Books and Literature

Paperback Edition of Taco USA Out TODAY!

This is really cool: The paperback edition of my Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America is out TODAY!Do I need to write anything more? Okay, I will!

Paperback Edition of Taco USA Out April 16!

This is really cool: the paperback edition of my Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America is coming out April 16!Do I need to write anything more? Okay, I will!

Bookly's Writer of the Month: J. Robert Lennon's Many Worlds of Unfamiliarity

Happy New Year, Orange County bibliophiles! I caught up over the holidays, an impossibly futile and pleasurable losing effort, as catching up means only falling, happily, further behind, the near-infinite "to read" list added to at top, bottom and middle. But read some newish books which I'd meant t ... More >>

Mike Tracy, Animation Professor Fired for Rants Against e-Books, Sues Art Institute of OC

A veteran professor at The Art Institute of California-Orange County is suing that for-profit college and its owners for allegedly firing him because he objected to a mandatory e-book policy that charged students $50 to $75 more for courses that required such books, even if they were never used in ... More >>

Peace. Love. Banned Books. Big Orange: Don't Say I Didn't Warn You!

Wearing my handsome and, it seems, provocative "Peace. Love. Books" T-shirt the other day, purchased as a birthday present for me by the Biblio-Gal, a puzzled, perhaps delighted clerk took me in, admittedly long--haired (graying) middle-aged dude in cool Ray-Bans possessing, yes, a certain je ne sai ... More >>

UC Irvine MFA Writers: Your Clip-and-Save Review

The end of the academic year approaches, which finids Mr. Bib looking forward to the arrival of annual literary journals sponsored by local colleges and universities. Alas, The Ear, Irvine Valley College's magazine is long gone as, it appears, is Orange Coast Review, out of OCC. Still UC Riverside p ... More >>

Holocaust Remembrance Day Event: Laura Hillman, Schindler's List Survivor

Bowers

What's Good for the Michigander: UCI Librarian Catherine Palmer on Bender, Trollope & Egan Not-so-Much

Praise the spells and bless the charms, I find April in my arms. It's official National Poetry Month and this, week National Library Week. Good times! I'm reading my OC Weekly editor's new book, an unlikely and yet terrific tribute to tacos by the Studs Terkel of food, Mr. Gustavo "Ask a Mexican" Ar ... More >>

OC Bookly Interview: Victoria Patterson

This week, class-conscious literary star and local girl makes good Victoria Patterson makes bad, very bad, or at least naughty in this, OC Bookly's first author interview. Patterson, whose take on alienation, greed and South County luxury-life mores comes with plenty of winning characterization, sty ... More >>

OC Bookly: Literary Orange, and the Jim Brown (Not the Football One) Diaries

​This week the Bibliofella previews, anticipates and otherwise promotes Orange County's upcoming annual spirng literary wingding, the weirdly named Literary Orange. Not Orange Julius or A Clockwork Orange or Orange Sunshine, which might be other great one-day conferences about, respectively, a fro ... More >>

Introducing Our New Weekly Books Column with the Bibliofella!

​Gentle readers: It gives me great pleasure to introduce our new weekly column on books, written by longtime Weekly contributor, UC Irvine egghead, and host of KPFK-FM 90.7's Bibliocracy Radio, Andrew Tonkovich! Every Sunday morning, Andrew will write about books written by Orange County authors o ... More >>

Weird Al Yankovic: Beyond the Music

The parody artist eschews songs on his latest venture and goes into children's literature

Luis Rodriguez Talks About Gang Life At Libreria Martinez

​As Santa Ana celebrated Dia de los Muertos, Libreria Martinez hosted author Luis Rodriguez. Rodriguez, of course, is best known for the 1993 memoir of gang life, Always Running: La Vida Loca Gang Days in L.A., which discusses his early years of living in East Los Angeles as a gang member. Having ... More >>

Mission Viejo Readers Festival

Norman P. Murray Community Center

Author Lisa See

Newport Beach Library

Pub(lishing) Crawl

Argyros Forum, Room 209, Chapman University

The Slow Poisoner

The Pike Bar

Gettin' Made: Twinkie Chan Book Signing Tonight

Gas up your gas guzzler and make way for The Urban Craft Center in Santa Monica tonight! Twinkie Chan is an indie crafter best known for her amazing food-themed scarves and accessories. This evening, she'll be doing a special presentation, Q&A and book signing in celebration of her new ... More >>

Woody Guthrie, Dust Bowl Balladeer

Fullerton Main Library

Stranger Than Fiction: Nonfiction Writers Who Would Create Awesome Comics

​Comic books have a nasty habit of forever being associated with superheroes. Even among people who should know better: regular comic book readers. But tying the medium of comics and graphic novels to just stories about Spider-Man and Batman is a bit like saying the novel simply exists to sho ... More >>

Pen on Fire Writers Salon

Scape Gallery

Tatjana Soli: The Lotus Eaters

Newport Beach Library

Five Things We Hope Are Covered in the Comic-Con Documentary

Keith MaySuper Girl, super flexible.​First discussed in February of this year, and confirmed earlier this week, a documentary about the annual Comic-Con International in San Diego is about to go into production. The team behind it is sort of an all-star roster in the intersection of film and geeks ... More >>

Mario Lopez Signing

Barnes and Noble

ESPN.com's Bill Simmons

ESPN Zone

Art Review: "R. Crumb's Underground"

Grand Central Art Center​There's an exhibit going on at the moment that may be of some interest to comic strip fans. It's the "R. Crumb's Underground" exhibit, at the Grand Central Art Center in Santa Ana. It contains a mixture of 100 drawings, collaborations, sketches, and published pieces of Rob ... More >>

'Green Lantern' Writer Geoff Johns Signing Today at Beach Ball Comics in Anaheim

LA-based comic book writer Geoff Johns has been pretty much one of the biggest names in comic books these past few years, making himself a hero to DC Comics fanatics through beloved stints on The Flash, Action Comics, Teen Titans, JSA, Green Lantern and a bunch of other titles the company publishes ... More >>

The Brand New Kid

South Coast Repertory

Sunday Salon: A Woman Changed, Georgia O'Keeffe in the 1930s

Orange County Museum of Art

La Casa Garcia Releases New Book

Last month, I wrote about the surprisingly good flautas offered by La Casa Garcia in Anaheim. It's not the county's best Mexican-American joint (though does belongs among the top 10), but owner Frank Garcia is a true Mexi-mensch; his annual We Give Thanks Thanksgiving dinners is the stuff of legend, ... More >>

ALSO TONIGHT: Final Day of Comic Universe!

We've talked before here about the struggles of Comic Universe in Fountain Valley, but now it's official: the store is closing its doors as of tonight.But at least it's going out the right way: music from Okashii, the Flying Saucers and DJ Oldboy, along with (as you can see from the flier), "music, ... More >>

Andean Express

Libreria Martinez

Kat Von D

Barnes and Noble

The Real Iranian Housewife of Orange County Gets a TV Pilot

Ho-hum, another TV show based on the "Orange County" experience. At least this one holds the promise of being something other than the usual rich & bitchen exploits of the Botoxed coastal-living set. Firoozeh Dumas, whose debut book Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian i ... More >>

Derrick Brown Loves You at Midnight

Arte Theater Long Beach

Pajamarama

Mystery Book Group

Barnes and Noble

Eat, Pray, Love

Paperback Writer

Jan Burke Signing

Diahann Carroll

The Legs Are the Last to Go

Los Angeles Times is Talkin' Shit!

Call it more progressive (read: adult) editorial stance, a copyeditor's error, or a raised middle-finger to the paper's days of branding itself a "family newspaper," I have to admit being tickled at the sight of the word "shit" popping up in today's print edition of the LA Times. It's right there o ... More >>

Latina Authors Panel

Orange County: A Personal History Signing Set For Sept. 18 at the Yost Theater

When I had my first book signing for ¡Ask a Mexican! at Librería Martinez last year, more than 300 people showed up, and many more were turned away because we crammed the store like illegals in a Chevy trunk. Let's hope as many people show up, if not more, on Sept. 18. That's when I have my first ... More >>

Going Craisy

Robert Crais

Raw Salman

Sir Salman Rushdie

Pumped Up On Reading

Many, many books get delivered to the Weekly. Some of them are likely Very Important Books that Very Serious Thinkers would spend much time mulling over. But some of them are little escapist gems of chick lit, my own frothy, guilty pleasure. I've been scooping up books from the receptionist's office ... More >>

The Los Angeles Times is Stupid (Canto MCXVI)

It's painful picking up the Los Angeles Times every morning and notice it's getting lighter every week. While they're doing this, however, their Chicago pendejo overseers are spending mucho millions on how to attract more readers. Their supposed salvation: Mexicans. If so, why in God's green earth ... More >>

Papa Bear Coming to The Dick

From the Richard Nixon Library, Birthplace, Deathplace and Untruthiness Center: BILL O'REILLY SET FOR NIXON LIBRARY SEPTEMBER 28 TV, Radio Superstar coming to launch Culture Warrior One of the biggest figures in American media, Fox News's Bill O'Reilly, has selected the Nixon Library for the West C ... More >>