Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, a reminder

The L.A. Times Festival of Books is coming up this weekend (Saturday and Sunday, April 28th and 29th). If you’re in the L.A. area, it’s a must-see. I just checked out the list of panels at this link, and wow, there are some great people speaking. Here’s a link to the list of authors attending, too.

It’s all free, but for some events you need to get tickets ahead of time, which you can do through Ticketmaster, and parking is $8. There are panels on every genre of literature, plus all kinds of other book-related topics. Here are a few highlights, but really, check out the website.

Joseph Wambaugh and James Ellroy in conversation

Ellen Burstyn in conversation with Leonard Maltin

Ray Bradbury introduced by M.G. Lord

Jim Lehrer in conversation with Sander Vanocur

Children's Books: Creating Today's Classics, with moderator Ms. Lois Sarkisian, and Ms. Cornelia Funke, Mr. Hilary Knight and Ms. Laura Numeroff.

Fiction: Jumping Off the Page, with moderator Ms. Susan Salter Reynolds, and Mr. Chris Bohjalian, Mr. Peter Orner, Mr. Gary Shteyngart, and Ms. Marianne Wiggins

T.C. Boyle with an Introduction by Jerry Stahl

Gore Vidal in conversation with Jon Wiener

Mitch Albom in conversation with Frank McCourt

And many, many more interesting panels and speakers...

I often feel that L.A. is a wonderful place to live, and then there are the other times, when I feel it's a cesspool. This is one of the good times. This event is one of the perks of living in a big city, and sometimes I need to be reminded of those perks...

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately, the closest I'll be to L.A. this weekend is Las Vegas. I would love to see Ray Bradbury speak. He wrote one of my all time favorite novels. Hope you enjoy it!

Anonymous said...

Oh how fun! I wish Dallas had a book festival, you would think with so many people living here they would have one. Sigh. Anyway, are you going for both days? Can't wait to hear all about it.

Gentle Reader said...

matt--Ray Bradbury is very cool. I haven't read much of his work, but my husband loves him.

iliana--I can only go Saturday, because there's also a huge city-wide charity project going on this weekend, so on Sunday I'll be doing arts and crafts with seniors at a retirement home :) But I'll let you know if I get to any good author panels, or anything else...

Unknown said...

How come some people are Ms. or Mr. and others aren't? Inquiring minds want to know.

And how are you feeling about David Halberstam??? Very sad.

Gentle Reader said...

susan--you know, that's how they printed everyone's name on the website, but the inconsistency is weird. I should have taken all those mr. and ms. labels off...

Very sad about David Halberstam, and a grad student was driving, which is a total nightmare...

He was an amazing journalist and I just heard a nice piece on NPR about him, which I'm sure is on their website.

Bellezza said...

Oh, I wish I could go.

Gentle Reader said...

bellezza--turns out I wasn't able to go today, like I had hoped...hubby sick, no way I was going to brave the crowds with three kids in tow...so an intrepid friend is going to report back to me about my favorite authors, if she saw them. Ah well, the best laid plans...