Books - latimes.com

Jaron Lanier takes a hard look at the wired world

By Carolyn Kellogg, Los Angeles Times — Thu, 16 May 2013 14:15:00 PDT

The Writer's Life: The smart, accessible 'Who Owns the Future?' peers critically at the online state of affairs and finds it out of balance.

Jaron Lanier has a research job with Microsoft. He won't go into specfics, but it has something to do with imagining the future and asking questions.

Mo Hayder's 'Poppet' takes nuanced, compelling look at evil

By Paula L. Woods, Special to the Los Angeles Times — Fri, 17 May 2013 12:00:00 PDT

Detective Inspector Jack Caffery and Sgt. Flea Marley investigate strange occurrences at a psychiatric hospital and the disappearance of a footballer's wife.

Since introducing Detective Inspector Jack Caffery 14 years ago in "Birdman," Mo Hayder has written some of the grisliest crime fiction in recent memory. Caffery's cases in London and, later, in Bristol's Major Crime Investigation Team, have included the murder and bizarre postmortem autopsies of women by a surgically trained serial killer, abducted children and sadistic African rituals. That's enough evil to keep readers awake long after the cases are solved.

'Stuck in the Middle' offers a singular perspective on parenting

By Stephen Burt — Thu, 16 May 2013 15:00:00 PDT

Author and transgender advocate Jennifer Finney Boylan looks at motherhood, fatherhood and the putative difference in this new memoir.

Jennifer Finney Boylan was the father of two young boys, a devoted husband, a keyboard player in bar bands, the author of three published novels, and an English professor in Maine when she began the process that would make her outwardly — anatomically and socially — the woman she felt she had always been on the inside. Her book about life before, during and after that transition, "She's Not There" (2003), made her a guiding star for many transgender readers: Here was somebody who made all the changes she needed and, despite all the growing pains, got to keep most of her life.

'The Roberts Court' captures an important transformation

By Jim Newton, Los Angeles Times — Fri, 17 May 2013 15:00:00 PDT

Marcia Coyle skillfully reports on the aggressive turn the Supreme Court has taken under Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.

At his confirmation hearings for the position of chief justice of the United States, John G. Roberts Jr. parried skeptics with a reassuring metaphor: "Judges are like umpires," he memorably testified. "Umpires don't make the rules, they apply them. The role of an umpire and a judge is critical to make sure everybody plays by the rules. But it is a limited role."

John le Carre's 'A Delicate Truth' isn't gentle with war on terror

By Richard Rayner — Thu, 16 May 2013 13:00:00 PDT

The novelist takes on the idea that sins committed in pursuing national goals will be forgiven and forgotten.

John le Carré's novels have responded brilliantly to the absence of the Cold War, which was, from 1963's classic "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" to "The Secret Pilgrim" in 1990, their traditional domain.

Belle & Sebastian's Stuart David to write a book about the band

By Carolyn Kellogg — Thu, 16 May 2013 09:27:00 PDT

Stuart David, a founding member of Belle & Sebastian and its original bass player, will write a memoir about his time in the seminal indie pop band.

Stuart David, a founding member of Belle & Sebastian and its original bass player, will write a memoir about his time in the seminal indie pop band. The book, "In the All-Night Cafe," will be published by Little, Brown's Abacus imprint in the U.K. in spring 2015.

A Carlos Fuentes boom on the anniversary of his death

By Hector Tobar — Wed, 15 May 2013 13:19:00 PDT

The Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes is the subject of a small, literary boom on the anniversary of his death.

The Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes is the subject of a small, literary boom on the anniversary of his death.

Dan Brown: Happy 'Inferno' publication day

By Carolyn Kellogg — Tue, 14 May 2013 09:36:00 PDT

Happy publication day to Dan Brown, whose latest Robert Langdon thriller, "Inferno," officially hits shelves Tuesday. Online, it's already declared its dominance: It's Amazon's No. 1 bestselling book.

Happy publication day to Dan Brown, whose latest Robert Langdon thriller, "Inferno," officially hits shelves Tuesday. Online, it's already declared its dominance: It's Amazon's No. 1 bestselling book -- thanks to preorders, it has been in the website's top 100 books for 119 days.

Welcome to Easy Rawlins' world: a Q&A with Walter Mosley

By David L. Ulin, Los Angeles Times Book Critic — Mon, 13 May 2013 07:00:00 PDT

A few weeks ago, I met Walter Mosley on Pico Boulevard near Fairfax, around the corner from where he was raised. This is a neighborhood that still fuels Mosley¿s imagination.

A few weeks ago, I met Walter Mosley on Pico Boulevard near Fairfax, around the corner from where he was raised. This is a neighborhood that still fuels Mosley’s imagination; it’s where his detective Easy Rawlins lives, and where a good deal of his new novel, “Little Green,” takes place.

Revisiting Federico Garcia Lorca in a novel -- and in the writer's own voice

By Hector Tobar, Los Angeles Times — Fri, 10 May 2013 13:00:00 PDT

Carlos Rojas' inventive novel 'Ingenious Gentleman' and a new edition of the poet-playwright's 'Poet in New York' bring the writer back to life.

The great poet and playwright Federico Garcia Lorca was already one of Spain's most popular writers when he was executed by right-wing militiamen in 1936 at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. His body has never been found. The shadowy circumstances of murder, together with the posthumous publication of several more of his plays and poetry collections, have only fed the Lorca legend.