Readers commonly turn to books as an escape from life’s problems. This weekend’s Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, however, might leave attendees looking to books to return to reality.

From a recent gubernatorial candidate and a past presidential runner to a leading human rights activist and an Academy Award nominee, the festival will offer authors catering to nearly every political field imaginable. The wide-ranging subjects these prominent individuals plan to discuss include empowering women, retaining tradition and values, and combatting the conflict in Darfur.

Arianna Huffington, independent gubernatorial candidate during the 2003 Recall Election, founder of The Huffington Post, and frequent visiting author to the festival, will focus her attention on women this weekend. On Sunday at 3 p.m. in Haines Hall, she will discuss her latest book, “On Becoming Fearless... In Love, Work, and Life.”

As a member of a larger panel discussion with other female writers, Huffington plans to elaborate on the many anxieties women, and particularly young girls, face. She cites her daughters’ concerns as the inspiration for the book.

“Looking at my two teenage daughters, I was stunned to see all the same classic fears I had been burdened with when I was their age,” she said. “I had thought that with all the gains feminism has brought, my daughters would not have to suffer through the fears I did.”

Huffington wrote the book to engage a larger audience of women to look past their insecurities and to not allow fear to dissuade them from pursuing their desired goals.

“One of the key messages I want to convey is that fearlessness isn’t the absence of fear; it’s the mastery of fear,” Huffington said. “Being fearless means getting up one more time than you fall down.”

Huffington also credits her political career as an important component in shaping her outlook and the book’s message, since it required her to successfully rise through such a male-dominated arena.

“(My political experiences) made me realize how deeply ingrained our culture’s fear of assertive women is and how much of this fear women have unconsciously internalized,” she said. “We’re still expected, first and foremost, to be sweet and adorable.”

Huffington said she hopes her book will allow both men and women to steer away from such sexist, stereotypical preconceptions.

“I hope people will be inspired to confront their fears ... and to not let their fears keep them from pursuing their dreams, their goals and the lives they want to have,” she said.

The festival will also feature the life lessons of another famed political candidate. Ralph Nader, former presidential nominee of the Green Party, will appear at the festival in a conversation with interviewer Marc Cooper on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. in Royce Hall.

Nader’s visit will coincide with the release of his new book, “The Seventeen Traditions,” which deals with the values his family and community instilled in him during his youth.

Cooper, a journalist and contributing editor to The Nation, will discuss Nader’s book and the strong influence his rearing has had on his political views. He will also direct more hard-hitting questions at Nader during the discussion.

“I will be taking a sort of devil’s advocate position through a lot of the conversation,” Cooper said.

Cooper plans to confront Nader with the frequent allegations that he foiled former Vice President Al Gore’s campaign against President Bush by running as a third party candidate with the Green Party in the 2000 presidential election.

“For a lot of the people who are coming to the festival, the most controversial thing that Ralph Nader ever did was run for president in the year 2000,” Cooper said. “And there are some who are very angry at him now for this.”

Still, Cooper thinks the event will provide Nader with a good chance for rebuttal.

“I think he will have a great opportunity to respond to a lot of the gruff that he has taken over the last seven years because of that election,” he said. “I would hope that in the hour or so we have, we are able to have enough of an honest and open discussion so that people learn more about him and then can make their very own judgments.”

Along with reflecting on past political events within the United States, the Festival of Books will also confront current global concerns.

After viewing firsthand the desperate plight of non-Arabs in Darfur, John Prendergast, activist and former adviser to the White House and State Department, sought to end the conflict and paired with actor Don Cheadle to author “Not on Our Watch: The Mission to End Genocide in Darfur and Beyond.”

Both men will appear at the festival this Saturday at 4 p.m. at the Barnes & Noble stage to discuss and sign their book.

Prendergast has spent years as an activist across Africa, while Cheadle learned of the terrors occurring across Darfur after starring in the 2004 film “Hotel Rwanda,” which dealt with the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

Prendergast recognizes the Festival of Books as an event that supports these humanitarian causes.

“We thought that with the type of audience that goes to the festival, this issue would resonate with a good portion of those people,” he said.

UCLA, as well as many other universities across the nation, has been a strong activist campus for divestment and ending the conflict. Prendergast said he recognizes the collective strength and support colleges offer and plans to tour other campuses with Cheadle in the coming months.

“One of the fundamental audiences and constituencies for bringing about change in U.S. policy is going to be university students, so it is going to be very crucial to engage as many as possible,” he said.

Prendergast hopes the book will inspire action among all Americans, who, as the book outlines, have the chance to generate change as individual members of a larger whole in the fight against such conflicts.

“I’ve seen that when individuals band together and really push on an issue, collectively, it gets the attention of the policy makers in Washington,” he said. “Change can happen.”

He also noted the bipartisan support the issue has inspired.

“Republicans and Democrats are equally engaged in supporting the objective of ending the genocide in Darfur,” he said. “This cooperation is crucial because some of the issues now are torn about by bipartisanship, and the gridlock that ensues as a result is crippling for the issue at hand.”

Although the situation in Darfur remains grim, Prendergast remains optimistic that citizens will take up the cause. He also sees unprecedented possibilities for those who decide to rally against the conflict.

“If we are successful in bringing this horror to an end, then we are going to have ended the world’s first genocide of the 21st century,” he said. “That’s quite a noble calling and a noble responsibility for us all to undertake.”