"Harry Potter" mastermind J.K. Rowling has launched a new website called "Harry Potter at Home" to help distract families from the coronavirus crisis.

In the second installment of the United We Read project, a homebound writer travels a quarantined country through books.

Author James Patterson is donating $500,000 to help indie bookstores across the country. For many L.A. booksellers, that could be a life saver.

Patricia Bosworth, an actor who went on to chronicle lives including Jane Fonda's, Marlon Brando's and her own, died from coronavirus. She was 86.

The best series of books in four categories — including highbrow ('Wolf Hall'), L.A. favorites (Easy Rollins) and epic histories (Taylor Branch).

In "The World Without Us," Alan Weisman imagined how the Earth would look if humans vanished. Is the COVID-19 lockdown making that a reality?

Thomson, the author of dozens of books including "The Biographical Dictionary of Film," binges on "Ozark" and Godard but finds "L'Avventura" a drag.

Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers, winner of the Times Book Prize in history, spent a decade on "They Were Her Property," about women slave owners.

The 14 Times book prize winners, including Steph Cha, Namwali Serpell, Marlon James and George Packer, were honored in a virtual ceremony on Twitter.

Nick Capizzi and Jenny Yang founded A Good Used Book in 2018 as an itinerant book-browsing mecca. Now they're surviving on hope and Instagram.

In 'Scandinavian Noir: In Pursuit of a Mystery,' the critic travels to Nordic cities to investigate the society that shaped a global phenomenon.

In an excerpt from "Scandinavian Noir: In Pursuit of a Mystery," the essayist Wendy Lasser recommends her favorite writers in the booming genre.

Gov. Newsom has taken to calling California a "nation-state" when discussing its efforts to fight the coronavirus. Constitutionally, that's not true.

Screening a sample of the population to see who has been infected with COVID-19 and who hasn't is a huge step forward in returning to normal life.

America's optimism may have blinded it to the coronavirus. Now, with suffering a part of our daily life, we have a chance to become a mature nation.

Easing sanctions on Iran, hard hit by the coronavirus, would be a humanitarian act that reminds the world of what America truly is.

Trump can't 'reopen' the economy, but Republican governors can follow his lead. If they do, Newsom must continue to protect Californians.

Warning memos were written. Research was funded. But what good is any of this if American leaders fail to act?

Trump justifies his actions on coronavirus by saying he's a businessman who doesn't like having a lot of employees. But government is not a business.

Some of the worst COVID-19 outbreaks have been linked to religious services, and the public's health trumps every other right.

People who blame the president for failing to prepare the country ignore an important fact: We didn't want to believe America was vulnerable to COVID-19.

A program for one-time assistance to undocumented workers affected by the pandemic is a start, but California must do much more.

No Democratic candidates called for social distancing before Super Tuesday, and now the left is Monday-morning quarterbacking the president.

Governments across the U.S. have simply not saved enough to deal with coronavirus-induced budget shortfalls. They need to start taxing the rich more.

Even when he was being impeached, Trump still had a job to do. Nothing justifies his failure to take early action against the coronavirus.

The study authors are reckless to say we need to "recalibrate" public health approaches because the actual COVID-19 mortality rate might be lower.

A call to split the U.S. into separate republics based on our deep political divisions draws support from readers.

Gov. Gavin Newsom's daily coronavirus news conferences may drag on, but he's hitting all the right notes with the public.

If you're a cancer patient, you should not avoid treatment because of the pandemic. Surgery and follow-up care cannot wait.

The Los Angeles County district attorney says work was already underway on reducing L.A.'s jail population before a zero-bail order was issued.

It's too dangerous to have Trump remain president for another eight months during a pandemic. Let Mike Pence take over.

An Inglewood teacher distributes food to families before doing hours of instruction work online. She deserves praise and help.

The COVID-19 pandemic is a full-blown disaster, but if shortages mean Americans eat less meat as a result, then so be it.

There's no evidence that the use of plastic bags prevents exposure to the coronavirus, so why use them instead of reusable bags?

Coronavirus: Los Angeles is doing better than New York, but much worse than San Francisco. Our experience with COVID-19 is not an argument for sprawl.

Sprinkled in the deluge of negatives letters are uplifting tales of gratitude, humanity and service. This is a selection of those letters.

A professor's suggestion for college student to take time off and turn out the vote is nice, but why not help them with the loan debt first?

Readers weigh in on a cellist's front-porch concerts and TV ads in coronavirus time, pop-up bookstores vs. bookmobiles; renegade designs for anew LACMA and more.

The people waving the American flag at lockdown protests are using it as a symbol of selfishness.

You can't explain away your support for Joe Biden despite a sexual assault allegation without talking about Brett Kavanaugh.

Sweden's death rate is high compared with those of its neighbors, who took much more drastic and appropriate action against the pandemic.

An anti-war student in Ohio at the time of the Kent State massacre explains why the protests were led largely by well-off whites.

Why the argument that we should reopen the economy because we don't shut it down over the thousands of car deaths every year is wrong.

The president brooks no criticism and disregards inconvenient facts, much like the Chinese government he opposes.

In one article, wealthy private schools get government aid. In another, desperate citizens beg for funds online.

Though Pedro Almodóvar's 'Pain and Glory' is semi-autobiographical, its themes of reconciliation and forgiveness are universal, says Antonio Banderas.

The Times examined the filmographies of the last five years' worth of lead-actor academy award nominees to see how many female filmmakers they've worked with.

Ava DuVernay, Olivia Munn and Jon M. Chu were among the celebs celebrating "Parasite's" historic win for best picture at the 2020 Oscars.

More than film critics or a more international film academy, Netflix has proved that subtitles are a bridge, not a barrier.

Kate Hudson, along with Billy Porter, Kanye West, Kim Kardashian West, Martha Stewart and more, brought standout style to Vanity Fair's annual Oscars affair.