Vibrant Chinatown Architecture | Photo by LWY via Flickr Monday Nathaniel Mackey presents and signs Bass Cathedral 7pm @ Book Soup Tuesday Susan Squire presents and signs I Don't: A Contrarian History of Marriage 7pm @ Book Soup Wednesday Debra Ginsberg discusses and signs The Grift 7pm @ Vroman's Joie Davidow presents and signs I Wouldn't Leave Rome to Go to Heaven 7pm @ Book Soup......

Former Angeleno Jonathan Evison is in town this week to read from and sign his debut novel, All About Lulu. It is a that novel examines the quirky world of Venice beach bodybuilding, the life of a talented DJ, the mess families can make without even trying, a love found and then lost, and so much more. There are moments of great tenderness, of gaping sadness, and then, out of nowhere, moments of such recklessness......

Down and Out Bear in Atwater | Photo by Zabowski on Flickr Monday Kitty Felde discusses and signs The Theatre of Genocide 7pm @ Vroman's Billy Taylor presents and signs Based on the Movie 7pm @ Book Soup Tuesday Adam Davies discusses and signs Mine All Mine 7pm @ Vroman's Paul McComas presents and signs Planet of the Dates 7pm @ Book Soup Wednesday Daniel Silva discusses and signs Moscow Rules 7pm @ Vroman's......

Jack Pendarvis, author of the hilarious Your Body is Changing, which we reviewed last year, will be reading from his equally funny, Pendarvisly quirky new book Awesome tonight at 5pm @ Book Soup. Ever wonder what it would be like to be 50-feet-tall and be totally into robots and nearly lose the maybe-love of your life who is not a giant such as yourself? Pendarvis clearly has, and the result of such dreaming is Awesome:......

Red Velvet Remnants | Photo by pink_fish13 via Flickr Monday David Maraniss discusses and signs Rome 1960: The Olympics That Changed the World 7pm @ Vroman's Christopher Reich signs Rules Of Deception 7pm @ Barnes & Noble, 3rd Street Promenade Tuesday Christian Lander presents and signs Stuff White People Like 7pm @ Book Soup Kai Chen discusses and signs One in a Billion: Journey to Freedom 7pm @ Vroman's Adrienne Barbeau signs Vampyres of......

MOCA-Goer | Photo by shearforce via Flickr Monday Elizabeth Brundage discusses and signs Somebody Else's Daughter 7pm @ Vroman's Daniel A. Helminiak presents and signs What the Bible Really Says About Homosexuality 7pm @ Book Soup Tuesday Barry M. Goldwater Jr. signs Pure Goldwater 1pm @ Village Books Adam Nimoy presents and signs My Incredible Wonderful, Miserable Life 7pm @ Book Soup Bret Lott discusses and signs Ancient Highway 7pm @ Vroman's Wednesday Brent......

Wet Vantage Point | Photo by maverick2003 via Flickr Monday Jess Winfield discusses & signs My Name is Will 7pm @ Vroman's Donald Welch presents and signs The Bachelorette Party 7pm @ Book Soup Tuesday Don Felder signs Heaven & Hell: My Life in the Eagles (1974-2001) 6:30pm @ Vroman's Stan Lee presents and signs Election Daze: What Are They Really Saying? 7pm @ Book Soup Denise Hamilton signs The Last Embrace 7pm @......

A new view - up & out - from Watts Tower | Photo by Exquisitor via Flickr Monday David Wroblewski presents and signs The Story of Edgar Sawtelle 7pm @ Book Soup Rhys Bowen discusses and signs A Royal Pain 7pm @ Vroman's Joe Carducci presents and signs Enter Naomi: SST, L.A. and All That 7:30pm @ Family Tuesday Seth Greenland presents and signs Shining City 7pm @ Book Soup Jim Krusoe presents Girl......

Watch for Trains | Photo by Adan Garcia via Flickr Monday Jackie Collins signs Married Lovers 7pm @ Borders, Century City Robert Crais presents Chasing Darkness 7pm @ Book Soup William Cleveland discusses Art and Upheaval:Artists on the World's Frontlines 7pm @ Central Library Sandra Gulland discusses and signs Mistress of the Sun 7pm @ Vroman's Walter Mirisch signs I Thought We Were Making Movies, Not History 8pm @ The Wine Bar at The......

Open All Night Downtown | Photo by zabowski via Flickr Monday Paul Knobloch and Tosh Berman presents and sign The Dead All Have the Same Skin 7pm @ Book Soup Janet Evanovich signs Fearless Fourteen 7pm @ Barnes & Noble, 3rd Street Promenade Tuesday Jessica Brody presents and signs The Fidelity Files 7pm @ Book Soup Darin Strauss discusses and signs More Than It Hurts You 7pm @ Vroman's Deanne Stillman discusses Mustang: The......

Ed Park is in town this week to read from and sign Personal Days, his funny, frightening & frighteningly spot-on novel about modern-day office life in this time of mergers, acquisitions, and business books full of empty platitudes that encourage workers to "do whatever it takes" and "put the customer first." Employees go missing without reason and a rogue element shakes things up, all while they troubleshoot Excel and navigate tedious office parties. Think Office......

Elephant in the Sky at Hollywood & Highland | Photo by huangjiahui via Flickr Monday Scott McClellan signs What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception 7pm @ Barnes & Noble, 3rd Street Promenade Phyllis Gebauer discusses and signs Hot Widow 7pm @ Vroman's Marianne Wiggins signs The Shadow Catcher 7:30pm @ Barnes & Noble, The Grove Salman Rushdie discusses The Enchantress of Florence with Carrie Fisher 7:30pm @ Writers......

Gorgeous floral spikes at the Getty | Photo by oscalito via Flickr Monday Stephanie Klein presents and signs Moose: A Memoir of Fat Camp 7pm @ Book Soup Tom Zimmerman discusses and signs Paradise Promoted 7pm @ Vroman's Paul Roberts discusses The End of Food with Lisa Brenneis & Bill Fujimoto 7pm @ Central Library Tuesday Jeffrey Lewis presents and signs Adam the King 7pm @ Book Soup Stephanie Klein discusses & signs Moose:......

Photo by juicycactus via Flickr Tuesday Andre Dubus III presents The Garden of Last Days 7pm @ Central Library Bob Morris presents and signs Assisted Loving 7pm @ Book Soup Alan Furst discusses and signs The Spies of Warsaw 7pm @ Vroman's Wednesday Andrea Askowitz presents and signs My Miserable Lonely Lesbian Pregnancy @ Book Soup DeLauné Michel signs The Safety of Secrets 7pm @ Borders, Westwood Donna Foote presents Relentless Pursuit:A Year in......

Dark Downtown Tunnel | Photo by ericcastro via Flickr Tuesday Laura Dave presents and signs The Divorce Party 7pm @ Book Soup Garth Stein discusses and signs The Art of Racing in the Rain 7pm @ Vroman's Alix Strauss presents Have I Got a Guy for You 7pm @ Borders, Hollywood Preeta Samsarasan presents Evening is the Whole Day 7:30pm @ Borders, The Grove Gary Panter discusses Gary Panter with Matt Groening 7:30pm @......

Reading Proust on the Beach on Hot Day in LA | Photo by LWY via Flickr Monday Mike Edison presents and signs I Have Fun Everywhere I Go 7pm @ Book Soup Penny Vincenzi discusses and signs Sheer Abandon 7pm @ Vroman's David Rensin signs All for a Few Perfect Waves 7:30pm @ Village Books David Benioff presents City of Theives 7pm @ Borders, Westwood Tuesday Fareed Zakaria discusses The Post-American World with author......

Tom Reynolds of Groundlings fame is creeped out by the too-tawdry, overly-obsessive, weirdly-whacked love songs of our day and he's written a book to make his case. In Touch Me, I'm Sick: The 52 Creepiest Love Songs You've Ever Heard, Reynolds calls out 52 songs for scrutiny (from Slipknot to Melissa Ethridge to the Beatles) and dissects every drop of their creepy essence. His list includes these gems:Every Breath You Take by The Police -......

New Mural near La Brea & Melrose. Learn more about the artwork here | Photo by bumblebee via Flickr Monday Mark Sarvas discusses and signs Harry, Revised 7pm @ Vroman's Mike Farrell presents Just Call Me Mike 7pm @ Book Soup Tuesday Brian May presents Bang! The Complete History of the Universe 4pm @ Book Soup Millard Kaufman discusses Bowl of Cherries 7pm @ Central Library Adam Novak presents The Non-Pro 7pm @ Book......

Some of our favorite independent bookstores in LA (Skylight Books, Vroman's, Diesel, Book Soup) have been targeted by scammers claiming to be some of our favorite writers. Here's how it works: a would-be writer calls a bookstore (impersonating a writer who has a scheduled store appearance in the next few hours or days), complains of car trouble, and asks to have cash wired to them immediately to avert their made-up crisis. These pranksters have impersonated......

Bright Lights at Griffith Observatory | Photo by androog via Flickr Monday Marya Hornbacher discusses and signs Madness: A Bipolar Life 7pm @ Vroman's Tom Leopold & Bob Sand present Milt & Marty: The Longest Lasting & Least Successful Comedy Writing Duo in Show Biz History 7pm @ Barnes & Noble, 3rd Street Promenade Neil Atkinson signs Boxcar Poetry Review 7:30pm @ Village Books Eric Mabius signs Ugly Betty: The Book 7:30pm @ Barnes......

Ominous Eye in the Arts District Downwtown | Photo by unobtanium via Flickr Monday Sloane Crosley presents I Was Told There'd Be Cake 7pm @ Book Soup Christopher Rauschenberg presents Paris Changing: Revisiting Eugène Atget's Paris 7pm @ Central Library Valerie Mendenhall Cohen presents Woman on the Rocks 7pm @ Vroman's Tuesday Mary Roach presents BONK: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex 7pm @ Central Library David Samuels presents Only Love Can Break......

Because George Harrison was my favorite Beatle, I devoured Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me, a memoir by his first wife Pattie Boyd (of whom I confess I was, in my Beatle phase, horribly jealous) within days of its publication last year. Since recovering from her marriages, Pattie has become known as a photographer. This Sunday from 12 to 5 p.m., a show of her photographs opens at the Morrison Hotel Gallery......

Ferris Wheel Silhouette in Santa Monica| Photo by *clarity* via Flickr Monday Tori Spelling signs sTORI Telling 7pm @ Book Soup Tuesday Jonathan Rosen presents The Life of the Skies 7pm @ Central Library Alison Larkin signs The English American 7pm @ Borders, Westwood Wendy Johnson presents Gardening at the Dragon's Gate 7pm @ Book Soup Nat Read discusses Don Benito Wilson: From Mountain Man to Mayor 7pm @ Vroman's Jess Ventura signs Don't......

Here's the challenge I face each week: which books to read now and which ones to read later? Most often, this takes the form of a long-ish book review that may convince you to read a book or not, to read it now or read it later. Instead of doling out a long-winded book review, today I thought I'd be very frank: there are a lot of books piling up on the desk (and floor......

Griffith Observatory | Photo by alburn.binkley via Flickr Monday Elisa Albert presents The Book of Dahlia 7pm @ Dutton's Lisa See presents Peony In Love 7pm @ Vroman's Tuesday Richard Price discusses The Lush Life: A Novel 7pm @ Central Library Lisa Lutz presents The Curse of the Spellmans 7pm @ Borders, Century City Susan Vreeland discusses and signs Luncheon of the Boating Party 7pm @ Vroman's Elisa Albert presents The Book of Dahlia......

Shadow & Light in Little Tokyo | Photo by pink_fish13 via LAist's Featured Photos pool on Flickr. Monday Jeremy D. Popkin presents Facing Racial Revolution 7pm @ Dutton's Tuesday Alan Corey presents A Million Bucks by 30 7pm @ Book Soup Christopher Rice presents Blind Fall 7pm @ Borders, West Hollywood Wednesday Milo Martin presents Poems for a Utopian Nihilist 7pm @ Book Soup Leslie Lehr presents Wife Goes On 7pm @ Dutton's Josh......

A Zen Day at LACMA, Flipped | Photo by pink_fish13 from LAist Featured Photos Pool on Flickr Monday Markus Flanagan presents One Less Bitter Actor 7pm @ Book Soup Dee Dee Myers presents Why Women Should Rule the World 7pm @ Vroman's John Richardson signs A Life of Picasso: The Triumphant Years 7pm @ LACMA Tuesday Tony D'Souza presents The Konkans 7pm @ Book Soup Tom Cathcart & Daniel Klein present Aristotle & an......

Chris Burden's Urban Light | Photo by pink_fish13 from the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr Monday Steve Tolz presents A Fraction of the Whole 7pm @ Book Soup Lisa McKay presents My Hands Came Away Red 7pm @ Vroman's Dario Castagno presents A Day in Tuscany 7pm @ Dutton's Terry Cheney signs Manic 7pm @ Borders, Westwood Ray Bradbury, Forrest J. Ackerman and Ray Harryhausen discuss their work 7:30pm @ Mystery & Imagination......

Get Your Lit On: The Week in Bookish LA includes some outstanding readings this week from some fine, fine writers including Maggie Nelson, Anne Enright, Colm Toibin, Toby Barlow, Amy Hempel, Peter Carey, John Rechy, Martha Grimes and Russell Banks....

Monday Michael Pollan and Barry Glassner discuss In Defense of Food 7pm @ Central Library Cindy Pierce and Edie Thys Morgan presents Finding the Doorbell 7pm @ Book Soup Tuesday Traci Slatton presents Immortal 6:30pm @ Metropolis Books Joe McGinniss and special guest Bret Easton Ellis present The Delivery Man 7pm @ Book Soup Terri Cheney discusses and signs Manic: A Memoir 7pm @ Vroman's Gary Goldberg presents Sit, Ubu, Sit 7pm @ Dutton's......