Mansfield Park – An Opera UCLA Production, Comes to the Clark Library

Literary creations often inspire other creative works. Think Phantom of the Opera (a novel turned into various stage and film adaptations, such as Andrew Lloyd Webber’s hit musical) and The Wizard of Oz (another novel turned into multiple stage productions and films, including the famous picture starring Judy Garland). Now another classic book, Jane Austen’s Mansfield […]

The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books is Back!

Where can you celebrate books with the people who write them and a community of passionate readers? Why – at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books of course. Now in its 22nd year, the festival “has grown to become an essential part of the L.A. cultural scene, promoting literacy and expanding minds while having […]

LA Art Book Fair 2017

Events that combine books and art always get my attention. I love both and write about them often on this blog. So it should come as no surprise that I’m really excited about the 2017 installment of the LA Art Book Fair (LAABF17). The LA based event and its counterpart, the NY Art Book Fair, showcase […]

Halloween Horrors – The Scariest Los Angeles Deaths

With Halloween approaching, it seems fitting to highlight some of the more gruesome events that have taken place in the City of Angels. To help with this endeavor, I turned to James T. Bartlett, author of Gourmet Ghosts and recently-released Gourmet Ghosts 2. For both books Bartlett searched numerous Los Angeles archives, trawled local bars and hotels, and found unknown […]

Renato D’Agostin Photographs Los Angeles and Mines the City’s Collective Memory

There are different ways to represent, and share one’s impressions of, a place. Photographers use light to define their subject as they see it, while writers use words to describe, explain and tell stories about particular settings. In a recently published book called Archaeologies: LA, Italian photographer Renato D’Agostin and CalArts urban historian Norman Klein […]

Ed Ruscha Muses on “Both Sides of Sunset: Photographing Los Angeles”

Los Angeles is arguably one of the most photographed cities in the world. So one might wonder why we need another book filled with images of our city. Artist Ed Ruscha provides the answer for one particular new collection of LA images titled Both Sides of Sunset: Photographing Los Angeles (Metropolis Books, 2015), edited by […]

Authors on Architecture: Universal vs. Disney

Every year Disney and Universal theme parks attract millions of people seeking thrills, shows and a good time with family and friends. When they walk through the entrance gates, however, most of those visitors aren’t thinking about the personalities behind the parks, how they came to be created and the relationship between the two companies […]