Is Detroit City really the place to be? What happens in a typical day at a busy NYC hospital? How does a traveler lose himself all over the globe? Is it possible for the government to achieve full employment in the U.S.? How can government in the 21st century get simpler? How did Franklin D. Roosevelt and Fiorello H. La Guardia collaborate to provide the blueprint for the NYC of today? What is the new American way of war? How is Polish-Jewish reconciliation progressing in today’s Poland? What are “Tom Swifties,” and how are they formed? Was there a golden age of airline hijacking? Who loves cats, kittens, and possibly hedgehogs? Can pizza boxes be considered art?

If you'd like to explore any of these questions, we hope you'll join us for an Author @ the Library talk this month at the Mid-Manhattan Library to hear these varied and accomplished non-fiction authors (and one cat cartoonist!) discuss their work. If you'd like to read the books mentioned, you can request copies using the links to the catalog included below. Author talks take place at 6:30 p.m. on the 6th floor. No reservations are required.

Monday, November 4: Detroit City Is the Place to Be: The Afterlife of an American Metropolis. In this illustrated lecture, Rolling Stone contributing editor and Detroit-area native Mark Binelli offers a nuanced portrait of a once-great American industrial city that fell into decay decades ago, but which has latel been experiencing a ray of hope.

Tuesday, November 5: Dr. Brendan Reilly, author of One Doctor: Close Calls, Cold Cases, and the Mysteries of Medicine, recreates his present-day, moment-to-moment “E.R.”-like dramas with patients, families, and medical staff at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center.

Wednesday, November 6: Matt Gross, former New York Times "Frugal Traveler" and author of The Turk Who Loved Apples: And Other Tales of Losing My Way Around the World, describes an immersive form of travel that allowed him to “lose his way all over the globe” and break free of the constraints of modern travel, letting the place itself guide him. 

Thursday, November 7: In Back to Full Employment, Professor Robert Pollin, Co-Director of the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, makes the case that not only is it possible for the government to achieve full employment in the nation, but that it is also a moral imperative. 

Tuesday, November 12:  How can the twenty-first century get simpler?  Can it do so amidst the new health reform and financial reform legislation, and with recent and coming environmental regulations? Professor Cass R. Sunstein of Harvard Law School, author of Simpler: The Future of Government and New York Times Op-Ed columnist David Brooks will explore what government can and should accomplish. 

Thursday, November 14: Mason B. Williams, author of City of Ambition: FDR, La Guardia, and the Making of Modern New York, chronicles the Depression era leaders of America’s two largest governments and explores their remarkable collaboration, which led to a route for the recovery of the nation and provided the blueprint for a great city. 

Monday, November 18: Pulitzer Prize–winning New York Times reporter Mark Mazzetti, author of The Way of the Knife: The CIA, a Secret Army, and a War at the Ends of the Earth, explores the new American way of war, how the CIA moved from interrogations to drone strikes, and sheds light on the CIA's secret wars.

Tuesday, November 19: Louise Steinman, author of The Crooked Mirror: A Memoir of Polish-Jewish Reconciliation, explores the exhilarating, discomforting, and ultimately healing process of Polish-Jewish reconciliation taking place in Poland today in this illustrated lecture. 

Wednesday, November 20: Once a Pun a Time—Let’s Play With Words! Patricia T. O’Conner, a former New York Times Book Review editor and the author of five books on language and writing, will share her delight in the fun of language—puns, spoonerisms, and mischievous wordplay of every stripe. 

Thursday, November 21: Blending history and true crime, Brendan I. Koerner, author of The Skies Belong to Us: Love and Terror in the Golden Age of Hijacking and contributing editor for Wired magazine, chronicles a kind of golden age of airline hijacking -- the years between 1968 and 1973, when hijackings occurred on a nearly weekly basis. 

Monday, November 25: “A Cat’s Dialogue.” Join cartoonist Simon Tofield, author and illustrator of the Simon's Cat books, and Stephanie Harwin from the Catsparella blog for a lively discussion of cats, kittens, and possibly hedgehogs!

Tuesday, November 26: Scott Wiener, author of Viva La Pizza! The Art of the Pizza Box, discusses his collection of over 100 weird and wild pizza box designs, highlighting their context, design, engineering, manufacturing, and history. 

You can find lists of non-fiction books from current and past Author @ the Library programs in the BiblioCommons catalog.

The Author @ the Library posts include authors discussing their recent non-fiction books at the Mid-Manhattan Library. We also have many other interesting readings and talks on our program calendar, including art lectures and artist conversations, monthly panel discussions featuring authors from the Mystery Writers of America, New York Chapter, short story readings at Story Time for Grown-ups, and on November 18th, we're hosting a meeting of the European Book Club to discuss The Year of the Hare by Finnish writer Arto Paasilinna.

We hope to see you sometime soon at one of our many free classes and programs!

Print a flyer for the November 2013 programs.