Aloud @ Los Angeles Public Library

Two fiction writers discuss what's real, what's not, and whether or not it really matters.

A Pulitzer Prize-winning historian (Battle Cry of Freedom) offers a revelatory portrait of leadership during the greatest crisis our nation has ever endured.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author returns to the locale of her novel Gilead in a moving and healing book about love, death, faith, families, and the passing of the generations.

In his enthralling new novel, Buruma- an expert on modern Asia-uses the life of the starlet Yoshiko Yamaguchi as a lens through which to understand the contradictions and complexities of modern Japanese history.

The true story of the keepers of the Warsaw Zoo, who, with extraordinary courage, compassion, and calm under pressure, managed to save hundreds of people from Nazi hands.

The writer who virtually invented the modern travel narrative returns-30 years later-to the changed landscape of Eastern Europe, Central Asia, India, China, Japan, and Siberia.

The photographer whose photographs serve as visual records for this city's dramatic evolution discusses his life and creative process. Presented in conjunction with the exhibition Julius Shulman's Los Angeles, at the Central Library's Getty Gallery October 6, 2007-January 20, 2008

A leading authority on Iraq-and architect of the partition plan endorsed by both Democratic and Republican presidential candidates and many members of Congress-reports on the real consequences of the U.S. invasion.

A call to arms to every voter to remember what it means to live in a free democracy, and a reminder that it's possible for ordinary people to achieve extraordinary things-to get inspired and make a difference on their own.

A historian and legal scholar tells the compelling saga of the Hemings family, whose close blood ties to our third president have been systemically expunged from American history until very recently.

Two Los Angeles-based novelists explore the rise and fall of human lives in their brilliant fictions.

One of the world's leading intellectuals revisits his political roots, scrutinizes the totalitarianisms of the past, as well as those on the horizon, and argues powerfully for a new political and moral vision for our times.

A Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter parts the curtains of secrecy to show how and why Dick Cheney operated and reflects on the legacy Cheney and the Bush administration as a whole will leave as they exit office.

Two pre-eminent war correspondents offer a visceral understanding of America's overseas involvement-from the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan to the heat of the battle in Iraq, from Marine battalions in Ramadi to ordinary Iraqis whose voices have remained eerily silent.

Detective Inspector Ray Lennox of the Edinburgh P.D., on leave for mental, finds himself in the underbelly of American party culture. A macabre and unorthodox thriller by the author of Trainspotting.

A reporter in the New York Times London bureau offers a hilarious and incisive look at her adopted home. \"Lyall will now be hailed as one of England's supreme analysts, preparatory to her being executed on Tower Green.\" (Clive James)

A philosopher and cultural critic-whose thought challenges traditional trajectories- takes on the signal issue of violence and inverts our pre-conceived and popular notions about its causes.

Coinciding with Banned Books Week is the revelatory story behind the 1939 burning and banning of Steinbeck's book in Kern County, Calif., home of the fictional Joads.

A Community Forum & Panel Discussion

This pilot radio program (never broadcast) is comprised of excerpts from three ALOUD programs: a December 13, 2005 conversation between \"Six Feet Under\" writer/producer Alan Ball and writer/funeral director Thomas Lynch; a public talk on April 2, 2003 by playwright August Wilson, recipient of the 2003 Los Angeles Public Library Literary Award; and an April 4, 2005 poetry reading by W.S. Merwin. Guest Host: Alfred Molina. Co-produced by Louise Steinman and Johanna Cooper