Aloud @ Los Angeles Public Library

A reading and conversation honoring the 20th anniversary of one of America's most important novels, a book as vitally important for anyone interested in the Vietnam War as it is for those concerned with the craft of storytelling.

This enchanting novel by Shriver, author of the bestseller We Need to Talk about Kevin, is a witty and timely exploration of the failure of our health-care system.

Mlodinow - a physicist with the grace of a born storyteller - illuminates the improbable ways that chance and probability affect our daily lives.

In his remarkable and ambitious new memoir, The Opposite Field, Katz tells a story of good love and failed love, of Los Angeles and Portland and Nicaragua and Mexico and a father and son in search of a place to play baseball.

Drawing on a trove of original documents, tapes, and interviews to chronicle the rise of the United Farm Workers during the heady days of civil rights struggles, the antiwar movement, and 60s and 70s student activism, Pawel weaves together a powerful portrait of a people and their movement.

Want to know Isaac Babel's secret influence on the making of \"King Kong\"? Literally and metaphorically following the footsteps of her favorite authors, Batuman combines fresh readings of the great Russians, from Pushkin to Tolstoy, along with some sad and funny stories from the people's lives they've influenced-including her own.

Nobel Prize-winner Joseph Stiglitz explains the current financial crisis-and the coming global economic order.

Crease, a science historian and philosopher, takes us on a tour of ten of the most important victories in our long struggle to understand the world we live in.

Crawford, a musicologist, reveals the uniquely vibrant era when Southern California became a hub of unprecedented musical talent.

What will America look like in 2050? Kotkin, a renowned social and economic trend analyst, argues that the key to America's economic recovery is its robust population growth.

McLennan, Dean for Religious Life at Stanford (and inspiration for Doonesbury's Rev. Scot Sloan) gives voice to millions of liberal Christians and builds solid bridges to all sides of the cultural divide.

Draitser, Professor of Russian at Hunter College (CUNY), resurrects-with great humor-the world of his Jewish childhood in the Soviet Union.

Page, now a Pulitzer-winning music critic, offers a riveting portrayal of what it is like to live in a psychological world that few understand.

In her new novel The Swan Thieves, the author of the bestseller The Historian offers a story of obsession, history's losses, and the power of art to preserve human hope.

The settings for Boyle's bold new stories range from a California suburb terrorizedby a mountain lion, to Napoleonic France where a feral child is captured naked in the forest. He reads and discusses his new collection, Wild Child as well as his novel The Women about the life of Frank Lloyd Wright.

Patel (author of Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System) asks us to reconsider how democracy might be the route by which we can reclaim markets so that they work for rather than against social change.

Gawande, a bestselling author and surgeon, takes us on an intellectual adventure in which lives are lost and saved and one simple idea makes a tremendous difference.

Grandin offers remarkable insights into animal behavior from her unique position at the intersection of autism and science. In her new book, she aims to revolutionize our ideas about what animals want and need-on their terms, not ours.

The new play by L.A.'s premiere Chicano performance group, Culture Clash, molds an intensely personal story into galvanizing theatricality. Join us for a discussion of the Culture Clash creative process that mixes humor and cold fact to unforgettable effect.

Drawing on a cache of important new sources unavailable to previous biographers,?The Wall Street Journal's drama critic and arts columnist paints a gripping portrait of Louis Armstrong's world and his music.