Books: Why now is the time to read a 5-year-old book and more from books at the L.A. Times
Hi, I’m books editor Carolyn Kellogg with the latest in books.
THE BIG STORY
It’s rare that a 5-year-old book becomes timely, but that’s the case for “Private Empire” by Steve Coll. The book, about ExxonMobil and the man who, until recently, led it, “is the portrait of an ethos,” writes Sarah Chayes. Its leader, of course, was Rex Tillerson, who stands poised to become secretary of State under Donald Trump.
ELUSIVE PEACE
Veteran negotiator George Mitchell spent two years as President Obama’s special envoy for Middle East peace. His book “A Path to Peace: A Brief History of Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations and a Way Forward in the Middle East” is reviewed by Zach Dorfman, who underscores the region’s profound divisions.
AMONG THE STARS
Patricia Bosworth, who wrote biographies of Montgomery Clift, Jane Fonda and others, had a life just as fascinating, her new memoir shows. She once met Monty as a girl — that was not long after her father, a lawyer, had defended the Hollywood 10 — and her acting career took her to Lee Strasberg’s studio and on-screen with Audrey Hepburn. But it’s the way the restrictive 1950s affected her personally — her gay brother driven to suicide, her need for an illegal abortion — writes reviewer M.G. Lord, that makes “The Men in My Life” so powerful.
BESTSELLERS
As Roxane Gay’s short story collection “Difficult Women” moves into its fourth week on our bestseller list, the author is making headlines. She told Buzzfeed this week that she has withdrawn her forthcoming book from Simon & Schuster over the publishing company’s deal with Milo Yiannopoulos, an editor at the “alt-right” website Breitbart. On Saturday morning, giving the keynote speech to the American Bookseller Assn.’s annual Winter Institute, Gay said, “You are stewards of scared spaces. You provide sanctuary. Rise to the occasion. Rise.” This video shows they did.
BASEBALL IN EAST L.A.
“On rare occasions, you might catch sight of grown men in crisp white and sky-blue uniforms kicking up clouds of dust at the diamond on 4th Street and Evergreen Avenue,” writes Vera Castaneda, giving us a look at “Mexican American Baseball in East Los Angeles.” The short photo history book draws from archives and features on its cover — something I didn’t know until our story went online — the father of the Los Angeles Times’ own Steve Padilla.
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