The Allure of Matter: Material Art from China Wave of Materials by Zhu Jinshi 2007/2019, installation photograph, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, © Zhu Jinshi, courtesy of Zhu Jinshi and Pearl Lam Galleries, photo © Museum Associates/LACMA; Water Records, by Song Dong, 2010, video projection, © Song Dong, Photo courtesy of Pace Gallery.

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Walking Alone: On “Digital Minimalism”

A new book about how to declutter our technologically oversaturated lives....

Unthinking the Family in “Full Surrogacy Now”

Madeline Lane-McKinley

Madeline Lane-McKinley considers Sophie Lewis's new book, "Full Surrogacy Now: Feminism Against Family."...

Big Little Lies, "What Have They Done?"

For Dear Television, Phil Maciak considers season two of Big Little Lies, and what director Andrea Arnold has in store for people with kitchens like that....

Reading the Rainbow: A Pride Reading List

Sarah Neilson invites us to read the rainbow in a broad and diverse LGBTQIA+ reading list for Pride Month....

Cruising for Sex, Cruising the Political: Alex Espinoza’s “Cruising: An Intimate History of a Radical Pastime”

Michael Nava reviews Alex Espinoza’s “Cruising: An Intimate History of a Radical Pastime.”...

The Wide, Forbidding Cosmos: The Weird Fiction of John Langan

Paul StJohn Mackintosh

John Langan’s latest collection of weird fiction is a fresh waypoint, if not a landmark, in his creative journey....

Writing About Binyavanga Wainaina

Raksha Vasudevan

On the Kenyan author’s rich — and discomfiting — intellectual legacy....

Mel Brooks, Boomer’s Comedian

Mel Brooks looked for boundaries to cross and conventions to subvert, but his best work rarely came from crossing social and political boundaries....

Navigating the Dark Corners: Karen Russell’s “Orange World and Other Stories”

Claire Kim looks at the alluring, dark tales in Karen Russell’s new short story collection, “Orange World and Other Stories.”...

The Quest for B. Cooper

David MacDougall

On the trail of a mysterious big-game hunter in colonial-era East Africa....

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY, HISTORY, CULTURAL STUDIES

The Search for What Makes Us Human: The Killer Ape Account of the Mid-20th Century

Melinda Baldwin - June 16, 2019

Does violence make humans unique? Melinda Baldwin reviews Erika Lorraine Milam’s “Creatures of Cain: The Hunt for Human Nature in Cold War America.”...

The Wide, Forbidding Cosmos: The Weird Fiction of John Langan

Paul StJohn Mackintosh - June 16, 2019

John Langan’s latest collection of weird fiction is a fresh waypoint, if not a landmark, in his creative journey....

RELIGION, PHILOSOPHY & CRITICAL THEORY

Jewish Identity on the Move

David Lipset - June 16, 2019

David Lipset reviews two new essay collections about Jewish identity, "Freud and Monotheism" and "Jews and the Ends of Theory."...

ECONOMICS AND FINANCE, AROUND THE WORLD, FICTION

A Little Private Space: A Conversation with Heike Geissler

Kate Durbin - June 15, 2019

Kate Durbin speaks to Heike Geissler, author of the autofictional novel “Seasonal Associate,” translated from German by Katy Derbyshire....

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SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY, HISTORY, CULTURAL STUDIES

The Search for What Makes Us Human: The Killer Ape Account of the Mid-20th Century

Melinda Baldwin

Does violence make humans unique? Melinda Baldwin reviews Erika Lorraine Milam’s “Creatures of Cain: The Hunt for Human Nature in Cold War America.”...

The Wide, Forbidding Cosmos: The Weird Fiction of John Langan

Paul StJohn Mackintosh - June 16, 2019

John Langan’s latest collection of weird fiction is a fresh waypoint, if not a landmark, in his creative journey....

RELIGION, PHILOSOPHY & CRITICAL THEORY

Jewish Identity on the Move

David Lipset - June 16, 2019

David Lipset reviews two new essay collections about Jewish identity, "Freud and Monotheism" and "Jews and the Ends of Theory."...

ECONOMICS AND FINANCE, AROUND THE WORLD, FICTION

A Little Private Space: A Conversation with Heike Geissler

Kate Durbin speaks to Heike Geissler, author of the autofictional novel “Seasonal Associate,” translated from German by Katy Derbyshire....

LARB LIT, POETRY

Concerning the Meaning Molecule in Poetry

Brenda Hillman - June 15, 2019

"Long ago a man told me, If you write poetry / keep your subjects small;" Brenda Hillman's poem "Concerning the Meaning Molecule in Poetry."...

Parallel Deterioration: On Brian Evenson’s “Song for the Unraveling of the World”

Nathan Scott McNamara

In “Song for the Unraveling of the World,” Brian Evenson renders the world as a place of infinite and paralyzing delusion....

AROUND THE WORLD, NONFICTION

The Quest for B. Cooper

David MacDougall - June 14, 2019

On the trail of a mysterious big-game hunter in colonial-era East Africa....

GENDER & SEXUALITY

Reading the Rainbow: A Pride Reading List

Sarah Neilson - June 14, 2019

Sarah Neilson invites us to read the rainbow in a broad and diverse LGBTQIA+ reading list for Pride Month....

Cannibal

Anna Journey - June 14, 2019

"I’ve been thinking a lot about cannibals lately. Fairy tale cannibals. Biblio-cannibals." Anna Journey's essay appears in LARB's Occult Issue....

FICTION, MEMOIR & ESSAY

No Filters: On Kathleen Collins’s “Notes from a Black Woman’s Diary”

Trisha R. Thomas

Trisha R. Thomas is inspired by “Notes from a Black Woman’s Diary,” the posthumous collection of Kathleen Collins’s writing edited by Nina Lorez Collins....

RELIGION, SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

The Soul in the Machine: On Peter Bebergal’s “Strange Frequencies”

Diana Walsh Pasulka - June 13, 2019

Diana Walsh Pasulka reviews Peter Bebergal’s "Strange Frequencies: The Extraordinary Story of the Technological Quest for the Supernatural."...

Navigating the Dark Corners: Karen Russell’s “Orange World and Other Stories”

Claire Kim - June 13, 2019

Claire Kim looks at the alluring, dark tales in Karen Russell’s new short story collection, “Orange World and Other Stories.”...

All Included

This piece appears in the Los Angeles Review of Books Quarterly Journal: The Occult, No. 22 To receive the Quarterly Journal, become a member or purchase at our bookstore. ¤ — Ghosts? Alida said. In ...

MEMOIR & ESSAY, HISTORY, GENDER & SEXUALITY

Cruising for Sex, Cruising the Political: Alex Espinoza’s “Cruising: An Intimate History of a Radical Pastime”

Michael Nava - June 12, 2019

Michael Nava reviews Alex Espinoza’s “Cruising: An Intimate History of a Radical Pastime.”...

FILM, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Mel Brooks, Boomer’s Comedian

Chris Yogerst - June 12, 2019

Mel Brooks looked for boundaries to cross and conventions to subvert, but his best work rarely came from crossing social and political boundaries....

Mother of Cups

This piece appears in the Los Angeles Review of Books Quarterly Journal: The Occult, No. 22 To receive the Quarterly Journal, become a member or purchase at our bookstore. ¤ Have you seen Buffy? Her ...

ART & ARCHITECTURE

Deana Lawson’s Curtains

Megan N. Liberty - June 11, 2019

Megan Liberty appreciates Deana Lawson's work as well as her new book, "Deana Lawson: An Aperture Monograph."...

AROUND THE WORLD, FICTION, MEMOIR & ESSAY

Writing About Binyavanga Wainaina

Raksha Vasudevan - June 11, 2019

On the Kenyan author’s rich — and discomfiting — intellectual legacy....

Looking at the Supreme Court’s Growing Partisan Divide Through Elite-Colored Glasses

Alyson Claire Decker - June 11, 2019

Alyson Claire Decker reviews Lawrence Baum and Neal Devins's "The Company They Keep: How Partisan Divisions Came to the Supreme Court."...

DEAR TELEVISION

Big Little Lies, "What Have They Done?"

For Dear Television, Phil Maciak considers season two of Big Little Lies, and what director Andrea Arnold has in store for people with kitchens like that....

POLITICS, GENDER & SEXUALITY

Unthinking the Family in “Full Surrogacy Now”

Madeline Lane-McKinley - June 10, 2019

Madeline Lane-McKinley considers Sophie Lewis's new book, "Full Surrogacy Now: Feminism Against Family."...

NONFICTION, SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Walking Alone: On “Digital Minimalism”

Taylor Fayle - June 10, 2019

A new book about how to declutter our technologically oversaturated lives....

The Suburban Uncanny

Colin Dickey - June 10, 2019

This piece appears in the Los Angeles Review of Books Quarterly Journal: The Occult, No. 22 To receive the Quarterly Journal, become a member or purchase at our bookstore. ¤ Even though Freud popularized the ...

Possums Tell All

Fernando A. Flores

This short story appears in the Los Angeles Review of Books Quarterly Journal: The Occult, No. 22 To receive the Quarterly Journal, become a member or purchase at our bookstore. ¤ Whenever I visit back ...

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THE ALLURE OF MATTER: MATERIAL ART FROM CHINA

The Allure of Matter: Material Art from China

The Allure of Matter: Material Art from China brings together 34 works from the past four decades in which conscious material choice has become a symbol of the artists’ expression at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). The Allure of Matter features 21 of the most important and influential Chinese artists working today, including Ai Weiwei, Cai Guo-Qiang, Lin Tianmiao, Song Dong, Xu Bing, Yin Xiuzhen, Zhan Wang, Zhang Huan, and more. The show runs from Jun 2, 2019 to Jan 5, 2020.

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The LA Times Book Prize Winners: Nafissa Thompson-Spires and Carl Phillips

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