Five of the best local writers converged upon The Last Bookstore on Saturday evening to read selections from their favorite noir. The Last Bookstore, since its move to the corner of Fifth and Spring streets earlier this year, has established itself as a center for all things literary in Los Angeles. more ›

While the change of seasons might not be as noticeable here as in other cities, Angelenos can still feel the onset of autumn. Whether it's the darker skies or the shorter days, fall has officially arrived—and with it, a surge in all things literary. Here's a roundup of local lit news and happenings because even in L.A., autumn is a great time to cozy up with a good book (we just don't need the extra down comforter, thanks). more ›

Tonight at 8 pm, PEN Center USA and Dirty Laundry Lit present a free night of readings in the program Dirty Laundry: Secrets, Indulgences & Lies at The Mandrake. Featured readers include: Heidi Durrow, Natashia Deón, Eric Layer, Katherine DeBlassie, Willie Davis and Kaitlyn Greenidge. more ›

The events we picked for Pencil today run the gamut of the fun spectrum. We've included a lecture on Merce Cunningham's merging of movement and technology, with a robotic demonstration; beer and slider deals at Westwood Live, a public hearing on a mega merger, and turntable art at the Geffen Contemporary. more ›

Another literary event enters the LA arena tomorrow at Mountain Bar in Chinatown. Part reading and part reality show, Literary Death Match (LDM100) pits several LA-based writers against each other--and judged by a panel of critics in front of an audience. We all know that writers are sensitive types, so you know these folks must have some pretty thick skin or are just gluttons for punishment. more ›

Ghettogloss on Melrose is getting ready for Comicon tonight with an art exhibit and book launch party for Titmouse. There will be cocktails and DJ sets by Droidbot, and the Qzilla truck rolls up at 8:30 pm for BBQ. 7 pm to midnight. Valet parking is available in back. more ›

Pamela Rose presents the album and stage show Wild Women of Song tonight at 7:30 pm at the Grammy Museum. The SF jazz and blues vocalist Rose celebrates the lives, times and music of women songwriters from the Tin Pan Alley days. She uses images, storytelling and a "cultural retrospective while treating the audience to a wonderful jazz and blues concert.” Tickets: $12. more ›

Tonight, the Salastina Society's classical music series, directed by violinists Maia Jasper and Kevin Kumar, makes its debut tonight at Zipper Hall at the Colburn School. Special guest Seth Rogen will be doing a dramatic reading of Ferdinand the Bull. According to concert organizers "[Rogen] actually learned how to read specifically for this concert!" There will free Scoops ice cream after the first performance. Formal attire is requested for attendees of the performance. Tickets: $10-$40. more ›

The Egyptian theater screens a double feature tonight for its Criminally Unknown series, featuring two films with movie crews running amok. Up first at 7:30 pm is Effects (1980), where a cameraman begins to wonder if his “sleazy director is making a horror film or a snuff film.” That’s followed by Teenager (1974) where method acting is taken to a whole new level, and what started out as a biker movie ends up as a snuff film. There’s discussion between films with actors and crew from both movies more ›

LA has a great literary scene despite what our right-coast friends may say. Some events are lower-brow, some high-brow, but most are quite entertaining. Following on the heels of the LA Times Festival of Books last week, there are two bookish events of note this weekend: more ›

Tonight the film series Reel Talk with Stephen Farber previews The Greatest with Pierce Brosnan, Susan Sarandon and Carey Mulligan. Guest speakers will be the film producers Lynette Howell and Beau St. Clair. The event starts at 7 pm at the Wadsworth Theatre in Westwood. Tickets are $20 per screening and half-price student rush tickets are available for $10 an hour before each screening.      more ›

The premise reminds us of a Twilight Zone episode: "In the play, a husband and wife married nearly 40 years arrange separately, without each other's knowledge, to purchase android replicas of their younger selves to give to their spouses as presents. Unintended consequences ensue, and the man and woman each gain a little more knowledge about themselves and about the way life works in this comedic tale." Tickets: $20, seniors, $15 and students, $10. more ›

Tonight at 7pm, McSweeney's Voice of Witness will be hosting a reading at ALOUD in the Central Library in support of their new release, Out of Exile: The Abducted and Displaced People of Sudan. Praised by humanitarian badass John Prendergast, the book is a collection of oral histories from the abducted and displaced citizens of Sudan. The event will be hosted by Craig Walzer, editor of Out of Exile, who compiled these stories during his travels through Sudan, Kenya and Egypt. Admission is free, but reservations are strongly recommended. more ›

L.A.'s very own debut novelist and litblogger extraordinaire, Mark Sarvas, will be reading from his first novel Harry, Revised tomorrow night at 6pm @ Hotel Cafe as part of the Tongue & Groove reading series. Harry, Revised is set in L.A, features several of your favorite & not so favorite neighborhoods, highlights the darker perils of plastic surgery, examines a bevy of relationships gone awry, and offers a hilarious take on the bizarre and oh-so-L.A. spinning class culture. Sarvas is an excellent reader, especially with such funny material to read and with The Hotel Cafe as a backdrop, it promises to be a quintessentially L.A. literary evening. more ›

Because George Harrison was my favorite Beatle, I devoured Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me, a memoir by his first wife Pattie Boyd (of whom I confess I was, in my Beatle phase, horribly jealous) within days of its publication last year. Since recovering from her marriages, Pattie has become known as a photographer. This Sunday from 12 to 5 p.m., a show of her photographs opens at the Morrison Hotel Gallery on Sunset Boulevard. She will read from Wonderful Tonight this evening at 7 p.m. at Book Soup. more ›

Gene Wilder signs The Woman Who Wouldn't 7:30pm @ Barnes & Noble, The Grove more ›

LA readings and book signings around town for January 28th - Februar 3rd including Judith Freeman, Ron Jeremy, Tamara Jenkins, Mary McNamara, Sam Jones and Tom Dolby. more ›

Kim Sunee presents Trail of Crumbs 7pm @ Vroman's more ›

There's a box that generally lives on a shelf in my closet that holds pretty much every single journal, diary, and notebook I've kept since my mom brought me back my first diary (a lavender lock-front Minnie Mouse book with "Journal Intime" embossed in gold block letters) from a trip to France when I was nine years old. I will confess readily that I love to pull that box down and rifle through the... more ›

It's the beginning of the year and we haven't even cracked a new book. Have you? Instead of feeling guilty for sitting on your lazy duff, go check out a reading. It's free, it's easy -- and they'll read to you! All you have to do is show up, sit back and heckle when the mood strikes. Actually, heckling during a reading is really kind of lame. That's more for Laugh Factory types. If... more ›