ALOUD @ Los Angeles Public Library

Considered one of the masters of the short story form, Nathan Englander offers fiction that is both edgy and timeless. His new collection, the title of which is inspired by Raymond Carver’s masterpiece on love, grapples with some of today’s questions with great care. As Jonathan Lethem praises, “Englander’s elegant, inquisitive, and hilarious fictions are a working definition of what the modern short story can do.”

Is it possible for Americans to better their future by reinventing their relationship with government? Newsom, lieutenant governor of California and San Francisco's former mayor, explores how a modern digital government could house the information, concerns, convictions-even the protests of an enlightened digital citizenry.

Betty Friedan's groundbreaking book is now 50 years old, and the global struggle for gender equality is-according to many-the paramount moral struggle of this century. Different generations of feminists discuss their perspectives on the issues defining the struggle for women's rights today. Where are we now, and where is this revolution headed?

Gale, one of the world's leading experts on radiation, together with writer Eric Lax, draw on the most up-to-date research and on Gale's extensive experience treating victims of radiation accidents around the globe to correct myths and establish facts about life on our radioactive planet in our post-Chernobyl, post-Fukushima world.

"We work in the dark," said Henry James. "Our doubt is our passion, and our passion is our task." Two completely original, and often hilarious writers, Saunders (Tenth of December) and Cooper (The Bill from My Father) begrudgingly agree. Saunders and Cooper step out of the dark and onto the stage to discuss how they grapple with the difficult, but essential challenges of their creative work.

From acting in award-winning films such as Before Night Falls, Frida, and Milk, to directing a forthcoming feature on Cesar Chavez, Luna's passion for storytelling as an agent for social change is illuminated in his film work. As an activist, he speaks out against the bi-national arms trade and he is founder of Ambulante, a mobile documentary project bringing cinema to remote places in the Americas. Inspired by art as reflections, Luna talks about these projects and life on both sides of the border.

What does it mean to see your life reenacted as film? Could you imagine watching Robert De Niro play your father, Julianne Moore your mother? Describing the surreal process of adapting his memoir, Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, into a film called Being Flynn, a master storyteller offers a compelling meditation on the very nature of grief, survival, and making art.

Join us for a conversation about the hugely influential photographer Maynard L. Parker, who aimed his lens at the mid-century masterworks of the L.A. architects and designers whose homes embodied the American dream during a time of demographic transitions, Cold War anxieties, and a suburban society driven to consume.

Veteran journalist Wilentz, a passionate longtime observer of Haiti, reports on the uncanny resilience of the confounding country that emerged from the dust of the 2010 earthquake like a powerful spirit. She looks back and forward--at Haiti's slave plantations, revolutionary history, its totalitarian regimes and its profound creative culture. Populated with rock stars and Voodoo priests, heartbreak and magic, her brilliant storytelling brings to life a place like nowhere in the world.

In their new book, Oscar-winning actor Jeff Bridges and world-renowned Roshi Bernie Glassman offer an intimate glimpse into the conversations between student and teacher, a shared philosophy of life and spirituality, and the everyday wisdom of Buddhism. The Dude and the Zen Master captures a freewheeling dialogue about life, laughter, and the movies, from two men whose charm and bonhomie never fail to enlighten and entertain—while reminding us of the importance of doing good in a difficult world.