Monday
Cristina Garcia discusses A Handbook to Luck 7pm @ Vroman's
Criss Angel presents Mindfreak: Secret Revelations 7pm @ Book Soup

Tuesday
Criss Angel presents Mindfreak: Secret Revelations 6pm @ Borders, Westwood
Steven Bach presents Leni: The Life and Leni Riefenstahl 7pm @ Book Soup

Wednesday
Steven Bach presents Leni: The Life and Leni Riefenstahl 7pm @ Central Library
Rue McClanahan presents My First Five Husbands and the Ones Who Got Away 7pm @ Book Soup
Gary Geddes signs Kingdom of Ten Thousand Things 7pm @ Dutton's

Thursday
Kirk Douglas presents Let's Face It 7pm @ Book Soup
Kim Deitch signs Alias the Cat 7pm @ Family
Cindy Bokma discusses and signs A Thousand Dollars for a Kiss 7pm @ Vroman's
Maia Danziger signs Relax & Write 7:30pm @ Village Books

Friday
Bob Armstrong presents Vanilla Slim: An Improbable Pimp in the Empire of Lust 7pm @ Book Soup
Dan Madigan discusses Mondo Lucha a Go-Go 7pm @ Vroman's

Saturday
Alissa Lukara signs Riding Grace: A Triumph of the Soul 2pm @ Dutton's
Jeffrey Lewis presents Theme Song for an Old Show 2pm @ Metropolis Books
Audrey Niffenegger reads The Time Traveler's Wife 3pm @ Santa Monica College
Mary Otis signs Yes, Yes, Cherries 5pm @ Book Soup
Josh Goldfaden presents Human Resources 5pm @ Book Soup
John Gilmore discusses Inside Marilyn Monroe: A Memoir 7pm @ Circus of Books, West Hollywood

Sunday
David Sundstrand discusses Shadow of the Raven 4pm @ Vroman's

Photo by new adventures in photography via Flickr

The LA Times has nominated five books in each of nine different categories for the 2007 Los Angeles Times Book Prizes. In the weeks leading up to the Festival of Books where the winners will be announced, LAist will take a quick look at each category and will wax poetic on a few favorites (or least favorites) along the way. The Beautiful Fall is a nominee in Current Interest.

In 1954, two fledgling fashion designers won awards from the International Wool Secretariat: Yves Saint Laurent, age 18; and Karl Lagerfeld, age 21. The tenuous friendship they developed – as exiles, prodigious talents, and gay men at ease with their sexuality – matured into a fierce rivalry, a competition for friends, clients, and in one instance, a lover.

Alicia Drake’s book tracks the parallel careers of Saint Laurent and Lagerfeld from 1954 through 1989 and beyond. She spends most of her time describing the over-the-top 1970s, when work and play in Paris were given over to a dérèglement des sens in which each designer realized his shadow self: Saint Laurent’s overindulgence in drugs and alcohol fueled his bipolar episodes; while Lagerfeld tended to be more of a spectator than a participant, his controlling coldness hardened into the faux aristocratic persona he still affects.

Drake’s book is fashion history and a compelling character study, with some excellent dish served up along the way (think of the film The Damned). Certainly many fashion designers concoct a mythic past (Coco Chanel, Ralph Lauren), but few as entertainingly – in Drake’s telling – as Lagerfeld, who tells a fellow party guest about a nineteenth-century painting his mother gave him when he was a child, neglecting to mention that she gave him a cheap reproduction. Along the way, Lagerfeld snips a few years from his age; although he is allegedly 3 years older than Saint Laurent, last month in a profile in The New Yorker, he cited an age that is 3 years younger.

The LA Times has nominated five books in each of nine different categories for the 2007 Los Angeles Times Book Prizes. In the weeks leading up to the Festival of Books where the winners will be announced, LAist will take a quick look at each category and will wax poetic on a few favorites (or least favorites) along the way.

The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast by Douglas Brinkley – Brinkley lets the victims do the talking in this hour-by-hour account of Hurricane Katrina. From the hurricane itself, to the storm-surge flooding to the full scale mismanagement of our country’s resources in a time of crisis, Brinkley leaves no angle unexamined, no question unasked. His ability to interview subjects at a time of great distress is a rare one and he elicits some compelling stories from people on all sides of the event from the Coast Guard to the Louisiana SPCA. Brinkley has amassed an exhaustive look at every facet of what went wrong, how it went wrong and why.

Why you might like it: It is the definitive compilation of everything that happened.
Why you might not: Definitive compilations that span 700 pages can be exhausting.

Murder in Amsterdam: The Death of Theo van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance by Ian Buruma – Buruma expands on his New Yorker article in this full-length look at the murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh at the hands of Islamic extremist Mohammed Bouyeri. Buruma asks the big questions about native-born Dutch vs. Muslim immigrants and the problems that arise when any one group is denied a place in the society to which they were born. He also takes a close look at Theo van Gogh and his inflammatory performance art, wondering how it all got so out of control. As a Dutch-born journalist, Buruma examines his homeland with careful detail, yet doesn’t ultimately answer some of the big questions he asks.

Why you might like it: Examining why such a brutal murder took place is important.
Why you might not: The big questions are asked, but never answered.

Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone by Rajiv Chandrasekaran – If you read one book about Iraq, this should be it. Chandrasekaran’s role as the Baghdad bureau chief for the Washington Post has given him the clarity of both the short and the long view. He documents events in Iraq from the moment we stepped foot on the sand. The results are devastating – from government contractors eager to fatten their wallets to military power and planning gone terribly awry, we see the inner workings of the fiasco that is Iraq. Chandrasekaran also spends time with those who really are trying to make things better, despite all the red tape and madness. He makes one thing painfully clear: we were doomed from the moment this war was conceived.

Why you might like it: There are many books about Iraq, but few are as good as this.
Why you might not: If you believe all's well in Iraq, this book’s not for you.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Halberstam died yesterday in a car crash in Menlo Park, CA. He was 73. Halberstam’s work as a journalist ranges wide and delves deep. He covered the Korean War, the Vietnam War and civil rights but he was also fascinated with the humanity and spectacle of sports. He did not simply document the history he lived through – he explained complex societal constructs and cultural shifts in a way that anyone could easily understand. He was one of the only journalists who questioned the Vietnam War early on and it was this same questioning – throughout his life and his work – that allowed him to uncover facts that other journalists side-stepped.

Halberstam was in Berkeley this week to interview retired football quarterback Y.A. Tittle for his latest book about the dramatic 1958 Baltimore Colts’ vs. New York Giants game – a game that Halberstam viewed as pivotal in making football the spectator sport it has become today. He was scheduled to fly to Los Angeles last night and was expected to appear at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel on Thursday for an event honoring David A. Gill. Halberstam had planned to discuss the similarities and differences between the Vietnam and Iraq wars with LA Times columnist Tim Rutten.

Halberstam’s brand of ask-the-tough-questions journalism was absent in the early coverage of our run-up to the Iraq war. We wonder what Halberstam would have said on Thursday night about this coverage, about where we are now (Iraq) vs. where we were then (Vietnam) – we’re guessing he'd strongly advocate for more questioning, more independent digging, on the part of our nation’s journalists.

Halberstam’s legacy is immense – from his work in the field to his many books. Yet, we hope that his desire to uncover the truth becomes a maxim for today’s working writers, journalists and thinkers. We can’t think of a more important gift to leave the world.

Halberstam's Non-Fiction Work includes: The Making of a Quagmire: America and Vietnam During the Kennedy Era, The Unfinished Odyseey of Robert Kennedy, Ho, The Best and the Brightest, The Powers That Be, The Breaks of the Game, The Amateurs: The Story of Four Young Men and Their Quest for an Olympic Gold Medal, The Reckoning, The Summer of '49, The Next Century, The Fifties, October 1964, The Children, Playing for Keeps: Michael Jordan and the World He Made, War in a Time of Peace: Bush, Clinton and the Generals, Firehouse, The Teammates, The Education of a Coach, The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War

Notable Halberstam interviews & speeches: Speech to the Columbia University Journalism School, NPR interview on Iraq, Powell's interview about Teammates, CNN interview, NY Times interview, Salon interview about Michael Jordan, discussion of War in a Time of Peace, discussing The Children, and Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities interview.

AP Photo

The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books will be held this week on Saturday & Sunday, April 28 - 29th.

Monday
Cathryn Jakobson Ramin signs Carved in Sand 7pm @ Dutton's

Tuesday
Jeff Hobbs presents The Tourists 7pm @ Book Soup
Jeffrey Lewis signs Theme Song for an Old Show 7pm @ Dutton's
Santa Montefiore discusses and signs The Gypsy Madonna 7pm @ Vroman's

Wednesday
Kristen Buckley presents Tramps Like Us: A New Jersey Tale 7pm Book Soup
Sherman Alexie discusses Flight 7pm @ Vroman's
Mary Otis signs Yes, Yes, Cherries 7pm @ Dutton's
David Sedaris reads his work and makes the audience laugh 8pm @ Royce Hall, UCLA

Thursday
Daniel Meyers signs In a Dybbuk’s Raincoat: Collected Poems 7pm @ Dutton's
Dan Matthews signs Committed: A Rabble-Rouser's Memoir 7pm @ Borders, Westwood
Tom Gamache and Matthew Jaffe sign Santa Monica Mountains:Range on the Edge 7:30pm @ Village Books
Tim Gunn presents A Guide to Quality, Taste & Style 7:30pm @ A Different Light Bookstore
Steven Hall presents The Raw Shark Texts 7:30pm @ Skylight Books

Friday
Walter Isaacson discusses and signs Einstein: His Life & Universe 7pm @ All Saints Church
Laura Lippman discusses and signs What the Dead Know 7pm @ Vroman's

Saturday
Amy Stewart discusses and signs Flower Confidential 5pm @ Village Books

Sunday
Maggie Nelson (The Red Parts) & Matthew Sharpe (Jamestown) read their work 6pm @ Hammer Museum

Photo by s-square via Flickr

by Kathleen Bishop

It’s easy to get sucked into Jonathan Green’s novel An Abundance of Katherines for selfish reasons: Protagonist Colin Singleton develops a mathematical formula to predict the outcome of any relationship.

We'll be honest: LAist hoped it would work.

Yeah, it’s a sad state of affairs when adults find themselves referencing young adult fiction for advice about their love lives, but Green’s story and characters are honest and clever enough that you probably won’t mind so much when the formula turns out to be a bust.

Eighteen-year-old Colin Singleton is a former child prodigy who has yet to develop into an adult genius. And he has just been dumped by a girl named Katherine. This was the 19th girl named Katherine he's dated and the 19th Katherine that's dumped him.

Without a Katherine or an intellectual “Eureka” moment to catapult him into full genius mode, Colin finds himself laying face down on his carpet, convinced that his life is failure. Enter best friend Hassan (stereotypical funnyman sidekick, but Green pulls it off), who persuades Colin to take a road trip to ease his pain. They end up in middle-of-nowhere Gutshot, Tenn., where adventure, romance, the mathematical formula and self-growth ensue.

The most refreshing part of Green’s sophomore effort – his debut novel was 2006 Michael L. Printz Prize Winner Looking for Alaska – is that it manages to tell a story about teenagers for teenage readers that doesn’t feel like “This Week...On a Very Special Blossom.”

But the plot relies too heavily on gimmicks (Colin Singleton has NEVER dated anyone not named Katherine? C’mon) and glosses over some glaringly unrealistic moments (a wealthy woman invites Colin and Hassan to live with her and her daughter in Gutshot for the summer and pays them $500 a week. Yeah, right. That doesn’t happen unless there's some serious illegal activity going on). But Green’s characters are smart and funny with authentically teenage traits, and he takes their lives seriously without ever trivializing their emotions just because they’re kids.

Colin’s ultimate realization is that it’s impossible to know the future of a relationship -- or life. Though he might not be the genius he expected himself to be, and he might not have the Katherine he always wanted, he finds comfort in the fact that the best things are often the most unpredictable. It’s a notion that could do some good for over-scheduled, hyper-anxious teens -- and adult soul searchers alike.

The LA Times has nominated five books in each of nine different categories for the 2007 Los Angeles Times Book Prizes. In the weeks leading up to the Festival of Books where the winners will be announced, LAist will take a quick look at each category and will wax poetic on a few favorites (or least favorites) along the way.

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume 1: The Pox Party by M.T. Anderson – Anderson’s book spans several genres and many literary traditions as it tells the story of Octavian, a young black boy who lives in 18th century Boston under the tutelage of his radical scientist & philosopher guardians. While he is given an excellent education, he soon learns that he isn’t free-–despite early illusions to the contrary—and he plots his escape. It would be too easy to call this science fiction. Too simple to call it fantasy or adventure. This novel is, dare we say it, uncategorizeable. It tackles the big subjects – freedom, patriotism, courage, racism and privilege – in a truly unique fashion, to devastating effect.

Why you might like it: It ends with a cliffhanger.
Why you might not: It ends with a cliffhanger.

Tyrell by Coe Booth – Tyrell doesn’t have an easy life. His mother’s fraudulent welfare scheme has forced the family to move to a roach-filled homeless shelter, his father is in prison and at 15, he’s dropped out of high school. Between his mother pushing him to sell drugs to help the family get back on its feet and his girlfriend upset with him for dropping out of school, Tyrell is stretched thin. Too thin. He is faced with the difficult choice: easy money the wrong way, or slow money the right way. Booth’s treatment of this often-examined subject works because Tyrell’s story unfolds in unexpected ways.

Why you might like it: It’s tough and funny, with a few twists.
Why you might not: Familiar terrain, somewhat familiar refrain.

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green – Colin Singleton has had many girlfriends in his short life. All of them were named Katherine. As he graduates from high school and ponders college (did we mention he’s a genius?), his latest Katherine flame dumps him & he’s a mess. Why? This latest dump means a total sum of 19 breakups in as many years. A road trip with his friend Hassan is deemed the perfect antidote and they set off to cure his broken heart. Through some nerdy math that involves a possible theorem of love, Colin & Hassan try to right the wrong of being dumped.

Why you might like it: Consider it therapy for your own painful high school breakups.
Why you might not: The mere thought of revisiting painful high school breakups…

Monday
T.C. Boyle reads and chats with David Ulin 7pm @ Mark Taper Forum
Jennifer Kaufman & Karen Mack present Literacy and Longing in L.A. 7pm @ Studio Branch Library
Denise Hamilton & contributors signs Los Angeles Noir 7pm @ Borders Torrance
Pat Montandon discusses Oh, the Hell of It All 7pm @ Vroman's

Tuesday
Barry Glassner discusses The Gospel of Food 7pm @ Central Library
Kirk Douglas signs Let's Face It 7pm @ Borders Century City
Lisa Lutz signs The Spellman Files 7pm @ Dutton's
Poets discuss Voices from Leimert Park: A Poetry Anthology 6:30pm @ Vroman's
Pat Montandon presents Oh the Hell of it All 7pm @ Book Soup
Victoria Rowell presents The Women Who Raised Me 7:30pm @ Barnes & Noble, The Grove

Wednesday
Roger Rapoport signs Citizen Moore 7pm @ Dutton's
Richard Preston discusses The Wild Trees: A Story of Passion and Daring 7pm @ Central Library
Ayn Carrillo-Gailey presents Pornology 7pm @ Book Soup

Thursday
Aimee Liu presents Gaining: The Truth About Life After Eating Disorders 6:30pm @ Westwood Branch Library
A.M. Homes discusses and signs The Mistress's Daughter 7pm @ Vroman's
Harlan Ellison in discussion with Josh Olson 7pm @ Writer's Guild Theater
Terrance Hayes reads from Wind in a Box 7pm @ Hammer Museum
Joanna Barret presents Men's Guide to the Women's Bathroom 7pm @ Book Soup
Linda Olsson presents Astrid and Veronika 7:30pm @ Barnes & Noble Encino
Laura Diamond discusses Deliver Me 7:30pm @ Village Books
Annie Choi presents Happy Birthday or Whatever 7:30pm @ Barnes & Noble, 3rd Street Promenade
Rene Syler signs Good Enough Mother 7:30pm @ Barnes & Noble, The Grove

Friday
Cal Ripken, Jr. discusses and signs Get in the Game 5:30pm @ Vroman's
Matt Diehl presents My So-Called Punk 7pm @ Book Soup
Arnold Steinhardt signs Violin Dreams 7pm @ Dutton's
Elizabeth Davidson signs Funky to Fabulous 7:30pm @ Village Books

Saturday
Jill Smolinski signs The Next Thing on My List 2pm @ Dutton's
Ken Corre discusses and signs his novel The Victim Donor 4pm @ Village Books
Denise Hamilton & contributors discuss and sign Los Angeles Noir 5pm @ Skylight Books
Peter Case presents As Far As You Can Get Without a Passport 7pm @ Book Soup

Sunday
Katrina Andrews presents Cool! You're Pregnant: The Handbook for the Busy Woman 4pm @ Book Soup
Felicia Luna Lemus presents Like Son 5pm @ Skylight Books

Photo by pugetive via Flickr

Here’s the thing: this book isn’t even out yet. But because we live in Los Angeles, and this book is about Los Angeles, you’re in luck. We’re all in luck.

Denise Hamilton and the bevy of supremely talented noir writers that contributed stories to this book are signing all over town this week. And the book will be, yes, you guessed it – available for signing at the readings two weeks before the rest of the country gets it. That’s how we roll. (At least, we’ve been assured repeatedly by booksellers that that’s how we roll.)

In the tradition of James Cain, Nathaniel West, Raymond Chandler and so many others who penned the first noir stories about our fair city, this anthology of noirish LA features new stories by Michael Connelly, Janet Fitch, Susan Straight, Naomi Hirahara, Denise Hamilton and many others. The seventeen stories are grouped into four only-in-LA categories that include different neighborhoods:
Part I: Police & Thieves (Mulholland, Koreatown, Leimert Park, San Marino)
Part II: Hollywoodlandia (Los Feliz, Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, East Hollywood)
Part III: East of La Cienega (Downtown, Los Angeles River, Commerce, Fairfax District, Mid-City)
Part IV: The Gold Coast (Pacific Palisades, Mar Vista, Belmont Shore, Westchester)

Makes us want to do some of our own sleuthing & slinking around. If opening lines are any indication, we’re guessing Susan Straight’s "The Golden Gopher" will be our favorite: “Nobody walked from Echo Park to Downtown. Only a walkin fool.”

Full schedule of readings & bonus noir pics after the deep, dark, cut:

Monday
Jonathan Lethem discusses You Don’t Love Me Yet 7pm @ Central Library (one!)
Susan Diamond signs What Goes Around 7pm @ Dutton’s

Tuesday
Joe Boyd presents White Bicycles: Making Music in the 60s 7pm @ Book Soup
Jonathan Lethem presents You Don’t Love Me Yet 7pm @ Vroman’s (two!)
Dani Shapiro signs Black & White 7pm @ Dutton’s
Etgar Keret reads The Nimrod Flipout 7:30pm @ Skirball Cultural Center

Wednesday
Natsuo Kirino presents Grotesque 7pm @ Book Soup
Charles Shields signs Mockingbird: A Potrait of Harper Lee 7pm @ Vroman’s
Denise Hamilton and contributors sign Los Angeles Noir 7pm @ Dutton’s (one!)
Jill Smolinksi presents The Next Thing on My List 7pm @ Borders, Torrance
Charles D’Ambrosio discusses The Dead Fish Museum 7pm @ Hammer Museum
Jonathan Lethem presents You Don’t Love Me Yet 7:30pm @ Skylight Books (trifecta!)

Thursday
Denise Hamilton & contributors present Los Angeles Noir 6:30pm @ Egyptian Theatre (two!)
Anchee Min in conversation with Aimee Liu about The Last Empress 7pm @ Central Library
Dean Pitchford presents The Big One-Oh 7pm @ Book Soup
Mark Salzman discusses True Notbooks: A Writer’s Year at Juvenile Hall 7pm @ Marymount College
Basil Hoffman signs Acting and How to Be Good at It 7pm @ Borders, Hollywood
Ayn Carrillo-Gailey signs Pornology 7:30pm Barnes & Noble, 3rd Street Promenade (side of Porn...)
Faye, Jesse & Jonathan Kellerman sign their books 8pm @ Mystery & Imagination Bookstore (all three authors! with the same last name! in one location! trifecta!)

Friday
Joshua Ferris presents Then We Came to the End 7:30pm @ Skylight Books
Denise Hamilton & contributors discuss Los Angeles Noir 7pm @ Vroman’s (trifecta!)
Chuck Rosenthal reads from The Heart of Mars 8pm @ Equator Books

Saturday
Peter S. Smith signs The Magistrates: Murder at the Rose Bowl 3pm @ Borders, Pasadena
Debbie Rocker presents Training for Life 5pm @ Book Soup
Maggie Nelson & Eileen Miles read their work 8pm @ Machine Project

Sunday
Bill Condon presents Dreamgirls: Portrait of the Film 4pm @ Book Soup
Nan Deane Cano discusses Acts of Light 4pm @ Vroman’s
Martin Schiesl & Mark Dodge present City of Promise: Race and Historical Change in Los Angeles 3pm @ Cal State LA, East L.A.

Peep in LA trifecta photos by victoriabernal via Flickr

We were a bit apprehensive – OK dreading – reviewing Janis Cooke Newman’s Mary: A Novel (MacAdam/Cage) when it first arrived at our doorstep. It had everything going against it – not only did it weigh in at three pounds and a hefty 707 pages, it was also a work of historical fiction (read: 50-50 shot of being boring) about Mrs. Abraham Lincoln.

But Newman’s first novel – she also authored the memoir The Russian Word for Snow – turned out to be a pleasant page-turner. And LAist no longer wonders how or why a book about a supposedly off-kilter First Lady was nominated for a Los Angeles Times Book Prize in the First Fiction Category.

Let’s dig up those old history classes and get a few things straight about Mary Todd Lincoln. She came from a large, well-to-do slave-owning Kentucky family; her mother’s death affected 6-year-old Mary greatly; she married poor lawyer Mr. Lincoln against the wishes of her family; she was a notorious shopaholic; three of her four sons died at a young age; her husband, who was probably depressed for most of his adult life, was assassinated right after the end of the Civil War; she was hooked on opiates and séances; and she was committed to Bellevue asylum in Illinois by her oldest and only surviving son.

The book blends these facts with fiction easily. Cooke seems to channel Mrs. Lincoln, capturing the words and thoughts of a First Lady during her time spent at Bellevue, embellishing the reasons behind the choices in her life. The novel’s prose is so crisp and believable that you start to think that Cooke might have partaken in séances that Mrs. Lincoln favored to get the words just so.

In this excerpt, Mary is badly in debt after her husband’s death, and the merchants in New York and Washington are after her for payment (and really, who among us hasn’t been here):

Seized with a fatal panic, I began to pull out the bills, until the pile of them covered the polished surface of the desk. Once I had every one, I pushed them aside and, took out ink, and began to add up the numbers of my debt.

Halfway through, I rose an loosened my dress, and then my corset, but still could not fill my lungs. Forcing myself back to the figures, I fought dizziness and darkness which crowded my vision and altered the numbers on the page. Still, I would not let myself stop until the final bill had been tallied.

The total of my debts was nearly thirty thousand dollars.

Today marks the first day that 76 book titles will be available for your cell phones via Moka. Yet, we wonder if this books on phone thing isn't similar to Snakes on a Plane -- good idea in theory (might be cool, might inspire a cultish following), but a disaster in reality. As with the film, we're betting that such a lofty idea - who ever heard of books on phones (or, for that matter, snakes on a plane) - will come down to the execution. Will they be easy to read? Which books can you get? How much does it cost? Is Samuel L. Jackson going to botch the whole thing and take it all way too seriously? And so on...

A quick look at the offerings makes one thing clear: you won't be reading War & Peace on your Blackberry anytime soon. All the titles available for purchase are of the self-help, philosophy, daily affirmation variety -- which allows Moka to send you small tidbits of the books at a time, doling out wisdom in teeny cliff-note bites. If you had no intention of reading longer tomes on your phone (because, who would?), you're in luck. Many of the titles lend themselves to zen-like texts delivered to you regularly, as you schedule them. Less War & Peace, more I Ching for your iPhone. Could be cool, could somehow run afoul like so many other good ideas.

Monthly service fees start at $5.95 and include access to all the books in the Moka library. Service is available on major wireless carriers such as AT&T, Sprint, Nextel and Verizon. At six bucks a month (you spend more on ringtones!), would you sign up for books on your phone? We're holding out for the day when graphic novels are added to the list...but that's just us.

Monday
Dave Winfield signs Dropping the Ball 7pm @ Vroman’s

Tuesday
Michael Collier Over the Mountains 7pm @ Dutton’s
Dave Winfield signs Dropping the Ball 7pm @ EsoWon Books

Wednesday
John Kerry and Teresa Heinz Kerry sign This Moment on Earth 6pm @ Dutton’s
Sarah Thyre presents Dark at the Roots 7pm @ Book Soup
Rebecca Walker discusses Baby Love 7pm @ Vroman’s
Bill McKibben in discussion with Tom Curwen on Deep Economy 7pm @ Central Library

Thursday
Jodi Picoult discusses Nineteen Minutes 7pm @ Vroman’s
Ishmael Beah discusses A Long Way Gone 7pm @ Central Library
Saul Austerlitz presents and signs Money for Nothing 7pm @ Book Soup
Drew Heriot presents and signs DVD copies of The Secret 7pm @ Book Soup
Dana Sachs signs If you Lived Here 7pm @ Dutton’s
Joe Boyd discusses White Bicycles 7:30pm @ Skirball Cultural Center
Tim LaHaye discusses Kingdom Come 7pm @ Borders, Rancho Mirage

Friday
Kiran Desai discusses and signs The Inheritance of Loss 7pm @Vroman’s

Saturday
Stuart Timmons discusses Gay L.A. 2pm @ Metropolis Books
Sasha Su-Ling Welland signs A Thousand Miles of Dreams 2pm @ Dutton’s
Valentino Achak Deng discusses What is the What 5pm @ Skylight Books

Sunday
Leslie Cohen discusses Trapped Inside the Story 2pm @ Metropolis Books

Photo by julianbleeckr via Flickr