ALOUD @ Los Angeles Public Library

The Post-American World

21 May 2008

Contributed by Lukas

\"This is not a book about the decline of America, but rather about the rise of everyone else,\" begins the new work by Zakaria, editor of Newsweek In...

The Downhill Lie: A Hacker's Return to a Ruinous Sport

15 May 2008

Contributed by Lukas

After a 32-year absence, the bestselling author and popular Miami Herald columnist returns to the fairways-with hilarious consequences.

The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama

14 May 2008

Contributed by Lukas

Drawn from a three-decades-long conversation with the Dalai Lama, Iyer's book explores the hidden life, the singular thinking, and the daily challenge...

Notes on a Life

09 May 2008

Contributed by Lukas

Coppola-award-winning documentary filmmaker, artist, wife and mother-employs the same insight and wit as she used in her Notes on the Making of Apocal...

Bowl of Cherries

07 May 2008

Contributed by Lukas

McSweeney's, publisher of the young and hip, brings us a debut novel of breadth, glee and sharp consequence by a 90-year-old ex-Marine who is also a t...

An Afternoon with Larry McMurtry

02 May 2008

Contributed by Lukas

Larry McMurtry-Pulitzer prize-winning novelist, Academy Award-winning, screenwriter, essayist, and bookseller-will receive the 2008 Los Angeles Public...

Our Story Begins

29 Apr 2008

Contributed by Lukas

One of America's \"most exquisite storytellers\" (Esquire), a master of the memoir and the short story, reads from and discusses his first collection ...

The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century

17 Apr 2008

Contributed by Lukas

The two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and author of the bestseller Ghost Wars presents the story of the Bin Laden family's rise to power and privilege, r...

BONK: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex

16 Apr 2008

Contributed by Lukas

Few things are as fundamental to human happiness as satisfying sex. America's funniest science writer (Stiff) offers an ode to a fascinating and vital...

Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet

08 Apr 2008

Contributed by Lukas

From the author of the bestseller The End of Poverty, a vivid map of the road to sustainable and equitable global prosperity and an augury of the glob...

The Life of the Skies: Birding at the End of Nature

02 Apr 2008

Contributed by Lukas

Rosen, novelist and New York Times contributor, sets out to explore birdwatching's centrality--historical and literary, spiritual and scientific--to a...

The Golden Road: Notes on My Gentrification

28 Mar 2008

Contributed by Lukas

Millner, a young African-American woman, grew up in predominantly Hispanic and working class San Jose and went on to Harvard. In her memoir she tours ...

Lush Life: A Novel

26 Mar 2008

Contributed by Lukas

From a great American realist-the author of Clockers and co-writer of The Wire-an X-ray of the streets of New York City in the age of no \"broken wind...

The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It

20 Mar 2008

Contributed by Lukas

In the years between World War II and the emergence of television as a mass medium, American popular culture was first created in the pulpy, boldly il...

The Senator's Wife

19 Mar 2008

Contributed by Lukas

In her new novel, the author of the now classic The Good Mother and While I Was Gone brings emotional power to her most transfixing themes: the meanin...

Dreams and Shadows: The Future of the Middle East

14 Mar 2008

Contributed by Lukas

Drawing on 35 years of reporting-through wars, revolutions and uprisings-one of America's most prescient journalists offers an insightful reckoning of...

The Unheard: A Memoir of Deafness and Africa

13 Mar 2008

Contributed by Lukas

Seeking a place where his deafness would be irrelevant, Josh Swiller volunteered for the Peace Corps and spent two years in a remote and impoverished ...

The Enigma of Iran (or Why American Policy-makers Should Read More Fiction)

07 Mar 2008

Contributed by Lukas

Iran, as any civilization, is defined most thoroughly by the stories it spawns. Join us for a candid conversation between novelist Gina Nahai (Caspia...

The Dancer and the Thief (El Baile de la Victoria)

06 Mar 2008

Contributed by Lukas

The prize-winning novelist (Il Postino)-for whom "neither life nor literature outside politics" is imaginable-sets his exuberant love story ...

Chasing the Flame: Sergio Vieira de Mello and the Fight to Save the World

28 Feb 2008

Contributed by Lukas

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author reveals the powerful legacy of the incomparable humanitarian who lost his life in a terrorist attack on UN Headquart...

The Age of American Unreason

27 Feb 2008

Contributed by Lukas

From the author of Freethinkers, a dazzlingly insightful-and occasionally hilarious-analysis of the anti-rationalism, anti-intellectualism, and anti-s...

Basic Brown: My Life and Our Times

21 Feb 2008

Contributed by Lukas

The two-term mayor of San Francisco and longest-serving speaker of the California Assembly lays down some candid rules about surviving and manipulatin...

When the Personal Becomes Political

20 Feb 2008

Contributed by Lukas

The acclaimed poet and columnist for The Nation discusses her new book of essays dealing with sex, death, ex-lovers, politics, motherhood, aging, and ...

The Flowers: A Novel

14 Feb 2008

Contributed by Lukas

From one of this country's most original voices comes a masterful new novel about a young Mexican-American who falls in love while sweeping the decks ...

In Defense of Food

12 Feb 2008

Contributed by Lukas

The author of the national bestseller The Omnivore's Dilemma returns with a manifesto for our times: what to eat, what not to eat, and how to think ab...

The Commoner: A Novel

07 Feb 2008

Contributed by Lukas

The author of Reservation Road sets his mesmerizing new novel in 1959 Japan when Haruko, a non-aristocratic woman, marries the Crown Prince and enters...

Swimming in a Sea of Death: A Son's Memoir

06 Feb 2008

Contributed by Lukas

The author's mother, Susan Sontag, died of a particularly acute form of leukemia in 2004. \"This,\" he writes, \"is a book of questions about what we ...

A Force of Nature: The Frontier Genius of Ernest Rutherford

31 Jan 2008

Contributed by Lukas

The award-winning historian offers a new intellectual biography of the twentieth century's greatest experimental physicist, whose revolutionary discov...

The Science of Leonardo: Inside the Mind of the Great Genius of the Renaissance

30 Jan 2008

Contributed by Lukas

Drawing on more than 6,000 pages of Leonardo's surviving notebooks, Capra reveals Leonardo-whose studies ranged from the flight patterns of birds to t...

The Height of Ambition: New Development Downtown

24 Jan 2008

Contributed by Lukas

Key voices in the development of downtown Los Angeles discuss their visions for the future.

Sellout: The Politics of Racial Betrayal

18 Jan 2008

Contributed by Lukas

In his explosive new book, Kennedy--a Harvard law scholar--shows how current fears of \"selling out\" are expressed in thought and practice and clarif...

Comeback: Conservatism That Can Win Again

17 Jan 2008

Contributed by Lukas

Frum-former speechwriter for President Bush-argues that Republicans, like the Democrats before them, have been the victims of their own success. He ou...

Creating a World without Poverty

16 Jan 2008

Contributed by Lukas

What if you could harness the power of the free market to solve the problems of poverty, hunger, and inequality? To some, it sounds impossible. But th...

The Long Embrace: Raymond Chandler and the Woman He Loved

11 Jan 2008

Contributed by Lukas

In her unconventional biography, Freeman illuminates the psyche and mystery of Chandler and his relationship with his much older wife as well as the C...

Ending Slavery: How We Free Today's Slaves

10 Jan 2008

Contributed by Lukas

Slaves harvest cocoa in Ivory Coast, make charcoal used to produce steel in Brazil, weave carpets in India. The list goes on. Bales recounts his 15-ye...

An Evening with Poet Robert Hass

04 Dec 2007

Contributed by Lukas

Known also as an essayist, translator, and activist on behalf of poetry, literacy, and the environment, the former United States Poet Laureate (1995-1...

Cleopatra's Nose: 39 Varieties of Desire

29 Nov 2007

Contributed by Lukas

The longtime New Yorker writer--who once spent an evening with Jackie Onassis, smoking cigarettes and talking about men--culls from 20 years of probin...

Lost and Found: Writing in the Woods

28 Nov 2007

Contributed by Lukas

Two writers discuss their experiences writing at the historic MacDowell Colony then read from work begun or completed there. www.macdowellcolony.or...

Theories of Everything

27 Nov 2007

Contributed by Lukas

The New Yorker cartoonist who can explain phenomena such as \"The Museum of One's Kitchen\" (including the Refrigerator Door Gallery and the Cabinet o...

Memorial Reading for Mutanabbi Street

20 Nov 2007

Contributed by Lukas

On March 5, 2007, a car bomb exploded on Mutanabbi Street, the lively center of Baghdad bookselling, filled with bookstores, cafes, and book stalls. 3...

An Evening with Poet Galway Kinnell

16 Nov 2007

Contributed by Lukas

In the 2003 National Book Award judges' citation for his New Selected Poems, Kinnell was called \"America's preeminent visionary,\" with work in 12 co...

A Free Life

15 Nov 2007

Contributed by Lukas

In this new novel by the National Book Award-winning author of Waiting, an émigré Chinese writer opens a restaurant in Atlanta in a daun...

Mongrels, Bastards, Orphans & Vagabonds: Mexican Immigration and the Future of Race in America

14 Nov 2007

Contributed by Lukas

The iconoclastic Los Angeles Times columnist discusses how the mestizo legacy of Mexican-Americans, the largest immigrant group in the country's h...

A Life Decoded

09 Nov 2007

Contributed by Lukas

A riveting account of the unparalleled drama of the quest for the human genome by the scientist who went on to be the first to read and interpret his ...

Psychogeography: Disentangling the Modern Conundrum of Psyche and Place

02 Nov 2007

Contributed by Lukas

Evoking places as far flung as Iowa and India, Self-cultural provocateur, writer and long distance walker-teamed with legendary Gonzo illustrator Ralp...

The Principles of Uncertainty: Illustrations, Parables, Films

31 Oct 2007

Contributed by Lukas

The illustrator, author and designer-known for her many New Yorker covers (including the famous map of \"Newyorkistan\")-contends with existential que...

The Conscience of a Liberal

30 Oct 2007

Contributed by Lukas

Today's most widely read economist weaves together a nuanced account of three generations of history with sharp political, social, and economic analys...

The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century

25 Oct 2007

Contributed by Lukas

The New Yorker's brilliant music critic takes us inside the labyrinth of modern sound, from Vienna before World War I to New York City in the seventie...

Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain

24 Oct 2007

Contributed by Lukas

\"The poet laureate of medicine\" (New York Times) examines the complexities of our response to music and the particular powers of music to move us ph...

Hotel de Dream: A New York Novel

23 Oct 2007

Contributed by Lukas

The acclaimed memoirist, author, and biographer of Jean Genet conjures the true-life love affair between author Stephen Crane and the woman known as h...

The American Idea

19 Oct 2007

Contributed by Lukas

For 150 years, The Atlantic Monthly has explored what its founders-including Emerson, Longfellow and Holmes-called \"The American Idea.\" Join us for ...

The Terror Dream: Fear and Fantasy in Post-9/11 America

17 Oct 2007

Contributed by Lukas

The Pulitzer Prize- winning author of Stiffed and Backlash examines the post-9/11 outpouring in the media, popular culture, and political life and off...

The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court

03 Oct 2007

Contributed by Lukas

Based on exclusive interviews with Supreme Court Justices themselves and other insiders, The Nine is a timely and provocative report on America's most...

No Simple Victory: Europe at War 1939-1945

28 Sep 2007

Contributed by Lukas

One of the world's preeminent scholars of World War II history, author of the bestselling Europe: A History and Rising '44, offers a clear-eyed reappr...

COOL IT: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming

25 Sep 2007

Contributed by Lukas

A highly respected statistical analyst of climate discusses why and how he believes the debate over climate change, fueled by politicians and the medi...

Two Actors, Two Authors, Two Lives

19 Sep 2007

Contributed by Lukas

Alda and Farrell, former co-stars of M*A*S*H, both authors of recent memoirs, re-unite to discuss art, activism, family, money, and fame.

The Book of Psalms: A Conversation

18 Sep 2007

Contributed by Lukas

Robert Alter's translation of \"The Five Books of Moses\" was hailed as a \"godsend\" by poet Seamus Heaney. He discusses with...

Nell Freudenberger and Jennifer Gilmore

11 Sep 2007

Contributed by Lukas

Gilmore's Golden Country vividly brings to life the intertwining stories of three immigrants seeking their fortunes. In Freudenberger's The Dissident,...

An Evening With Graphic Designer Chip Kidd

26 Jul 2007

Contributed by Lukas

Kidd’s book jacket designs for Alfred A. Knopf, where he has worked since 1986, have helped spawn a revolution in the art of American book packaging...

Parts Per Million: The Poisoning of Beverly Hills High School

25 Jul 2007

Contributed by Lukas

An unsettling and timely investigation into the ties between Beverly Hills, its oil wells, and a local cancer cluster. A compelling legal drama by a j...

God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything

05 Jun 2007

Contributed by Lukas

\"America's foremost literary pugilist\" (Village Voice) offers an elegantly argued case against all religions.

The Pest House

24 May 2007

Contributed by Lukas

On a devastated, lawless American continent, families have only one hope: passage on a ship to Europe. A remarkable novel by one of the most inventive...

Telling Stories that Matter: A Conversation

23 May 2007

Contributed by Lukas

Two California-born writers-one from East L.A. and the other from the Central Valley-discuss their understanding of stories as a way to complicate our...

Nathan Englander: The Ministry of Special Cases

22 May 2007

Contributed by Lukas

From the celebrated author of For the Relief of Unbearable Urges, a stunning historical novel—his first—set in Buenos Aires at the start of Argent...

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Solider

06 Apr 2007

Contributed by Lukas

At age twelve, Beah (now twenty-five), fled attacking rebels in his native Sierra Leone and was picked up by the government army. What is war like thr...

Debating Race

08 Mar 2007

Contributed by Lukas

Whether chronicling the class conflict in the African American community or exposing the failings of the government response to Hurricane Katrina, Dys...

Between the Sheets: Sex, Literature, and the Future of Erotic Fiction

16 Feb 2007

Contributed by Lukas

In a society in which sex is both a major obsession and a major taboo, what is the function of erotic literature? Is there a new receptivity to thinki...

Power, Faith and Fantasy: America in the Middle East 1776 to the Present

13 Feb 2007

Contributed by Lukas

Oren, recently visiting professor at Harvard and Yale and author of the best-selling Six Days of War - covers 230 years of America's political, milita...

A Field Guide to Getting Lost

13 Feb 2007

Contributed by Lukas

Solnit-activist and cultural historian-draws on emblematic moments of uncertainty, trust, loss, memory, desire and place in brilliant autobiographical...

Can Religion and Reason be Reconciled?

26 Jan 2007

Contributed by Lukas

Aslan (No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam) and Harris (The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason; Letter t...

House of Meetings

24 Jan 2007

Contributed by Lukas

A surprising love story set in 1946 Moscow and a camp in the Arctic Circle by the bestselling author of London Fields.

Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy

17 Jan 2007

Contributed by Lukas

What are the deep origins of communal celebration in human biology and culture? Join us for an original and exhilarating look at one of humanity's old...

Point to Point Navigation: A Memoir

21 Nov 2006

Contributed by Lukas

The inimitable raconteur, essayist, novelist, playwright, historian, critic and screenwriter travels in memory through the arenas of literature, telev...

Deadwood: Stories of the Black Hills

02 Nov 2006

Contributed by Lukas

The creator/executive producer and cast members of HBO's \"Deadwood\" discuss the themes and motivations that run through the series - gold, Custer, b...

The Light of Evening: A Novel

25 Oct 2006

Contributed by Lukas

The great Irish novelist--known as a pioneer for her frank portrayals of women--discusses her daring new work that explores the unbreakable bond betwe...

A Writer's Life

06 Oct 2006

Contributed by Lukas

Gordon, one of America's master story-tellers, probes the lives of her characters and how the workings of the world- both enormous events and intimate...

The Battle Over Books: Authors & Publishers Take on the Google Books Library Project

13 Jun 2006

Contributed by Lukas

A provocative discussion about the competing interests and issues raised by The Google Books Library Project, and whether a universal digital reposito...

Life as Art, Art as Life

09 Jun 2006

Contributed by Lukas

Pekar, known for his autobiographical slice-of-life comic book series \"American Splendor\" and author of the just-released Ego & Hubris: The Michael ...

Michael Pollan: In Defense of Food

11 May 2006

Contributed by Lukas

The author of the national bestseller The Omnivore's Dilemma returns with a manifesto for our times: what to eat, what not to eat, and how to think ab...

Tête-à-Tête: Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre

02 May 2006

Contributed by Lukas

Rowley, a distinguished biographer and Obst, legendary producer of films such as "Sleepless in Seattle" offers an intimate look at one of th...

Geraldine Brooks: March: A Novel

23 Feb 2006

Contributed by Lukas

Geraldine Brooks - in conversation with Carla Kaplan, Professor of English, USC - is the author of a luminous second novel (after 2001’s acclaimed Y...

Reza Aslan: The Coming Reformation of Islam: A Conversation

03 Feb 2006

Contributed by Lukas

Join two brilliant scholars of religion for a fascinating discussion on the internal conflict within Islam over the scope and outcome of the Islamic R...

Armistead Maupin: A Night Listener

14 Dec 2005

Contributed by Lukas

Armistead Maupin discusses his book, A Night Listener.This program was presented by the Hot Off the Press series.

George Packer: The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq

09 Nov 2005

Contributed by Lukas

Packer, award-winning staff writer for The New Yorker, explores the full range of ideas and emotions stirred up by our most controversial foreign-poli...

Fledgling

03 Nov 2005

Contributed by Lukas

Butler, one of the world's great science fiction writers, explores the limits of  "otherness" in her new novel-the story of a young...

Jane Smiley: Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel

23 Sep 2005

Contributed by Lukas

Two great writers celebrate the novel—from the 1,000 year-old Tale of Genji to Zadie Smith’s recent bestseller White Teeth; from classics to littl...

The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana

19 Jun 2005

Contributed by Lukas

While he can remember the plot of every book he's ever read, the hero of Eco's raucous new novel no longer knows his own name.

An evening with poet W.S.Merwin

05 Apr 2005

Contributed by Lukas

In a career spanning five decades, W.S. Merwin, lauded poet, translator, and environmental activist, has become one of the most widely read poets in A...

The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy and the End of the Republic

19 Feb 2004

Contributed by Lukas

The author of the prophetic national bestseller \"Blowback,\" offers a vivid look at the new caste of professional warriors who have infiltrated multi...

A Human Being Died That Night: A South African Story of Forgiveness

31 Jan 2003

Contributed by Lukas

A psychologist on South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission asks, "What does it mean when we discover than the incarnation of evil i...

War in a Time of Peace: Bush, Clinton, and the Generals

10 Oct 2002

Contributed by Lukas

An in-depth look at the impact of Vietnam on post-Cold War U.S. foreign policy by a distinguished Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist.

Ursula K. Le Guin: The Telling

27 Sep 2000

Contributed by Lukas

In this recording from ALOUD's early years, Ursula K. Le Guin reads and discusses her 2000 science fiction novel The Telling, the first follow-up to t...

Poetry Reading

08 May 2000

Contributed by Lukas

This podcast, taken from the ALOUD archive, is a discussion from 2000's \"Words In the World\" series; a curated series of artists whose stories, essa...

Robert Pinsky: What Shall We Teach the Young?

13 Dec 1999

Contributed by Lukas

Robert Pinsky answers the question, "What Shall We Teach the Young?," touching on art and poetry.This program was presented by ALOUD's The Big Questio...

Why Choose to Love?

06 Dec 1999

Contributed by Lukas

This podcast, taken from the ALOUD archive, is a discussion from 1999's \"The Big Questions\" series. A celebration of writing, reading, and public d...

John Updike, LAPL Literary Awards 1999

01 May 1999

Contributed by Lukas

The great American writer John Updike received the Los Angeles Public Library's Literary Award in 1999. The award, given annually, is granted to a wri...

Are You Somebody?

06 Feb 1999

Contributed by Lukas

A novel about of a woman who refused to shrink from a life alone, and who comes to terms with the love she learns to share with both men and women.

Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book

16 Feb 1998

Contributed by Lukas

This podcast, taken from the ALOUD archive, is a discussion from 1998's \"Racing Towards the Millenium: Voices From the American West,\" a predecessor...

Bernard Cooper

02 Jun 1997

Contributed by Lukas

Bernard Cooper writes eloquently about the difficult landscape of memory as it pertains to sexuality, loss, AIDS, and family. He is the author of the ...

Kathleen Norris

19 May 1997

Contributed by Lukas

Kathleen Norris is the author of the 1993 bestseller Dakota: A Spiritual Geography. Her newest book, The Cloister Walk, is structured around two nine-...