la times book reviews

Los Angeles Times Book Club

See, hear and interact with world-class authors and newsmakers

Why Dean Koontz’s new book is his favorite

Welcome to the Los Angeles Times Book Club

Every month, we share book club selections, publish author interviews and stories and invite you to read along. Then we host a live conversation with the authors and invite you to join that, too. Our focus is on stories and storytellers relevant to Southern California and the West, and our mission is to make your newspaper something not just to read but to experience — something that brings us together.

Book Club newsletter: Get the latest live events, author interviews and book news in your inbox. Sign up for the free Los Angeles Times Book Club newsletter . Join us : On Jan. 28 bestselling author Dean Koontz will discuss his new novel, “The Bad Weather Friend.” Get tickets . Memorable moments: Check out these highlight’s from L.A. Times Book Club’s first four years .

Help the Book Club and Book Prizes

The Los Angeles Times Community Fund supports the newspaper’s literacy and literary programs, connecting readers with authors at live events. Here’s how to contribute.

Video conversations

Bestselling biographer Walter Isaacson on Elon Musk's complicated history

Aug. 16: Christian Cooper discusses 'Better Living Through Birding'

LeVar Burton discusses the state of banned books

Gabrielle Zevin on how TikTok is a perfect platform for her book

Annalee Newitz discusses 'The Terraformers'

Brendan Slocumb discusses “The Violin Conspiracy”

Jan. 26: Tracy Kidder discusses 'Rough Sleepers'

Ann Patchett on "These Precious Days"

Silvia Moreno-Garcia discusses 'The Daughter of Doctor Moreau'

Celeste Ng discusses 'Our Missing Hearts'

Authors and Book Club Events

Why this AI pioneer is calling for ‘human centered’ computing

Fei-Fei Li, author of ‘The Worlds I See’ and co-director of Stanford’s Human-Centered AI Institute, joins the L.A. Times Book Club Nov. 14.

Column: She set out to build robots. She ended up exposing big tech

Joy Buolamwini, author of “Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What Is Human in a World of Machines,” joins the L.A. Times Book Club on Nov. 14.

Manic moods and 3 a.m. texts: How Walter Isaacson navigated Elon Musk and his demons

Walter Isaacson reveals how he shadowed Elon Musk and details billionaire’s brutal treatment of workers, impulsive decisions and chaotic romantic life in a new biography.

How the nation’s most famous newspaper editor took on Trump and his own reporters

Former Washington Post editor Martin Baron joins the L.A. Times Book Club Oct. 11 to discuss “Collision of Power,” his book about Trump, Bezos and the future of journalism.

How Christian Cooper turned one of the worst days of his life into a megaphone for inclusion and the joy of birding

Christian Cooper, author of “Better Living Through Birding” and host of Disney+’s “Extraordinary Birder,” joins the L.A. Times Book Club Aug. 16.

Who are the ‘Donut Dollies’? The story behind the frontline WWII heroes

Bestselling author Luis Alberto Urrea joins the L.A. Times Book Club to discuss ‘Good Night, Irene,’ a novel inspired by his mother’s WWII service.

The survival of Elliot Page

In his new memoir, ‘Pageboy,’ the most famous trans man in the world recounts the dark night of the soul — at home, in Hollywood — that led him here.

40 years after ‘Reading Rainbow,’ LeVar Burton is still fighting for literacy

Forty years after the launch of ‘Reading Rainbow,’ ‘Star Trek’ actor LeVar Burton is championing literacy programs for children with the documentary ‘The Right to Read.’

Gabrielle Zevin takes us inside her video game-inspired, juggernaut bestseller

Bestselling novelist Gabrielle Zevin joins the L.A. Times Book Club April 22 to discuss ‘Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow’ at the Festival of Books.

How sci-fi writer Annalee Newitz turned to real-life scientists to build a (better) future

Novelist and science journalist Annalee Newitz brings ‘The Terraformers’ to the L.A. Times Book Club March 28.

How a real-life stolen violin inspired Brendan Slocumb’s bestselling mystery

Bestselling author Brendan Slocumb joins the L.A. Times Book Club on Feb. 23 to discuss his debut, “The Violin Conspiracy.”

Column: It shouldn’t take a saint to ease homelessness. But Dr. Jim tries in ‘Rough Sleepers’

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tracy Kidder joins the Los Angeles Times Book Club on Jan. 26 to discuss his newest book, “Rough Sleepers.’

Why Celeste Ng calls her new novel, ‘Our Missing Hearts,’ ‘scarily real’

“Little Fires Everywhere” author Celeste Ng joins the L.A. Times Book Club Dec. 8 to discuss her latest bestseller, “Our Missing Hearts.”

5 revelations about Willie Nelson and his new memoir, ‘Me and Paul’

Watch singer Willie Nelson at the L.A. Times Book Club on Oct. 13 discussing his new book, “Me and Paul.”

Silvia Moreno-Garcia ignored the experts and trusted her instincts. Now she’s a bestseller

Novelist Silvia Moreno-Garcia brings ‘The Daughter of Doctor Moreau’ to the L.A. Times Book Club Sept. 27

Commentary: The brutal but deeply touching true story behind one of L.A.’s most celebrated chefs

Chef Keith Corbin will discuss ‘California Soul’ with the L.A. Times Book Club.

An ‘emotional’ Jennifer Grey opens up about how abortion changed her life

The ‘Dirty Dancing’ star discusses the upcoming sequel, her memoir and the Supreme Court’s ‘fundamentally wrong’ abortion ruling.

Ibram X. Kendi on preparing children for the realities of racism

Ibram X. Kendi joined Times columnist Sandy Banks for a thought-provoking L.A. Times Book Club conversation about his book, ‘How to Raise an Antiracist.’

Watch poet Amanda Gorman’s first public performance since the inauguration

Gorman read her poem “Fugue,” about the ravages of the pandemic, publicly for the first time at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books on Saturday.

How growing up in L.A. shaped Amanda Gorman’s poetry

Amanda Gorman brings her new collection, ‘Call Us What We Carry,’ to the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books on April 23.

Reyna Grande wants her new novel to help us rethink the term ‘invasion’

Reyna Grande, author of “A Ballad of Love and Glory,” will join the L.A. Times Book Club on March 29.

Jane Goodall is still surprised at her ever-growing fame

Jane Goodall brings “The Book of Hope” to the Los Angeles Times Book Club Feb. 25.

She has a bestseller and hit Netflix series. But Stephanie Land’s ‘Maid’ isn’t just about being a ‘palatable poor person’

Stephanie Land, the author of ‘Maid,’ joins the L.A. Times Book Club on Jan. 25.

Ann Patchett on why she isn’t doing a conventional book tour — possibly ever again

Bestselling author Ann Patchett talks about book tours, Tom Hanks and ‘These Precious Days,’ her new book of essays.

Showbiz lives: Ron and Clint Howard open up in their breezy, brotherly Hollywood memoir

In ‘The Boys,’ Oscar-winning director Ron Howard and longtime character actor Clint Howard write the book of their family in distinctly different voices.

She died protecting California: ‘Breathing Fire’ tracks female inmate firefighters

In 2016, Jaime Lowe read the obituary of a female inmate firefighter. Five years later, her new book opens up the world the woman lived and died in.

Elliott: Why Billie Jean King finally took control of her own story

As she releases her memoir “All In,” tennis icon Billie Jean King discusses her career, her causes and “living truthfully.”

Rodrigo Garcia’s memoir wrestles with the death of his father, novelist Gabriel García Márquez

In ‘A Farewell to Gabo and Mercedes,’ filmmaker Rodrigo Garcia writes about losing both parents — and the one event his renowned father couldn’t record: his own death.

How Charles Yu fights anti-Asian hate and Hollywood stereotypes in his award-winning novel

Charles Yu, the National Book Award-winning author of ‘Interior Chinatown,’ joins the L.A. Times Book Club in a chat with film critic Justin Chang.

What’s it like inside an ER? This doctor and author shares raw, honest stories

Emergency room doctor Michele Harper, author of ‘The Beauty in Breaking,’ joins Times readers on June 29

Review: Barack Obama’s memoir is a masterful lament over the fragility of hope

“A Promised Land,” out Tuesday in a worldwide release, eloquently and ruefully documents the first two and a half years of Obama’s presidency.

These female divers are living legends. How novelist Lisa See captured their story

Bestselling novelist Lisa See brings’The Island of Sea Women’ to the L.A. Times Book Club

Review: A powerful climate novel reminds us that people are animals too

In the beautiful if overladen “Migrations,” by Charlotte McConaghy, animals are vanishing and a troubled woman follows the last terns to Antarctica.

Viet Thanh Nguyen on his ‘Sympathizer’ sequel and the ‘scarcity’ of voices like his

After a panel for the Festival of Books, Viet Thanh Nguyen discusses his forthcoming novel ‘The Committed,’ the sequel to ‘The Sympathizer.’

Her mom inspired her book on race and identity. Then came the Hollywood bidding war

‘Vanishing Half’ author Brit Bennett talks about the inspiration behind her bestselling novel.

‘Why We Swim’ dives into water’s transformative power

In ‘Why We Swim,’ Bonnie Tsui tells extraordinary tales of swimmers who brave sharks, extreme cold and vicious currents around the globe.

‘Streets raised us. Horses saved us.’ Why the Compton Cowboys ride

Walter Thompson-Hernández tells the stories of “The Compton Cowboys” as they look for the next generation of young riders.

Review: The cowboys of Compton, first a curiosity and then a legacy

Walter Thompson-Hernández’s “The Compton Cowboys: The New Generation of Cowboys in America’s Urban Heartland” tells a grand story in granular detail.

How to watch Martin Baron discuss ‘Collision of Power’ at the L.A. Times Book Club

Editor Martin Baron will discuss “Collision of Power: Trump, Bezos and the Washington Post” at L.A. Times Book Club night at USC.

Cooking in quarantine: ‘Always Home’ author Fanny Singer retreats to Alice Waters’ kitchen

Fanny Singer’s stories and recipes, ‘Always Home,’ show life growing up in the orbit of her mother, farm-to-table chef Alice Waters.

Steph Cha and Joe Ide talk noir with the L.A. Times Book Club

“Your House Will Pay” author Steph Cha and “Hi Five” author Joe Ide join the L.A. Times Book Club in Long Beach.

Luis J. Rodriguez on changing lives through poetry

Luis J. Rodriguez shared his new book, ‘From Our Land to Our Land,’ with the Los Angeles Times Book Club

Author Laila Lalami on the power of stories and being ‘The Other’

Growing up in Rabat, Morocco, author Laila Lalami loved “Adventures of Tintin” comic books and identified with Tintin, a young reporter who solves crimes.

Ocean Vuong shares stories behind ‘On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous’

Ocean Vuong, bestselling author of “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous,” talks about writing and inspiration with the L.A. Times Book Club.

Susan Orlean and readers share library stories at L.A. Times Book Club launch

In her research for “The Library Book,” Susan Orlean was surprised to learn how many people call the Los Angeles Library on a daily basis with outlandish questions.

Father Gregory Boyle talks hope, homelessness and the power of kinship

Gregory Boyle, founder of Homeboy Industries, shared “Barking to the Choir” with the L.A. Times Book Club.

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Myriam gurba took down ‘american dirt.’ it might be the least interesting thing about her, build less housing for cars and more for people. two books on how the past can guide the future.

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Los Angeles Times A Year In Review: The Most Memorable Moments of 2021 Paperback – December 10, 2021

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A Reluctant Übermensch

D. Harlan Wilson reviews Keanu Reeves and China Miéville’s “The Book of Elsewhere.”

D. Harlan Wilson Sep 2

Featured Artist

Simphiwe mbunyuza.

INTLOMBE is a solo exhibition of new ceramic sculptures by Simphiwe Mbunyuza recently on view at David Kordansky Gallery in Los Angeles.

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New Languages, New Music

Rosanna Young Oh reviews Jimin Seo’s "OSSIA."

Rosanna Young Oh Sep 1

Cultural Studies

For the God of Love, for the Love of Florida

As Florida enters peak hurricane season, Cherith King reflects on Lauren Groff’s 2018 depiction of her home state and its residents.

Cherith King Sep 1

Meteor, Star, Galaxy, Caven

LARB presents a new essay by Erika Balsom, excerpted from Fireflies Press’s edited collection “Ingrid Caven: I Am a Fiction,” publishing this...

Erika Balsom Aug 31

Biography & Autobiography

Kristen Radtke defends Linda Rosenkrantz’s underappreciated classic novel “Talk,” in a comic from the LARB Quarterly issue no. 42, “Gossip.”

Kristen Radtke Aug 31

Memoir & Essay

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Explore the Issue

Charlotte Shane’s “An Honest Woman: A Memoir of Love and Sex Work”

Charlotte Shane joins Kate Wolf to speak about her latest book, “An Honest Woman: A Memoir of Love and Sex Work.”

LARB Radio Hour Aug 23

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Moving Towards Life

Marina Magloire Aug 7

GROUP CHAT: Group Chats

Jamie Hood ,  Sophia Stewart ,  Hillary Brenhouse ,  Daniel Lavery ,  Tal Rosenberg ,  Summer Kim Lee ,  Whitney Mallett ,  Sarah Thankam Mathews ,  Sophie Kemp ,  Natasha Stagg Aug 26

The Comfort of Memory

Leo Lasdun Aug 29

Gaslight, Gatekeep, Glossier: On Marisa Meltzer’s “Glossy”

Diana Heald Jun 8

The Worst Sect of People

Sheila McClear Aug 17

Freudulence

Jamieson Webster Aug 24

Gossip as a Literary Genre, or Gossip as “L’Écriture feminine”?

Francesca Peacock Aug 13

The Impossibility of Children’s Television

Madeline Ullrich Aug 25

Outside the Lucky Few

Eli Diner joins the vandals, metalheads, and nitrous ballooners in viewing Kevin Bouton-Scott’s Downtown L.A. painting retrospective.

Eli Diner Aug 31

Sofia Samatar’s “Opacities: On Writing and the Writing Life”

Sofia Samatar speaks with Kate Wolf about her new book “Opacities: On Writing and the Writing Life.”

LARB Radio Hour Aug 30

Notes on Disappearing: A Life in Fragments

Veronica Gonzalez Peña explores fragmented memories of a childhood, in light of the 2014 murder of 43 Mexican students, in a story from the LARB...

Veronica Gonzalez Peña Aug 30

The Dog Ears of Summer

Brittany Menjivar grabs her jacket and spine and spends Friday night with her nose in A Good Used Book in Historic Filipinotown.

Brittany Menjivar Aug 30

Leo Lasdun reviews two debut novels at the end(?) of alt-lit: Gabriel Smith’s “Brat” and Matthew Davis’s “Let Me Try Again.”

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Tricky Business

Jack Skelley locates the line between authenticity and performance in the new immersive theater performance “Session.”

Jack Skelley Aug 29

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Eugene Lim’s “Fog & Car”

Eric Newman speaks with Eugene Lim about his novel “Fog & Car.”

LARB Radio Hour Aug 16

Writing Climate Futures

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LARB Radio Hour Aug 9

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The LARB Quarterly

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Word of Mouth

Submitting a book for review, write the editor, you are here:, los angeles times book prizes 2020.

The 41st annual Los Angeles Times Book Prizes were awarded on April 16th. The best books of 2020 were recognized in 12 categories, along with the winners of the Robert Kirsch and Innovator’s awards.

» Click here for more information.  

2020 Winners

Robert Kirsch Award Leslie Marmon Silko

Innovator's Award The Book Industry Charitable Organization (BINC)

The Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose MAYFLIES by Andrew O'Hagan

Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction THE SECRET LIVES OF CHURCH LADIES by Deesha Philyaw

Biography MAD AT THE WORLD: A Life of John Steinbeck, by William Souder

Current Interest CASTE: The Origins of Our Discontents, by Isabel Wilkerson

Fiction AT NIGHT ALL BLOOD IS BLACK by David Diop, translated Anna Moschovakis

Graphic Novel/Comics APSARA ENGINE by Bishakh Som

History VANGUARD: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All, by Martha S. Jones

Mystery/Thriller BLACKTOP WASTELAND by S.A. Cosby

Poetry OBIT by Victoria Chang

Science & Technology THE SMALLEST LIGHTS IN THE UNIVERSE: A Memoir, by Sara Seager

The Ray Bradbury Prize for Science Fiction, Fantasy & Speculative Fiction THE ONLY GOOD INDIANS by Stephen Graham Jones

Young Adult Literature PUNCHING THE AIR by Ibi Zoboi and Dr. Yusef Salaam

2020 Finalists

Robert Kirsch Award

• Leslie Marmon Silko

Innovator's Award

• The Book Industry Charitable Organization (BINC)

The Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose

• MAYFLIES by Andrew O'Hagan

Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction

• THESE GHOSTS ARE FAMILY by Maisy Card
• LITTLE GODS by Meng Jin
• THE SECRET LIVES OF CHURCH LADIES by Deesha Philyaw
• SHUGGIE BAIN by Douglas Stuart
• A HOUSE IS A BODY: Stories, by Shruti Swamy
• RED COMET: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath, by Heather Clark
• WARHOL by Blake Gopnik
• ELEANOR by David Michaelis
• THE DEAD ARE ARISING by Les Payne & Tamara Payne
• MAD AT THE WORLD: A Life of John Steinbeck, by William Souder

Current Interest

• A KNOCK AT MIDNIGHT: A story of Hope, Justice, and Freedom, by Brittany K. Barnett
• WAITING FOR AN ECHO: The Madness of Incarceration, by Christine Montross, M.D.
• SEPARATED: Inside an American Tragedy, by Jacob Soboroff
• THE UNDOCUMENTED AMERICANS by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
• CASTE: The Origins of Our Discontents, by Isabel Wilkerson
• WHAT HAPPENS AT NIGHT by Peter Cameron
• AT NIGHT ALL BLOOD IS BLACK by David Diop, translated Anna Moschovakis
• THE DEATH OF VIVEK OJI by Akwaeke Emezi
• THE OFFICE OF HISTORICAL CORRECTIONS: A Novella and Stories, by Danielle Evans
• LIKES by Sarah Shun-lien Bynum

Graphic Novel/Comics

• UMMA'S TABLE by Yeon-sik Hong, translated by Janet Hong
• BLUE FLAG (Vol. 1-4) by KAITO
• SPORTS IS HELL by Ben Passmore
• APSARA ENGINE by Bishakh Som
• COME HOME, INDIO: A Memoir, by Jim Terry
• SOUTH TO FREEDOM: Runaway Slaves to Mexico and the Road to the Civil War, by Alice Baumgartner
• THE DEPORTATION MACHINE: America's Long History of Expelling Immigrants, by Adam Goodman
• THE BROKEN HEART OF AMERICA: St. Louis and the Violent History of the United States, by Walter Johnson
• VANGUARD: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All, by Martha S. Jones
• THE UNITED STATES OF WAR: A Global History of America's Endless Conflicts, from Columbus to the Islamic State, by David Vine

Mystery/Thriller

• A BEAUTIFUL CRIME by Christopher Bollen
• BLACKTOP WASTELAND by S.A. Cosby
• AND NOW SHE'S GONE by Rachel Howzell Hall
• LITTLE SECRETS by Jennifer Hillier
• THESE WOMEN by Ivy Pochoda
• OBIT by Victoria Chang
• BORDERLAND APOCRYPHA by Anthony Cody
• POSTCOLONIAL LOVE POEM by Natalie Diaz
• THE AGE OF PHILLIS by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
• LOVE CHILD'S HOTBED OF OCCASIONAL POETRY: Poems and Artifacts, by Nikky Finney

Science & Technology

• THE ALIGNMENT PROBLEM: Machine Learning and Human Values, by Brian Christian
• WHY FISH DON'T EXIST: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life, by Lulu Miller
• THE ALCHEMY OF US: How Humans and Matter Transformed One Another, by Ainissa Ramirez
• THE SMALLEST LIGHTS IN THE UNIVERSE: A Memoir, by Sara Seager
• THE BOOK OF EELS: Our Enduring Fascination with the Most Mysterious Creature in the Natural World, by Patrik Svensson

The Ray Bradbury Prize for Science Fiction, Fantasy & Speculative Fiction

• PIRANESI by Susanna Clarke
• LAKEWOOD by Megan Giddings
• THE CITY WE BECAME by N. K. Jemisin
• THE ONLY GOOD INDIANS by Stephen Graham Jones
• WHERE THE WILD LADIES ARE by Aoko Matsuda, translated by Polly Barton

Young Adult Literature

• THE BLACK FLAMINGO by Dean Atta
• LEGENDBORN by Tracy Deonn
• GO WITH THE FLOW by Karen Schneemann and Lily Williams
• THE SNOW FELL THREE GRAVES DEEP: Voices from the Donner Party, by Allan Wolf
• PUNCHING THE AIR by Ibi Zoboi and Dr. Yusef Salaam

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Married 39 Years, and Ready to Call It Quits Over Their Kids’ Objections

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By Claire Lombardo

• Sept. 8, 2021

L.A. WEATHER By María Amparo Escandón

At the heart of many family novels is a house, the singular, private space in which characters get to misbehave. To write a family novel is to move into that house and delve unflinchingly into its inevitable messes.

In her third novel, “L.A. Weather,” María Amparo Escandón drops us into the Rancho Verde four-bedroom home of the Alvarados, a wealthy Mexican American family harboring a host of secrets and lies. It’s a capacious book, chock-full of human drama set against the backdrop of a record-breaking California drought, and Escandón writes with a great deal of energy and love for her characters.

Oscar Alvarado has staked his fortune on a failing almond orchard and spends his days lethargically watching the Weather Channel. Keila, his wife of 39 years, is the Mexican-born granddaughter of Polish grandparents killed in a concentration camp, a ceramist known for her renderings of nude couples; when we meet her, she’s on a “crossed-legs strike,” withholding sex from her apathetic husband. They have three adult daughters: Claudia, a celebrity chef with a penchant for petty theft; Olivia, an architect and the mother of twins who’s trapped in a toxic marriage; and Patricia, a digital media maven with a roving eye and a gender-questioning adolescent son.

The novel opens with the near-drowning of Olivia’s twins, who are toddlers. Despite the hugeness of this event, our focus quickly shifts to another crisis: Keila wants a divorce from Oscar, but the daughters insist that their parents spend a year trying to fix their marriage. This is a critical moment for two reasons: First, it sets a precedent for the offhand way Escandón’s novel — and the family therein — will treat major life events; and second, it presents us with a timeline — a single year — within which the novel will unfold, confines that end up feeling tight.

Many, many, many things happen in “L.A. Weather.” There are three affairs, three comas, three divorces, one separation, an exploration of gender identity, a brain tumor, in vitro fertilization, the end of a career and the threat of bankruptcy. There are other health issues, relationship problems and characters reckoning with past traumas, including a miscarriage and a rape. Most of these struggles take place in 2016, and are exacerbated by drought, threat of wildfire and the presidential election.

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Honorees and Awards Ceremony

2023 Winners & Finalists

Art Seidenbaum Award

Company: Stories

Shannon Sanders

• The Five Sorrowful Mysteries of Andy Africa: A Novel by Stephen Buoro
• I'm a Fan: A Novel by Sheena Patel
• Idlewild: A Novel by James Frankie Thomas
• Dearborn by Ghassan Zeineddine

Audiobook Prize Presented by Audible

Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin): A Memoir

Dion Graham (Narrator), Elishia Merricks (Producer)

• Sure, I'll Join Your Cult: A Memoir of Mental Illness and the Quest to Belong Anywhere by Maria Bamford (Narrator)
• All the Sinners Bleed: A Novel by Adam Lazarre-White (Narrator), Elishia Merricks (Producer)
• Yellowface by Helen Laser (Narrator), Suzanne Mitchell (Casting Director & Executive Producer)
• Wild and Precious: A Celebration of Mary Oliver by Sophia Bush (Narrator), Helena de Groot (Lead Producer), Kerri Kolen (Exec. Producer)

The Life and Times of Hannah Crafts: The True Story of The Bondwoman's Narrative

Gregg Hecimovich

• Young Queens: Three Renaissance Women and the Price of Power by Leah Redmond Chang
• The Life and Times of Hannah Crafts: The True Story of The Bondwoman's Narrative by Gregg Hecimovich
• Winnie and Nelson: Portrait of a Marriage by Jonny Steinberg
• Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South by Elizabeth R. Varon
• The Odyssey of Phillis Wheatley: A Poet's Journeys Through American Slavery and Independence by David Waldstreicher

Christopher Isherwood Prize

Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma

Claire Dederer

Bestselling author and essayist Claire Dederer is the winner of the 2023 Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose for “Monster: A Fan’s Dilemma,” which expands on her popular 2017 essay in the Paris Review titled “What Do We Do with the Art of Monstrous Men?” Sponsored by the Christopher Isherwood Foundation, the award honors exceptional work and encompasses fiction, travel writing, memoir and diary. “Monsters” explores the problematic relationship between masculinity and fame, and considers how we come to love art made by less than perfect humans. Dederer engages the essayist form at its best and the result is both critical, literary and provocative. We can love art despite hating the artist, Dederer’s breathtaking sentences argue, but it always comes with a cost.

Current Interest

We Were Once A Family: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America

Roxanna Asgarian

• Punished for Dreaming: How School Reform Harms Black Children and How We Heal by Bettina L. Love
• American Gun: The True Story of the AR-15 by Cameron McWhirter & Zusha Elinson
• We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir by Raja Shehadeh
• Ordinary Notes by Christina Sharpe

Same Bed Different Dreams

• Loved and Missed by Susie Boyt
• Wednesday's Child: Stories by Yiyun Li
• The Dog of the North: A Novel by Elizabeth McKenzie
• Blackouts: A Novel by Justin Torres

Graphic Novel/Comics

A Guest in the House

Emily Carroll

• Cartoonshow by Derek M. Ballard
• Blood of the Virgin by Sammy Harkham
• Social Fiction by Chantal Montellier
• CODA by Simon Spurrier, Matías Bergara (Illustrator)

Shadows at Noon: The South Asian Twentieth Century

Joya Chatterji

• The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S History by Ned Blackhawk
• Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World by Malcom Harris
• Black Folk: The Roots of the Black Working Class by Blair L. M. Kelley
• Brooding Over Bloody Revenge: Enslaved Women's Lethal Resistance by Nikki M. Taylor

Innovator's Award

Access Books

The 2023 Innovator’s Award, which spotlights efforts to bring books, publishing and storytelling into the future, will be presented to Access Books. The nonprofit organization will be honored for its work renovating school libraries and ensuring that underserved students and communities have access to quality literacy resources. The work Access Books does in creating comfortable and welcoming environments for students to explore literacy and the world of books is incredibly important and has lasting effects. We are thrilled to honor Access Books with the Innovator’s Award as it continues to improve libraries in the communities that need it the most.

Mystery/Thriller

Sing Her Down: A Novel

Ivy Pochoda

• Dark Ride: A Thriller by Lou Berney
• All the Sinners Bleed: A Novel by S. A. Cosby
• Everybody Knows: A Novel by Jordan Harper
• Time's Undoing: A Novel by Cheryl A. Head

Bread and Circus: Poems

Airea D. Matthews

• Short Film Starring My Beloved's Red Bronco by K. Iver
• Couplets: A Love Story by Maggie Millner
• The Court of No Record: Poems by Jenny Molberg
• Masters: Poems by Simon Shieh

Robert Kirsch Award

Jane Smiley

Jane Smiley, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “A Thousand Acres,” is the 2023 Robert Kirsch Award recipient. The award recognizes a writer with a substantial connection to the American West. In addition to being an accomplished novelist, L.A-born Smiley has written short fiction, nonfiction and several books for young adults. Whether it's her epic reimagining of King Lear in 'A Thousand Acres,' exploring campus life at Moo University in the hilarious 'Moo,' or her insightful writing about her beloved horses for readers of all ages, Smiley's work brings a deeper understanding of the American landscape and the people (and creatures) that inhabit it. Amongst her acclaimed works are “The Greenlanders” and the Last Hundred Years Trilogy: “Some Luck,” “Early Warning” and “Golden Age.” She has received countless accolades during her career, including the PEN Center USA Lifetime Achievement Award for Literature.

Sci-Fi/Fantasy

The Reformatory: A Novel

Tananarive Due

• Whalefall by Daniel Kraus
• Lone Women: A Novel by Victor LaValle
• The Fragile Threads of Power by V. E. Schwab
• Jewel Box: Stories by E. Lily Yu

Science & Technology

Is Math Real? How Simple Questions Lead Us to Mathematics’ Deepest Truths

Eugenia Cheng

• The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet by Jeff Goodell
• The Possibility of Life: Science, Imagination, and Our Quest for Kinship in the Cosmos by Jaime Green
• A Book of Noises: Notes on the Auraculous by Caspar Henderson
• A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through? by Kelly & Zach Weinersmith

Young Adult Literature

Amber McBride

• Forgive Me Not by Jennifer Baker
• Dear Medusa by Olivia A. Cole
• Invisible Son by Kim Johnson
• Monstrous: A Transracial Adoption Story by Sarah Myer

2023 Finalists

We couldn't find records for this prize for year 2023. please select another category or year..

Prize Presenters

Past Years’ Awards

FESTIVAL OF BOOKS

© 2024 book prizes.

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Is L.A. The World's Next Great Literary City? The Los Angeles Review of Books Says Yes

That's right: the days of dogging LA book culture might soon (finally!) be behind us thanks to The Los Angeles Review of Books , an ambitious new LA-based literature review journal that’s re-imagining the art of literary critique and propelling it into the 21st century. Digital, sprawling, and fearless, the LARB aims to reinvigorate book discourse by widening the margins of literary coverage and overthrowing the traditional book review format.

Firmly rooted in a city that shares the same decentralized qualities of the Internet, the LARB poses a pretty solid argument on why the world’s next major literary hub ought to be LA. And with national attention from The New Yorker and The Chronicle of Higher Education , The Los Angeles Review of Books might just be right.

Via e-mail interview, editor-in-chief Tom Lutz shed light onto LARB, the future of publishing, and why literature's new 'it' city is likely our own.

LAist : What inspired you to develop the Los Angeles Review of Books ?

Tom Lutz : The New York Times Book Review was my introduction to literary culture when I was a kid, and as I watched the Sunday supplement book review dying off in city after city, I decided I had to do something. We have twenty times as many titles published each year than when I was a teenager, and one-twentieth of the book reviews, at least in print. And I noticed that nobody was complaining that people read too much.

The LARB attests it "looks out at the world of books from its perch on the Pacific Rim." How does that view differ than, say, one found from a New York City skyscraper?

For one thing everyone in the New York book world is depressed. We’re excited. For another, we are looking at the world of books as something directed by readers, while New York tends to think of the world of books as directed by the publishing industry. I've written about literary regionalism, and so I'm very used to thinking about 'the center' and 'the periphery', about cosmopolitanism and provincialism. I think Angelenos are used to thinking of being a center and not a center, of living in a decentered place that is nonetheless the center of many industries and movements. I once pitched a book about the 1920s, and my editor asked me what competing books were out there, and I said just the one about the 1920s in Manhattan, and he literally sniffed, and said, "Oh, is that all?"-- that doesn't happen here. If someone said, I want to do a book about the film industry, but the film industry outside of Hollywood, nobody here would sniff.

I should add, too, that we knew we were using a kind of steampunk name and concept — a name that hearkens back to the tradition as we look forward, a geographically-based name for a digital cloud. We're a web publication — we are here in LA, we are nowhere, we are everywhere. We bounce through servers in Sri Lanka and Guam.

In the publishing industry, ‘dead’ is the well-worn buzz-word. The printed word, bookstores, publishing houses, ‘The Novel.’ In an article you wrote for LARB entitled “Odious and Unpleasant,” you responded to an n+1 article, "Against Reviews," which argued the book review is (also) ‘dead.’ In defense, you wrote, “I need help to know what virus protection program to use, whether or not I have cancer, when my timing belt needs changing; I need the advice of people who pay attention to such things. People should be able to count on us, professional readers and writers, to let them know what’s up, to give them, as best we can, a review of books.” In addition to serving as a knowledgeable literary ‘guide,’ why is the comprehensive book review—many of which have gone missing from newspapers across the country—still a relevant publication?

Yes, pronouncements of death abound. Our first piece, by Ben Ehrenreich, was “The Death of the Book,” addressing these very claims. Book publishing is in the midst of a radical transformation, but people are reading more than ever. A year ago on the NYC subways, I noticed that 9 out of 10 readers, at least, were reading print; last month it seemed half were reading electronically. And although some surveys suggest a drop-off in reading, tell it to J.K. Rowling. The latest major California survey claimed 80% of Californians had read a book in the last month. Reading is alive and well, and all the research shows that people with eReaders read more than they did before getting the reader. Nothing’s dying, everything is changing. One example is the recent move of former LA Times book columnists Richard Rayner and Susan Salter Reynolds to the Los Angeles Review of Books. Their columns did not die, they just moved.

The LARB underwent a 'soft-launch' in April, and a 'full-launch' is scheduled for late 2011. What will the LARB look like post-launch this fall?

Stay tuned! Bells and whistles! Right now we’re a simple Tumblr site, still in our preview phase, but the very talented designer and art director Margot Frankel put together our prototype site, and we have an extremely interesting and innovative web company, TedPerez.com working for us pro bono, for which we are eternally grateful. Taj Tedrow, who runs the company, is a big reader, and he saw immediately what Margot and I were after. He is designing a complex, yet friendly, engaging interface for us—it’s quite beautiful—and a complete Content Management System for our side.

How will the Internet enhance the experience of reading LARB?

When the main site launches at the end of the year, we will have video interviews with authors, we will have audio, podcast downloads, interactive forums of various kinds, and we will be an intricately relational site: we want to give readers not just the word-search, Google-directed experience of finding what they are looking for, but the serendipitous experience of browsing in a book store, or in library stacks, the experience of bumping into interesting things they had no idea existed, that they wouldn’t have thought to search for. Curating the internal links will be the most interesting, and fun, part of continually building the site.

What will the LARB provide that online customer reviews and book blogs don’t?

At LARB, we feel we’re adding to the mix online - there are some excellent blogs out there, but one person, or even a small group of friends, can only read so much. And more importantly, to our way of thinking, we put pieces through a serious editing process, several editors working with each author, fact-checking, expanding some pieces and trimming others - this is the opposite of the quick-take blog, the diary-style dispatch. We aim for highly curated, rigorously edited, lasting pieces of literary prose.

I remember checking customer reviews on Amazon, when Amazon was still new, and finding them oddly interesting. Crowd-sourced information has a lot going for it: many heads are better than one. But many very smart heads working together towards a clear objective are better than many heads collected at random, each of which works alone in its own vacuum; the result of crowd sourcing, as in the case of amazon reviews, resembles the "one" more than it does the "many," accruing none of the benefits of combining the best efforts of many minds.

Our writers have been very happy with the editing process, and we feel that all the work we do, the thousands of hours of back and forth, add considerable value. If we didn't think so, of course, we'd be pretty loony to be doing it.

How often does new content appear on the site?

On the Preview site, we put something up once a day, very occasionally twice. On the full site I hope we can be updating with five or six times a day, three reviews and a couple or few other features each day.

Kathryn Schulz wrote an article for LARB entitled, “Life of the Party," which ruminates on the contradictory nature of essayist Montaigne, who favored a combination of both "erudition and vulgarity" within his work. Can one expect to find a similar mix of curated material in LARB—content belletristic enough for The New Yorker , and edgy enough for lo-fi 'zines and underground blogs?

“Bringing You Erudition and Vulgarity Since 2010.” I believe I’ll add that to the masthead.

I think readers can find, already, a dozen pieces that couldn’t get past the censors, either linguistically or topically, of the high-brow outlets. We are West Coast in that way - we don’t mind wearing sneakers to a dinner party. We don't always take our hats off indoors.

Because the LARB aims to publish reviews on a diverse range of literary genres including horror, noir, young adult fiction, philosophy, university press titles, poetry, and sci-fi, are there limits to the titles that are covered? Might we ever find reviews of, say, Tucker Max or Snooki’s book on the site—or is the line drawn somewhere?

Of course there’s a line, but it is drawn by our finite resources rather than a cultural demarcation of any kind. We’ve already reviewed books by Glenn Beck - and so how low can we go? I couldn’t remember whether Tucker Max was the guy on FoxNews with the bow-tie or the other professional asshole - I see he’s the latter. In both of the cases you mention, I think we’d be interested in essays that take account of those two as phenoms, rather than as writers. I find it difficult to imagine readers would come to us trying to decide whether to buy Snooki’s book or Jwoww’s or Kardashian Konfidential . But now that you’ve made me think about it, I think I’ll assign a batch of them to a really interesting critic ….

The LARB is a rare digital nonprofit organization, in that it is committed to paying its contributors. How do you stay afloat and will LARB ever offer subscriptions to support the publication financially?

Newspapers are not closing down their book review sections because they are too profitable. We are a nonprofit public service, and like the library, the university, or the scholarly journal, we will always operate at a loss for the public good. But there is some money to be made in click-through sales, some to be made in syndication, some in producing sellable merchandise from books to t-shirts to apps dedicated to genres - poetry, sports, science fiction. We think the mixed model will be heavily skewed toward grants and gifts (including voluntary subscriptions) as we get off the ground, and we hope that the economics of web content, however it shakes out, will allow us, over the years, to get closer and closer to supporting our efforts without constant fundraising. Since we want to produce not just reviews and essays, but film and audio, since we need a fairly significant staff to do all this well, and they need to eat, and because we are dedicated to paying our contributors for their efforts, it will take a big wad of dough. Of course a couple of angels would really help: Steve Martin? Hugh Hefner? David Geffen? Call us!

Does the LARB favor LA-based and West Coast writing? How much national and international coverage can one expect to find on the site?

Roughly a fifth of our readers are from Southern California, roughly a fifth from the NY-New England area, and a quarter from overseas. The majority of our editorial staff and contributors are from the LA area, but we have had dispatches from London, Mexico, and Trinidad, and expect some from Russia, France, China, South Africa, and elsewhere. Literature is a global, cosmopolitan affair, and we have readers in over 100 countries. The world is our oyster.

LA is often unfairly reputed as a less-than-literary city. Do you think people will be resistant to the idea of a literary review based out of Los Angeles?

Of course I knew when I started that the resistance would be there, and for me, that was going to be part of the fun. So far, though, we’re finding the opposite. Los Angeles is the biggest book market in the country - yes, bigger than New York, despite the fact that we buy fewer Jersey Shore authors—and has been for some time now. Writing talent has always gravitated here. Decentralization is the future of publishing, just as it was for music, and there has been a dream in literary circles since the late 19th century of wrestling control of publishing from New York. It’s happening. Some of the most exciting publishers in the country—McSweeney’s, Greywolf, City Lights—are West coast born and bred. The New York literary world has welcomed us, the publishers are thrilled to have another outlet for book talk, writers from New York — and Illinois and Nebraska and Texas -- are doing things for us. I'm frankly a little disappointed about the lack of LaLaLand yogurt jokes.

So then is it true--will Los Angeles likely bear the next literary revolution?

Yes, and if you read the Los Angeles Review of Books, you won’t miss a beat of it.

For more information, visit the Los Angeles Review of Books website .

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L A. Times Releases Its List of Finalists for the L.A. Times Book Prize

All the Sinners Bleed by S. A. Cosby

Award season is here and the Los Angeles Times gets a headstart as one of the first organization releasing a list list of its finalists for the L.A. Times Book Prize. Keep reading to find out all 66 nominees for the awards!

In its 44th annual award, the L.A. Times celebrates accomplished and new authors for the best works of literature. And as the times change, so do the L.A Times. This year, they will be introduciing an award for audiobook productions. That is being given in “collaboration with Audible and spotlights performance, production and innovation in storytelling.”

The award ceremony will take place on April 19 at USC’s Bovard Auditorium. That will be just the day before the annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books . You can see all the nominations below!

Achievement in Audiobook Production

• Maria Bamford, narrator, “Sure, I’ll Join Your Cult: A Memoir of Mental Illness and the Quest to Belong Anywhere”
• Sophia Bush, narrator, “Wild and Precious: A Celebration of Mary Oliver”
• Helena de Groot, lead producer, “Wild and Precious: A Celebration of Mary Oliver”
• Dion Graham, narrator, “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin): A Memoir”
• Kerri Kolen, executive producer, “Wild and Precious: A Celebration of Mary Oliver”
• Helen Laser, narrator, “Yellowface”
• Adam Lazarre-White, narrator, “All the Sinners Bleed”
• Elishia Merricks, producer, “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin): A Memoir”
• Elishia Merricks, producer, “All the Sinners Bleed”
• Suzanne Franco Mitchell, director/producer, “Yellowface”

The Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction

• Stephen Buoro, “The Five Sorrowful Mysteries of Andy Africa: A Novel”
• Sheena Patel, “I’m a Fan: A Novel”
• Shannon Sanders, “Company: Stories”
• James Frankie Thomas, “Idlewild: A Novel”
• Ghassan Zeineddine, “Dearborn”
• Leah Redmond Chang, “Young Queens: Three Renaissance Women and the Price of Power”
• Gregg Hecimovich, “The Life and Times of Hannah Crafts: The True Story of The Bondwoman’s Narrative”
• Jonny Steinberg, “Winnie and Nelson: Portrait of a Marriage”
• Elizabeth R. Varon, “Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South”
• David Waldstreicher, “The Odyssey of Phillis Wheatley: A Poet’s Journeys Through American Slavery and Independence”
• The Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose
• Claire Dederer, “Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma”

Current Interest

• Bettina L. Love, “Punished for Dreaming: How School Reform Harms Black Children and How We Heal”
• Roxanna Asgarian, “We Were Once A Family: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America”
• Zusha Elinson, “American Gun: The True Story of the AR-15”
• Cameron McWhirter, “American Gun: The True Story of the AR-15”
• Christina Sharpe, “Ordinary Notes”
• Raja Shehadeh, “We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir”
• Susie Boyt, “Loved and Missed”
• Yiyun Li, “Wednesday’s Child: Stories”
• Elizabeth McKenzie, “The Dog of the North: A Novel”
• Ed Park, “Same Bed Different Dreams: A Novel”
• Justin Torres, “Blackouts: A Novel”

Graphic Novel/Comics

• Derek M. Ballard, “Cartoonshow”
• Matías Bergara, “CODA”
• Emily Carroll, “A Guest in the House”
• Sammy Harkham, “Blood of the Virgin”
• Chantal Montellier, “Social Fiction”
• Simon Spurrier, “CODA”
• Ned Blackhawk, “The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History”
• Joya Chatterji, “Shadows at Noon: The South Asian Twentieth Century”
• Malcolm Harris, “Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World”
• Blair L.M. Kelley, “Black Folk: The Roots of the Black Working Class”
• Nikki M. Taylor, “Brooding Over Bloody Revenge: Enslaved Women’s Lethal Resistance”

Mystery/Thriller

• Lou Berney, “Dark Ride: A Thriller”
• S. A. Cosby, “All the Sinners Bleed: A Novel”
• Jordan Harper, “Everybody Knows: A Novel”
• Cheryl A. Head, “Time’s Undoing: A Novel”
• Ivy Pochoda, “Sing Her Down: A Novel”
• K. Iver, “Short Film Starring My Beloved’s Red Bronco”
• Airea D. Matthews, “Bread and Circus: Poems”
• Maggie Millner, “Couplets: A Love Story”
• Jenny Molberg, “The Court of No Record: Poems”
• Simon Shieh, “Master: Poems”

Science & Technology

• Eugenia Cheng, “Is Math Real? How Simple Questions Lead Us to Mathematics’ Deepest Truths”
• Jeff Goodell, “The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet”
• Jaime Green, “The Possibility of Life: Science, Imagination, and Our Quest for Kinship in the Cosmos”
• Caspar Henderson, “A Book of Noises: Notes on the Auraculous”
• Zach Weinersmith, “A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through?”
• Kelly Weinersmith, “A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through?”

Science Fiction, Fantasy & Speculative Fiction

• Tananarive Due, “The Reformatory: A Novel”
• Daniel Kraus, “Whalefall”
• Victor LaValle, “Lone Women: A Novel”
• V. E. Schwab, “The Fragile Threads of Power”
• E. Lily Yu, “Jewel Box: Stories”

Young Adult Literature

• Jennifer Baker, “Forgive Me Not”
• Olivia A. Cole, “Dear Medusa”
• Kim Johnson, “Invisible Son”
• Amber McBride, “Gone Wolf”
• Sarah Myer, “Monstrous: A Transracial Adoption Story”

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