Two shining lights of the L.A. literary scene, Aimee Bender (pictured) and Trinie Dalton, read at Family bookstore. Both have new titles out from Madras Press. From their hand-drawn covers and size, you might think both tomes are more appropriate for a kindergartner's bedside table, but these collections are more like the thinking grownup's fables. Bender's single story, “The Third Elevator,” is simply enchanting, and Dalton's Sweet Tomb kicks off with “I've foreseen my death since the day my mom named me: Candy,” before taking the reader into a fantasy world of gingerbread walls, witches, children who get eaten and a love affair with a vampire whose “sucking didn't hurt as much as his fangs.”

Thu., Jan. 28, 7:30 p.m., 2010

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