Arts & Life

Stina Leicht's new sci-fi novel has a lot of moving parts: Space opera, rough-and-tumble mercenaries, corporate intrigue, alien first contact — and to her credit, she almost pulls it all off.

Everyone who's ever played a video game knows Super Mario Brothers — but did you know Nintendo's iconic goofy plumber also taught typing, dealt gin rummy and even helped program sewing machines?

Critic Maureen Corrigan has been describing Anna North's new novel to friends as "The Handmaid's Tale meets Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid." It's a glib tagline, but not without justification.

Eley Williamsdid her doctoral dissertation on "mountweazels," fake words inserted into dictionaries as copyright traps — and she builds on that in her charming debut novel, about an epic dictionary.

As Los Angeles experiences a significant increase in new COVID-19 infections, the Recording Academy and CBS have decided to postpone the annual music awards until March 14.

Playing a retired millionaire who unexpectedly wins his bid to become mayor of Los Angeles, Danson takes the spotlight and shines, sticking every landing on every line.

Harvard University's Daniel Lieberman looks at exercise from an evolutionary point of view, concluding that we evolved to limit our physical activity where possible, saving it for survival activities.