Escaping to downtown

Janelle Brown gives downtown the 36 Hours treatment in today's New York Times Escapes section. Chinatown galleries, dinner at Ciudad, Saturday morning at the flower market, a walking tour with the L.A. Conservancy and drinks at the Golden Gopher are on the agenda, and there's a nice mention of the Moroccan-themed Figueroa Hotel.

Meanwhile, today's Jewish Journal has an analysis by Raphael J. Sonenshein that Jewish voters did not move toward the Republicans this election and a cover piece by Michael Tolkin on Philip Roth's The Plot Against America. In a website poll, the readers are backing Chaim Potok's The Chosen as "the greatest Jewish novel," by a wide margin over #2 Maus by Art Spigelman.

And: While we're at it, a new website by parent-blogger Inland Empress called Book Buds reviews the masses of children's books out there. The writer is ex-journalist Anne Boles Levy.