Posts by Elizabeth Waters

When we asked people to share books related to the theme of nature at our recent Open Book Night, we heard about titles related to both the natural world and to human nature, with an emphasis on humankind’s relationship to nature.

Dance in unexpected places... walking through literary New York... New York's incredible abandoned spaces... photographing fashion's trendsetters... recipes in literature... unusual hiking destinations... coming of age in postwar America... the art and science of what we eat... southern Italy's most celebrated gardens... urban transformation in Chelsea... the influence of our infrastructure...

When we asked people to share books related to the theme of “new beginnings,” we got a really wide range of fiction and nonfiction book recommendations: spiritual, nutritional, philosophical, emotional, geographic, artistic, political, physical, and meteorological.

Drawing as a form of inquiry... groundbreaking graphic designers... The U.S. a safe haven for Nazis... 1,000 years of visualizing the cosmos... a moment-by-moment account of Hurricane Sandy... the era of great American songwriting... the evolution of the painted nail...

We’re having our first book social at Mid-Manhattan and you’re invited! This month’s theme is love. We hope you’ll join us on Friday, February 13 to share a book you loved reading!

Are you making your New Year's Resolutions? Is one of them to read more or to connect more with other readers? We would love to see you in the Reader's Den, NYPL's online book discussion, in 2015!

The lost tribe of Coney Island... building the Statue of Liberty... a culinary history of America in 100 bites... the sinking of refugee ship The Wilhelm Gustloff during World War II... a close-up of the planet Mars... forgiving, remembering, and forgetting in personal and political contexts... a road trip through presidential libraries... curious New York activities... what online data can tell us about ourselves... reducing inequality in the 21st century... the history of New York's mass transit systems between 1940 and 1968... tales from a world traveler...

This month we’re taking a trip to Weimar Germany via Going to the Dogs: The Story of a Moralist by Erich Kästner, translated from the German by Cyrus Brooks. This novel, originally published in Germany in 1931 under the title Fabian, follows Jakob Fabian, a well educated but underemployed youngish man, as he moves through a decaying Berlin after the economic crash of 1929.

Are you interested in the history of free-market health care, classic DC comics, the story of an American bride in Kabul in 1961, or an American divorcee in 21st century Qatar, the pleasures of English gardens, rising Islamophobia, tales from 1940s post-war Germany, creating fashion portfolios, the life of early 20th century mover and shaker Mabel Dodge Luhan, GMO foods, new visions for urban life, or secular humanism?

Summer's almost gone, and I haven’t been able to travel very far out of the city, so I’ve been doing the next best thing, vicariously experiencing far flung locales, and occasionally time periods, in the company of some of my favorite sleuths. Enjoy visiting these detectives' beats from your couch, in the park, on a beach, on the subway, or anywhere else you like to read.

Philosophical inquiry at the movies… a looming retirement crisis… familiar New York landmarks seen from unexpected angles… the birth of NYC’s power system… the language hoax… the hidden history of the mob in NYC… Tomorrow-Land, the 1964-1965 World’s Fair… the great Boston - New York subway race… the Kitty Genovese murder… the inventor of electric traction… the hospice movement… the makers of modern Manhattan…

Are you following the World Cup? Has that intense international feeling inspired you to look for some reading from around the globe? We’ve been inspired by the Los Angeles Public Library’s brilliant virtual #Literary World Cup to create our own Literary World Cup book display featuring authors from these competing countries. We hope you'll discover some new writers to enjoy!

Gangsters and true crime, New York City history, financial literacy, MacArthur, FDR, Khrushchev, Lindsay, Main Street, U.S.A., travel, learning and self-discovery, climate change, foreign policy, the collective afterlife, and great pizza are among the wide-ranging topics coming up at our Author @ the Library talks in July 2014! We hope you’ll join us for insightful discussions with the authors of these 

The rise and fall of the atomic era… achieving financial independence... legendary actor Stella Adler… millennia of Egyptomania… an exile’s return to Bosnia… Tammany Hall, a birthplace of progressive urban politics… the discovery of logic ... the art of quitting… tracking the New York art world… the history of the world’s most influential spice… blood libel in Tsarist Russia… imagining a socialist USA … bad English… the approaching death of money… dueling neurosurgeons...

A new approach to health care reform ... 20 years of Harlem Street Portraits ... humanist architecture ... The Extreme Life of the Sea ... New York City's unbuilt subways ... mothers ... the power of storytelling ... a century of candy ... New York's lost amusement parks ... the public library ... 11 missing men of WWII ... great city planning.

Who was Miss Anne in 1920s Harlem? How did George Washington define the American presidency? What is keeping a majority of Americans from eating well? Can the world’s most endangered big cat be saved? How can we improve brain performance at any age? What fascinating stories does Murray Hill have to tell? Find out at Mid-Manhattan this month!

Do you feel that e-books are just not right for you? Download one and you might be surprised. I was...

A mystical history of NYC below Chambers Street… the link between our financial and environmental crises… the life and photographs of Ansel Adams… our always-on, simultaneous society… the 

Have you ever wondered what happens when a ghetto is unmade? Or what the future of Saudi Arabia means to the rest of the world? Or how overachievers do it? Do you think you know what real New Yorkers look like? Do you want to believe that