LOS ANGELES — Finalists and honorees for the 46th Los Angeles Times Book Prizes were announced Wednesday.

Writer-curator Ekow Eshun is among the biography finalists for "The Strangers: Five Extraordinary Black Men and the Worlds That Made Them," which parses Black masculinity as embodied by various civil rights activists, philosophers and ...Read more

When young adult author Courtney Summers got the rights back to her backlisted titles in 2024, she initially wasn't sure what to do with them.

Summers' novels, the bulk of which enjoyed peak popularity in the 2010s, had by then faded into the periphery — despite a film adaptation of her 2012 zombie thriller "This Is Not a Test," which is ...Read more

“Within the House of Murdaugh: Amid a Unique Friendship,” is the first real insider book by anyone within the closed orbit of the ill-fated family of Alex and Maggie Murdaugh and their two children, Buster and Paul.

Written by Murdaugh housekeeper Blanca Turrubiate-Simpson, the book has a special intimacy as she writes of her yearslong ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS -- “There’s no place like home,” Dorothy says in “The Wizard of Oz,” a cross-stitch pillow message that hints at only part of the story.

Dorothy, of course, realizes that home is where her dreams live, but “home” is not as simple a concept for the adult siblings in Angela Flournoy’s “The Turner House,” who are ...Read more

If you’re looking for a book that feels more like a movie, “Warning Signs” may be just the ticket.

The visual terrain of Tracy Sierra’s adventure novel is so vivid that it’s easy to picture it on a big screen. Sierra’s follow-up to the riveting “Nightwatching” is set atop a mountain and in a nearby cabin, where a handful of men ...Read more

David Romero had been thinking about writing a book when he got inspiration from an unlikely place: the Green Day album “Dookie.” While scanning the song titles, Romero misread the track “Emenius Sleepus” and it sparked something in his imagination.

“I read ‘Enemy Sleeps’ and thought, ‘Wow, that’s so fascinating. What does ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS -- Important Valentine’s Day update: Fake dating is out; second-chance romances are in.

That may or may not be true IRL but it’s definitely a thing in the world of romantic fiction, according to Lauren Richards, co-owner of Tropes & Trifles bookstore in south Minneapolis. “Fake dating,” meaning a character who pretends they�...Read more

A month into the year, the first great novel of 2026 is here.

Patmeena Sabit’s debut, “Good People,” may remind readers of Celeste Ng’s bestselling “Little Fires Everywhere” in that it’s a domestic tale that reads like a propulsive thriller and springs from a clash of cultures. Sabit writes about the Sharaf family, who came to the...Read more

PHILADELPHIA -- Chill Moody didn’t plan on writing a children’s book.

A story about a young athlete was bubbling in his head. And the West Philly-born rapper and serial entrepreneur wanted to turn it into a screenplay, mirroring the upbeat, have-faith vibe of fellow rapper Bow Wow’s 2002 film, "Like Mike."

“Instead of basketball [like ...Read more

Here are the bestsellers for the week that ended Saturday, Jan. 31, compiled from data from independent and chain bookstores, book wholesalers and independent distributors nationwide, powered by Circana BookScan © 2026 Circana.

(Reprinted from Publishers Weekly, published by PWxyz LLC. © 2026, PWxyz LLC.)

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. "The ...Read more

Elizabeth McCracken is the author of eight books, including the National Book Award finalist, “The Giant’s House.” She’s been on the faculty at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and holds the James A. Michener Chair in Fiction at the University of Texas at Austin.

Here, she talks about her new book, “A Long Game,” and her reading life. ...Read more

One half of “The Typewriter and the Guillotine” is compelling, and it’s probably not the half you’d think.

“The Typewriter” part of Mark Braude’s account of midcentury Paris is the better part (and it’s actually about 80% of the book). It’s about American Janet Flanner, who was hired to write “Letter from Paris” columns ...Read more

When Harlem’s renowned Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture asked me to recommend five of my favorites for its list of 100 books by Black authors, my first reaction was, “I’d be honored.”

My second reaction was, “Only five?”

Because how could I leave off such luminaries as James Baldwin, Lorraine Hansberry, Maya Angelou ...Read more

Writer Neil Gaiman denied sexual misconduct allegations first brought forth against him more than a year and a half ago in a statement released Monday.

Gaiman, the bestselling fantasy author behind "The Sandman" comic books, and novels and shows "American Gods" and "Good Omens," called the allegations, which emerged in the summer of 2024, a "...Read more