her late-middle-aged ex-boyfriend's Jeep Cherokee. She hasn't exactly planned this day, but when she sees David (he doesn't see her) in the local gourmet delicatessen ("ye phony old grocery store"), a "feeling goes through me, like my cell phone's on vibrate and is going off in my pocket -- like I'm experiencing a minor electric shock."

Rankings are based on a Times poll of Southland bookstores. -- *--* -- Fiction Weeks on list 1. Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri (Knopf: $25) 4 Stories of U.S.-born children and their Bengali parents straddling cultures. 2. The Miracle at Speedy Motors by Alexander McCall 1 Smith (Pantheon: $22.95) Mma Ramotswe has a new case and a husband with a miracle cure. 3. Hold Tight by Harlan Coben (Dutton: $26.95) A 1 teen's suicide and sadistic killings engulf a troubled New Jersey family. 4.

TURN off the road, pass through blank-faced gates and the house rises at the end of a drive -- an angular blank canvas silhouetted against the sky. Through an aperture in all that whiteness -- actually a pair of mammoth glass doors, perfectly aligned at the home's front and back -- sun dances on the Pacific, boats bob on the horizon, and Santa Catalina Island comes into focus. Only then does realization strike: You are at land's end. That is the first surprise at the house of the Arnoldis -- author Katie and artist Charles, who designed it after getting a bit of advice from a friend named Gehry.

She was not born this way, looking like a man. Just a few years back you might have seen her any day on Venice Beach--an adorable young woman, about 120 pounds, who loved the healthy life and wanted only to be something special to someone. She found her someone at Gold's Gym. He was a rich and kinky man who convinced her that she had what is known in bodybuilding lingo as "the genetic gift"--the build of a potential champion.

Actors, politicians, chefs, musicians, athletes--all have taken their turn at supporting the environment. Local artists got a chance to do the same Saturday when Artists Unite for Big Green took over Santa Monica's DC3 restaurant for a casual afternoon party and artworks sale to support the California Environmental Protection Act of 1990, an initiative known as "Big Green" that will be on the ballot this November.

BOOKS Lit Crawl 2 Let's face it, most writers like to drink. Or if they don't like to drink right now, it's probably because they used to like it a little too much. Following in the great tippling tradition of Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Bukowski and Thompson, the Pen Center USA presents Lit Crawl 2, an event that's being touted as an old-fashioned read-off. The writers going head-to-head include Allison Burnett, Gabrielle Calvocoressi, Neal Pollack, Dennis Danziger, James Greer, Samantha Dunn, Rachel Resnick, Joseph Mattson, Graham Moore, Katie Arnoldi and Edan Lepucki.