The much-maligned, oft-hated James Frey, author of the fictional memoir A Million Little Pieces and the man most well-known for being dissed on national TV by Oprah Winfrey, is back. While many now agree that blame for the whole Frey-affair rests with both Frey and his publisher, Frey got the bad end of the deal and has been vilified ever since. This time, he's sticking with fiction instead of peddling fiction-as-truth. His new novel, Bright......

The through-view of a Los Angeles baggage car | Photo by pbe via Flickr Monday Rob Kutner discusses & signs Apocalypse How 7pm @ Vroman's Tuesday Barbara Walters presents Audition: A Memoir 7pm @ Writer's Guild Theatre Nina Revoyr discussesThe Age of Dreaming with Janet Fitch 7pm @ Vroman's Rob Kutner presents Apocalypse How 7pm @ Book Soup Pico Iyer discusses The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama 7pm @......

Any Angeleno worth their salt knows this city can be both bright and happy or sinister and dark by quick turns or subtle steps or shameless spirals. There is much to celebrate about LA and much to shy away from - which makes it the ideal city-as-character in many a writer's novel. A few new books are out that feature LA and they're on our radar to check out this month. Latinos in Lotusland: An......

Sherman Oaks and South LA made national news yesterday when a Los Angeles native, now based in Oregon, became the latest decried author who penned a fraudulent memoir. Yes, Margaret Seltzer grew up in the Valley, no Margaret B. Jones (her non de plume) did not gangbang in South Central as her book said. Today, the fallout came in the form of experts giving quotes to the media about this reoccurring theme. What first comes......

A younger look: The LA Times health section is scraping the bottom of the barrel with a story about cosmetic surgery. We're used to local TV covering plastic surgery as "health" stories, but we'd thought the paper wouldn't confuse vanity with health care. Anyway, here's the gist: "Couples are making a date for cosmetic surgery as men seek to stay in step with their transformed spouses." Or wives 25 years younger. A look back at......

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......

"We've located a massive, spectacular tunnel," Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement told news organizations yesterday. Not only does the tunnel run for a half mile, from a Mexico warehouse to one in San Diego; it's got lighting, a drainage system and ventilation. Authorities believe it's the longest one ever discovered in the southwest. Let's find the people who built it and give them a municipal project: they sound quite ingenious.......

This week Oprah takes on Osama. If you're thinking the Queen of Daytime might bring something soft and fuzzy to the table, no way. She's not telling Osama to keep a dream journal. She's going hard news, for two whole episodes. In fact, she's fearmongering up a storm: What should you be worried about? she demands. Meet the man who met Osama Bin Laden! How vulnerable are we to another attack?!? OMG, is the......

Well, we can't promise that the star of Herbie: Fully Loaded will be at either of James Frey's readings in town this weekend but if she's going to make an appearance in New York, why not in her home base? Frey's new memoir, My Friend Leonard, takes up where A Million Little Pieces left off and covers a kind of father-son relationship that formed between him and another drug addict. Why Lohan connects with......