SSJCPL (Stockton-San Joaquin County Public Library) discussion

March is on our heels and for this month we are still choosing books that are on our TBR (to be read) list. In true reader fashion, the book I chose for this month's discussion has only just been added to my list (as I first saw it this week and had to read it) and I've ignored the growing stacks of books on my already lengthy TBR list.

Again, we would love to know what is on your TBR list. Throw those titles in the comments if you want us to read them.

My TBR book for March is Behind the Door: The Dark Truths and Untold Stories of the Cecil Hotel by Amy Price. For the first time, Amy delves into her experiences at the Cecil Hotel. Equal parts memoir, true-crime, and cultural history, Behind the Door is essential to understanding one of America’s most enigmatic hotels.

When Amy Price took a temporary design job at an Art Deco hotel in Los Angeles to help a friend, she had no idea the path it would lead her down. Before long, she would become manager of the Cecil Hotel, seeking to make it more welcoming and correct its notoriety, not helped by sitting at the foot of Skid Row, or the fact that since its opening in 1927, there had been any number of deaths by suicide, and residents such as serial killers Richard Ramirez and Jack Unterweger.

She cared about guests and residents alike, though she faced challenges on many fronts, with over eighty people dying during her decade of service. Among them was Elisa Lam, whose tragic death became the subject of a Netflix documentary series that captivated millions and led to its own controversies and unwarranted personal attacks on Amy.

The disturbing true story of the notorious Cecil Hotel in downtown LA, by its general manager for a decade and star of the controversial Netflix documentary series Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel.

This is our first nonfiction pick of the year! Let us know what you think!