Callie Miller

Here's the thing: this book isn't even out yet. But because we live in Los Angeles, and this book is about Los Angeles, you're in luck. We're all in luck. Denise Hamilton and the bevy of supremely talented noir writers that contributed stories to this book are signing all over town this week. And the book will be, yes, you guessed it - available for signing at the readings two weeks before the rest of...

Plans to tear down the hideous 17-story Federal Building at 11000 Wilshire Boulevard are moving swiftly. Before you get all excited about the tearing down of ugliness in the hopes that such ugliness will be replaced by a Gehry-esque fantasy of steel and movement or a Meier-esque tribute to clarity and light, consider that it could get uglier. That's right. The FBI plans to setup shop in its place. See...we told you it could...

The Biscuit Company Lofts downtown (directly across from Toy Factory & the delectable Royal Clayton's) is open for business and my oh my have they landed some interesting (temprorary?) residents. LA-based curator Seth Carmichael is converting the 3,500 sq/ft "Supreme Penthouse" into a gallery space for an upcoming event sponsored by Los Angeles Magazine. The design showcase will feature many up & coming artists including: Erik James, Birgitte Moos, Mike Saijo & Rick Robinson. We've...

Monday Jonathan Lethem discusses You Don't Love Me Yet 7pm @ Central Library (one!) Susan Diamond signs What Goes Around 7pm @ Dutton's Tuesday Joe Boyd presents White Bicycles: Making Music in the 60s 7pm @ Book Soup Jonathan Lethem presents You Don't Love Me Yet 7pm @ Vroman's (two!) Dani Shapiro signs Black & White 7pm @ Dutton's Etgar Keret reads The Nimrod Flipout 7:30pm @ Skirball Cultural Center Wednesday Natsuo Kirino presents...

The LA Times has nominated five books in each of nine different categories for the 2007 Los Angeles Times Book Prizes. In the weeks leading up to the Festival of Books where the winners will be announced, LAist will take a quick look at each category and will wax poetic on a few favorites (or least favorites) along the way. Whiteman by Tony D'Souza - D'Souza delivers a memorable journey of ideals, disillusionment and partial...

Today marks the first day that 76 book titles will be available for your cell phones via Moka. Yet, we wonder if this books on phone thing isn't similar to Snakes on a Plane -- good idea in theory (might be cool, might inspire a cultish following), but a disaster in reality. As with the film, we're betting that such a lofty idea - who ever heard of books on phones (or, for that matter,...

Monday Dave Winfield signs Dropping the Ball 7pm @ Vroman's Tuesday Michael Collier Over the Mountains 7pm @ Dutton's Dave Winfield signs Dropping the Ball 7pm @ EsoWon Books Wednesday John Kerry and Teresa Heinz Kerry sign This Moment on Earth 6pm @ Dutton's Sarah Thyre presents Dark at the Roots 7pm @ Book Soup Rebecca Walker discusses Baby Love 7pm @ Vroman's Bill McKibben in discussion with Tom Curwen on Deep Economy 7pm...

A plastics chemical called melamine - not rat poison - was found on wheat gluten in recently recalled pet food, according to the FDA's latest report. Now that rat poison has been eliminated as the cause of over 2,400 pet deaths, more foods must be tested for melamine. The FDA has promised the public they will announce the addition of any foods to the recall list if it is warranted. Concern is growing among pet...

The panel schedules are now up for the LA Times Festival of Books. What does this mean? It means you have 25 days to figure out which writers, speakers, bloggers, agents and personalities you would like to see before the free tickets become available at noon on Sunday, April 22nd at all Ticketmaster locations. Then, on April 22nd, you must sprint to the nearest ticket provider and snap up the tickets for the panels you've...

We've all done it: sat in hours-long traffic, eying the swiftly-moving carpool lane, wishing we had brought a friend, a blow-up doll, anything that would "legally" get us into the carpool lane. There's often a moment, as you sit trapped in the fast lane, oh-so-close to the carpool lane and oh-so-late to your intended destination, when you look at the people in the carpool lane. Really look at them. It's then that the obvious...