The 2025 Los Angeles Times Festival of Books (LATFOB), held on April 26–27 at the University of Southern California (USC), was a significant cultural event that brought together a diverse array of participants and marked its 30th anniversary with a vibrant celebration of literature, culture, and community. The festival is known for attracting a large crowd each year. For instance, the 2024 festival drew over 150,000 attendees, and the 2025 event featured more than 550 writers, experts, and storytellers, along with hundreds of exhibitors.
The festival featured over 100 ticketed author events, children’s storytelling sessions, poetry readings, book signings, and more than 400 exhibitor booths. Notable participants in the 2025 festival included authors such as Stacey Abrams, Jon M. Chu, Amanda Gorman, Chelsea Handler, Ibram X. Kendi, and Rebecca Yarros, among many others. The festival’s success was also attributed to the generous involvement of volunteers who assisted with various aspects of the event, including welcoming attendees, staffing author events, and supervising book signings.
LATFOB 2025 emphasized accessibility and community involvement. General admission was free, with select programming requiring tickets. The festival’s partnership with the Department of Cultural Affairs ensured that a wide range of activities were available to attendees of all ages and backgrounds, fostering a welcoming environment for literary enthusiasts and families alike.
As LATFOB celebrates three decades of literary celebration, the 2025 festival underscored the importance of storytelling in shaping culture and community. With its diverse programming and commitment to accessibility, the festival continues to be a premier event for book lovers and cultural aficionados. The success of this year’s event sets a promising precedent for future festivals, ensuring that the tradition of literary celebration will continue to thrive in Los Angeles.
LATFOB 2025 offers a unique opportunity to explore new voices, groundbreaking ideas, and thought-provoking works of art. One of this year’s most anticipated entries is Solomon the Accountant by Edward M. Krauss, showcased in the Book Gallery. This poignant novel explores love and resilience, set against a richly researched, mid-20th-century Jewish-American community. At its emotional core are Solomon’s personal growth and his evolving relationship with Molly. The story resonates as a tender, respectful narrative about starting over and finding love amid sorrow.
Solomon the Accountant presents the themes of loss, grief, and the capacity to love again are explored through Solomon’s gentle and deliberate efforts to win Molly’s heart—beginning with their first meeting at her husband’s funeral.
It is a tender love story set in Toledo, Ohio, in the 1950s. Solomon is a rather nebbishy fellow who falls in love with the beautiful, newly widowed Molly. He is painfully aware of her recent loss, yet she becomes the focal point of his life. He hopes that someday – regardless of how long he has to wait – the broken wings of her spirit will mend and she will soar toward a new future with him.
While Solomon wrestles with his feelings for Molly, she is dealing with her own emotional issues. Facing life after the death of her beloved husband less than a year after they stood under the chuppah (wedding canopy) seems almost incomprehensible to the young widow.
In addition to portraying a touching love story, the author beautifully recreates a bygone era – a time when a silk tie cost $1.60, a “comfortable house in a good neighborhood” could be purchased for $12,000, and nice Jewish boys still nervously asked the father for his daughter’s hand in marriage.
Krauss, a writer and professional mediator, probes gently into the emotional psyche, exploring with clarity the crushing loss of death, the tenuous struggles to begin anew, the joys and complications of relationships, and the wonder of newfound love. A surprisingly poignant novel.
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