"Mrs. America" creator Dahvi Waller on the books to read if you want to know more about the ERA

The author of "We Need to Talk About Kevin" lives that perfect, self-improving quarantine life (or maybe gets drunk and watches British reality TV).

Rishi Reddi's "Passage West" plumbs an important story of Indian immigrant farmers, but isn't quite up to the task as fiction

The journalist ("The Looming Tower") and playwright ("My Trip to Al Qaeda") discusses his frightening and eerily prescient novel, "The End of October."

While guests of Provincetown's Fine Arts Work Center are stuck through June, canceled residencies across the U.S. endanger an artistic ecosystem.

Anna Solomon, whose novel "The Book of V." comes out next week, juggles writing, building rafts and book promotion in a void in our latest diary

When COVID-19 hit, spoken-word venues like Da Poetry Lounge and Olivia Open Mic went online, keeping verse flowing and raising funds for artists.

"Twilight" author Stephenie Meyer announced that she is expanding the fantasy franchise with "Midnight Sun," told from vampire heartthrob Edward's perspective.

The author, most recently, of "Interior Chinatown" opts for "Independence Day," a slew of inspiring novels, "Thor: Ragnarok" and "Ozark."

People are making valid points about Trump's handling of the coronavirus crisis, but the president's supporters aren't listening.

Local hotels have repurposed thousands of rooms for use by medical professionals and homeless people during the coronavirus pandemic.

America's optimism may have blinded it to the coronavirus. Now, with suffering a part of our daily life, we have a chance to become a mature nation.

Easing sanctions on Iran, hard hit by the coronavirus, would be a humanitarian act that reminds the world of what America truly is.

The Supreme Court is allowing the Republican Party to suppress the vote. This bodes very poorly for democracy in America.

Warning memos were written. Research was funded. But what good is any of this if American leaders fail to act?

This is what happens when we elect a failed-businessman-turned-reality TV star as president.

These are extraordinary times, and Joe Biden has a number of legislators, mayors and governors who could fill an entire Cabinet.

Countless people have applied for unemployment benefits they cannot get. This can create a crisis worse than the coronavirus outbreak.

Halting funding of the WHO is another in a long line of decisions made by the Trump administration abdicating U.S. leadership on science.

An LAUSD teacher who once campaigned against Austin Beutner gives the superintendent credit for his leadership during the pandemic.

Ron Reagan, son of the late president, was in an ad for an atheist interest group. He should have just kept his nonbelief to himself.

Dr. Anthony Fauci deserves something like combat pay for guiding the nation with his scientific expertise while also doing enough not to get fired.

A writer criticized atheist activist Ron Reagan. In a sign of the times, that letter drew howls of protest from readers.

Bears, deer and other animals are roaming freely in areas once packed by Yosemite tourists. It appears the coronavirus is teaching us something about humans.

The president might not like to work, but the people who think and act for him are very effective at their jobs.

Protesters violating every rule on fighting COVID-19, with the support of the president, show how badly we need competent leadership.

We need local reporting now more than ever, but things don't look good after the folding of three community newspapers in Southern California.

State preemption has been used against local governments on a number of issues; it would be a mistake for that to happen now amid coronavirus fears.

A 2006 law requiring the Postal Service to pre-fund future retirees' health benefits has accelerated the agency's financial decline.

A call to split the U.S. into separate republics based on our deep political divisions draws support from readers.

If you're a cancer patient, you should not avoid treatment because of the pandemic. Surgery and follow-up care cannot wait.

An Inglewood teacher distributes food to families before doing hours of instruction work online. She deserves praise and help.

A resident of Sedona, Ariz., did not appreciate an L.A. Times story on wealthy out-of-towners fleeing to their second homes.

If there are still crowded flights and TSA agents are not required to wear masks, how will we ever be able to return to normal?

The author of the Americans With Disabilities Act warns that coronavirus treatment that takes disability and age into account is immoral and illegal.

Calls to open all beaches because Californians have a right to them are silly and dangerous. Gov. Newsom is making the right call.

There's no evidence that the use of plastic bags prevents exposure to the coronavirus, so why use them instead of reusable bags?

Coronavirus: Los Angeles is doing better than New York, but much worse than San Francisco. Our experience with COVID-19 is not an argument for sprawl.

Readers weigh in on a cellist's front-porch concerts and TV ads in coronavirus time, pop-up bookstores vs. bookmobiles; renegade designs for anew LACMA and more.

"right to literacy": children learn to read mostly at home

Democrats who expect all voters sick of President Trump to vote for Joe Biden are insulting people who care more about the issues than the party.

It's simply wrong when a much younger person dies. Let younger patients take the ventilator if there's a scarcity -- and let doctors make the decision.

Professors don't want us living in single-family homes, the only option for average people to own something all their own.

The people waving the American flag at lockdown protests are using it as a symbol of selfishness.

The Brown Act doesn't give officials any excuse they want to shut out the public from their meetings.

We're comparing the number of Americans to have died from COVID-19 to war casualties. Why not consider AIDS?

A second-generation surivivor whose grandparents died in the Holocaust blasts a newspaper publisher for comparing coronavirus restrictions to Nazi Germany.

Sweden's death rate is high compared with those of its neighbors, who took much more drastic and appropriate action against the pandemic.

An anti-war student in Ohio at the time of the Kent State massacre explains why the protests were led largely by well-off whites.

The president brooks no criticism and disregards inconvenient facts, much like the Chinese government he opposes.