Books: Sherman Alexie, the Grim Sleeper and more

This weekend, you may be smart enough to be settled in by your air conditioner with a book. If you’re looking for something new to read, how about …

THE BIG STORY

Have you ever seen Sherman Alexie read? It’s more like a one-man show. When I saw him in Seattle a few years ago, the evening was full of laughs. Expect his Los Angeles event on July 18 to be funny but serious too because he’ll be talking about his book “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me,” about his difficult relationship with his mother. Kate Tuttle talked to Alexie for us.

THE GRIM SLEEPER

Journalist Christine Pelisek’s book “The Grim Sleeper” is about Lonnie D. Franklin Jr., the South L.A. serial killer who may have slain 25 women or more and whose crimes initially were overlooked by the LAPD. What resonates, writes Alexander Nazaryan in our review, are the stories of the victims — often women who were in trouble.

BESTSELLERS

Debuting at No. 2 on our fiction bestseller list this week is “The Force,” Don Winslow’s novel of a dirty cop in New York. “From the snitches in the street to the feds in Manhattan,” wrote Jim Ruland in our review, “everyone wants a piece of Malone and with good reason: He’s dirtier than the water in a Nathan’s hot dog cart.”

Don Winslow

(Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

MORE STORIES

Joshua Cohen’s new novel, “Moving Kings,” is brilliant, writes Mark Athitakis in our review.

The novel “Sex and Rage” by Eve Babitz, a reissue, tells the story of a certain kind of 1970s L.A. It Girl, writes Michelle Dean.

The Los Angeles Review of Books has teamed with USC for a five-week publishing workshop that’s somewhat like those on the East Coast, writes Agatha French, but not entirely the same.

And Susan Straight, one of our critics at large, shares a massive map of 737 novels she read that make up a personal literary America at Granta. Start planning your road trips now.

Thanks for reading!

carolyn.kellogg@latimes.com

@paperhaus