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…
For many years Sue Stuart-Smith regarded gardening as a form of “outdoor housework.” It was the life of the mind that she sought, and states, “ … I would no more have plucked a weed than baked a scone or washed the curtains.” She knew that gardening was a part...
Kaouther Adimi has based this historical novel on Les Vraies Richesses (Our True Wealth), a famous Algerian bookstore, which was a publishing house and a lending library. In 1935 Edmond Charlot established the store in the city of Algiers, with the motto “by the young, for the young.” The store...
Who is that woman on the cover of the book? A holdover, punk rock fashion designer? The appearance, clothes and art are by design, but her name is not. For over 50 years, Dame Zandra Rhodes has been actively designing textiles, clothes and anything else that she has the creative...
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word “globalization” is not that old a word and refers to:“The action, process, or fact of making global; esp. (in later use) the process by which businesses or other organizations develop international influence or start operating on an international scale, widely considered to...
Fashion journalist André Leon Talley’s autobiography could not be more prescient, and not just for fashion followers. Written before the pandemic and recent protest movements, the four and a half page introduction validates the concerns and issues which are playing out on the streets of the world: “For so long I...
On January 7, 2015, two gunmen forced their way into the Paris offices of the French newspaper Charlie Hebdo, and killed 12 people and injured 11 others. The newspaper was known for its criticism of individuals, organizations, governments and countries. The staff were egalitarian about whom and what they stridently...
During this century, Joan Didion has become somewhat better known for personal tragedies, which she wrote about in The Year of Magical Thinking. When it was published, I could not finish reading it, and still have not. Long ago, in the last century, the first book of hers that I...
This biography of a woman and a wine, takes place in the early 1800s, in France, at a time when women did not conduct business, let alone take over their husband's business. However Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin was no oridnary woman. She had witnessed the French Revolution, lived through the Napoleonic Wars...
These conversations with master historians were the result of a “spur of the moment” idea that came to philanthropist David M. Rubenstein, who is a major supporter of The Library of Congress and The National Book Festival, as well as supporting other projects which preserve our national heritage. This would...
Anthony Bourdain was a charmer, armed with wit and brilliance, and a mischievous smile, and probably broke many female hearts with his passion for everything in life. On television, his walk was a joy to watch, with long arms and legs striding along, venturing forth to get somewhere, to see, to...
