Books

Arts & Culture

San Diego weekend arts events: 'Guac,' Small Press Nite and great local music

Julia Dixon Evans

This weekend in the arts: A play by a Parkland father; local indie literature; jazz; "Chasing Fear"; Ryan Manalili album release; a Thee Sacred Souls homecoming; Broadway's "Peter Pan"; live music picks and more.
Blindsided by 'The Most': This is a superb novel of a marriage at its breakpoint

Heller McAlpin

The story takes place in Newark, over the course of a single day in 1957, which we experience from the two spouses' alternating points of view. Jessica Anthony's novel deserves to become a classic.
This year’s longlist for the Booker Prize is here

Andrew Limbong

Longtime writers Claire Messud, Percival Everett, and Richard Powers join along with 3 debut novelists.
A bookstore named for James Baldwin is counting down to his 100th birthday

Neda Ulaby

James Baldwin died in 1987. Baldwin & Co. is a Black-owned bookstore and community hub in New Orleans. "His literature, his perspective, his insight ... have changed my life," says owner DJ Johnson.
To learn 'The Truth About Dragons,' go on a quest through this kids' book

Samantha Balaban

A little boy must go on a hero's quest — through woods full of oak trees and a bamboo forest — to discover "The Truth About Dragons" in Julie Leung and Hanna Cha's Caldecott Honor children's book.
These dictators are different. 'Autocracy, Inc.' explains how

Frank Langfitt

The dictators of today aren't united by ideology, writes Anne Applebaum: They operate like companies, focused on preserving their wealth, repressing their people and maintaining power at all costs.
Arts & Culture

Comic-Con: Sunday program highlights

Beth Accomando

The final day of San Diego Comic-Con still has lots of options, especially for families.
'Wicked' director Jon M. Chu says creativity isn't magic — it's hard work

Terry Gross

Chu takes his inspiration from his dad, a Chinese immigrant who worked both the front room and the kitchen of their family-run restaurant: "The guy that in the back of the kitchen, that was my hero."
'Someone Like Us' is a fresh, idiosyncratic novel about immigrating to the U.S.

Maureen Corrigan

Dinaw Mengestu's ingenuity and eloquence as a writer are on display in this novel about an Ethiopian American man who returns home only to learn that his father has just died.
International

Expert on dictators warns: Don't lose hope -- that's what they want

Tonya Mosley

Autocracy, Inc. author Anne Applebaum says that today’s dictators — including Putin and Xi — are working together in a global fight to dismantle democracy, and Trump is borrowing from their playbook.