LA Observed contributor TJ Sullivan will be launching his new novel shortly: "Boon" is described as "the story of a young newspaper reporter who believes in the power of truth, at least until she tries to buy a house in the suburbs of LA." He'll be giving a preview and chatting up local journos this evening at a Society of Professional Journalists mixer Downtown at the Redwood Bar and Grill at 6:30 p.m.

More book news: Joseph Menn, the Los Angeles Times refugee who's now reporting on cyber-security at the Financial Times, has a new book out on the $1 trillion cybercrime industry. "Fatal System Error" began as a Column One story at the LAT.

Media note: Sandra Tsing Loh had an opinion piece in the New York Times recently on wanting a 1950s-style housewife to keep her life in order: "I am stricken with the peculiar curse of being a 21st-century woman who makes more than the man she’s living with."