As a reporter, I liked to write about L.A's infrastructure — freeways, water, refuse. I always thought there was a book in the history of the Los Angeles sewer system, and now there is. Anna Sklar, who used to be public affairs director for the city Department of Public Works as well as an NPR reporter, signs copies of "Brown Acres: An Intimate History of the Los Angeles Sewers" tonight at the Toto Gallery in West Hollywood and tomorrow at Dutton's. I haven't seen the book, but I'm looking forward to it. It's published by Angel City Press, same as my books, but I'd be excited to see Sklar's work anyway. The flackage:

With more than fifty photographs, diagrams and maps, Brown Acres is the first historical narrative to detail any world-class city’s sewer system—complete with the relationship between headstrong politicians and the reformers who sought to “heal the bay” after a century of pollution and contamination. Brown Acres provides a unique look at the underground history of Los Angeles.

Also new from ACP: Paradise Promoted: The Booster Campaign that Created Los Angeles, by the noted local historian and photographer Tom Zimmerman. Says Angel City, "The first book to showcase the era from 1870 to 1930 when boosters developed the small town of Los Angeles into the city that would become Americas most cutting-edge metropolis. Los Angeles was the subject of the longest, loudest, most persistent promotional campaign in the history of the United States." The book will be released March 29.