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Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s SATURDAY, APRIL 13. Here’s what you need to know to start your weekend: 50 BOOKS TO UNDERSTAND HOLLYWOOD What is

Hollywood? An idea? A place? An in-between? For the record: 12:07 p.m. April 15, 2024A previous version of this article misspelled Donald Bogle’s name. 12:07 p.m. April 15, 2024An earlier

version of this newsletter referred to the books “Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mamies, and Bucks” and “Easy Riders, Raging Bulls” as novels. Both are nonfiction books. What if it’s a dazzling

cocktail? One reeking of glamor coupled with a massive splash of disillusionment, a shot of romance, an ounce of heartbreak and maybe a tablespoon or two of comedy. The great thing about

this cocktail, then, is that anyone can order it: The aspiring actor, director, cinematographer, videographer, screenwriter — all eager to capture a part of the human experience and get

recognized for it. Writers too, enjoy taking a sip of this magical drink. Over a plethora of decades, they have re-created it, highlighting its liminal quality through stories of dashed

hopes, disagreement and controversy. Ahead of our annual Festival of Books, Times Entertainment & Arts editors embarked on a project to answer the question of “What is Hollywood?” by

finding the 50 best Hollywood books of all time. The list, compiled from a survey of experts in the worlds of publishing and entertainment and written by regular contributors to The Times’

film and books coverage, explicates the cocktail’s allure and why many have ordered it again and again, despite its tart aftertaste. “These 50 titles compare Hollywood to an assembly line, a

criminal enterprise, a high-seas expedition and much, much more,” wrote my colleague Matt Brennan. Give our ranking a look. Have we left your favorite Hollywood book off the list? What is

on your Ultimate Hollywood Bookshelf? Tell us in this survey by Monday, April 15. Until then, here are some of the books that remake and refute Hollywood’s glitz: (The Times may earn a

commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookstores.) NUMBER 39: “TOMS, COONS, MULATTOES, MAMIES, AND BUCKS” At the time of its publication in 1973, Donald Bogle’s book

was the only text to investigate the American cinema’s systematized stereotypes of Black characters as the “servile slave,” “mixed-race sufferer” or “violent Black brute.” “Bogle’s book was

practically the birth of the field,” wrote Chris Vognar, a freelance culture writer and former Nieman Arts and Culture fellow at Harvard University. “[The book] also sought to rescue the

humanity of those performers who usually had no other option but to play their assigned roles.” NUMBER 9: “EASY RIDERS, RAGING BULLS” It’s difficult to identify Hollywood’s greatest year.

But 1974 is a safe bet: “The Godfather Part II,” “Scenes From a Marriage” and “Chinatown” were released. Peter Biskind’s book provides an addictive, encyclopedic account of the people behind

why 1974 was such a terrific year in American cinematic history. If you’re looking for anecdotes about the screenwriters that made these “brilliant pictures” possible, you might be

disappointed. Because, as David Kipen, author of “The Schreiber Theory: A Radical Rewrite of American Film History” wrote, Biskind “adheres to the pervasive, pernicious auteur theory, which

insists that even non-writing directors are the ‘authors’ of their movies.” NUMBER 1: “PLAY IT AS IT LAYS” Joan Didion’s novel is a cutting-edge study of a decaying Hollywood, saturated

“with copycat movies, predatory men, hacks and hangers-on,” wrote Matt. “The most remarkable aspect of Didion’s portrait is not the ruthless precision with which it renders the film business

then, but the clarity with which it corresponds to the film business now.” If your agent was a no-show at a crucial meeting or you attended an exclusive party as the guest of a guest, you

have already faced the broken Hollywood of Didion’s novel. THE WEEK’S BIGGEST STORIES O.J. SIMPSON DIES COACHELLA 2024 SHOHEI OHTANI INTERPRETER SCANDAL SOCAL HOME PRICES MORE BIG STORIES

_Get unlimited access to the Los Angeles Times. __Subscribe here__. _ COLUMN ONE _Column One is The Times’ home for narrative and longform journalism. Here’s a great piece from this week: _

SANTA MONICA LUXURY TOWERS, HOA FEES, ALLEGED THEFT: WHERE DID THE MILLIONS GO? A fight to reclaim the HOA board at the Ocean Towers luxury residential co-op eventually uncovered millions of

dollars of alleged fraud and caught the attention of the California Department of Justice. MORE GREAT READS _How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to

[email protected]__._ FOR YOUR WEEKEND GOING OUT STAYING IN HOW WELL DID YOU FOLLOW THE NEWS THIS WEEK? TAKE OUR QUIZ. IN ONE OF L.A.’S LARGEST CASH HEISTS EVER, BURGLARS

STOLE HOW MUCH? Plus nine other questions from our weekly news quiz. HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND, FROM THE ESSENTIAL CALIFORNIA TEAM Defne Karabatur, fellow Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor

_Check our __top stories__, __topics__ and the __latest articles__ on __latimes.com__._