ALOUD @ Los Angeles Public Library

\"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 International and one of our most distinguished thinkers.

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

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

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 Apocalypse Now to this account of the next chapters in her life.

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 two-time screenwriting Oscar nominee (\"Bad Day at Black Rock\") and co-creator of Mr. Magoo.

Larry McMurtry-Pulitzer prize-winning novelist, Academy Award-winning, screenwriter, essayist, and bookseller-will receive the 2008 Los Angeles Public Library Literary Award on April 30. As part of the tradition of the Literary Award, the recipient delivers a free public lecture. Join Mr. McMurtry for an afternoon of insights into his work and his life. \"No other author has so thoroughly and delightfully debunked the ill-advised romanticism of the American West. An American landmark in the world of fiction.\" (Jami Edwards, on Bookreporter.com).

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

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, revealing how American influences changed the family and how one member's rebellion changed America.

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 pursuit and a reminder that there is still much to learn.

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 global economic collapse that lies ahead if we don't follow it.