“Melania and Me: The Rise and Fall of My Friendship With the First Lady,” published this week, reveals insights into inauguration and the first lady’s psyche.
The journalist talks about his new book, “The Last Great Road Bum,” which draws on the diary of Midwesterner Joe Sanderson, killed in El Salvador.
The good news: Plague, fire, political corruption and social media are not the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The bad news: There’s no heavenly or magical fix for our problems — just the boring ongoing revolution of equality, justice and universal empathy.
In travel writer Richard Grant’s “The Deepest South of All,” Natchez, Miss., is full of characters, stubborn racist traditions and lots of contradictions.
“Payback,” about a reality star and the teacher who failed her, is the acclaimed writer Mary Gordon’s most topical propulsive novel, to date.
Reading in the time of coronavirus
Brit Bennett brings her bestselling novel, “The Vanishing Half,” to L.A. Times Book Club readers.
Photographer Brian Bowen Smith’s planned photo book, “Drivebys,” will document portraits of American pandemic life — shot through his truck window during an epic cross-country road trip.
Watch Bonnie Tsui, author of “Why We Swim,” joined by Lynne Cox, in conversation with reporter James Rainey.
More Coverage
Laurie R. King wanted the 16th novel in her Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series to be a distraction from the last few years of turbulence, but she has long used the Holmes pastiche to make social and political churn feel like a great adventure.
The novelist and essayist’s slim new collection, “Intimations,” probes our COVID-19 reality as well as her own gifts, blind spots and vulnerabilities.
Susan Orlean went on a drunken Twitter whirlwind Friday night — or was it real? Here’s what the author tells us about her Twitter escapade.
The 71st National Book Awards ceremony and its preceding events are going virtual due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over the last three months, 17 writers provided diaries to the Times of their days in isolation, followed by weeks of protest. This is their story.
The literary holiday June 16 celebrates James Joyce’s great conflation of life and art “Ulysses.” This year the global revels — virtual, for the most part — will be more the latter than the former.
More on Books
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Bestsellers List Sun., Sept. 6, 2020
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Cline’s new collection of short stories, her followup to “The Girls,” features women performing their sexuality and older men in cancellation limbo.
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Vanessa Veselka’s second novel, “The Great Offshore Grounds,” sets sisters off on a wild-goose chase that tears them apart and puts them back together
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Catch up with our recent book talks and forums. Here’s a quick list of what you should read and watch.
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Despite some saying athletes should “Shut up and dribble,” taking stands is nothing new. Here are some movies, books and shows as proof.
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Nancy Jooyoun Kim’s first novel, “The Last Story of Mina Lee,” follows an assimilated daughter solving the puzzle of her Korean mother and her own identity.
Join Our Book Club
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See, hear and interact with world-class authors and newsmakers
July 28: Bonnie Tsui, author of “Why We Swim,” in conversation with Times reporter James Rainey. With special guest: swimmer Lynne Cox. 7 p.m. Watch.
Aug. 25: Brit Bennett, author of “The Vanishing Half,” in conversation with Times writer Carla Hall. 6 p.m.
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Festival of Books
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For four weeks starting October 18, the Los Angeles Times, in partnership with USC, will celebrate 25 years of the Festival of Books, Stories & Ideas with 25 individual virtual events. Given ongoing guidance related to COVID-19, the Times has reimagined the festival as a communitywide gathering to be held online. The programming schedule will be announced in mid-September.
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In ‘Transcendent Kingdom,’ Yaa Gyasi’s second novel, she focuses on America — its promise and peril — and on one Ghanaian American family in Alabama.
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Jean Guerrero, author of “Hatemonger,” talks about the making of Stephen Miller, who helped make Trump president, then remade the U.S. immigration system.
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Bestsellers List Sun., Aug. 30, 2020
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From the British-born tech writer turned novelist, “Red Pill” tracks an academic in Berlin who’s in too deep in an online conspiracy theory.
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A new novel from the pseudonymous author of the Neapolitan quartet is a fascinating, slightly off-balance tale of coming of age in ’90s Naples, Italy.
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Last weekend, First Lady Melania Trump unveiled a renovated Rose Garden, where she’ll give her RNC speech tonight. But there are bigger matters at hand.
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Sheehy’s bestselling book helped millions navigate their lives.
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Eula Biss’ last collection, “On Immunity,” exposed our society’s fragile health. “Having and Being Had” takes on capitalism (and defends Joan Didion).
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A renewed focus on social justice in the wake of police killings of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd has seen sales soar at Black-owned bookstores around the country as customers seek out knowledge from their own communities
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The “Game of Thrones” author says a “token” production did not prevent the film rights to “The Skin Trade” from reverting to him.
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David Heska Wanbli Weiden talks about the motivations and the deeply embedded social and legal problems behind his potboiler “Winter Counts.”
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With most bookstores and libraries still closed, some are turning to the neighborhood boxes, others avoiding the risk. Jay Duplass is on the fence.
Recent hardcover fiction and nonfiction lists.