Take Two translates the day’s headlines for Southern California, making sense of the news and cultural events that affect our lives. Produced by Southern California Public Radio and broadcast from October 2012 – June 2021. Hosted by A Martinez.
This summer, Take Two presents The California Canon: Great Books of the Golden State, featuring literary masterpieces from Raymond Chandler to Joan Didion.
Every week,
shares highlights from our state's literary timeline. Kipen, a native of L.A., is a book editor, L.A. Times critic-at-large and the founder of the Libros Schmibros Lending Library in Boyle Heights.
If you've missed any of our past features, you can see what we've done so far:
Before Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall made "The Big Sleep" a noir film classic, it was a little novel by Raymond Chandler. Centered around private eye Phillip Marlowe, it's set against the backdrop of pre-World War II Los Angeles.
This is a travel guide crafted with exceptional literary flair that also serves as a snapshot in time, transporting its readers to Depression-era California.
Famed novelist and screenwriter, Christopher Isherwood chronicled most of his life in journals. They capture his life as a writer, a celebrity, and a gay man starting in 1939.
From wanna-be starlets to retirees, the West Coast held the promised good health and lots of wealth from the silver screen. But in reality, it wasn't all hoorays for Hollywood. Nathanael West's iconic novel, "The Day of the Locust" paints Tinsel Town as a surreal, nightmarish landscape of disillusionment and broken dreams.
When author Chester Himes came to L.A. in the early 1940's, the city was bustling. But the truth was that the city was hardly devoid of racism, and the heartbreak of that realization led Chester Himes to write this seminal novel.
It doesn't even take place on this planet, yet this Sci-fi classic by longtime resident Ray Bradbury has a lot to say about L.A. in the early 1950s.
It was one of the very first Chicano novels, and the first to gain widespread recognition.
Check back for any updates to this list.