Sophie Heawood of UK’s Independent takes in the LA bookscape and marvels at a thriving scene.
There’s one shop called Skylight Books, where they had to hastily scrawl signs saying “full to capacity” last night, after so many people crowded on to the street to see hit author Dave Eggers talk about his new book and [...]
Stories in Los Angeles:
Reading LA: `I’ve seen the future and it is literate’
Browsing Skylight Books: favorite book videos
Bookseller and late-night reader Emily Pullen stars in Skylight’s debut video, sharing her latest find at the bookstore’s blog.
Skylight Recommends from Emily Pullen on Vimeo.
Someone to see: upcoming author events
Ray Bradbury will discuss “The Future of Libraries and the Importance of Books” at an event in support of the beleaguered Long Beach Library. 2 pm, Saturday, September 6 in the Main Library Auditorium, 101 Pacific Avenue, Long Beach. [map]
Author Deanne Stillman, photographer Elissa Kline and wild horse conservationist Neda de Mayo will discuss “The [...]
Her frantic, funny life
SoCal writer and radio commentator Sandra Tsing Loh scores a pair of Times reviews this week for her new Mother on Fire.
From Pamela Paul in The New York Times: “Loh’s ability to write a book about a year in the life of a mom, source material for many a tepid memoir (or “momoir,” sigh), and [...]
Quote of the day
“I want to send everyone flowers; offer free backrubs; share a glass of better wine; and stretch out on the grass to stare up at the clouds, and then (after more wine) up at the stars.” — author J. Michael Walker on learning that his All the Saints of the City of the Angels is [...]
Notebook: fREADom, “real” literacy and black humor
About Uncle Bobby: In Uncle Bobby’s Wedding a niece worries that her uncle’s upcoming wedding will change her relationship with him. P.S. The characters are guinea pigs. P.P.S. Uncle Bobby is gay. One Colorado library patron wrote the local paper to say the children’s picture book was a “slap in [her] face” and urged other [...]
They’re California authors, too.
They’re not famous for it, but they are famous, and they’ve got books out this month.
Speaker of the US House of Representatives California Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi will celebrate the launch of her book Know Your Power: A Message to America’s Daughters with three TV appearances on Monday (NBC’s “Today,” ABC’s “The View” and Comedy [...]
Can the LA Times Book Review be saved?
Author Celeste Fremon talks about the prospects for an eleventh-hour turnaround with former LAT Book Editor Steve Wasserman at her Witness LA blog. Freeman also cites some key facts about why keeping the Book Section is a smart business move.
Curious as to where Los Angeles stands as a book buying market, yesterday I called the [...]
From blog to book in LA
LA Times reporter Jill Leovy has sold a book to Spiegel & Grau that expands on her excellent Homicide Report blog, which chronicled murders in Los Angeles County (845 in all) during 2007.
Publisher’s Lunch says Leovy’s book — The Homicide Report: Black Men, Murder and America’s Unseen Catastrophe — will weave together “a [...]
In case you missed it: Does LA need the LAT?
Last week, LAT Chief Russ Stanton visited KRCW’s “Which Way LA?” to discuss the question with Warren Olney and panelists Emma Schafer, Public affairs consultant who runs Los Angeles Current Affairs Forum, Marc Cooper, Visiting Professor of Journalism at USC Annenberg School for Communication and Patrick Frey, Blogger, Patterico.com. From KCRW:
After the Chandler family sold [...]
Photos from opening day of The Big Show
Here’s Donna’s eye-view of the floor at BookExpo America this morning, where she was at the beginning of a great day. Click “Read more…” below for more Day One BEA Pix.
Biggest book party of the year
For the first time in five years, the publishing world returns this week to Los Angeles. The mighty BookExpo is bigger and bolder than ever. You’ll find digital innovations and green-come-lately initiatives galore, and everyone from print-on-demand authors to A-list celebs touting new books. This spring, however, you also may detect a jittery edge to [...]
Remembering Rauschenberg
This week Robert Rauschenberg — one of the titans of 20th century American art — died in his Florida home. He was 82 and still working. In 2006, a major exhibit of his “combines” — his hybrid painting/sculpture combinations, which presaged Pop Art during the ascendancy of Abstract Expressionism — was mounted at the Los [...]
Safe havens under siege
Los Angeles leaders faced an outcry from residents and city workers this week over proposals to slash library services and park rangers. As the LA Daily News reports, “In a budget focused on public safety and boosting the police department, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has recommended slashing the library system’s book-buying budget by $2 million, closing [...]
Bookish LA
Kevin Roderick waxes on the nation’s biggest book market on KCRW and highlights some of SoCal’s new spring’s books — among them Latinos in Lotusland; Hollywood Crows; The Devils of Bakersfield; The Age Of Dreaming; and Great Escapes: Southern California.
There are something like fifteen million people living within the sound of my voice. So there’s [...]
See you at the Festival of Books
This weekend I’ll be at UCLA on Sunday soaking up the sunshine and signing copies of My California: Journeys by Great Writers with Edward Humes and Veronique de Turenne. From 1-2 pm, we’ll be parked at the Angel City Press booth (near Royce Hall).
Carolyn See joins us at 2 pm. Carolyn, btw, has an [...]
Bravo
Publishers Weekly has named Vroman’s in Pasadena, Southern California’s oldest and biggest bookstore, as Bookseller of the Year. Read more and add your comment at the Vroman’s blog.
In other bookstore news: Cody’s has a new home in downtown Berkeley … The San Francisco State University Bookstore now partners with Eco-Libris and invites customers to plant [...]
Reading LA: `I’ve seen the future and it is literate’
Browsing Skylight Books: favorite book videos
Bookseller and late-night reader Emily Pullen stars in Skylight’s debut video, sharing her latest find at the bookstore’s blog.
Skylight Recommends from Emily Pullen on Vimeo.
Someone to see: upcoming author events
Ray Bradbury will discuss “The Future of Libraries and the Importance of Books” at an event in support of the beleaguered Long Beach Library. 2 pm, Saturday, September 6 in the Main Library Auditorium, 101 Pacific Avenue, Long Beach. [map]
Author Deanne Stillman, photographer Elissa Kline and wild horse conservationist Neda de Mayo will discuss “The [...]
Her frantic, funny life
SoCal writer and radio commentator Sandra Tsing Loh scores a pair of Times reviews this week for her new Mother on Fire.
From Pamela Paul in The New York Times: “Loh’s ability to write a book about a year in the life of a mom, source material for many a tepid memoir (or “momoir,” sigh), and [...]
Quote of the day
“I want to send everyone flowers; offer free backrubs; share a glass of better wine; and stretch out on the grass to stare up at the clouds, and then (after more wine) up at the stars.” — author J. Michael Walker on learning that his All the Saints of the City of the Angels is [...]
Notebook: fREADom, “real” literacy and black humor
About Uncle Bobby: In Uncle Bobby’s Wedding a niece worries that her uncle’s upcoming wedding will change her relationship with him. P.S. The characters are guinea pigs. P.P.S. Uncle Bobby is gay. One Colorado library patron wrote the local paper to say the children’s picture book was a “slap in [her] face” and urged other [...]
They’re California authors, too.
They’re not famous for it, but they are famous, and they’ve got books out this month.
Speaker of the US House of Representatives California Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi will celebrate the launch of her book Know Your Power: A Message to America’s Daughters with three TV appearances on Monday (NBC’s “Today,” ABC’s “The View” and Comedy [...]
Can the LA Times Book Review be saved?
Author Celeste Fremon talks about the prospects for an eleventh-hour turnaround with former LAT Book Editor Steve Wasserman at her Witness LA blog. Freeman also cites some key facts about why keeping the Book Section is a smart business move.
Curious as to where Los Angeles stands as a book buying market, yesterday I called the [...]
From blog to book in LA
LA Times reporter Jill Leovy has sold a book to Spiegel & Grau that expands on her excellent Homicide Report blog, which chronicled murders in Los Angeles County (845 in all) during 2007.
Publisher’s Lunch says Leovy’s book — The Homicide Report: Black Men, Murder and America’s Unseen Catastrophe — will weave together “a [...]
In case you missed it: Does LA need the LAT?
Last week, LAT Chief Russ Stanton visited KRCW’s “Which Way LA?” to discuss the question with Warren Olney and panelists Emma Schafer, Public affairs consultant who runs Los Angeles Current Affairs Forum, Marc Cooper, Visiting Professor of Journalism at USC Annenberg School for Communication and Patrick Frey, Blogger, Patterico.com. From KCRW:
After the Chandler family sold [...]
Photos from opening day of The Big Show
Here’s Donna’s eye-view of the floor at BookExpo America this morning, where she was at the beginning of a great day. Click “Read more…” below for more Day One BEA Pix.
Biggest book party of the year
For the first time in five years, the publishing world returns this week to Los Angeles. The mighty BookExpo is bigger and bolder than ever. You’ll find digital innovations and green-come-lately initiatives galore, and everyone from print-on-demand authors to A-list celebs touting new books. This spring, however, you also may detect a jittery edge to [...]
Remembering Rauschenberg
This week Robert Rauschenberg — one of the titans of 20th century American art — died in his Florida home. He was 82 and still working. In 2006, a major exhibit of his “combines” — his hybrid painting/sculpture combinations, which presaged Pop Art during the ascendancy of Abstract Expressionism — was mounted at the Los [...]
Safe havens under siege
Los Angeles leaders faced an outcry from residents and city workers this week over proposals to slash library services and park rangers. As the LA Daily News reports, “In a budget focused on public safety and boosting the police department, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has recommended slashing the library system’s book-buying budget by $2 million, closing [...]
Bookish LA
Kevin Roderick waxes on the nation’s biggest book market on KCRW and highlights some of SoCal’s new spring’s books — among them Latinos in Lotusland; Hollywood Crows; The Devils of Bakersfield; The Age Of Dreaming; and Great Escapes: Southern California.
There are something like fifteen million people living within the sound of my voice. So there’s [...]
See you at the Festival of Books
This weekend I’ll be at UCLA on Sunday soaking up the sunshine and signing copies of My California: Journeys by Great Writers with Edward Humes and Veronique de Turenne. From 1-2 pm, we’ll be parked at the Angel City Press booth (near Royce Hall).
Carolyn See joins us at 2 pm. Carolyn, btw, has an [...]
Bravo
Publishers Weekly has named Vroman’s in Pasadena, Southern California’s oldest and biggest bookstore, as Bookseller of the Year. Read more and add your comment at the Vroman’s blog.
In other bookstore news: Cody’s has a new home in downtown Berkeley … The San Francisco State University Bookstore now partners with Eco-Libris and invites customers to plant [...]
Meet the authors of the California Authors Directory. Visit the directory to discover writers like Andrew Sean Greer, a San Francisco novelist whose latest book, 
You can shop online from your local independent booksellers.