A book lover’s guide to the Festival of Books

Welcome to the L.A. Times Book Club newsletter.

Honestly, for bibliophiles, is there a better weekend in spring than late April at the L.A. Times Festival of Books? The temps will be in the 70s, authors will be giving keynote speeches or participating in panel discussions, and the USC campus will be filled with merchants selling everything from books (and books and books) and comfy T-shirts to pretty notebooks and lusciously scented candles for your reading nook.

This year’s fest, the 30th annual edition, takes place the weekend of April 26 and 27. Bring your walking shoes and a tote bag for all the goodies you’ll pick up as you wander between stages, merchant booths and panels featuring a stupendous lineup of world-class writers.

Celebrity watchers will be in for a treat as Hollywood stars such as Josh Gad, Wil Wheaton, Wilmer Valderamma, Ben Falcone, comedian Chelsea Handler and the rock musician Peter Wolf will all be talking about their new books.

The festival will be like an unending dessert table of the biggest names in the book world. Authors from the romance, fantasy (and romantasy!), sci-fi and horror spaces will appear alongside leaders in the literary fiction and nonfiction worlds talking about topics ranging from politics to nature to law enforcement to cooking.

Want to find out more? Here is the complete schedule of events for you to peruse. And an insider tip: The Festival of Books app is available so that you can reserve tickets to special events or hear from your favorite author. Make sure to check out the family activities all weekend geared toward young readers.

Panel-palooza

Audience members cheer and laugh at the 2024 edition of the L.A. Times Festival of Books during RuPaul’s discussion of his book “The House of Hidden Meaning.”

(Michael Blackshire / Los Angeles Times)

Here are a few of the Saturday panels I can’t wait to stop by. I’ll cover the Sunday panels in the next edition of the newsletter, so make sure to check your inbox next week.

First up, a panel that I’m moderating: “Sisterhood in Contemporary Fiction,” with Lisa See, Lynn Steger Strong, and Caoilinn Hughes. We’ll be talking about women’s relationships with their closest friends, who — sometimes — are also sisters.

As books and libraries increasingly come under attack, the panel “One Page at a Time” feels essential. Those on the front lines of the book wars will talk about their experiences and provide audience members with advice on how to protect their own communities and school libraries.

Jason De León, Jessica Pishko and Jesse Katz focus on the humanity of those members of our culture who have been targeted for inhumane treatment in the panel “Undocumented: The Price of the Promised Land.” Katz is also a finalist for a L.A. Times Book Prize for his book, “The Rent Collectors.”

Kiese Laymon, whose memoir, “Heavy,” was on our list of the “30 Best nonfiction books of the past 30 years, will present his new children’s book, “City Summer, Country Summer,” about joy among a group of friends in the South. Also on the schedule: Noted voting rights activist Stacey Abrams speaks about “Stacey Speaks Up,” her children’s book about a determined little girl who speaks against injustice.

The panel “Journey to the HEA: Tackling Big Topics in Romance” explores romantic territory in which happily ever after (HEA) comes only after a lot of plot-twisting obstacles. (On Saturday alone, three hot panels on romance are enough to rev up our hearts.)

More information on tickets, schedule and participants is available at the Festival of Books website. Downloading the app will keep you up to date on festival surprises and schedule changes.

The L.A. Times Book Prizes will be awarded in a public ceremony on Friday, April 25 at 7 p.m. at Bovard Auditorium at USC. Special awards will go to Pico Iyer, Emily Witt and poet Amanda Gorman. Prizes will be given in categories such as fiction, current events, poetry, mystery, biography, history, young adult, science fiction, sciences, audiobooks and graphic novels/comics. The Art Seidenbaum award for debut fiction will also be given out. The winners are sure to represent a stunning assortment of books that have topped best-seller and year-end lists.

(Please note: The Times may earn a commission through links to Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookstores.)

The Week(s) in Books

To celebrate the 30th edition of the L.A. Times Festival of Books, we asked authors, editors, critics and scholars to select the 30 best fiction books since the festival was inaugurated.

(Patrick Hruby / Los Angeles Times)

Phew. As if there weren’t enough to chew on with the upcoming festival, the books world has continued to make news. Here are some of the top stories in the lit world:

1996 was the year that the festival debuted, and Carolyn Kellogg explains how it turned out to be a momentous year for the books industry.

Poetry remains an exciting place where lyrical wordsmiths turn truth into art. The legendary Cave Canem organization has become an incubator for some of the finest Black American poets of the past 30 years. As Reginald Dwayne Betts observes, “If there was a centrifugal force in American letters over the last 25 years, it is undeniable that it has been Cave Canem.”

Those who love the classic mystery writers Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie have reason to rejoice: Britbox debuted Christie’s “Towards Zero,” a sexy mystery about an adulterous tennis star, his dower aunt (played by Anjelica Huston), and a depressed detective played by the Welsh actor Matthew Rhys. After two episodes, I’m hooked. Over on the CW, actor David Thewlis plays Sherlock Holmes to Blu Hunt’s Amelia Rojas in “Sherlock and Daughter.” After her mother is murdered, young Amelia journeys from America to join her father, the noted detective, in solving her mother’s homicide.

Blackstone Publishing, a vibrant press in southern Oregon, has been my go-to for “Belfast Noir,” a genre that sets its crimes during the Troubles or under the civil war’s lingering shadows. Among the Blackstone authors is Adrian McKinty, who topped the bestseller lists with “The Chain” and “The Island.” But the series I love features Det. Sean Duffy, whose presence as a Catholic with the Royal Ulster Constabulary is a constant source of tension. Book 8, “Hang on, St. Christopher,” was released in early March.

On the other side of the country, Manhattan’s Soho Press offers an off-kilter mystery that is un-baaaa-lievable but so much fun. In “Three Bags Full” , Irish author Leonie Swann sets a mystery in a farmyard. As a farmer lies dying, his flock of sheep is mobilized to solve his murder and bring the killer to justice. (Trust me on this. You’ll want to check it out.)

Booksellers will have thousands of books on display later this month at the L.A. Times Festival of Books.

There’s a lot of bad news out there, so here are some bookish delights that have made me smile in recent days:

The United States Postal Service debuted stamps in honor of Marjorie Wise Brown’s “Goodnight Moon.” I’m betting most parents will be able to identify — from repetitive memory — the text that goes along with each scene.

Here’s a handy guide to the newest literary genres sure to join romantasy, cli-fi, and spicyTok on next year’s hot list.

Writer Elon Green talks about people mistaking him for the other Elon.

In one Michigan community, a human chain helped a small bookstore transport its entire inventory, one book at a time, to its new location.

See you at the festival!