Weekend links *

* Newest additions at the bottom...

• Now that's a book party venue. Simon & Schuster threw Sunday's launch reception for Thomas Greanias' Raising Atlantis on the front lawn of the Hotel Bel-Air.

• The King of California by LAT Magazine Editor Rick Wartzman and staff writer Mark Arax won the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing in non-fiction.

• Michael Harris' review in the LAT of Savage Garden calls Denise Hamilton "a reliable guide to the tangled sociology of Los Angeles."

• Pseudonymous cop "Jack Dunphy" makes his Current section debut, defending the LAPD in the latest shooting controversy. Also, Chief Bill Bratton will talk about the shooting on Talk of the City with Kitty Felde, Monday at 2 p.m. on KPCC.

• LAT sports writer Diane Pucin blogged along as Lance Armstrong took his final Tour de France.

• Jonah at LABlogs.com posts that "my head is just not into it these days" and asks for ideas from readers to reinvigorate the site.

• Katherine Turman, recently departed editor of the L.A. Alternative Press, is now producer of "Nights With Alice Cooper," a syndicated show on classic rock radio stations in the U.S., Canada and the U.K.

• Tom Teicholz pays tribute to former LAT Book Review editor Steve Wasserman in the Jewish Journal.