Naomi Klein, bestselling author of No Logo , is back with another polemic, this time aiming to "[explode] the myth that the global free market triumphed democratically" and to expose "the puppet strings behind the world-changing crises and wars of the last four decades." The Shock Doctrine was released in the United States this past Tuesday,… continue reading Naomi Klein's Viral Video, Oscar-Nominated Director Does Nonfiction Book Ad

By written by Communications Office    September 21, 2007   

The Colbert Report on Comedy Central may seem like an improbable venue for serious literary discussion (and it is), but that doesn't discourage noted authors from stopping by to promote their latest offerings. Many authors who have appeared at the Free Library this year have also appeared on the Colbert Report to talk about their books with… continue reading Stephen Colbert Doesn't Read

By written by Communications Office    September 20, 2007   

Pulitzer Prize-winning humorist Dave Barry will be appearing at the Central Library's Montgomery Auditorium tomorrow, Thursday , September 20 , at 12:00 p.m. (This event is free ; no tickets required.) His latest book, Dave Barry's History of the Millennium (So Far) , was released this past Monday. Mr. Barry recently took some time to chat with… continue reading Take Five with . . . Dave Barry

By written by Communications Office    September 19, 2007   

• Take Five

Diane Ackerman, acclaimed author of A Natural History of the Senses , will be appearing at the Central Library's Montgomery Auditorium this Thursday , September 20 , at 8:00 p.m. (Click here to buy tickets online.) Ackerman's new book, The Zookeeper's Wife , was just released this month; it's a narrative nonfiction account of one of the most… continue reading Take Five with . . . Diane Ackerman

By written by Communications Office    September 18, 2007   

• Take Five

"Very dull" and "a dreary record of typical family bickering, petty annoyances and adolescent emotions"--so wrote a staff reader for Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., the publisher who subsequently rejected the manuscript in question, The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. In an essay for the New York Times entitled " No Thanks, Mr. Nabokov ,"… continue reading Anne Frank Rejected, Among Others

By written by Communications Office    September 17, 2007    2  

This past Saturday's installment of National Public Radio's All Things Considered featured an interview with astronaut Janice Voss , who was inspired as a young reader by Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time and who as an adult flew copies of L'Engle's books into space and returned them to the author as a personal favor. Listen to the entire… continue reading Astronaut Mourns Madeleine L'Engle

By written by Communications Office    September 11, 2007   

Lovers of words and web-based social networks will rejoice upon discovering Wordie , yet another internet rabbit hole to tumble down, this one encouraging you to wile away abstracted hours discovering what other people think of your favorite (and least favorite) words. And of course you can register (for free) and join in the linguistic fray… continue reading Like Flickr for Logophiles

By written by Communications Office    September 10, 2007   

Tomorrow is International Literacy Day . Check out what organizations are doing around the world to promote "literacy as an integral aspect of the universal right to education." There's also no shortage of ways to get involved promoting literacy right here in Philadelphia. This is a good place to start. continue reading 774 Million Adults Lack Minimum Literacy Skills

By written by Communications Office    September 7, 2007   

Radio One's 100.3 The Beat and the Free Library partnered this morning to present a Start the School Year Right Anti-Violence Rally in the Central Library's Main Lobby. The program featured a performance by the Philly X-Treme Step Team (pictured below), and young student attendees were given complimentary bags of school supplies courtesy of the… continue reading Young Philadelphians Start the School Year Right

By written by Communications Office    September 5, 2007    2  

Comic actor and travel documentary host Michael Palin will appear at the Central Library's Montgomery Auditorium this Thursday , September 6 , at 7:00 p.m. (This event is free ; no tickets required.) His new book, Diaries 1969 - 1979: The Python Years , was released today. Check out his appearance on National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation… continue reading Dead Parrot Salesman to Visit Central

By written by Communications Office    September 4, 2007   

There can be only one . . . next mayor of Philadelphia, and the Free Library wants you to be a well-informed electorate--so mark your calendars for Wednesday , September 5 at 7:00 p.m. when our Talk About It! series will present Meet the Candidates in the Central Library's Montgomery Auditorium. Democratic nominee Michael Nutter and Republican… continue reading Talk About It! Wants to Hear from You

By written by Communications Office    August 30, 2007   

The latest installment in local art bloggers Roberta Fallon and Libby Rosof's Look! series takes viewers on a tour of the Book of War exhibit currently on display at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Watch the video here . And don't miss your opportunity to see the exhibit in person before it closes on December 9 . continue reading War Is Good for Illustrated Folios, Fallon and Rosof Look! at the Book of War at the PMA

By written by Communications Office    August 29, 2007   

Writers and musicians are inspired by one another in an artistic feedback loop that has given us, among other things, High Fidelity and The Crane Wife . While this stimulating interconnectivity may have always been intuitively clear to interested parties, now the blogosphere brings you musical playlists from celebrated authors and recommended… continue reading Musical Writers on Literary Music and Vice Versa, Or Some Combination Thereof

By written by Communications Office    August 28, 2007   

You may have encountered this story in the news already. An Associated Press-Ipsos poll based on interviews conducted earlier this month and released last week indicates that one in four Americans read no books last year --that's right, none . (You can view the entire report here .) National Book Critics Circle President John Freeman weighed in… continue reading One in Four Americans Read No Books Last Year, Not Even Harry Potter

By written by Communications Office    August 27, 2007   

Nan Talese, publisher and James Frey advocate, made a stir late last month when she spoke at the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Writers Conference in Grapevine, Texas and lambasted Oprah Winfrey as being "mean and self-serving" and exhibiting "fiercely bad manners" in her treatment of Frey when he appeared on her television program in January of… continue reading Speaking One's Emotional Truth and/or Lying, 2006 Literary Scandalizers Still in the News

By written by Communications Office    August 24, 2007   

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the first publication of Jack Kerouac's On the Road . Since 1957, the now-iconic book has been graphically interpreted in the form of dozens of book covers from various publishers around the globe. Check out a broader sampling here . (Note that Kerouac himself designed " a commercial cover expressive of… continue reading On the Road, A World-Historical Tour in Book Covers

By written by Communications Office    August 22, 2007   

Check out this synopsis of four thousand years of "miniature writing," from cuneiform clay tablets to a 180,568-word version of the New Testament inscribed in 24-karat gold on a silicon chip, with each letter "the size of a red blood cell." continue reading Think Small

By written by Communications Office    August 21, 2007   

Regardless of how one feels about the United States' ongoing and obscured operations at the Guantanamo Bay detainment camp , the camp's function relative to the current administration's War on Terror, etc., the recent publication of Poems from Guantanamo is inarguably thought-provoking. The New York Times Dan Chiasson writes that reading the… continue reading The Detainees Speak?

By written by Communications Office    August 20, 2007   

And Tango Makes Three , the American Library Association's Most Challenged Book of 2006 , was released in paperback in the United Kingdom last month and was received with minimal squabbling and strife. According to an article published in the Guardian in May of this year, entitled " March of the penguin protestors ," in the UK "no one at the… continue reading Same-Sex Penguin Parenting Not an Issue in the UK

By written by Communications Office    August 16, 2007   

In 2006 Ann Patchett , celebrated author of the PEN/Faulkner Award-winning novel Bel Canto , unwittingly found herself at the center of a campus and community controversy in Clemson, South Carolina, when Clemson University selected Patchett's memoir Truth & Beauty as its required summer reading book for its incoming freshman class.… continue reading Don't Mess with Ann Patchett

By written by Communications Office    August 15, 2007    1