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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.




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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).




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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."




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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.




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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?




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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.




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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."




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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.




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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.




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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.




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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.




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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.




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Michelle Obama will read your kids a story by video on Mondays

Former First Lady Michelle Obama will be reading children's books in a weekly series of videos for Penguin Random House and PBS Kids through May 11.




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Laura Lippman comforts herself with old YA, actor Venn diagrams and costume selfies

What crime novelist Laura Lippman is reading and watching in quarantine




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Review: The rich are still different in the South Bay novel 'The Knockout Queen'

In Rufi Thorpe's novel, a poor, closeted teenager befriends a wealthy girl, until an act of violence lays their class distinctions bare.




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Review: Was Andy Warhol a saint or scourge, genius or dolt? A new biography befits a great life

Blake Gopnik's definitive 'Warhol' gathers up all the receipts on the blank icon who stormed the barricades of art, only to serve it up to commerce.




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Just in time for global distress, astrology hits the bookshelves

We tend to look to the stars in troubled times. "Astro Poets," "You Were Born for This" and "Madame Clairevoyant's Guide to the Stars" teach us how.




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Want to know more about the real 'Mrs. America'? Here's your reading list

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




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Watch the L.A. Times Book Club's virtual meet-up with author Fanny Singer and chef Alice Waters

'Always Home' author Fanny Singer worries more about running out of garlic than toilet paper.




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Their beautifully curated vintage-book pop-ups were thriving. Along came coronavirus

Nick Capizzi and Jenny Yang founded A Good Used Book in 2018 as an itinerant book-browsing mecca. Now they're surviving on hope and Instagram.




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Review: A dark corner of California's migrant history, illuminated in a debut novel

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




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'Station Eleven' author Emily St. John Mandel joins the L.A. Times Book Club May 19

Emily St. John Mandel chronicles a global pandemic and financial crisis in her novels, 'Station Eleven' and 'The Glass Hotel.'




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Quarantined Stephanie Danler works in bed and wages a 'subtle music war' with her family

The author of "Sweetbitter" juggles child care and promoting her new L.A. area memoir, "Stray," reads poetry and takes solace in "The Office."




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Review: The cowboys of Compton, first a curiosity and then a legacy

Walter Thompson-Hernández's "The Compton Cowboys: The New Generation of Cowboys in America's Urban Heartland" tells a grand story in granular detail.




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They came to make art in isolation; the pandemic forced them to stay

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




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Pomona professor, poet and translator Robert Mezey dies

A brilliant, mercurial and often rebellious poet and critic, would-be translator of Jorge Luis Borges and mentor to John Darnielle and many others.




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A sidelined novelist copes with deadlines, dread and family in quarantine

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




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Beyond the dragon tattoo: How Wendy Lesser plunged into Scandinavian crime

In 'Scandinavian Noir: In Pursuit of a Mystery,' the critic travels to Nordic cities to investigate the society that shaped a global phenomenon.




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Three essential Nordic crime series from Wendy Lesser's 'Scandinavian Noir'

In an excerpt from "Scandinavian Noir: In Pursuit of a Mystery," the essayist Wendy Lasser recommends her favorite writers in the booming genre.




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Colson Whitehead wins second fiction Pulitzer, Ben Moser's 'Sontag' wins for biography

Colson Whitehead, Ben Moser, Jericho Brown, Anne Boyer and Greg Grandin are the 2020 recipients of Pulitzer Prizes for books.




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Why are entertainers so depressed? Comedian John Moe has been asking for years

He's interviewed Neko Case, Jeff Tweedy and Maria Bamford about depression. With his new memoir, "The Hilarious World of Depression," John Moe looks inward.




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Charles Yu quarantines with disaster blockbusters, Wong Kar-wai and 'Ozark'

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





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Letters to the Editor: How can Trump's critics possibly get through to his supporters?

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




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Letters to the Editor: The COVID-19 pandemic sickens NIMBYs with heartlessness

Laguna Woods residents express dismay at their neighbors' opposition to using a nearby hotel as housing for homeless coronavirus patients.




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Letters to the Editor: How L.A.'s hotel industry is stepping up in the COVID-19 crisis

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




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Letters to the Editor: Finally, the coronavirus screening we need — blood antibody testing

Screening a sample of the population to see who has been infected with COVID-19 and who hasn't is a huge step forward in returning to normal life.




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Letters to the Editor: Ease Iran sanctions during coronavirus pandemic. It's what a Christian country should do

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




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Letters to the Editor: The Supreme Court's Wisconsin decision shows how democracy ends

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




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Letters to the Editor: Why just a running mate? Joe Biden should name his entire Cabinet

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




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Letters to the Editor: I had to make many, many calls about my unemployment benefits. This is a crisis

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




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Letters to the Editor: Treat clean energy like fossil fuel by giving it plenty of government money

Clean energy wants a level playing field with fossil fuels and nuclear power. It needs government funding for that to happen.




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Letters to the Editor: Being a scientist while placating a narcissist — Anthony Fauci's impossible job

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




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Letters to the Editor: Restart the economy? We can't even stock enough toilet paper right now

It's insane to think life can return to normal soon when we haven't even figured out how to get enough milk and toilet paper into stores.




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Letters to the Editor: Trump didn't prepare for the coronavirus, and neither did you

People who blame the president for failing to prepare the country ignore an important fact: We didn't want to believe America was vulnerable to COVID-19.




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Letters to the Editor: A Yosemite with no people and only animals is a sight to behold

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.




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Letters to the Editor: Unodocumented workers pay taxes. They deserve more than one-time coronavirus aid

A program for one-time assistance to undocumented workers affected by the pandemic is a start, but California must do much more.




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Letters to the Editor: You can order TP on Amazon, but you might not actually receive it

A reader says it's nice to know she wasn't the only one who was apparently duped after she bought packages of toilet paper on the Amazon Marketplace.




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Letters to the Editor: Yeah, Trump is lazy, but underestimating him is dangerous

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




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Letters to the Editor: 'Liberate' protests show why Trump is such a dangerous president

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