L.A. Times Festival of Books

At the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books on Sunday, I got a chance to sit down with novelist and nonfiction writer Judith Freeman to discuss the lure of Southern California as a literary landscape, and also the influence of Raymond Chandler on the city and its cultural life.

Writer Jonathan Lethem took some time to join us in our secret video booth at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.

Janet Fitch’s first novel, “White Oleander,” hit big when it was picked by Oprah for her book club.

Daniel Handler dropped by our video booth at the L.A.

Behind the scenes at the L.A.

At the L.A.

At the “Immigrant Stories” panel at the L.A.

What it means to be a loving parent, and what that requires, are perplexing questions that get at the heart of some of the more trenchant issues of modern life: how to raise children, who is a good mother, over-medication to make children fit in, how much of the work of raising a child actually requires the parent.

“I know what you’re all thinking: I look amazing,” joked Maria Semple when moderator and L.A.

Why write in and about Los Angeles?

At the L.A. Times Festival of Books, Molly Ringwald sat down with L.A.

When you write a book that is titled “Breasts: A Natural and Unnatural History,” you probably expect a question something like this: What on Earth was the impetus for the work ... and the title?

At the L.A.

Early on in the Sunday morning panel about “Guns in America,” author and UCLA constitutional law professor Adam Winkler held up his new book, “Gunfight: The Battle Over the Right to Bear Arms in America,” and opened it to an 1879 photograph of Dodge City, Kan., one of the most storied of the Wild West towns.

Each day the sports pages teem with wins and losses, statistics and scores, victors and runners-up.

A couple of winters ago, Joyce Carol Oates pulled out a manuscript she first put down in 1984, had dusted up every six or seven years and couldn’t quite finish.

Despite a diverse range of topics -- Mexican food, the coca plant, the world’s most complicated watch and the federal duck stamp art program -- the authors participating in Saturday’s Festival of Books panel discussion “A Singular Passion” all described similar experiences when it came to writing an entire book on a single, seemingly niche topic.

Author Lemony Snicket and children’s book illustrator Jon Klassen sparred over their book “The Dark” at the Target Children’s Stage on Saturday afternoon at the Festival of Books.

True to the occupations and personalities of its many inhabitants, Hollywood is constantly reinventing itself.

As one might expect -- nay, hope -- the expletive deleteds were flying fast and furious at the Los Angeles Festival of Books’ Saturday afternoon panel discussion “Humor: Vastly Inappropriate,” which consisted of authors Heather McDonald, Ophira Eisenberg, Lizz Winstead and Kelly Oxford, who were questioned and cajoled by moderator Adrian Todd Zuniga.

On Saturday afternoon at the L.A.

Film director Chris Columbus shared a secret Saturday about the recent kids’ novel he co-wrote: It’s the “thematic sequel to ‘The Goonies.’ ” “House of Secrets,” written with young adult author Ned Vizzini, also is the first book in a planned trilogy.

We have, when you think about it, always been an argumentative culture and society, even before we became a country.

The USC Trojan Marching Band belted out tunes, the USC Song Girls energized the crowd and USC President Max Nikias welcomed people to the “celebration of the written word” as the 2013 L.A.