MINNESOTA — James Hong isn’t ready to retire. The 97-year-old Minnesota native may not look as spry as he did in memorable moments from “Chinatown” and “Blade Runner,” but he still has the spirit of actors half his age.

During a Zoom interview with the legend last month, Hong broke out his impersonations of James Cagney and Jimmy ...Read more

In some long-ago October, I can vaguely recall a house that gave out books for Halloween one year instead of candy, a substitution only slightly better received than, say, a toothbrush or a single Brussels sprout.

However, for me, I would have happily traded a few sleeves of Smarties or a stale Charleston Chew for the chance to stuff a good ...Read more

It’s finally spooky season!

Or close enough. Which means we can start screaming about the plethora of horror novels coming out this October.

You’ve heard of an advent calendar — well, this is a demented calendar. A book a day keeps the ghosts away! But only for October. You’re on your own for Christmas.

There may not be a chill in the...Read more

There’s a new monster hunter prowling the shelves.

“I like tackling standard horror tropes and flipping them on their heads and seeing what I can do with them,” said Keith Rosson during a recent email interview.

And flip them on their heads he does. You won’t find any sexy monsters or happy endings in a Rosson novel. What you will find...Read more

Although the details of Princess Diana's life have been scrutinized for decades, it's been nearly 30 years since her untimely death, and her younger brother, journalist and author Charles Spencer, is telling his side of the story in "Swan Song: Diana, My Sister."

The explosive and heart-wrenching tell-all, released this week, has reportedly ...Read more

SEATTLE — In decades of performing, beginning as a University of Washington student and encompassing iconic roles in film (“Dune,” “Blue Velvet”) and television (“Twin Peaks,” “Sex and the City,” “Desperate Housewives”), Kyle MacLachlan has entertained a vast audience. His new memoir, “Fictional Selves” (out Sept. 29 ...Read more

CHICAGO -- Of all the details, stories and praise that accompanied the recent death of Dolly Parton, one of the most surprising was her affection for cemeteries.

We learned that she once said, “I love cemeteries … because nobody but weirdos like me really want to hang out there. I don’t go there just to hang out with the dead; the dead ...Read more

Here are the bestsellers for the week that ended Saturday, Sept. 19, compiled from data from independent and chain bookstores, book wholesalers and independent distributors nationwide, powered by Circana BookScan © 2026 Circana.

(Reprinted from Publishers Weekly, published by PWxyz LLC. © 2026, PWxyz LLC.)

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. "The ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — John Green's nine-year hiatus from fiction has ended, and his adult debut, "Hollywood, Ending," comes right on time to explore the dark side of fame.

The novel centers on former child actor Juniper Castillo and Hollywood newbie Kai Laramie, who are cast in the artsy biopic "Andy Warhol Never Gets Old," with hotshot movie star ...Read more

If you think Chicago's former mayor Rahm Emanuel has an affection for (problem with?) profanity, wait until you meet his younger brother Ari Emanuel in the pages of his lengthy, if ultimately unsatisfying memoir “Roll the Calls.”

There are 57 chapters here, across 413 pages, so many of them (even the final line) peppered with expletives. ...Read more

Welcome to the Super Bowl of Reading, a.k.a. fall, autumn, spooky season, curl-up-with-a-pumpkin-spice-anything-and-read-a-book season. There are — no joke — more than 12,000 books published every week in this country, year-round (and far more if we include self-published works). Yet fall is for the big books, the award-hungry novels, the ...Read more

Emily St. John Mandel’s brilliant new novel “Exit Party” begins five years in the future at a party in L.A.’s Echo Park neighborhood where a series of mysterious, hard-to-explain events set the story in motion.

But before we begin to explore the novel, we need to address another inexplicable event: A few summers ago, this reporter ...Read more

I grew up in a cult in New Hampshire where reading books was forbidden. After I escaped at age 18, I came to California desperate for stories — stories tucked away on the West Coast, opposite not only the life I’d escaped but also the publishing giants. In Los Angeles, I found that every story is an apocalypse. There are earthquakes, fires, ...Read more

Here are the bestsellers for the week that ended Saturday, Sept. 12, compiled from data from independent and chain bookstores, book wholesalers and independent distributors nationwide, powered by Circana BookScan © 2026 Circana.

(Reprinted from Publishers Weekly, published by PWxyz LLC. © 2026, PWxyz LLC.)

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. "Burn of the ...Read more

Legs McNeil doesn't come across as sentimental. It's what happens when you've dumped out decades' worth of memories and stories as part of your life's work documenting the origins of punk rock for the better part of 50 years.

McNeil has made a career out of reliving the gritty tales of debauchery and explosive expression that gave rise to the ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Readers are so obsessed with Josh Silver's "Fruit Fly," that the buzziest book of the summer sold out across online and major book retailers last month.

The satirical literary thriller follows Mallory, a celebrated but has-been author who's had writer's block for nearly a decade. She googles "How to write a bestseller," and ...Read more

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Olivie Blake has a lot to say.

Since the author began writing, she hasn’t stopped. Blake, the pen name of Alexene Farol Follmuth, made a name for herself in 2022 when “The Atlas Six” went viral on BookTok, but the author has been self-publishing for years.

If you look at her complete body of work under both Blake and ...Read more

After appearing last year on a contentious political panel discussion in Washington, D.C., Jessica Tarlov, co-host of the the popular Fox News show "The Five," was approached by a transgender woman from Alabama.

Tarlov had said that Democratic candidates in tough races might have to concede that transgender collegiate swimmer Lia Thomas should ...Read more