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Wednesday, October 30, 2013
8:00pm (Reception 6:30-7:30pm)

An Evening with Erica Jong
in conversation with Susan Orlean
on the 40th anniversary of her novel, Fear of Flying

Ann and Jerry Moss Theater
Herb Alpert Educational Village
New Roads School
3131 Olympic Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA 9o404

PURCHASE TICKETS 

$20 General Admission
$30 Reserved Seats
$45 Includes Erica Jong’s (40th anniversary issue) book + Reserved seat
$95 Includes Pre-event reception + Jong’s book + Reserved Seats

Erica Jong grew up in Manhattan and majored in writing and literature at Barnard. She received her MA in 18th-century English literature from Columbia and left before finishing her PhD to write Fear of Flying, which has sold 20 million copies worldwide. She has written award-winning poetry, fiction, and nonfiction.

Before Hannah from Girls, Anastasia Steele from Fifty Shades of Grey, and Carrie Bradshaw from Sex and the City, there was Isadora Wing, the uninhibited, outspoken protagonist of Erica Jong’s revolutionary novel. First published in 1973, Fear of Flying caused a national sensation, fueling fantasies, igniting debates about women and sex, and introducing a notorious phrase to the English language. Forty years later, Isadora’s honest and exuberant retelling of her sexual adventures—and misadventures—continues to provoke and inspire, and stands as an iconic tale of self-discovery, liberation, and womanhood.

Susan Orlean, the author of Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend and The Orchid Thief: A True Story of Beauty and Obsession, has been called “a kind of latter-day Tocqueville” (The New York Times Book Review). Orlean is fascinated by American stories of every stripe. From Rin Tin Tin, the orphaned German shepherd who became a silent film star in the 1920’s, to John Laroche, the convicted felon who slinks through the swamps of southern Florida looking for rare orchids, Orlean has an eye for the moving, the hilarious, and the surprising. She has written for The Boston Globe,Vogue, Rolling Stone, Esquire, Outside, and The New Yorker, and has edited both Best American Essays and Best American Travel Writing. Orlean’s writing has inspired two films, includingAdaptation, the Academy Award-winning film directed by Spike Jonze and starring Meryl Streep. Orlean lectures on Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend, her encounters with extraordinary people, her experiences traveling the world, the value of ignorance, and women and the media.

Sunday, October 20, 2013
7:30pm (Reception 6:00-7:00pm)

An Evening with James Franco
discussing new novel, Actors Anonymous

The Aero Theatre
1328 Montana Avenue
Santa Monica, CA 90404

EVENT IS SOLD OUT. 
$20 General Admission SOLD OUT
$30 Reserved Seats SOLD OUT
$40 Includes Franco’s book + Reserved seat  SOLD OUT
$95 Includes Pre-event reception +Franco’s book + Reserved Seats SOLD  OUT
*a book signing follows the talk.

James Franco is an actor, director, author, and visual artist. His film appearances include Milk, Pineapple Express, Howl, and 127 Hours, which earned him an Academy Award nomination. He is the author A California Childhood and of the story collection Palo Alto, and his writing has been published in Esquire, Vanity Fair, N+1, The Wall Street Journal, and McSweeney’s. Franco’s art has been exhibited throughout the world including at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, the Museum of Contemporary Art’s PS1 in New York, the Clocktower Gallery in New York, and the Peres Projects in Berlin.

In James Franco’s debut novel, Actors Anonymous, the actors include a McDonald’s drive-thru operator who spends his shift trying on accents; an ex-child star recalling a massive beachside bacchanal; hospital volunteers and Midwestern transplants; a vampire flick starlet who discovers a cryptic book written by a famous actor gone AWOL; and the ghost of River Phoenix. Then there’s Franco himself, who prowls backstage, peering out between the lines—before taking the stage with fascinating meditations on his art, along with nightmarish tales of excess. “Hollywood has always been a private club,” he writes. “I open the gates. I say welcome. I say, Look inside.”

Told in a dizzying array of styles—from lyric essays and disarming testimonials to hilariously rambling text messages and ghostly footnotes—and loosely modeled on Alcoholics Anonymous’s Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, Actors Anonymous is an intense, wild ride into the dark heart of celebrity.

Monday, October 7, 2013
8:00pm (Reception 6:30-7:30pm)

An Evening with Malcolm Gladwell
in conversation with Tim Long
David and Goliath:
Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants

Presented in association with Wilshire Boulevard Temple
Wilshire Boulevard Temple
3663 Wilshire Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90010

EVENT IS SOLD OUT. GLADWELL IS ALSO APPEARING TUESDAY MORNING OCTOBER 8, DOWNTOWN LA, AT OUR MORNING BUSINESS SERIES. A FEW TICKETS REMAIN FOR THIS EVENT.
FOR MORE INFORMATION VIST LIVE TALKS BUSINESS FORUM

$20 General Admission SOLD OUT
$40 General Admission + Gladwell’s book (David and Goliath)  SOLD OUT
$55.00 reserved seating + Gladwell’s book (David and Goliath) SOLD OUT
$105.00 Pre-event reception, premium seating + 2 books (David vs. Goliath & Outliers) SOLD OUT

Join us in our newest venue, the recently renovated Wilshire Boulevard Temple.  Read about their renovation in the Los Angeles Times and New York Times. And you can see images of  gorgeous space here.

Malcolm Gladwell has been a staff writer with The New Yorker since 1996. He is the bestselling author of The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers, and What the Dog Saw. In 2005, he was named one of Time‘s 100 Most Influential People.  From 1987 to 1996, he was a reporter with the Washington Post, where he covered business, science, and then served as the newspaper’s New York City bureau chief. He graduated from the University of Toronto, Trinity College, with a degree in history. He was born in England, grew up in rural Ontario, and now lives in New York City.

We all know that underdogs can win–that’s what the David versus Goliath legend tells us, and we’ve seen it with our own eyes. Or have we? In David and Goliath, Malcolm Gladwell, with his unparalleled ability to grasp connections others miss, uncovers the hidden rules that shape the balance between the weak and the mighty, the powerful and the dispossessed. Gladwell examines the battlefields of Northern Ireland and Vietnam, takes us into the minds of cancer researchers and civil rights leaders, and digs into the dynamics of successful and unsuccessful classrooms–all in an attempt to demonstrate how fundamentally we misunderstand the true meaning of advantages and disadvantages. When is a traumatic childhood a good thing? When does a disability leave someone better off? Do you really want your child to go to the best school he or she can get into? Why are the childhoods of people at the top of one profession after another marked by deprivation and struggle?

Drawing upon psychology, history, science, business, and politics, David and Goliath is a beautifully written book about the mighty leverage of the unconventional. Millions of readers have been waiting for the next Malcolm Gladwell book. That wait is over.

Malcolm Gladwell interviewed David Goldhill at Live Talks Los Angeles in February 2013 on fixing healthcare in America. Here’s the video.

Tim Long is an Emmy Award-winning writer and producer for The Simpsons. He is also a former Head Writer for Late Show With David Letterman.  In addition to his work for television, Long has written for The New Yorker, The New York Times, and Vanity Fair. 

Thursday, September 19, 2013
8:00pm (Reception 6:30-7:30pm)

An Evening with Marisha Pessl
in conversation with Jamie Lee Curtis
discussing her new novel, Night Film

William Turner Gallery
Bergamot Station Arts Center
2525 Michigan Avenue, Santa Monica, CA 90404

PURCHASE TICKETS 
$20 General Admission
$40 Includes Pessl’s book + Reserved seat
$95 Includes Pre-event reception + Pessl’s book + Reserved Seats

Marisha Pessl‘s bestselling debut novel, Special Topics in Calamity Physics, won the John Sargent Sr. First Novel Prize (now the Center for Fiction’s Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize), and was selected as one of the 10 Best Books of the Year by The New York Times Book Review. Pessl grew up in Asheville, North Carolina, and currently resides in New York City.

In Night Film, Pessl’s second novel, beautiful, young Ashley Cordova is found dead in an abandoned warehouse in lower Manhattan.  Though her death is ruled a suicide, veteran and fallen-from-grace journalist Scott McGrath suspects otherwise.  As he probes the strange circumstances surrounding Ashley’s life and death, McGrath comes face-to-face with the legacy of her father: the legendary, reclusive, cult-horror-film director Stanislas Cordova—a man who hasn’t been seen in public for more than thirty years.  Driven by revenge (the last time McGrath wrote about Cordova, he lost his marriage and his career), curiosity and the need for the truth, McGrath, with the aid of two strangers, is drawn deeper and deeper into Cordova’s eerie, hypnotic world.

Jamie Lee Curtis has demonstrated her versatility as an actress with starring roles in such acclaimed films as True Lies, which earned her a Golden Globe,  A Fish Called Wanda, Trading Places and Freaky Friday.  On TV Ms. Curtis earned a Golden Globe for her role in Anything But Love, and also starred in the telefilms The Heidi Chronicles and Nicholas’ Gift, which earned her an Emmy nomination.  Ms. Curtis is also a best-selling author of children’s books, having sold over 5 million books under the banner Books To Grow By. She has a deep and active connection to many children’s charities, and has recently joined the Board of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.

Tuesday, September 10, 2013
8:00pm

An Evening with James McBride
Conversation and jazz performance*
discussing new novel, The Good Lord Bird

Ann and Jerry Moss Theater
Herb Alpert Educational Village
New Roads School
3131 Olympic Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA 9o404

PURCHASE TICKETS 
$20 General Admission
$30 Reserved Seats
$40 Includes McBrides’ new book + Reserved seat
* McBride will be accompanied by Nick Scarmack (drums), Susan Constantini Green (keyboards) and Tony Green (bass)

New York Times review
McBride’s Good Lord Bird on NPR
New York Times By The Book Interview 

From the bestselling author of The Color of Water and Song Yet Sung comes the story of a young boy born a slave who joins John Brown’s antislavery crusade—and who must pass as a girl to survive.

“A magnificent new novel by the best-selling author James McBride.”
–cover review of The New York Times Book Review

Henry Shackleford is a young slave living in the Kansas Territory in 1857, when the region is a battleground between anti- and pro-slavery forces. When John Brown, the legendary abolitionist, arrives in the area, an argument between Brown and Henry’s master quickly turns violent. Henry is forced to leave town—with Brown, who believes he’s a girl.

Over the ensuing months, Henry—whom Brown nicknames Little Onion—conceals his true identity as he struggles to stay alive. Eventually Little Onion finds himself with Brown at the historic raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859—one of the great catalysts for the Civil War.

An absorbing mixture of history and imagination, and told with McBride’s meticulous eye for detail and character, The Good Lord Bird is both a rousing adventure and a moving exploration of identity and survival.

James McBride is an author, musician and screenwriter. His landmark memoir, “The Color of Water,” is considered an  American classic and read in schools and universities across the United States.  His debut novel,  “Miracle at St. Anna” was translated into a major motion picture directed by American film icon Spike Lee.  James also wrote the script for the film.  His novel, “Song Yet Sung,” was released in paperback in January 2009. He co-wrote and co-produced with Spike Lee the film “Red Hook Summer”.   He is also a former staff writer for The Boston Globe, People Magazine and The Washington Post. His work has appeared in Essence, Rolling Stone, and The New York Times.

James toured as a sideman with jazz legend Jimmy Scott among others. He has also written songs (music and lyrics) for Anita Baker, Grover Washington Jr., Purafe, Gary Burton, and even for the PBS television character “Barney.” He received the Stephen Sondheim Award and the Richard Rodgers Foundation Horizon Award for his musical “Bo-Bos” co-written with playwright Ed Shockley.  His  2003 “Riffin’ and Pontificatin’ ” Musical Tour was captured in a nationallly televised Comcast documentary. He has been featured on national radio and television in America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

James is a native New Yorker and a graduate of  New York City public schools. He studied composition at The Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio and received his Masters in Journalism from Columbia University in New York at age 22. He holds several honorary doctorates and is currently a Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University.

Thursday, July 25, 2013
8:00pm (Reception 6:30-7:30pm)

An Evening with Reza Aslan
in conversation with Rainn Wilson
discussing new book, ZEALOT: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth

All Saints Church-Beverly Hills
504 North Camden Drive
Beverly Hills, CA 90210

PURCHASE TICKETS 
$20 General Admission
$40 Includes Aslan’s book + Reserved seat
$95 Includes Pre-event reception + Aslan’s book + Reserved Seats

** Proceeds from this event support the Los Angeles Review of Books

Reza Aslan is an internationally acclaimed writer and scholar of religions. His first book, No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam, has been translated into thirteen languages and named by Blackwell as one of the hundred most important books of the last decade. He is also the author of How to Win a Cosmic War: God, Globalization, and the End of the War on Terror (published in paperback as Beyond Fundamentalism), as well as the editor of Tablet & Pen: Literary Landscapes from the Modern Middle East. Born in Iran, he lives in New York and Los Angeles with his wife and two sons.

In ZEALOT: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, Reza Aslan sifts through centuries of mythmaking and sheds new light on one of history’s most enigmatic characters by examining Jesus through the lens of the tumultuous era in which he lived: first-century Palestine, an age awash in apocalyptic fervor. Scores of Jewish prophets, preachers, and would-be messiahs wandered through the Holy Land, bearing messages from God. This was the age of zealotry—a fervent nationalism that made resistance to the Roman occupation a sacred duty incumbent on all Jews.

Balancing the Jesus of the Gospels against the historical sources, Aslan describes a man full of conviction and passion, yet rife with contradiction:  a man of peace who exhorted his followers to arm themselves with swords; an exorcist and faith healer who urged his disciples to keep his identity a secret; and ultimately the seditious “King of the Jews” whose promise of liberation from Rome went unfulfilled in his brief lifetime. Aslan explores the reasons why the early Christian church preferred to promulgate an image of Jesus as a peaceful spiritual teacher rather than a politically conscious revolutionary. And he grapples with the riddle of how Jesus understood himself, the mystery that is at the heart of all subsequent claims about his divinity.

Rainn Wilson is best known for playing “Dwight” on NBC’s Emmy winning, “The Office.”  He has also acted in “Super”, “Hesher”, “Juno”, “Monsters Vs Aliens” and “The Rocker” among other movies.  He co-founded SoulPancake, a website and production company that seeks to tackle “Life’s Big Questions.”  He’s the spokesperson for The Mona Foundation and works on educational initiatives in Haiti.