The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books is always kicked off by a ceremony that awards one book in each key category with a Book Prize. The nominees in each category were just announced and we're both thrilled and a tad flummoxed by some of their picks, listed below. We're mostly pleased to see that the usual suspects, who have made up every other book awards list this year, are noticeably absent. This list doesn't......

Arts and Crafts class at the Craft and Folk Art Museum tonight. / Photo by CarbonNYC via flickr. GET CRAFTY Make your Valentine’s Day gift tonight instead of picking through the lame leftover cards in the Ralph’s card aisle tomorrow. The Craft and Folk Art Museum hosts “A Creative Valentine” and provides materials for you to let your inner artist loose. Couples are encouraged to attend to get a jump start on the Valentine’s......

Monday Eliot Tiegel presents The Latinization of America 6:30pm @ Book Soup Judith Freeman discusses and signs The Long Embrace 7pm @ Vroman's Roz Chast discusses Theories of Everything 7pm @ Central Library Robert Kuttner in conversation with Arianna Huffington about The Squandering of America 8pm @ James Bridge Theater, UCLA Tuesday Cesar Millan presents Be the Pack Leader 7pm @ Borders, Pasadena Frank McCourt presents Angela and the Baby Jesus 7pm @ Borders,......

Monday Paul Krugman discusses The Conscience of a Liberal 7pm @ Central Library Randy Cepuch signs A Weekend With Warren Buffett 4pm @ Dutton's Jenna Bush presents Ana's Story 7pm @ Pasadena Public Library Jason Goodwin discusses and signs The Snake Stone 7pm @ Vroman's Tuesday Wole Soyninka discusses his work with Mona Simpson 7pm @ Hammer Museum Eduardo Machado & Michael Domitrovich present Tastes Like Cuba 7pm @ Book Soup Maira Kalman discusses &......

Don't forget to enter our Arcade Fire ticket giveaway contest for their Thursday appearance at the Hollywood Bowl. Lobster Festival in San Pedro continues through tomorrow, as well as WIRED Magazine's NextFest at the convention center. Immigrant experience, community and the "delirious noble dream." LAist Editor-At-Large Carolyn Kellogg reviews 'The Last Chicken in America: A Novel in Stories' by Ellen Litman for the LA Times. Long Beach is the first to begin mandatory water......

Monday No Robby Benson Tuesday Robby Benson & Joely Fisher present Who Stole the Funny? 7pm @ Book Soup Dana Thomas presents Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster 7pm @ Vroman's Edward Schwarzschild signs The Family Diamond: Stories 7pm @ Dutton's Wednesday Amelia Saltsman presents (and cooks from!) The Santa Monica Farmers' Market Cookbook 8:30am - 1:30pm, Santa Monica Farmers' Market Robby Benson presents Who Stole the Funny? 7pm @ Vroman's Dinah Berland signs Hours......

Monday Bridget Kinsella Visiting Life: Women Doing Time on The Outside 7pm @ Book Soup Trevor Corson discusses and signs The Zen of Fish 7pm @ Vroman's Tuesday Viken Berberian presents Das Kapital: A Novel of Love and Money Markets 7pm @ Book Soup Bridget Kinsella presents Visiting Life: Women Doing Time on the Outside 12pm @ Vroman's Joseph Marshall presents The Day the World Ended at Little Bighorn 7pm @ Vroman's Eric Lichtenfeld......

Monday Portia Iversen & Jane Kaczmerek present Strange Son 7pm @ Vroman's Christopher Hitchens discusses God is Not Great 7pm @ Central Library Diane Lefer signs California Transit: Stories and a Novella 7pm @ Dutton's Larry Doyle presents I Love You Beth Cooper 7pm @ Borders, Westwood Tuesday Ron Carlson signs Five Skies: A Novel 7pm @ Dutton's Larry Doyle presents I Love You Beth Cooper 7pm @ Book Soup Aurelia Scott presents Otherwise......

Good morning LAist readers, are you already taking a break from working? Sounds good to us! Here is what you missed over the Holiday weekend. Enjoy! News & Community A look into Metro's internal newsletter. We read the weeklies so you don't have to. What do you think of the NoHo Arts District new crosswalks? New owner of the LA Times, Sam Zell, doesn't know much about newspapers or the internet. Extra Extra: Entourage,......

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......

Monday Paul Rusebagina presents An Ordinary Man: An Autobiography 7:30pm @ Beverly Hills Hotel Alison Weir discusses Innocent Traitor: A Novel of Lady Jane Grey 7pm @ Vroman's Alix Ohlin on Why Mysteries Matter: Detectives, Literature, and Life 7pm @ Central Library Tuesday Alex Espinoza presents Still Water Saints 7pm @ Vroman's Daniel Mason signs A Far Country 7pm @ Dutton's Erin Vincent signs Grief Girl 7pm @ Book Soup Wednesday Brian Frazer presents......

Monday Barbara Hambly presents Patriot Hearts: A Novel of Founding Mothers 7pm @ Vroman’s Tess Gallagher reads from Dear Ghosts 7:30pm @ Geffen Playhouse Tuesday George Hass presents Forcing Nature: Trees in Los Angeles 7pm @ Book Soup Margaret MacMillan presents Nixon and Mao: The Week That Changed the World 7pm @ Central Library T Cooper & Chris Abani present their latest books 7:30pm @ Skylight Books Caille Millner presents The Golden Road: Notes......

Monday Barbara Taylor Bradford discusses and signs The Ravenscar Dynasty, 7pm @ Vroman's Frank Warren of postsecret.com fame speaks, 7pm @ Borders Books in Torrance Tuesday Vendela Vida presents Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name, 7pm @ Book Soup Anthony Swofford (award-winning author of Jarhead) presents Exit A: A Novel, 7pm @ Vroman's Patricia Marx signs Him Her Him Again the End of Him, 7pm @ Dutton’s Brentwood Portia Iversen signs Strange Son,......

Some people, if they're lucky, get good at one thing. Like, say, photography; to be a photographer printed in Vogue and Life — that, in the 1940s and '50s, was excellence. Enough talent and vision for any one life. But for Gordon Parks, that was only the beginning. Born the last of 15 kids in Kansas, he was a photographer, co-founder of Essence magazine, writer, composer and filmmaker. He wrote a book called The......

that this weekend is packed with all sorts of activities: *Taschen, the high-end dirty art book publisher, is having a warehouse sale: Friday June 24th - Sunday June 26th, 10am to 8pm TASCHEN Store Los Angeles 354 N. Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90210 Open every day *"Is It Really So Strange" film by Los Angeles artist William E. Jones about Latino Morrissey fans will screen this weekend as one of projects funded in......