academic and careers Recovered from the coronavirus, Colton Underwood tackles a new foe: 'The Bachelor' franchise By www.latimes.com Published On :: Tue, 31 Mar 2020 10:00:12 -0400 In his new book, Colton Underwood — who was recently diagnosed with coronavirus — talks about being manipulated by producers on "The Bachelor." Full Article
academic and careers Mystery author Charles Finch gets stoned, masters Steely Dan and becomes a "candle guy" By www.latimes.com Published On :: Tue, 31 Mar 2020 12:00:07 -0400 In our latest quarantine diary, Charles Finch contemplates Kierkegaard, watches "Love Is Blind," gets the Led out and develops a candle habit. Full Article
academic and careers Tomie dePaola, beloved children's author and illustrator of 'Strega Nona,' dies at 85 By www.latimes.com Published On :: Tue, 31 Mar 2020 14:51:09 -0400 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. Full Article
academic and careers Review: César Aira, a novelist of obsession worth obsessing over By www.latimes.com Published On :: Wed, 1 Apr 2020 11:00:37 -0400 César Aira's latest novel, "Artforum," is about the art magazine and also the universe Full Article
academic and careers 10 crime writers to read while under house arrest By www.latimes.com Published On :: Wed, 1 Apr 2020 12:56:22 -0400 Authors Steph Cha and Joe Ide swapped crimes stories and favorite books during the L.A. Times Book Club's first virtual event. Full Article
academic and careers Harry Potter and the coronavirus crisis: J.K. Rowling launches a new activity website for kids By www.latimes.com Published On :: Wed, 1 Apr 2020 14:10:44 -0400 "Harry Potter" mastermind J.K. Rowling has launched a new website called "Harry Potter at Home" to help distract families from the coronavirus crisis. Full Article
academic and careers Miss travel? Explore the country in quarantine through these books By www.latimes.com Published On :: Wed, 1 Apr 2020 17:09:58 -0400 In the second installment of the United We Read project, a homebound writer travels a quarantined country through books. Full Article
academic and careers Review: Canceled, creepy and still funny, Woody Allen shrugs By www.latimes.com Published On :: Thu, 2 Apr 2020 09:00:08 -0400 "Apropos of Nothing" is a mixed bag of rich memories, harsh defenses and tone-deaf reveries. Full Article
academic and careers James Patterson donates $500,000 as independent bookstores struggle with coronavirus By www.latimes.com Published On :: Thu, 2 Apr 2020 11:39:33 -0400 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. Full Article
academic and careers What Rigoberto González is reading, hearing and watching in quarantine By www.latimes.com Published On :: Thu, 2 Apr 2020 13:25:15 -0400 In quarantine, mystery poet Rigoberto González Full Article
academic and careers Kathy Valentine's hair-raising memoir 'All I Ever Wanted' recounts the Go-Go's wild ride By www.latimes.com Published On :: Thu, 2 Apr 2020 15:09:22 -0400 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. Full Article
academic and careers Julia Alvarez discusses her radically different novel, 'Afterlife' (and defends 'American Dirt') By www.latimes.com Published On :: Thu, 2 Apr 2020 18:24:09 -0400 Julia Alvarez's "Afterlife" is her first novel for adults in 15 years. She talks about loss, fragmentation and "American Dirt." Full Article
academic and careers Meet the heartland Evangelicals who feed America By www.latimes.com Published On :: Fri, 3 Apr 2020 11:30:38 -0400 Marie Mutsuki Mockett's 'American Harvest' looks at the divide between the heartland and those who seldom think about where our food comes from. Full Article
academic and careers Union calls Powell's Books announcement of staff rehires 'misleading' By www.latimes.com Published On :: Fri, 3 Apr 2020 16:38:26 -0400 A union statement is "disappointed" with how Powell's Books has been informing the public about staffing after laying off most of its employees. Full Article
academic and careers Patricia Bosworth, actor turned celebrity biographer, dies of coronavirus By www.latimes.com Published On :: Sat, 4 Apr 2020 15:53:17 -0400 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. Full Article
academic and careers Patricia Bosworth, 'as big in life' as the stars she wrote about By www.latimes.com Published On :: Sat, 4 Apr 2020 21:21:29 -0400 A tribute to Patricia Bosworth, who died of complications from COVID-19. The actress and biographer of Jane Fonda and Marlon Brando was 86. Full Article
academic and careers Chelsea Bieker distills the fire and fury of the parched Central Valley By www.latimes.com Published On :: Mon, 6 Apr 2020 10:30:59 -0400 Chelsea Bieker's 'Godshot,' a surreal debut novel set in the parched Central Valley, depicts a fundamentalist rain cult and sex worker resisters. Full Article
academic and careers 21 new and classic books to keep you in touch with the natural world By www.latimes.com Published On :: Mon, 6 Apr 2020 13:16:35 -0400 Books about nature to read while avoiding the coronavirus — from classics by John McPhee and Annie Dillard to the upcoming "Book of Eels." Full Article
academic and careers Schizophrenia devastated a family: Robert Kolker did their story justice By www.latimes.com Published On :: Tue, 7 Apr 2020 10:00:19 -0400 How Robert Kolker came to write "Hidden Valley Road," about the Galvin family and the disease that tore through them, with such empathy. Full Article
academic and careers What Susan Straight is reading, hearing and watching in quarantine By www.latimes.com Published On :: Tue, 7 Apr 2020 11:00:18 -0400 Quarantined in Riverside, novelist Susan Straight watches "Gunsmoke" and "Gentefied" and gives away Judy Blume and National Geographic. Full Article
academic and careers Don Winslow drops a new book, 'Broken,' your quarantine read for our fractured times By www.latimes.com Published On :: Tue, 7 Apr 2020 11:00:38 -0400 The bestselling crime novelist plans a virtual book tour for his new title, "Broken," as the coronavirus keeps him home in Southern California. Full Article
academic and careers L.A. author Kathryn Scanlan on whether we're still 'The Dominant Animal' By www.latimes.com Published On :: Tue, 7 Apr 2020 12:00:53 -0400 Kathryn Scanlan, taut new story collection, "The Dominant Animal," probes power relationships in uncertain times. She talks about L.A. and COVID-19. Full Article
academic and careers Author Fanny Singer and chef Alice Waters talk food and family with L.A. Times Book Club By www.latimes.com Published On :: Tue, 7 Apr 2020 16:33:16 -0400 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. Full Article
academic and careers Ross Thomas, the criminally neglected spy-caper author behind "Briarpatch" By www.latimes.com Published On :: Wed, 8 Apr 2020 10:00:28 -0400 Ross Thomas delivered 25 novels populated by colorful, chameleonic characters. Among them: "Briarpatch," now a USA Network series. Full Article
academic and careers What authors are reading, hearing and watching in quarantine By www.latimes.com Published On :: Wed, 8 Apr 2020 12:05:28 -0400 Authors like Lionel Shriver, Alexander McCall Smith, Laura Lippman and Steph Cha are under coronavirus quarantine too. Here's what they're reading. Full Article
academic and careers Q&A: Author Cynthia Ozick will spend her 92nd birthday 'contemplating mayhem' By www.latimes.com Published On :: Wed, 8 Apr 2020 13:27:46 -0400 Cynthia Ozick, essayist and acclaimed novelist, shelters from coronavirus and discusses anti-Semitism, the Spanish flu and longevity. Full Article
academic and careers Alexander McCall Smith reads up on solitude — and shares a new song — from Scotland quarantine By www.latimes.com Published On :: Thu, 9 Apr 2020 11:00:27 -0400 In his quarantine diary, "No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" author Alexander McCall Smith writes lyrics, reads Auden and watches "Brideshead Revisited." Full Article
academic and careers The L.A. Times Book Prizes ceremony will be virtual, and free, this year By www.latimes.com Published On :: Thu, 9 Apr 2020 13:53:22 -0400 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. Full Article
academic and careers Roast chicken recipe perfect for scaled-down virtual feast By www.latimes.com Published On :: Thu, 9 Apr 2020 17:29:05 -0400 Recipe: Writer turns to Fanny Singer's "Always Home" for comfort chicken during family's Seder. Full Article
academic and careers The Silent Book Club, a global meet-up for introverts, now connects them remotely By www.latimes.com Published On :: Fri, 10 Apr 2020 10:00:07 -0400 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. Full Article
academic and careers Tiger Woods makes golf history at the 2019 Masters: A look back By www.latimes.com Published On :: Fri, 10 Apr 2020 10:00:40 -0400 Sunday is when Tiger Woods made golf history, but Saturday is when he won the 2019 Masters and reestablished himself as golf's king. Full Article
academic and careers Review: Queer authors reinvent the artist biography as revisionist memoir By www.latimes.com Published On :: Fri, 10 Apr 2020 13:04:35 -0400 Jenn Shapland's "My Autobiography of Carson McCullers" and Mark Doty's "What Is the Grass," about Walt Whitman, are hybrid memoir-biographies. Full Article
academic and careers Q&A: What do people ask a librarian in a pandemic? L.A. Library's InfoNow has the answer By www.latimes.com Published On :: Fri, 10 Apr 2020 15:52:47 -0400 With libraries closed, L.A. librarians now work from home to help people find free ebooks, music and movies during the coronavirus crisis. Full Article
academic and careers Home wrestling, masked dinners and lots of books: Kevin Wilson's Tennessee quarantine diary By www.latimes.com Published On :: Mon, 13 Apr 2020 10:00:12 -0400 The author of "Nothing to See Here" enjoys BennY RevivaL, furniture-breaking wrestling moves and lots of books in his quarantine diary. Full Article
academic and careers Review: How L.A.'s '60s movements fought for justice — and sometimes even achieved it By www.latimes.com Published On :: Mon, 13 Apr 2020 11:00:44 -0400 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. Full Article
academic and careers 16 meaty book series to get you through coronavirus stay-at-home orders By www.latimes.com Published On :: Tue, 14 Apr 2020 12:00:13 -0400 The best series of books in four categories — including highbrow ('Wolf Hall'), L.A. favorites (Easy Rollins) and epic histories (Taylor Branch). Full Article
academic and careers Apocalypse, you say? Writer Mark O'Connell has been there, done that By www.latimes.com Published On :: Tue, 14 Apr 2020 13:00:23 -0400 Author Mark O'Connell visited preppers, paranoiacs and prophets worldwide for "Notes From an Apocalypse." Now he says "the world will go on." Full Article
academic and careers Cooking in quarantine: 'Always Home' author Fanny Singer retreats to Alice Waters' kitchen By www.latimes.com Published On :: Tue, 14 Apr 2020 13:13:23 -0400 Fanny Singer's stories and recipes, 'Always Home,' show life growing up in the orbit of her mother, farm-to-table chef Alice Waters. Full Article
academic and careers Column: Bears thriving at Yosemite. Clear skies. Does coronavirus reveal a 'World Without Us'? By www.latimes.com Published On :: Tue, 14 Apr 2020 14:42:45 -0400 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? Full Article
academic and careers Alex Trebek set to publish a memoir while fighting pancreatic cancer By www.latimes.com Published On :: Tue, 14 Apr 2020 15:35:53 -0400 On Tuesday, Simon & Schuster announced it will publish Alex Trebek's memoir, "The Answer Is…: Reflections on My Life," on July 21. Full Article
academic and careers New manga subscription service launches with a quarantine-friendly 2-month free trial By www.latimes.com Published On :: Wed, 15 Apr 2020 09:00:12 -0400 Read "Attack on Titan," "Somali & the Forest Spirit," "Fire Force," "Arte" and more with Mangamo, a new mobile manga subscription service. Full Article
academic and careers Marisa Meltzer still doesn't love her fat body — and that's OK By www.latimes.com Published On :: Wed, 15 Apr 2020 11:00:32 -0400 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." Full Article
academic and careers Quarantined film critic David Thomson loves 'Ozark,' sours on 'Paris, Texas' By www.latimes.com Published On :: Wed, 15 Apr 2020 12:00:13 -0400 Thomson, the author of dozens of books including "The Biographical Dictionary of Film," binges on "Ozark" and Godard but finds "L'Avventura" a drag. Full Article
academic and careers Review: A western romance novel about a brawling Texas fiddler pulls its punches By www.latimes.com Published On :: Thu, 16 Apr 2020 12:44:19 -0400 Paulette Jiles delighted with her convention-breaking western romance, 'News of the World.' Her follow-up, 'Simon the Fiddler,' is just old-fashioned. Full Article
academic and careers How a rough Apartheid-era school spawned an award-winning YA novel By www.latimes.com Published On :: Fri, 17 Apr 2020 11:25:14 -0400 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. Full Article
academic and careers Helpless women? Not these slave owners By www.latimes.com Published On :: Fri, 17 Apr 2020 11:26:32 -0400 Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers, winner of the Times Book Prize in history, spent a decade on "They Were Her Property," about women slave owners. Full Article
academic and careers Dystopian fiction has always been real for Ray Bradbury prize winner Marlon James By www.latimes.com Published On :: Fri, 17 Apr 2020 11:30:15 -0400 Marlon James, whose novel "Black Leopard, Red Wolf" pioneered queer fantasy, thanks Mary Shelley and "Moby Dick" for predicting our current crisis. Full Article
academic and careers How language can destroy or rebuild, per Times Book Prize fiction winner Ben Lerner By www.latimes.com Published On :: Fri, 17 Apr 2020 11:30:20 -0400 The author of "The Topeka School," winner of the 2019 Times Book Prize for fiction, speaks on poetry, debate, citizenship and crisis homeschooling. Full Article
academic and careers Coronavirus is topic one among newly announced L.A. Times Book Prize winners By www.latimes.com Published On :: Fri, 17 Apr 2020 11:53:24 -0400 The 14 Times book prize winners, including Steph Cha, Namwali Serpell, Marlon James and George Packer, were honored in a virtual ceremony on Twitter. Full Article
academic and careers Journal the pandemic and those weird grocery store trips — with help from Michelle Obama By www.latimes.com Published On :: Fri, 17 Apr 2020 15:40:16 -0400 Writer turns to guided journal for Michelle Obama's "Becoming" to grapple with anxiety and cabin fever during coronavirus crisis. Full Article