Posts by Live Talks LA

From the bestselling author of The Beauty of What Remains, a guide to writing a meaningful letter about your life.
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Steve Leder is the senior rabbi of Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles. After receiving his degree in writing and graduating cum laude from Northwestern University, and spending time studying at Trinity College, Oxford University, Leder received a master’s degree in Hebrew letters in 1986 and rabbinical ordination in 1987 from Hebrew Union College. He is the author of five books: The Extraordinary Nature of Ordinary Things, More Money Than God: Living a Rich Life Without Losing Your Soul, and the bestsellers More Beautiful Than Before: How Suffering Transforms Us, and The Beauty of What Remains.
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Amanda Kloots serves as host of The Talk, CBS’ Daytime Emmy Award-winning talk show. Her first memoir, Live Your Life, co-written with her sister was published in 2021. The book tells of her 95-day struggle and love story with her late husband, Nick Cordero, the Broadway star, and Tony Award nominee, whose public battle with COVID-19 and tragic death made headlines around the world. A former Broadway dancer and Radio City Rockette, she met Cordero, when they starred together in Bullets over Broadway. Kloots performed on a variety of stage, film and TV productions for over 17 years. Her love of dance and fitness led her to work and lead classes at one of New York’s premiere fitness studios and developing the AK! Fitness brand. In addition, Kloots and her sister, Anna Kloots, launched the apparel company Hooray For®.
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For You When I Am Gone: Twelve Essential Questions to Tell a Life Story
Writing an ethical will, a document that includes stories and reflections about your past, is an ancient tradition. It can include joy and regrets, and ultimately becomes both a way to remember a loved one who is gone and a primer on how to live a better, happier life. Beloved Rabbi Steve Leder has helped thousands of people to write their own ethical wills, and in this intimate book helps us write our own.
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Because our culture privileges the material over the spiritual, we sometimes forget that our words carry greater value than any physical thing we can bequeath to our loved ones. Rabbi Leder provides all the right questions and prompts, including: What was your most painful regret and how can your loved ones avoid repeating it? When was a time you led with your heart instead of your head? What did you learn from your biggest failure?
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Including examples of ethical wills from a broad range of voices—old and young, with and without children, famous and unknown—For You When I Am Gone inspires readers to examine their own lives and turn them into something beautiful and meaningful for generations to come.

Soon to be a major motion picture from Netflix and Academy Award-winning director Kathryn Bigelow.
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From the author of Cold Storage comes a riveting, eerily plausible thriller, told with the menace and flair of Under the Dome or Project Hail Mary, in which a worldwide cataclysm plays out in the lives of one complicated Midwestern family. 
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David Koepp has written more than two dozen feature films in a wide variety of genres, including the first two Jurassic Park films, Death Becomes Her, Carlito’s Way, The Paper, Mission: Impossible, Spider-Man, Panic Room, War of the Worlds, Angels and Demons, and Inferno. Some of the films he’s both written and directed are Stir of Echoes, Secret Window, Ghost Town, and Premium Rush, the latter two co-written with John Kamps. He is the author of the debut novel Cold Storage (2019) currently in production with Studio Canal Films, and the Audible Originals #1 bestselling story “Yard Work” (2020). He divides his time between Los Angeles and New York. Visit his website.
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Lawrence Kasdan has directed, written or produced twenty-four motion pictures, including BODY HEAT, THE BIG CHILL, SILVERADO, THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST and GRAND CANYON. He has written or co-written six of the most successful films in motion picture history – RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, RETURN OF THE JEDI, THE BODYGUARD, and STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS. Nominated for four Academy Awards and six Writers Guild Awards, Kasdan was honored by the Writers Guild of America with its Laurel Award for advancing the literature of motion pictures.  His documentary series LIGHT & MAGIC will appear on Disney+ this year.

“With Aurora, David Koepp has firmly staked his ground as one of the best thriller writers working today. Come for the mind-blowing concept of a massive geomagnetic storm that wipes out nearly every power grid on Earth, stay for why this book truly soars—characters you’ll love, breakneck-pacing, and the question we’re all wrestling with in these wild, modern times: what happens when life slips out of our control?”  — Blake Crouch, New York Times bestselling author of Dark Matter and Recursion 

“There’s a reason David Koepp is the most successful screenwriter of all time. It’s because he’s one of the greatest storytellers of all time. Aurora is up there with his best: scary, funny, and thought provoking. Buy it immediately.”  — Scott Frank, writer and director of The Queen’s Gambit

In Aurora, Illinois, Aubrey Wheeler is just trying to get by after her semi-criminal ex-husband split, leaving behind his unruly teenage son. 

Then the lights go out—not just in Aurora but across the globe. A solar storm has knocked out power almost everywhere. Suddenly, all problems are local, very local, and Aubrey must assume the mantle of fierce protector of her suburban neighborhood. 

Across the country lives Aubrey’s estranged brother, Thom. A fantastically wealthy, neurotically over-prepared Silicon Valley CEO, he plans to ride out the crisis in a gilded desert bunker he built for maximum comfort and security.

But the complicated history between the siblings is far from over, and what feels like the end of the world is just the beginning of several long-overdue reckonings—which not everyone will survive . . . 

Aurora is suspenseful storytelling—both large scale and small—at its finest. 

“Secrets of the Sprakkar is a fascinating window into what a more gender-equal world could look like, and why it’s worth striving for. Iceland is doing a lot to level the playing field: paid parental leave, affordable childcare, and broad support for gender equality as a core value. Reid takes us on an exploration not only around this fascinating island, but also through the triumphs and stumbles of a country as it journeys towards gender equality.” — Hilary Rodham Clinton
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Eliza Reid is the First Lady of Iceland and co-founder of the acclaimed Iceland Writers Retreat. Eliza grew up near Ottawa, Canada, and moved to Iceland in 2003. Eliza Reid never expected to live in Iceland at all—much less become its First Lady. But after meeting her Icelandic husband at university, Eliza’s life transformed when he won the presidency. Her new position granted her remarkable insight into the roles of Icelandic women in business, politics, the home, and more. Eliza’s immigrant perspective offers an uplifting examination of Iceland’s reputation: one of the best places in the world to be a woman.
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Lisa Napoli has had a long career in journalism, including staff reporting jobs at public radio’s Marketplace, the pioneering New York Times CyberTimes, and as a columnist/correspondent at MSNBC. She is the author, most recently, of Susan, Linda, Nina & Cokie: The Extraordinary Story of the Founding Mothers of NPR.  Her previous books include Up All Night: Ted Turner, CNN, and the Birth of 24-Hour News; a biography of NPR benefactor, the McDonald’s heiress, Joan Kroc, Ray & Joan, and a memoir about media’s impact on the tiny kingdom of Bhutan, Radio Shangri-La.
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