ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Little Free Libraries are for more than printed reading materials.

Users of the streetside stations give and receive all manner of non-reading merchandise, such as homemade trinkets, canned goods and garden seeds.

This all occurs with the blessing of the nonprofit, St. Paul-based Little Free Library.

So Abe Eyman of St. ...Read more

Shirlene Obuobi is a Ghanaian American cardiologist, cartoonist, and author of the novels “On Rotation” and “Between Friends & Lovers.”

Her new paranormal summer romance, “Die for Me,” has just been published, and she answered the Book Pages Q&A via email.

Q. Please tell readers about your new book, “Die for Me.”

“Die for...Read more

LOS ANGELES — It was 1963 and up-and-coming freelance journalist Gloria Steinem had been a working writer in New York City for roughly three years when Show magazine sent her on an undercover assignment which she was uniquely qualified for: to infiltrate Manhattan's "greatest new showbiz gimmick," The Playboy Club. She already had the beauty ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Wendell Berry, a Kentucky farmer and writer whose work advocated fiercely for working landscapes and working people, died "suddenly and peacefully" on Monday at his home in Port Royal, Kentucky, according to his family. He was 92.

His daughter, Mary Berry, confirmed his death. On Thursday, she told The Times that her father, ...Read more

Here are the bestsellers for the week that ended Saturday, Aug. 29, 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 Calamity ...Read more

Of the millions of men and women who have made their mark here, few were as prolific and artful as Edgar Miller, even though most of you have never heard of him.

“Anyone who has explored Edgar Miller’s biography has tended to think of him as a conspicuously overlooked figure in Midwestern modern art,” write Hannah Dykstra and Jeff Kruse ...Read more

Even if you aren’t heading back to school this September, you might be in need of a reading list.

And boy, do we have one this month: an enormous, mammoth, colossal list of books (and no, not a single thesaurus among them, believe it or not).

Even more than August’s picks, September’s book offerings include award-winning authors and ...Read more

Ryan Lowell is the author of the debut novel, “Freight,” which is set in the world of the trucking business.

His fiction has appeared in “Workers Write!” and “Overtime.” He lives in South Portland with his wife and two sons.

Q. Please tell readers about your new book, “Freight.”

“Freight” is a story about several ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Emily Wilson, the classicist who in a review eviscerated Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey," isn't done with Homer's epic. She's translating the ancient Greek poem again.

"It's a complete retranslation. It's not a revision of the old version," Wilson told the Associated Press last week. "I'm about halfway through."

Wilson's 2017...Read more

Here are the bestsellers for the week that ended Saturday, Aug. 22, 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 Poison ...Read more

SAN DIEGO -- Back in 1985 in the Soviet Union, Merryl Goldberg was interrogated by the KGB three times, briefly kidnapped by the state security agency twice and put under house arrest once.

She’ll tell you it was worth it.

Today, Goldberg lives in Carlsbad and works at California State University San Marcos, where she’s a professor of ...Read more

ANAHEIM, Calif. — It’s evening in Frankfurt, Germany, when Scott Brown picks up the phone.

The Downtown Brown Books bookseller interrupted his vacation to discuss the use of books to train AI models — a process that destroys the books — and the practice’s effects on booksellers.

Brown, who’s based in Portland, Oregon, has written ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- Nearly every week, I pass a colleague in the office who taunts me with four words: "Count of Monte Cristo, Count of Monte Cristo," as he shakes his head. He's disappointed his favorite book didn't make the cut of our 101 best book club picks list, which served as the 2026 LA Times Festival of Books curtain-raiser. I don't mind the...Read more

There was a time when a book could shake the world and on Aug. 17, 1976, a book titled “Roots: The Saga of an American Family” by Alex Haley arrived on bookstore shelves and immediately began to fly off those shelves and into apartments and homes across the country, starting a cultural rumble and sparking national conversations about race ...Read more

Here are the bestsellers for the week that ended Saturday, Aug. 15, 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 Calamity ...Read more

The clues had been turning up for months.

Beginning last year with “The Dentist” and continuing regularly throughout 2026, Tim Sullivan’s U.K. mystery novels about neurodivergent detective George Cross have been appearing on U.S. bookshelves.

And now, following the rollout of his original seven novels here for American readers, Sullivan�...Read more

For his 10th novel, Riley Sager, the pen name of author Todd Ritter, wanted to celebrate all of his work and give back to his fans.

He hopes fans will have fun spotting callbacks to his earlier work in “The Unknown,” but also says it has something for first-time readers.

“I wanted to do something special to celebrate a decade of ...Read more