Culinary tours…global entrepreneurs…dangerous political weapons in America…Nazi art theft and the quest for justice…forensic DNA…the Tappan Zee Mega Project…advertising, artificial intelligence and the ‘perfect woman’… the Gowanus Canal….mystery, aura and feline obsession…the history of the Jewish deli…Hugh Hefner and the rise of Playboy entertainment…political ideology in the Greco-Roman world and its impact today…New York landmarked interiors....a pathfinder to legal landmarks…

If any of these topics have piqued your interest, then please join us for an Author @ the Library program in October at the Mid-Manhattan Library. Come hear authors discuss their recent nonfiction books on a wide variety of subjects that promise to engage and inspire you!

Author talks take place at 6:30 p.m. on the 6th floor of the Library, unless otherwise noted. No reservations are required. Seating is first come, first served. You can also request the author's books using the links to the catalog included below.

	THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2015 New York in a Dozen Dishes with Robert Sietsema, award-winning food writer and current restaurant critic at Eater.com This illustrated lecture paints a portrait of New York’s food landscape past and present, and shares a life spent uncovering the delicious foods of the five boroughs. Because Robert Sietsema is an anonymous reviewer, anonymity is very important; therefore he will be presenting this program in a mask to hide his identity.
	TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2015 The Birth of Politics: Eight Greek and Roman Political Ideas and Why They Matter with Melissa Lane, the Class of 1943 Professor of Politics at Princeton University. This illustrated lecture shows how the Greeks and Romans defined politics with distinctive concepts, vocabulary, and practices—all of which continue to influence politics and political aspirations around the world today. It focuses on eight political ideas from the Greco-Roman world that are especially influential today: justice, virtue, constitution, democracy, citizenship, cosmopolitanism, republic, and sovereignty.
	WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2015 The Influence Machine: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Corporate Capture of American Life with Alyssa Katz, author of Our Lot: How Real Estate Came to Own Us, and a member of the editorial board of the New York Daily News. This illustrated lecture traces an illuminating history and groundbreaking investigation concerning how a single trade organization turned itself into a dangerous political weapon in America.
	THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2015 Politics Across the Hudson: The Tappan Zee Megaproject with Philip Mark Plotch, Ph.D. AICP., urban planner, assistant professor of political science and director of the Masters in Public Administration program at Saint Peter’s University in Jersey City. This illustrated lecture offers a behind-the-scenes look at three decades of contentious planning and politics centered on the bridge and reveals valuable lessons for those trying to tackle complex public policies while also confirming our worst fears about government dysfunction.
	TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2015 Stolen Legacy: Nazi Theft and the Quest for Justice at Krausenstrasse 17/18, Berlin with Dina Gold, a former BBC investigative journalist, a television producer, co-chair of the Washington Jewish Film Festival, and a senior editor at Moment magazine. In this illustrated lecture, the daughter of one of the original owners of the building, details the history of the Wolff family’s ownership of Krausenstrasse 17/18 , its confiscation by the Nazis, and the family’s legal fight to reclaim it.
	WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2015 Pastrami on Rye: An Overstuffed History of the Jewish Deli with Ted Merwin, Associate Professor of Religion and Judaic Studies at Dickinson College (PA), where he is Founding Director of the Milton B. Asbell Center for Jewish Life. This illustrated lecture focuses on the history of the deli as an essential ethnic gathering place for post-immigrant generations of Jews who were shifting away from scrupulous religious observance and looking for more secular ways of building community.
	MONDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2015 Gowanus: Brooklyn's Curious Canal with Joseph Alexiou, the author of the sixth edition of Paris for Dummies, and a licensed New York City tour guide. This illustrated lecture explores how the Gowanus creek—a naturally-occurring tidal estuary that served as a conduit for transport and industry during the colonial era—came to play an outsized role in the story of America’s greatest city.
	TUESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2015 From the Other Side of the World: Extraordinary Entrepreneurs, Unlikely Places with Elmira Bayrasli, the cofounder of Foreign Policy Interrupted and a lecturer at New York University. This illustrated lecture describes the inside the world of high-growth entrepreneurs as they overcome vexing obstacles to build businesses that create jobs and economic growth and—perhaps most important—shift mindsets.
	WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2015 My Fair Ladies: Female Robots, Androids, and Other Artificial Eves with Julie Wosk, Professor of art history, English, and studio painting at SUNY Maritime College. Taking us on a fascinating tour across a wide variety of media, including sci-fi films, television shows, and advertising, Julie Wosk's illustrated lecture on her most recent book, My Fair Ladies introduces us to a bevy of lifelike, manmade women. Through her study of everything from automatons to lifelike artificial intelligence machines, Julie Wosk considers how this figure of the “perfect woman” has come to embody not only fantasies, but also fears about gender and technology.
	THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2015 Playboy Swings: How Hugh Hefner and Playboy Changed the Face of Music with Patty Farmer, acknowledged as the leading expert on all things pertaining to music, entertainment-and the entertainers-of Playboy. This multimedia presentation focuses specifically on Playboy and the music scene, its impact on popular entertainment (and vice versa), and the fabulous cadre of performers who took to the stages of the mythic Playboy Clubs and Jazz Festivals
	MONDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2015 Inside the Cell: The Dark Side of Forensic DNA with Erin E. Murphy, a professor at the NYU School of Law and an expert in DNA forensics. The illustrated lecture shows how DNA typing can be subject to misuse, mistake, and error, and can lead to a police state run amok.
	TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2015 Some Very Interesting Cats Perhaps You Weren't Aware Of with Doogie Horner, author, illustrator, and comedian. This illustrated lecture is an original and funny new take on cats. Discover what it is about cats that so obsesses and delights us—their impenetrable personalities, their self-contained quirkiness, the aura of mystery that makes it seem as if they are always up to something that they do not want us to know.
	WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2015 Interior Landmarks Treasures of New York with Judith Gura, design historian on the faculty of the New York School of Interior Design and Kate Wood, president at LANDMARK WEST! and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Architecture at Columbia University. This illustrated lecture present great landmarked interiors of New York in all their intricate detail, in a visual celebration of space that captures the rich heritage of the city.
	THURSDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2015 New York's Legal Landmarks: A Guide to Legal Edifices, Institutions, Lore, History, and Curiosities on the City's Streets with Robert Pigott, a specialist in nonprofit law. This illustrated lecture provides a detailed history of the City’s courthouses past and present with sites of sensational trials (both actual and in film), locations that figured in the nation’s constitutional history, law firms where great Americans practiced law and the homes, schools and final resting places of Supreme Court Justices.
	If you'd like to read any of the books presented at our past author talks, you can find book lists from our January 2013 - October 2015 Author @ the Library programs in the BiblioCommons catalog.

The Author @ the Library posts include authors discussing their recent nonfiction works at the Mid-Manhattan Library. Don’t miss the many other interesting free classes, films, readings, and talks on our program calendar. Enjoy short story readings at Story Time for Grown-ups; Roald Dahl is the featured author for October. If you enjoy talking about books, come share your favorite books with occult themes with other readers at Open Book Night on Friday, October 9, or explore Kazuo Ishiguro's Booker-prize winning novel, Never Let Me Go at our Contemporary Classics Book Discussion on Monday, October 5. All of our programs and classes are free, so why not come and check one out? Looking forward to seeing you soon at the library!