Results tagged “book”

It's your day off. You're uninspired and under-funded (aka bored and broke). "But I live in Los Angeles!" you remind yourself. "There's got to be something I can do that won't break the bank." Art, music, museums, theatre, workshops, gardens, and more always seem to come with a price tag, unless you're totally in the know. Well, it's not too complicated to file yourself under the in-the-know column. Free L.A. is a publication that you can keep on your bookshelf to use when you need low-cost fun on the fly, or hand off to those out-of-town couch surfers you're hosting who would otherwise spend their vacation days fondling your remote control and eating you out of house and home.

So many cultures can tell their stories through their food, and for Los Angeles, the same can be said for a landmark like the Original Farmers Market. Not only does the historic meeting place for farmers, cooks, foodies, locals, visitors, and shoppers alike offer delicious fresh produce and tantalizing eats and sweets, it also is a vital part of our city's history.

The thing about author Junot Diaz is, one minute he’s on the phone with you, rapping about meringue, Malcolm X, comic books, and how shit never gets done on time in the Dominican Republic – and the next minute, he’s winning the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for his novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. He describes himself as just another ordinary, poor immigrant kid from Jersey, but the book tells a different story: that of an author alive with passion for his roots, for language, and for the moments of silence, linguistic and cultural, that can bring a family together and also tear it apart.

When a novelist first publishes relatively late in life, one wants to applaud his or her persistence, as well as the fact that the writer retains the stamina to turn out a sustained piece of work. One also hopes for the best, wanting to believe that the publisher recognized quality and not just a curiosity when accepting the manuscript. Of course, with examples like Penelope Fitzgerald and Harriet Doerr to pave the way, one...

When's the last time a book made you cry? And I don't mean a slight welling in the tear ducts, I don't mean a sniffle here or there, I mean a REAL god damn cry, the leaky, sobbing, snotty kind of cry, the likes of which you haven't experienced since your fourth grade teacher read Where the Red Fern Grows aloud to the class and even the boys were sniveling into their t-shirts when...

First off this LAist was running late this morning and left his camera at home. Since I had to go to the Grove straight from work to make it on time, there is no photo of the event. No photo of me planting John Amaechi a wet sloppy kiss. So sorry folks. Amaechi’s appearance at Barnes & Noble at the Grove concluded his whirlwind promotional tour for his memoir Man in the Middle which...

Apparently the book didn't fit either. When even Bill O'Reilly said that the fictitious book and made-for-tv interview were in bad taste you knew there was trouble in sleezadise. Today Rupert Murdoch himself, a man so old he could drive a Buick through a serene Farmers Market crowd and get away with murder, canceled plans to publish the fiction by ReganBooks called "If I Did It", and the subsequent two-part interview of O.J. Simpson...

We're not going to sit here and tell you how thought provoking or intellectually stimulating Michael Connelly's Echo Park is. Or how the soon-to-be top ten bestseller will change your life. Because, it won't do those two things. But we'll tell you this: there's nothing better than this fun and adventurous crime novel that winds you through the streets of modern day LA chasing serial killers, crooked cops, city attorneys and cute FBI agents....