Features
The acclaimed novelist Téa Obreht’s sweeping ‘Sunrise,’ James M. Scott’s propulsive World War II history ‘Empire of Ashes’ and Jill Lepore’s ‘The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State,’ are among this month’s most anticipated fiction and nonfiction releases.
Ultimate L.A. Bookshelf
Your ultimate L.A. Bookshelf is here — a guide to the 110 essential L.A. books, plus essays, supporting quotes and a ranked list of the best of the best.
Best Hollywood books
In advance of this year’s Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, we’re unveiling our Ultimate Hollywood Bookshelf. Find out which novels, memoirs and more made our list.
Literary L.A.
A guide to the literary geography of Los Angeles: A comprehensive bookstore map, writers’ meetups, place histories, an author survey, essays and more.
More on Books
The Southern California Independent Bookstore Bestsellers list for Sunday, Aug. 2, 2026, including hardcover and paperback fiction and nonfiction.
Before his viral Twitter feed launched him into a successful Hollywood career, a painful Little League error taught a 12-year-old Justin Halpern a lesson about passion that echoes through his new book.
As the first trailer for ‘Children of Blood and Bone’ drops, director Gina Prince-Bythewood shares why it took three offers to get her on board and seems to address the casting drama that led to the author distancing herself from the project.
Booker Prize winners Marlon James and Douglas Stuart are in the running for the 2026 edition of the prestigious fiction award
Dan Werb discusses his new book, ‘Our Wild Familiars,’ about how wild animals learned to thrive in cities. Plus, we pay a visit to the Philosophical Research Society in Los Feliz.
-
The Southern California Independent Bookstore Bestsellers list for Sunday, July 26, 2026, including hardcover and paperback fiction and nonfiction.
Claire Vaye Watkins, a UC Irvine writing professor, opens up about the inspiration behind her sharp and funny new novel “Yellow Pine.”
Participating locations stretch across the entire L.A. region, featuring institutions like Vroman’s in Pasadena, the reopened Book Soup in West Hollywood and niche favorites like Culver City’s The Ripped Bodice.
ReviewMedicare sucks. Caregiving is hard. Too bad the pain of aging feels like old news in new memoir
Inspired by caring for one grandmother, and mourning another, Lucy Schiller’s ‘Aging Out’ wanders through America’s eldercare issues, tracing a map of isolation.
With his new novel ‘Cool Machine’ out now, revisit how Colson Whitehead evolved from an avant-garde stylist into a bestselling, genre-defying novelist. Here is your essential reading cheat sheet.
ReviewIs this the book of the year? Colson Whitehead’s Harlem trilogy meets its perfect, gritty end
The Pulitzer Prize-winner pivots to the 1980s in ‘Cool Machine,’ delivering a dazzling, humor-infused masterpiece that cements his Harlem trilogy as an American classic.
We loved Holden Caulfield at 16, but how does the book hold up? Six California writers unpack the enduring power of Salinger’s only novel as it turns 75.
Weekly hardcover fiction and nonfiction lists.