Highlights of Sunday’s Festival of Books: Katie Porter, Joan Baez, Walter Mosley and more

Good morning, and welcome to a special edition of the L.A. Times Book Club newsletter. It is Day 2 of the Los Angeles Times’ annual Festival of Books. I am Boris Kachka, the L.A. Times books editor.

Following an exciting day of actors and novelists opening up on their work and their lives, the closing day of the fest digs into ... more of that, of course, including appearances by mystery king Walter Mosley and two stateswomen of pop music. But there’s also a focus on political leaders, as well as the big-picture issues that will be shaping our city and our world for a long time to come.

I’m delighted to offer some personal and crowd favorites to help navigate your Sunday on the USC campus.

Katie Porter

10:30 a.m. at the Ronald Tudor Campus Center. Earlier this year, the Democratic representative of California’s 47th Congressional District threw her hat (or her famous whiteboard?) into a new ring, announcing she will run to replace the retiring Dianne Feinstein as a U.S. senator. The competition will be fierce, but noisy challenges are nothing new for Porter, whose combination of wonkiness and fire has made her one of the most public faces of liberalism. She’ll talk with Melanie Mason on Sunday to mark the publication of her new memoir, “I Swear: Politics Is Messier Than My Minivan,” about her successful run to help turn Orange County blue in 2018 as a single mother with a knack for viral videos.

Walter Mosley

11 a.m. at the Bovard Auditorium. The creator of the legendary Easy Rawlins — whose “Devil in a Blue Dress” was one of the top five books on The Times’ recent “Ultimate L.A. Bookshelf” — packs the biggest house on campus for a conversation with “These Women” author Ivy Pochoda about “Every Man a King,” the second book in his King Oliver series focused on a cop-turned-PI who’s done a bit of time and knows his way around both sides of the law.

Susanna Hoffs

11:30 a.m. at the L.A. Times Main Stage. Whatever you make of the Bangles — to me their earworms are Proustian madeleines — you can’t deny that their frontwoman knows how to build a bridge. It turns out Hoffs also knows a thing or two about novelistic structure. Type “Eternal Flame” into your Spotify and wander over to the big stage to watch the musician-author talk with Times arts and culture writer Deborah Vankin about “This Bird Has Flown,” which critic Marc Weingarten called a “clever and entertaining debut novel about the nagging ambivalence of love, missed connections and the transcendent power of a great two-minute pop song.” Spoiler: There’ll be a special musical performance in the mix.

Susanna Hoffs channeled her experience at the top of the pop charts into her debut novel, “This Bird Has Flown.”

(Shervin Lainez)

Banned Books: Defending the Right to Read

Noon at Newman Recital Hall. Book bans are nothing new in America, but in the last year they have spread like a rash as politicians bank on panic and outrage, threatening librarians with shutdowns or worse. Four people on the front lines come together for an urgent conversation: Two frequently banned YA writers — bestselling “The Hate U Give” author Angie Thomas and George M. Johnson, the author of “All Boys Aren’t Blue” — are joined by Peter Coyl, current president of the Freedom to Read Foundation, the recipient of this year’s L.A. Times Innovators Award. Allison Lee, the Los Angeles director of the free-speech organization PEN America, rounds out the panel.

Stacey Abrams

12:40 p.m. at the L.A. Times Main Stage. Coming off two unsuccessful runs for governor of Georgia, Abrams remains a formidable power in politics — thanks to her work organizing voters, which has yielded Democratic victories in tight national elections — and in literature. Abrams is the author of a series of romance novels, a recent legal thriller, “While Justice Sleeps,” and a new picture book, “Stacey’s Remarkable Books,” that brings her to the festival. Her conversation with Times columnist Erika D. Smith is sure to touch on both sides of her busy life, as well as the state of the nation (and her future).

Joan Baez

1:30 p.m. at Town and Gown. The legendary folk artist connects us to an era when the West Coast began to direct the counterculture — which then became, for many, the culture. Baez went on to record songs by contemporaries and successors, spreading the gospel of rock, folk and country and the values of love and compassion. At 82, the musician has a side gig, which she shows off at the festival this year in the book “Am I Pretty When I Fly?,” featuring drawings and paintings touching on politics and more personal things. Baez joins another inimitable California personality, The Times’ Patt Morrison, for a wide-ranging conversation.

And more

Still want more choices? Festival stages will have plenty going on. Pop into the Poetry Stage when you can to catch readings from Lynne Thompson, Jeffrey Yang, Saeed Jones, Eloise Klein Healy, Boris Dralyuk and other notable versifiers. See Idina Menzel and Cara Mentzel on the Children’s Stage at 2; soak in the sounds of Mariachi Los Troyanos de USC Musical Ensemble at the Friends and Neighbors Stage at 3; watch an early screening of Hulu’s “Saint X,” followed by a talk-back, at 3:20.

And if you’re up for some shopping among the book vendors, a good place to pre-browse is The Times’ Ultimate L.A. Bookshelf, your one-stop shop for the essential 110 works about Los Angeles. Happy reading.