academic and careers

Recovered from the coronavirus, Colton Underwood tackles a new foe: 'The Bachelor' franchise

In his new book, Colton Underwood — who was recently diagnosed with coronavirus — talks about being manipulated by producers on "The Bachelor."




academic and careers

Mystery author Charles Finch gets stoned, masters Steely Dan and becomes a "candle guy"

In our latest quarantine diary, Charles Finch contemplates Kierkegaard, watches "Love Is Blind," gets the Led out and develops a candle habit.




academic and careers

Tomie dePaola, beloved children's author and illustrator of 'Strega Nona,' dies at 85

DePaola wrote or illustrated more than 270 children's books, sold nearly 25 million copies and had his books translated into more than 20 languages.




academic and careers

Review: César Aira, a novelist of obsession worth obsessing over

César Aira's latest novel, "Artforum," is about the art magazine and also the universe




academic and careers

10 crime writers to read while under house arrest

Authors Steph Cha and Joe Ide swapped crimes stories and favorite books during the L.A. Times Book Club's first virtual event.




academic and careers

Harry Potter and the coronavirus crisis: J.K. Rowling launches a new activity website for kids

"Harry Potter" mastermind J.K. Rowling has launched a new website called "Harry Potter at Home" to help distract families from the coronavirus crisis.




academic and careers

Miss travel? Explore the country in quarantine through these books

In the second installment of the United We Read project, a homebound writer travels a quarantined country through books.




academic and careers

Review: Canceled, creepy and still funny, Woody Allen shrugs

"Apropos of Nothing" is a mixed bag of rich memories, harsh defenses and tone-deaf reveries.




academic and careers

James Patterson donates $500,000 as independent bookstores struggle with coronavirus

Author James Patterson is donating $500,000 to help indie bookstores across the country. For many L.A. booksellers, that could be a life saver.




academic and careers

What Rigoberto González is reading, hearing and watching in quarantine

In quarantine, mystery poet Rigoberto González




academic and careers

Kathy Valentine's hair-raising memoir 'All I Ever Wanted' recounts the Go-Go's wild ride

Kathy Valentine's hair-raising memoir recounts life before, during and shortly after the Go-Go's ascended to become the darlings of the MTV generation.




academic and careers

Julia Alvarez discusses her radically different novel, 'Afterlife' (and defends 'American Dirt')

Julia Alvarez's "Afterlife" is her first novel for adults in 15 years. She talks about loss, fragmentation and "American Dirt."




academic and careers

Meet the heartland Evangelicals who feed America

Marie Mutsuki Mockett's 'American Harvest' looks at the divide between the heartland and those who seldom think about where our food comes from.




academic and careers

Union calls Powell's Books announcement of staff rehires 'misleading'

A union statement is "disappointed" with how Powell's Books has been informing the public about staffing after laying off most of its employees.




academic and careers

Patricia Bosworth, actor turned celebrity biographer, dies of coronavirus

Patricia Bosworth, an actor who went on to chronicle lives including Jane Fonda's, Marlon Brando's and her own, died from coronavirus. She was 86.




academic and careers

Patricia Bosworth, 'as big in life' as the stars she wrote about

A tribute to Patricia Bosworth, who died of complications from COVID-19. The actress and biographer of Jane Fonda and Marlon Brando was 86.




academic and careers

Chelsea Bieker distills the fire and fury of the parched Central Valley

Chelsea Bieker's 'Godshot,' a surreal debut novel set in the parched Central Valley, depicts a fundamentalist rain cult and sex worker resisters.




academic and careers

21 new and classic books to keep you in touch with the natural world

Books about nature to read while avoiding the coronavirus — from classics by John McPhee and Annie Dillard to the upcoming "Book of Eels."




academic and careers

Schizophrenia devastated a family: Robert Kolker did their story justice

How Robert Kolker came to write "Hidden Valley Road," about the Galvin family and the disease that tore through them, with such empathy.




academic and careers

What Susan Straight is reading, hearing and watching in quarantine

Quarantined in Riverside, novelist Susan Straight watches "Gunsmoke" and "Gentefied" and gives away Judy Blume and National Geographic.




academic and careers

Don Winslow drops a new book, 'Broken,' your quarantine read for our fractured times

The bestselling crime novelist plans a virtual book tour for his new title, "Broken," as the coronavirus keeps him home in Southern California.




academic and careers

L.A. author Kathryn Scanlan on whether we're still 'The Dominant Animal'

Kathryn Scanlan, taut new story collection, "The Dominant Animal," probes power relationships in uncertain times. She talks about L.A. and COVID-19.




academic and careers

Author Fanny Singer and chef Alice Waters talk food and family with L.A. Times Book Club

In a virtual meet-up, "Almost Home" author Fanny Singer and mother and famed chef Alice Waters join book club readers April 21 for a kitchen conversation.




academic and careers

Ross Thomas, the criminally neglected spy-caper author behind "Briarpatch"

Ross Thomas delivered 25 novels populated by colorful, chameleonic characters. Among them: "Briarpatch," now a USA Network series.




academic and careers

What authors are reading, hearing and watching in quarantine

Authors like Lionel Shriver, Alexander McCall Smith, Laura Lippman and Steph Cha are under coronavirus quarantine too. Here's what they're reading.




academic and careers

Q&A: Author Cynthia Ozick will spend her 92nd birthday 'contemplating mayhem'

Cynthia Ozick, essayist and acclaimed novelist, shelters from coronavirus and discusses anti-Semitism, the Spanish flu and longevity.




academic and careers

Alexander McCall Smith reads up on solitude — and shares a new song — from Scotland quarantine

In his quarantine diary, "No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" author Alexander McCall Smith writes lyrics, reads Auden and watches "Brideshead Revisited."




academic and careers

The L.A. Times Book Prizes ceremony will be virtual, and free, this year

Winners of the L.A. Times Book Prizes will be announced in a special, virtual Twitter ceremony this year because of the global health crisis.




academic and careers

Roast chicken recipe perfect for scaled-down virtual feast

Recipe: Writer turns to Fanny Singer's "Always Home" for comfort chicken during family's Seder.




academic and careers

The Silent Book Club, a global meet-up for introverts, now connects them remotely

A book club for people who don't like book clubs, founded in 2012 in San Francisco and now boasting six chapters in L.A. County, has moved online.




academic and careers

Tiger Woods makes golf history at the 2019 Masters: A look back

Sunday is when Tiger Woods made golf history, but Saturday is when he won the 2019 Masters and reestablished himself as golf's king.




academic and careers

Review: Queer authors reinvent the artist biography as revisionist memoir

Jenn Shapland's "My Autobiography of Carson McCullers" and Mark Doty's "What Is the Grass," about Walt Whitman, are hybrid memoir-biographies.




academic and careers

Q&A: What do people ask a librarian in a pandemic? L.A. Library's InfoNow has the answer

With libraries closed, L.A. librarians now work from home to help people find free ebooks, music and movies during the coronavirus crisis.




academic and careers

Home wrestling, masked dinners and lots of books: Kevin Wilson's Tennessee quarantine diary

The author of "Nothing to See Here" enjoys BennY RevivaL, furniture-breaking wrestling moves and lots of books in his quarantine diary.




academic and careers

Review: How L.A.'s '60s movements fought for justice — and sometimes even achieved it

In "Set the Night on Fire: L.A. in the Sixties," Mike Davis and Jon Wiener track the uprisings, outrages and elections that shaped the city.




academic and careers

16 meaty book series to get you through coronavirus stay-at-home orders

The best series of books in four categories — including highbrow ('Wolf Hall'), L.A. favorites (Easy Rollins) and epic histories (Taylor Branch).




academic and careers

Apocalypse, you say? Writer Mark O'Connell has been there, done that

Author Mark O'Connell visited preppers, paranoiacs and prophets worldwide for "Notes From an Apocalypse." Now he says "the world will go on."




academic and careers

Cooking in quarantine: 'Always Home' author Fanny Singer retreats to Alice Waters' kitchen

Fanny Singer's stories and recipes, 'Always Home,' show life growing up in the orbit of her mother, farm-to-table chef Alice Waters.




academic and careers

Column: Bears thriving at Yosemite. Clear skies. Does coronavirus reveal a 'World Without Us'?

In "The World Without Us," Alan Weisman imagined how the Earth would look if humans vanished. Is the COVID-19 lockdown making that a reality?




academic and careers

Alex Trebek set to publish a memoir while fighting pancreatic cancer

On Tuesday, Simon & Schuster announced it will publish Alex Trebek's memoir, "The Answer Is…: Reflections on My Life," on July 21.




academic and careers

New manga subscription service launches with a quarantine-friendly 2-month free trial

Read "Attack on Titan," "Somali & the Forest Spirit," "Fire Force," "Arte" and more with Mangamo, a new mobile manga subscription service.




academic and careers

Marisa Meltzer still doesn't love her fat body — and that's OK

The journalist and author of "This Is Big: How the Founder of Weight Watchers Changed the World (And Me)" discusses the limits of "fat acceptance."




academic and careers

Quarantined film critic David Thomson loves 'Ozark,' sours on 'Paris, Texas'

Thomson, the author of dozens of books including "The Biographical Dictionary of Film," binges on "Ozark" and Godard but finds "L'Avventura" a drag.




academic and careers

Review: A western romance novel about a brawling Texas fiddler pulls its punches

Paulette Jiles delighted with her convention-breaking western romance, 'News of the World.' Her follow-up, 'Simon the Fiddler,' is just old-fashioned.




academic and careers

How a rough Apartheid-era school spawned an award-winning YA novel

Malla Nunn's "When The Ground is Hard," winner of the 2019 Times Book Prize for young-adult literature, revisits South Africa's toughest years.




academic and careers

Helpless women? Not these slave owners

Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers, winner of the Times Book Prize in history, spent a decade on "They Were Her Property," about women slave owners.




academic and careers

Dystopian fiction has always been real for Ray Bradbury prize winner Marlon James

Marlon James, whose novel "Black Leopard, Red Wolf" pioneered queer fantasy, thanks Mary Shelley and "Moby Dick" for predicting our current crisis.




academic and careers

How language can destroy or rebuild, per Times Book Prize fiction winner Ben Lerner

The author of "The Topeka School," winner of the 2019 Times Book Prize for fiction, speaks on poetry, debate, citizenship and crisis homeschooling.




academic and careers

Coronavirus is topic one among newly announced L.A. Times Book Prize winners

The 14 Times book prize winners, including Steph Cha, Namwali Serpell, Marlon James and George Packer, were honored in a virtual ceremony on Twitter.




academic and careers

Journal the pandemic and those weird grocery store trips — with help from Michelle Obama

Writer turns to guided journal for Michelle Obama's "Becoming" to grapple with anxiety and cabin fever during coronavirus crisis.