From all of us at the Los Angeles Public Library, at the Central Library, and the 72 branches, we are pleased to announce the best books of 2023 as selected by our staff, who volunteered their…
Over the centuries, various forms of expression have been banned or destroyed, and their creators have been censored, imprisoned, tortured, killed, exiled. At the present time, all types of libraries…
From all of us at the Los Angeles Public Library, at the Central Library, and the 72 branches, we are pleased to announce the best books of 2022 as selected by our staff, who volunteered their…
From all of us at the Los Angeles Public Library, at the Central Library, and the 72 branches, we are pleased to announce the best books of 2021 as selected by our staff, who volunteered their…
The novels and poetry of Charles Bukowski continue to have devoted, admiring fans, who can never get enough of his books. We have those books in hard copy, and there is a good representation in…
It is a good thing that the lives of children’s authors are not always reflected in the books they wrote. Some of the most enduring and well-loved of these books were written by people whose lives…
Other than indigenous peoples, we are a nation of immigrants, those who came by choice and those who came by force. As our country keeps growing and changing with new people arriving all the time…
As Women’s History Month ends, we would like to offer you a few e-books and e-audiobooks about intrepid, adventurous women who traveled for the sheer joy of doing something different, to escape from…
The TV serialization of two novels, Sharp Objects and Big Little Lies, has brought attention to a new crop of novels. They are edgy, psychological, thriller, suspense stories with distinct…
In retrospect, it is ironic that the fire took place when it did: April 29, 1986. On that day, progress was quietly continuing with plans for a renovation of the original Central Library and a new…
“Against all odds, we had proven to our doubters and detractors that a modern bookstore could survive in Egypt … Though Diwan was not a huge financial success, it was a moral victory, an experiment in marketing, and a mastery of the will.” These are the words of Nadia Wassef...
Sara Sinclair compiled interviews and stories from twelve different Indigenous people whose ancestral tribes and families are from North America (The United States and Canada). These interviews came about because of Sinclair's work with a non-profit oral history project, Voice of Witness. Each person's point of view is unique, but there are...
Wilma Pearl Mankiller was principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, and the first woman to hold that position. In the Cherokee language, the surname “Mankiller,” Asgaya-dihi, references a traditional Cherokee rank, such as captain or major. Chief Mankiller was the least violent individual on this planet, but she was a...
She's back. Maud returns, much to this reviewer's surprise and delight. Her first, and supposedly last, appearance was in An elderly lady is up to no good, where she was taking justice into her own hands, and under scrutiny by clever Detective Inspector Irene Huss. In this group of short stories...
Gabriel Marquez Garcia was one of the giants among modern writers and his books place him in the pantheon of writers throughout the ages. In 1982 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Not only is he significant in the world of Spanish language writers, he is beloved and...
Professor Richard Ovenden is a scholar, and at Oxford University he is the British Librarian in charge of the Bodleian Libraries. His appreciation of libraries and archives and those who create, maintain and protect them is evident in this book. When certain individuals or groups of people vociferously disagree with...
In a fictitious town in Mexico, the body of a woman known as the Witch is found in a filthy irrigation ditch. She was the daughter of another Witch, and both women were thought to possess extraordinary powers, for good and evil, which the town's people feared. Everyone wants to...
Cookbooks that combine recipes, history and personal anecdotes are a treasure. When the author is passionate about their subject we readers benefit. Bill Esparza is that person, who is passionate about food, history and writes about his ancestry, his family and their relationships with food, culture, the Spanish language, Mexican...
On Friday, November 13, 2015, a series of terrorist attacks, some suicide bombers, took place in Paris, France: at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, a suburb of Paris; at crowded cafes and restaurants in Paris; and another attack was leveled at the BataclanTheatre in the 11th arrondissement of Paris...
Anthony Bourdain was a world-class explorer, who eagerly traveled domestically and internationally, never intending to report or write about his experiences. He traveled and sampled foods of many places, satisfying his own curiosity, therefore this collection cannot be compared to a regular travel/eatery guide. Bourdain set his own standards, which...
