What are your favorite food memoirs? Ruth Reichl shares her picks with NPR, and we definitely agree that these are must-reads, especially Jeffrey Steingarten's hilarious and informative essays. Still haven't taken the $20 Farmer's Market Challenge? Now Slashfood and the Washington Post are polling readers to see how much loot they can get at their local markets for only twenty bucks. Jonathan Gold and Pat Saperstein over at EatingLA are both reporting on Jitlada... more ›

Here's the thing: we've had a two-week back and forth LAist email about our favorite bookstores. Behind-the-scenes-planning-style. We've waxed poetic about the locations, the staff, the cats (with or without tails), the super-secret nooks and crannies of our best loved LA indies. Why did we email about this? Why were we making a list of favorite bookstores and checking it twice? Because we were going to do a nice little post on Indie Bookstores in... more ›

She's Miss World, Mrs. Cobain, Momma Bean, America's Sweetheart, and the Widow Courtney. While some of the punk and grunge icons of days gone by have faded out, Courtney Love's fire still rages despite the fact that so many just want her to sit still and shut up. But shutting up is one thing Ms. Love will never do. Thankfully. Just the opposite, in fact, as her memoirs Dirty Blonde: The Diaries of Courtney... more ›

Hillary Carlip is a handful. She's an author, juggler, entertainer, and all around prankster. She's just published "Queen of the Oddballs," her memoir about about growing up at celebrity's edge in Hollywood. Independent booksellers selected the book as their Book Sense Pick for May. more ›

For his 19th Golden Globe nomination, Best Original Score went to John Williams for backs up the case for his repeat nominations, accompanied by a pleasant audio slide show, in their Red Carpet section (NYT's version of LAT's The Envelope). more ›

The arrival of “Memoirs of a Geisha” this holiday season earned its spot, in LAist’s eyes, as a film worthy of your well earned dollars. The buzz has been building around town for weeks as screenings and sneak previews have been popping up, including this lovely tale of a celeb date night. Directed by Rob Marshall of Chicago fame and starring Ziyi Zhang (who just snagged a Golden Globe nomination), Michelle Yeoh, Gong Li and Ken Watanabe, the story winds through the young melodramatic life of a girl blossoming into a geisha. Those of you who have read the book will find the movie follows pretty true to the story, though Marshall does focus a lot of time on the cat fights and jealousy amongst rival geisha houses and less on what it takes to become a geisha. more ›

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Michael T. Jarvis writes "The Central Library in downtown Los Angeles is home to 2.2 million volumes, including books, maps, CDs, DVDs and prints... We checked out some book lovers for a quick read on the library. more ›