In “Parable of the Sower,” Octavia E. Butler writes about a brutal, mid-2020s Southern California ravaged by wildfire, earthquakes and an addictive pharmaceutical that fuels a destructive drug ...

Octavia Butler was often noted for being ahead of her time. A science fiction writer, she became the first Black woman to gain widespread acclaim in a genre that was predominantly white and male.

Grant Hoskins noticed the uptick of people coming in for a certain book after the fires. The Vroman’s bookseller saw all sorts of readers, teens, college students, parents and grandparents, “as broad ...