Events

Eye-opening essays about searching for peace in the cacophony of birds and discovering a world of meaning in small moments—from award-winning actor Lili Taylor.
.
Lili Taylor is an award-winning movie, television, and theater actor. Some of her credits include: Mystic Pizza, Dogfight, Short Cuts, I shot Andy Warhol, High Fidelity and Say Anything. In the birding world, Lili is a board member of the National Audubon Society, the American Birding Association, and the New York City Bird Alliance. Lili nests in Brooklyn and upstate New York with her husband, the memoirist and poet Nick Flynn, and their daughter.
.
“Lili Taylor is an actor I’ve long been in awe of, and now I know why her work has always been soulful and painfully honest. Turning to Birds is a treasure map to Lili’s inner life and a scripture in how to be truly mindful.”—Griffin Dunne, actor, director, and author of The Friday Afternoon Club
.
“What can an actor—even a consummate one like Lili Taylor—tell us about birding? Plenty, as she brings her profession’s keen observation skills to Turning to Birds, exploring what our feathered marvels can mean to us people. You couldn’t ask for a more personal, accessible approach to the pastime we all love (or will, by the end of this book).”—Christian Cooper, author of Better Living Through Birding
.
Most people don’t really know birds—or rather, they aren’t aware of them. Lili Taylor used to be one of those people. She knew birds existed. She thought about them, maybe even more than the average person. But she didn’t know them. And then something happened.

During a much-needed break from her work as an actor, Lili sought silence and instead found the bustling, symphonic world of birds that had always existed around her. Since then, she has kept a keen eye pressed to her binoculars in search of vivid stories that elevate the everyday, if only one pays attention.

Through a series of beautifully crafted essays, Taylor shares her intimate encounters with the birds that have captured her heart and imagination—from tracking flitting woodpeckers through oak trees to spotting majestic blue jays perched on a Manhattan fire escape; from the exhilaration of witnessing a migratory flock from the top of the Empire State Building to the quiet joy of observing a nest of hatchlings in her own backyard. Through simply paying attention to birds, Lili has been shown a parallel world that is wider and deeper, one of constant change and movement, full of life and the will to survive.

Throughout Turning to Birds, Taylor encourages mindfulness, inviting readers to be present and fully engaged with the world around them. Taylor’s lyrical prose and thoughtful meditations on both the art we make and the art we discover around us create a sense of intimacy and wonder, inviting readers to see the world through new eyes and to find joy in the most unexpected places.

From actor, comedian, writer, and host of the hit history podcast SNAFU, Ed Helms brings you an absurdly entertaining look at history’s biggest blunders, complete with lively illustrations.      
.
Ed Helms is an actor, comedian, and writer who first gained national attention as a correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Helms is perhaps best known for his iconic roles as Andy Bernard on NBC’s hit sitcom The Office and Stu in The Hangover film trilogy alongside Bradley Cooper and Zach Galifianakis. His extensive filmography includes more titles such as Vacation, Cedar Rapids, and the hit Netflix comedy Family Switch alongside Jennifer Garner. Ed also co-created and starred in Rutherford Falls, an acclaimed sitcom on Peacock that cleverly tackled identity and history. Ed hosts SNAFU, the hilarious and illuminating podcast that inspired this book. A proud banjo enthusiast, he co-founded The Bluegrass Situation, a platform for roots music fans. 
.
History contains a plethora of insane screwups—otherwise known as SNAFUs. Coined during World War I, SNAFU is an acronym that stands for Situation Normal: All F*cked Up. In other words, “things are pretty screwed up, but aren’t they always?”  

Spanning from the 1950’s to the 2000’s, Ed Helms steps in as unofficial history teacher for a deep dive into each decade’s craziest SNAFUs. From planting nukes on the moon to training felines as CIA spies to weaponizing the weather, this book will unpack the incredibly ironic decision-making and hilariously terrifying aftermath of America’s biggest mishaps.  
Filled with sharp humor, SNAFU is a wild ride through time that not only entertains but offers fresh insights that just might prevent history from repeating itself again and again.

In 1974, a twenty-year-old Christie Brinkley was “discovered” outside a Paris phone booth, which set off a meteoric modeling career that would land her on the covers of hundreds of magazines and cement her legacy as an All-American icon. Although she’s lived more than fifty years in the public eye, the full story of her roller-coaster life has never been told.
.
Christie Brinkley is a model, actress, entrepreneur, illustrator, photographer, humanitarian, bestselling author, Smile Train ambassador, activist in children’s environmental health and wellness, creator and owner of Bellissima wines and prosecco and the clothing line TWRHLL, and mother of three. In her five decades in the modeling industry, she has been photographed on six continents, in more than thirty countries and has appeared on more than five hundred magazine covers worldwide. 
.
In Uptown Girl, Christie Brinkley shares what life has been like, both in front of and behind the cameras, considering the girl she was alongside the woman she has become. Her stories are as heartening as they are eye-opening, as she recounts her most formative chapters, including the betrayal by her biological father as a child, her lifelong passion for art, her whirlwind career, her four tumultuous marriages—including her heartbreaking divorce from Billy Joel—and the harrowing experiences that almost cut her life short.
.
Through it all, Christie’s unwavering belief in the magic and mystery of life has been her guiding light, even during her darkest times. It is with this grace and gratitude that she tenderly chronicles the unexpected, unexplainable ways her life has unfolded, embracing every adventure and twist of fate along the way: traveling the world as a supermodel at the height of the model wars, living life on the road with her rock-star husband and their baby, starring in blockbuster movies and hit sitcoms, riding horses with cowboys, training with world-champion boxers, and even stepping into the spotlight on Broadway.
.
A bighearted, beautifully crafted memoir of resilience and self-discovery, featuring more than 100 photographs and never-before-seen pieces of Christie’s original artwork, Uptown Girl is the brave account of a life lived at full throttle and on full display.