Shirley Mueller launches her debut Inside the Head of a Collector
2019-09-25 18:00 - 19:30 (America/New_York)
Collecting objects gives enormous pleasure to approximately one third of the population, providing such benefits as intellectual stimulation, the thrill of the chase, and leaving a legacy. On the other hand, the same pursuit can engender pain; for example, paying too much for an object, unknowingly buying a fake, or dealing with the frustrations of collection dispersal. Until recently, there was no objective way to enhance the positive (pleasure) aspects of collecting and minimize the negative (pain). Now, for the first time, scientific research in neuro- and behavioral economics gives us a way to turn this around. The contents of this book are cutting edge, unique and sure to get attention. Mueller breaks new ground in an area not previously explored. Her information is relevant not only for collectors, but also for colleges, and universities which teach collection management, plus museum staff who interact with collectors and dealers of objects desired by collectors. Heavily illustrated with ceramics from Mueller’s collection and packed with useful information, this book will become a required vital resource.

Sydney Stern Launches Her Latest Book The Brothers Mankiewicz
2019-11-06 18:00 - 19:30
Herman J. (1897-1953) and Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1909-1993) wrote, produced, and directed over 150 pictures. With Orson Welles, Herman wrote the screenplay for Citizen Kane and shared the picture’s only Academy Award. Joe earned the second pair of his four Oscars for writing and directing All About Eve, which also won Best Picture. Despite triumphs as diverse as Monkey Business and Cleopatra and Pride of the Yankees and Guys and Dolls, the witty, intellectual brothers spent their Hollywood years deeply discontented and yearning for what they did not have–a career in New York theater. For this first dual portrait of the Mankiewicz brothers, Sydney Ladensohn Stern draws on interviews, letters, diaries, and other documents still in private hands to provide a uniquely intimate behind-the-scenes chronicle of the lives, loves, work, and relationship between these complex men.

Celebrate the re-publication of Wally the Wordworm with Anne Fadiman and illustrator Arnold Roth
2019-11-19 18:00 - 19:30
A worm who lives on words, Wally finds himself starved for inspiration . . . until the day he slithers into a magical book: the dictionary. From this moment, he embarks upon a logomaniacal odyssey of epic proportions, munching on the likes of “eft” and “escalator,” “ptarmigan” and “sesquipedalian.” From Wally the Wordworm’s first publication in 1964, children and adults alike have been delighted by Wally’s wriggling through rhymes and words of increasing difficulty and complexity, his acrobatics whimsically illustrated by The New Yorker cartoonist Arnold Roth.
Genuinely fun to read aloud, and complete with an afterword by Clifton Fadiman’s daughter, Anne Fadiman, Wally the Wordworm instills in young readers a love of words and language and an early appreciation for their vast possibilities.

Christin Brecher launches her new book Murder Makes Scents
2020-02-26 18:00 - 19:30
Stella Wright loves creating candles at her Nantucket store—and she also has a burning passion for justice. Now, after visiting a perfume conference, she must solve a vial crime . . .
Stella and her globe-trotting mom, Millie, have come home from a perfume industry conference in Paris, where their trip was marred by witnessing the stabbing death of a young man. It’s a relief for Stella to be back on her picturesque island, with the comforting company of her cat, Tinker. But lingering danger may have followed them back across the ocean. After someone breaks into her candle store, the Wick & Flame, Stella starts feeling spooked. And just as things threaten to ignite, Millie suffers a blow to the head. Stella receives an anonymous note claiming that her mother smuggled a secret formula out of France—and threatening her life if it isn’t returned. Now Stella’s picked up the scent of a cold-hearted criminal and an intriguing puzzle, and things are about to get wicked . . .

Mark Goldsmith launches his book From Madison Avenue to Rikers Island
2022-04-26 18:00 - 19:30
Mark Goldsmith enjoyed a 35-year career in the cosmetic business, managing household name brands during Madison Avenue’s Mad Men heyday. Looking for new challenges in retirement, Goldsmith took his wife’s suggestion to volunteer for the Principal for a Day program, specifically asking to be sent to the toughest New York City school available–which turned out to be Horizon Academy at the city’s infamous Rikers Island jail. Goldsmith instantly connected with the men of Rikers, leveraging the skills he’d honed in decades of corporate experience and his strong desire to help. This passion ultimately led to the creation of his not-for-profit organization Getting Out and Staying Out (GOSO), which has helped thousands of young men pursue their goals for their education, employment, and emotional well-being to create a new life for themselves beyond the criminal justice system.

David Koepp launches his new book Aurora
2022-06-14 18:00 - 19:30
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.

Melissa Dassori & Caroline Gertler celebrate the publication of their new middle grade novels
2022-09-13 18:00 - 19:30
What if you could write your dreams into reality with the stroke of a pen?
Sixth grade is off to a difficult start for Josephine Rose Silver. Her best friend, Violet, returns from camp with a new best friend; her parents refuse to grant her more independence; and her homeroom teacher, Ms. Kline, is full of secrets. When Ms. Kline unveils a collection of old Gothamite magazines and tells her students to build their writing skills by crafting short stories inspired by the iconic covers, J.R. discovers a peculiar power: The stories she writes come true. Soon J.R. is getting a cell phone, scoring game-winning goals, and triggering school cancellations. But it’s not long before she realizes that each new story creates as many conflicts as it does solutions. And when J.R. tries to write about her fallout with Violet, all of her problems converge.
With a pinch of magic, mystery, art history, and language arts woven into a journey of growth and self-confidence, this promising debut is a heartfelt and satisfying tribute to the power of words.

Nolie’s sister, Linden, may be only fourteen months older than she is, but suddenly that feels longer than it ever has before. Linden is growing up. She cuts short their Cousins Week at Grandma’s beach cottage to focus on excelling in her ballet auditions, and she throws away the seashell necklace Grandma gave each of them—though Nolie secretly saves it. Even Nolie’s best friend, Jessa, is suddenly trying to act older and cooler, and she wants Nolie to be someone different, too.

With everything and everyone changing around her, Nolie starts to feel adrift. Should she be changing, too? Who does she want to be? One impulsive decision leads to another and another . . . until Nolie has a secret collection of things that don’t belong to her. Now, Nolie must face the fact that she may have ended up on the wrong path so she can start to find her way back.

Cynthia Weill and Amy Hest launch their new children's books
2022-10-18 17:30 - 19:00
Best friends Billy and Rose, an industrious sheep and a laid-back pig, sometimes see things differently. When they play catch, Rose insists that Billy throws too high, and he counters that she throws too low. While Rose thinks washing clothes is the world’s biggest chore, Billy contends that playing the cello holds that distinction. Still, these endearing friends always find a way to work things out: What if Billy plays a cello serenade for Rose while she does her laundry? After all, what they really want is to be together. These four sweet stories by beloved children’s author Amy Hest are filled with gentle wit and enhanced by Kady MacDonald Denton’s delightfully expressive illustrations.

Young readers will enjoy this fun and vibrant bilingual introduction to different forms of transportation. This installment in author Cynthia Weill’s acclaimed Mexican Folk Art series is a colorful adventure in English and Spanish, illustrated with handmade painted sculptures. You’re invited on a trip to a special place and there are many ways to get there. You could take a bike, a bus, or even a boat! Featuring beautiful artwork handmade by local artisans in Oaxaca, Mexico, Vámonos will spark a lifelong love of languages and libraries in young readers. Grab your favorite person to read with and let’s go!

Christin Brecher launches her new book Photo Finished
2022-10-25 18:00 - 19:30
While some people escape into books or music, Liv Spyers escapes through her camera’s lens, which inspires her to jump into things she might otherwise have no business tackling—like moving to New York City. Hustling to make her dreams come true as a portrait photographer, she runs a pocket-sized studio below her grandparents’ West Village brownstone and key shop, where she also lives and works part-time. All of which still has her down to the end of her savings as the holidays approach. Everything changes in a flash, however, when elite events photographer, Regina Montague, invites Liv to shoot with her at New York City’s most exclusive socialite event of the year—the Holiday Debutante Ball! Liv snaps at the opportunity, convinced that a job with Regina will launch her career. But when her fabulous new gig ends with the murder of billionaire Charlie Archibald, her dream job may never develop with Regina framed for murder. Once Liv begins to focus on her photos from the ball, she’s convinced they reveal Charlie Archibald’s real killer. Now, between cracking the world of high society—and the attentions of a handsome stranger—Liv must hustle once again to expose the killer…before she gets cropped from the picture!

Caroline Coleman launches her debut If I Were A Tiger
2022-10-26 18:00 - 19:30
Meet Tim Bone. He has a big imagination, and when it roams wild, he’s afraid of a lot of things. He’s scared of the moon and the wailing typhoon, and he won’t wear his sneakers because he fears hidden creatures. Tim’s nervous at home, at school, and at play!
Fed up with being frightened, Tim comes up with a bold solution: He’s going to become a tiger so he can be fiercer than his fears! There’s just one problem: If he’s a tiger, he can’t be Tim. Could there be a better solution? What if Tim puts his trust in God—who made both boys and tigers—instead?
If I Were a Tiger invites kids of all ages to live in the comforting truth that no one has to carry their fears alone, and offers the reminder that God is only a prayer away.

Celebrate the publication of I Love (ish) New York with author Ali Solomon
2022-10-27 18:00 - 19:30
There is no city quite like New York City, for better or worse. I Love(ish) New York is a hilarious relatable collection of essays, illustrations, and cartoons about the always interesting, sometimes frustrating, and endlessly entertaining quirks of living in the Big Apple.
Despite the notorious six-floor walk-ups and unrequited love found in all the wrong dive bars, the city’s unique charm and irresistible allure keeps millions of residents—and starry-eyed millions more on their way—walking fast and talking faster. New Yorker magazine contributor Ali Solomon offers an absurdist’s eye and a satirist’s pen, crafting a love letter to the greatest (or great-ish?) city in the world. I Love(ish) New York is the perfect gift for anyone who lives, left, loved, or dreamed of living in New York City.

Suzette Sheft celebrates the publication of her debut Running for Shelter
2022-11-09 17:00 - 18:00
Running for Shelter is written by Inge’s 15-year-old granddaughter, Suzatte Sheft. The gripping, true story offers a window through which young adult readers can witness the challenges of growing up during the Holocaust. As this important chapter of history fades from living memory, Inge’s tale offers hope to a new generation who must also cultivate courage and determination in the face of personal and political challenges.

Celebrate the publication of The Fifth Hero with Bill Doyle
2023-01-10 18:00 - 19:30
The Calamity Corporation is determined to end life on Earth as we know it. The company has built hotels that orbit Earth and small cities on the moon and has plans to move the human population to Mars. The sinister corporation is determined to ruin Earth so that people have no choice but to leave it.
Not so fast! Four kids who secretly possess the powers of land, air, sea, and creatures are about to change the course of history. These kids may not be the likeliest of heroes, but they are determined to stop Calamity Corporation from destroying Earth. And they have a secret weapon: a fifth hero. YOU!
Throughout the book, there are three chances for you to help change the course of the story alongside our fearless team. Choose incorrectly and it’s game over. But choose wisely and you might save the planet!

Celebrate the publication of The Museum of Lost Teeth with author Elyssa Friedland
2023-02-09 18:00 - 19:00
Toothy lives in Liam’s mouth next to his best friend Fang. He’s a good tooth—sparkly and strong, and he loves doing the floss.
One day, Toothy notices that he is loose and panics! Where will he go after he leaves his comfy spot next to Fang? After a crunchy apple seals the deal, Toothy is tucked under Liam’s pillow. When the Tooth Fairy appears, she takes Toothy to the Museum of Lost Teeth. It’s a more incredible place than Toothy could have ever imagined. It’s filled with new friends and fun activities like Tooth or Dare! Toothy finds a new home on the Firsts Floor, where first baby teeth are proudly displayed.
In the tradition of School’s First Day of School, The Museum of Lost Teeth answers the question “Where do all the lost teeth go?” in this unexpected and hilarious picture book.

*Morning Event* Dr. Kelly Fradin launches her debut Advanced Parenting
2023-04-11 08:30 - 10:00
Any parent who has ever walked out of a concerning appointment with their child’s doctor or teacher has experienced a heady mix of emotions–fear, love, confusion, concern, sadness, and perhaps even anger. While every parent hopes for a healthy child, the reality is that children face many common challenges, including medical issues like ADHD, asthma, food allergies, feeding issues, learning disabilities, anxiety and depression, and developmental delays, throughout their formative years. As the role of a parent becomes one of a caregiver, it can be overwhelming for parents and children alike, particularly if money, time, access, or any combination of those are in short supply.
As a balm, Dr. Kelly Fradin offers Advanced Parenting, based on her experience as a complex-care pediatrician. In this crucial guide, parents will find empathy and support as well as evidence-based practical guidance. Of greatest import is the need for tools with which to manage the emotional stress that comes from having a child who deviates from the norm, as well as coping with uncertainty and navigating the business of care. Readers will discover ways to optimize the outcomes for their family and make their day-to-day life easier.

Celebrate the publication of Vineyard Folk with authors Amanda Benchley & Tamara Weiss
2023-06-06 18:30 - 19:30
Vineyard Folk leads us on an intimate journey into the lives and inspirational places of some of the many talented artists who have always helped make up the larger community of Martha’s Vineyard. The island, located just seven miles off the coast of Cape Cod, has a long history as geographic muse. Lilian Hellman and William Styron wrote overlooking the Vineyard Haven harbor, and Thomas Hart Benton–whose influence is still felt in island painters today–depicted the stone walls and winding roads of what is known as “up-island” more than a hundred years ago.
Now, a new generation continues to build on these creative legacies, inspired by the island’s diaphanous light, endless beaches, historic towns, and rolling fields and vistas. Vineyard Folk features painters, potters, poets, musicians, writers, and actors and the unique ways they work, live, and play here. From Tiffany Vanderhoop’s hand-beaded earrings based on original Wampanoag designs, to Julie Taymor’s works inspired by the nature around her to Micah Thanhauser’s pottery made from the island’s natural clay and Allen Whiting’s pastoral scenes of his farm, each page is filled with island treasures.

Christin Brecher launches her latest mystery Mugshots of Manhattan
2023-09-07 18:00 - 19:30
Liv Spyers hits the big time when she lands a photography assignment with Grammy Award-winning pop star, the one and only Bisa. A huge fan, Liv is extra thrilled that her new boyfriend, Harry, will join her at the glamorous premiere of Bisa’s debut movie. But when the music icon’s estranged sister, Anna, threatens to turn photo ops into PR disasters during Bisa’s parties and pop-up concerts, Liv finds that the star-studded world she’s joined is filled with images she’d rather delete–especially when Anna winds up dead . . .
Bisa’s inner circle has secrets Liv must expose before she can bring the right mugshot to the police. And while Harry has a mystery of his own to solve, the two must navigate glossy stories that can be cancelled in a snap –before the killer strikes again . . .

Peter Pennoyer & Anne Walker launch their new book City / Country
2023-10-24 18:00 - 19:30
From the preeminent classical architecture firm in the US, the latest apartments, townhouses, and country houses, with interiors by leading designers
Whether a brand–new country estate, a renovation of a triplex penthouse apartment, or a merging of two townhouses into one, each of the 20 projects in this sumptuously illustrated volume bears the hallmarks of Peter Pennoyer Architects’ work: skillful adaptation of the principles of classical architecture, sophisticated use of details and materials, and insistence on meticulous craftsmanship, resulting in a balance between comfort, beauty, and luxury. The firm’s architects worked with exceptional interior designers, including Katie Ridder, Miles Redd, Steven Gambrel, and Jacques Grange, to create these residences, and though all are grounded in the classical tradition, each is singularly tailored to its location and the individual taste of the client. With an authoritative text by architectural historian Anne Walker and hundreds of specially commissioned photographs, site plans, and floor plans, Peter Pennoyer Architects: City and Country showcases residential architecture at its finest.

Celebration the launch of City People with author Elizabeth Topp
2023-11-01 18:00 - 19:30
When beautiful and successful Susan Harris jumps from the roof of her apartment building, she sets a tremor through her New York City mothers’ group that forces them all to look at one another with new cynicism: How could this have happened right under their noses? To one of them? Between her death and the harrowing private school admission season on the horizon, these women are forced to explore the hard truths about themselves.
Vic, a single mom with literary aspirations, is shocked and confused by the unexpected death of her best friend.
Bhavna, a makeup executive, tries to process Susan’s death while sacrificing everything to get her son into the school of his dreams.
Kara’s sister died by suicide years earlier, so she’s been down this road before―or so it seems.
Penelope and Amy are navigating a business deal when Susan dies, but is it worth the toll on their families?
And how will Chandice, battling cancer, come to terms with Susan’s death?
For these women, the loss of a fellow mother forces them to reexamine who they really are while the futures of their children hang in the balance

Jenny Taitz celebrates the publication of her new book Stress Resets
2024-01-30 17:00 - 19:00
Here’s a promise that could not be more timely or needed: You can dial down your stress in just a few minutes, with no ponderous meditations, medications, or martinis required. Written by Dr. Jennifer L. Taitz, a clinical psychologist who specializes in teaching mindfulness-based behavioral skills to manage intense emotions and situations, Stress Resets provides 75 scientifically proven ways to improve how you respond to stress, both in the moment and the long run.
There are accessible yet powerful exercises like dipping your face in ice water to quiet your body and mind; adopting a half smile to change your mood from the outside in; singing your irrational negative thoughts to reduce their believability; building a hope kit so you can remind yourself of what’s possible in tough moments; and making a pie chart of your life to gain perspective. By incorporating these into your days, you can stop the cycle of obsessing, panicking, and avoiding and instead effectively approach what matters to you most. You’ll also find stress buffers designed to build your resilience so you can navigate whatever comes your way.

Colum McCann & Diane Foley signing copies of American Mother
2024-03-06 14:00 - 16:00
In late 2021, Diane Foley sat at a table across from her son’s killer, Alexanda Kotey, a member of the ISIS group known as “The Beatles” who plead guilty to the kidnapping, torture, and murder of her son seven years before. Kotey was about to go serve life imprisonment and this was Diane’s chance to talk to the man who had been involved with brutally taking her son’s last breath. What would she say to his killer? What would he reveal to her? Might she even be able to summon forgiveness for him?
So begins American Mother— which reads alternately like a thriller, a biography, a mystery, a memoir, and a literary examination of grace.
Diane looks back on the early days when Jim was a child and his journey to journalism, and the killing fields of the world where he reports with indefatigable determination and insight on the plight of those caught up in the agonies of war. She guides us through her family history and the difficulties they faced when Jim was captured. And she also charts the tenacity it takes to turn her grief into grace as she seeks to give voice to those who are still being kidnapped and wrongfully detained around the world.

Emma Rosenblum launches her new novel Very Bad Company
2024-05-16 18:00 - 19:30
Every year, executives at the trendy tech startup Aurora gather the company’s top employees for an exclusive retreat in Miami, and this year Caitlin Levy—Aurora’s newest hire—is joining the team as head of events. The benefits are outstanding: a seven-figure salary, stock shares, a discretionary bonus, limitless vacation days—what could possibly go wrong?
When a fellow high-level executive vanishes after the first night, the disappearance has the potential to derail the future of the company’s sale and cost everyone on the team millions. Now more than ever, Caitlin and her colleagues must continue the charade—partaking in team-building exercises, group brainstorms, dinners—in order to keep the future of Aurora afloat amid all the fatal speculations.
Compulsively readable, Very Bad Company is a slick send-up of corporate culture wrapped in a captivating mystery.

Amanda Bellows launches her latest book The Explorers
2024-06-05 18:00 - 19:30
The archetype of the American explorer, a rugged white man, has dominated our popular culture since the late eighteenth century, when Daniel Boone’s autobiography captivated readers with tales of treacherous journeys. But our commonly held ideas about American exploration do not tell the whole story—far from it.
The Explorers rediscovers a diverse group of Americans who went to the western frontier and beyond, traversing the farthest reaches of the globe and even penetrating outer space in their endeavor to find the unknown. Many escaped from lives circumscribed by racism, sexism, poverty, and discrimination as they took on great risk in unfamiliar territory.
Across two centuries and many thousands of miles of terrain, Amanda Bellows offers an ode to our country’s most intrepid adventurers—and reveals the history of America in the process.

Elyssa Friedland launches her latest novel Jackpot Summer
2024-06-11 18:00 - 19:30
The four Jacobson children were raised to respect the value of a dollar. Their mother reused tea bags and refused to pay retail; their father taught them to budget before he taught them to ride a bike. And yet, now that they’re adults, their financial lives are in disarray.
The siblings reunite when their newly widowed father puts their Jersey Shore beach house on the market. Packing up childhood memories isn’t easy, especially when there’s other drama brewing. Matthew is miserable at his corporate law job and wishes he had more time with his son; Laura’s marriage is imploding in spectacular fashion; Sophie’s art career is stalled while her boyfriend’s is on the rise; and Noah’s total failure to launch has him doing tech repair for pennies.
When Noah sees an ad for a Powerball drawing, he and his sisters go in on tickets while their brother Matthew passes. All hell breaks loose when one of the tickets is a winner and three of the four Jacobsons become overnight millionaires. Without their mother’s guidance, and with their father busy playing pickleball in a Florida retirement village, the once close-knit siblings search for comfort in shiny new toys instead of each other.
It’s not long before the Jacobsons start to realize that they’ll never feel rich unless they can pull their family back together.

Derek V. Schuster launches his first book Youth in Jeopardy
2024-07-09 18:00 - 19:30
In this complex world of today, with so many “at risk” tweens and teens grappling with issues, problems and crises, can a fresh perspective on their trials and tribulations help to turn them around?
Shelves and shelves of books have been written about children who are at risk of violent and criminal behavior, but their authors are writing from their academic perches – rather than addressing real experiences in the streets and in the homes of at-risk families.
Youth in Jeopardy offers a practical alternative. Instead of presenting dry academic studies about the “at risk” population, it draws on the author’s 20+ years of experience in violence prevention work in the Bronx and East Harlem. Filled with gut-wrenching anecdotes, it delivers what parents, therapists, and teachers nationwide desperately seek: fresh, practical approaches to violence prevention for rebellious tweens and teens.

Elizabeth L. Block launches her new book Beyond Vanity
2024-09-10 18:00 - 19:30
In the nineteenth century, the complex cultural meaning of hair was not only significant, but it could also impact one’s place in society. After the Civil War, hairdressing was also a growing profession and the hair industry a mainstay of local, national, and international commerce. In Beyond Vanity, Elizabeth Block expands the nascent field of hair studies by restoring women’s hair as a cultural site of meaning in the early United States. With a special focus on the places and spaces in which the hair industry operated, Block argues that the importance of hair has been overlooked due to its ephemerality as well as its misguided association with frivolity and triviality. As Block clarifies, hairdressing was anything but frivolous.
Using methods of visual and material culture studies informed by concepts of cultural geography, Block identifies multiple substantive categories of place and space within which hair acted. These include the preparatory places of the bedroom, hair salon, and enslaved peoples’ quarters, as well as the presentation places of parties, fairs, stages, and workplaces. Here are also the untold stories of business owners, many of whom were women of color, and the creators of trendsetting styles like the pompadour and Gibson Girl bouffant. Block’s ground-breaking study examines how race and racism affected who participated in the presentation and business of hair, and according to which standards. The result of looking closely at the places and spaces of hair is a reconfiguration that allows a new understanding of the cultural power of hair in the period.

Sadek Wahba launches his debut, Build: Investing in America's Infrastructure
2024-10-09 18:00 - 19:30
America’s infrastructure—its essential roads, bridges, ports, airports, power grids, and telecommunications systems—were once the pride of the nation and an example for the world. But now, after years of neglect and oversight, this infrastructure is crumbling and causing catastrophic changes in the US quality of life. Build seeks to explain how American infrastructure collapsed and what can be done to repair it.
In a series of colorful, rarely told cases, Build takes readers on a revealing tour behind the scenes of the successes and debacles of key infrastructure projects to show what works, why the United States has failed in recent decades to invest in infrastructure, and how the private sector can help revitalize the sector, spur job growth, and contribute to climate resilience.
Sadek Wahba examines the private origins of US infrastructure and the federally funded megaprojects that came after the New Deal, investigating the role the private sector can and should play in building infrastructure. By drawing comparisons with systems in the United Kingdom, France, India, and China, Wahba shows that while privatization and public-private partnerships cannot solve all infrastructure challenges, they are essential for closing funding gaps, overcoming political paralysis, and driving major infrastructure advances.
Build will appeal to readers interested in public finance, domestic policy, the role of the federal government, tax policy, and urban affairs.

Benjamin Swett launches his new book The Picture Not Taken
2024-10-16 18:00 - 19:30
In an age when most of us carry a device seemingly capable of freeze-framing the world, Benjamin Swett writes with refreshing clarity on the way of the true photographer. The Picture Not Taken combines cultural criticism with personal revelation to examine how the lived experience of photography can endow the mundane with meaning while bringing attention to the beauty of both the natural world and the world we build.
Having photographed trees of Manhattan, Shaker dwellings, and the landscapes of upstate New York, award-winning photographer and writer Swett brings an ecological sensitivity to these expansive and profound meditations on how to document the world around us. Accompanied by nearly three dozen black-and-white photographs and illustrations, the essays in The Picture Not Taken take us from the meatpacking plants of Chicago at the turn of the last century to Coney Island to early 1980s Madrid. By turns literary criticism, art history, and memoir, they draw from writers such as Eric Sanderson, Max Frisch, and John Berger to uncover truths about a life spent in pursuit of art.
In essays such as “The Picture Not Taken,” “The Beauty of the Camera,” and “My Father’s Green Album” Swett gives us a picture of photography over generations and how we can or should relate to the mechanical devices so often fetishized by those interested in the subject. In “What I wanted to Tell You About the Wind” we understand photography’s importance in understanding our place in larger environmental and social systems; and in “VR” and “Some Observations in the Galapagos” Swett challenges us to think through problems of perception and knowing central to the experience of photography, looking to the past and into our future for answers.
Poignant and deftly crafted, The Picture Not Taken brings to mind the fearless ambition of Annie Dillard and the grand scope of Rebecca Solnit’s Field Guide to Getting Lost. Swett’s writing will appeal to readers who have enjoyed Geoff Dyer’s work, and Susan Sontag’s writing on photography.

Lily Tuck signs copy of her new novel The Rest is Memory
2024-12-12 18:00 - 19:00
First glimpsed riding on the back of a boy’s motorcycle, fourteen-year-old Czeslawa comes to life in this mesmerizing novel by Lily Tuck, who imagines her upbringing in a small Polish village before her world imploded in late 1942. Stripped of her modest belongings, shorn, and tattooed number 26947 on arriving at Auschwitz, Czeslawa is then photographed. Three months later, she is dead.
How did this happen to an ordinary Polish citizen? This is the question that Tuck grapples with in this haunting novel, which frames Czeslawa’s story within the epic tragedy of six million Poles who perished during the German occupation. A decade prior to writing The Rest Is Memory, Tuck read an obituary of the photographer Wilhelm Brasse, who took more than 40,000 pictures of the Auschwitz prisoners. Included were three of Czeslawa Kwoka, a Catholic girl from rural southeastern Poland. Tuck cut out the photos and kept them, determined to learn more about Czeslawa, but she was only able to glean the barest facts: the village she came from, the transport she was on, that she was accompanied by her mother and her neighbors, her tattoo number, and the date of her death. From this scant evidence, Tuck’s novel becomes a remarkable kaleidoscopic feat of imagination, something only our greatest novelists can do.

Todd Almond launches his debut Slow Train Coming
2025-01-28 18:00 - 19:30
Bob Dylan and Conor McPherson’s musical Girl from the North Country weaves two dozen songs from the legendary catalog of Bob Dylan into a story of Duluth during the Great Depression, to create a future American classic. Despite historic, seemingly insurmountable setbacks of four openings, the musical was hailed as an experience “as close as mortals come to heaven on earth,” by The New York Times.Opening on Broadway in the middle of an unprecedented moment, Slow Train Coming is a book about pressing on in the face of extreme adversity. Todd Almond’s behind-the-scenes oral history weaves his personal first-hand account of starring in the show with exclusive interviews and reflections from fellow cast members and the creative team.Told through personal stories, anecdotes from the cast, production shots, behind-the-scenes photos, and insights from the creators, this book is both an inside look at a perilous moment of one of America’s proudest institutions, Broadway, and a true story of American grit and determination lived by the company of this quirky musical-that-could.
