View and listen to the Top 10 Author Event Podcasts Downloaded in July 2014.

Our Fall 2014 schedule has been announced and we have some amazing authors coming to the Free Library soon including cult filmmaker and visual artist David Lynch, documentarion Ken Burns, broadcaster and television host Tavis Smiley, philosopher Slavoj Zizek, queen of the vampire novel, Anne Rice, and performer and artist extraordinaire Alan Cumming!

	"The Best Day of My Life So Far..." Recorded 11/14/2010 Listen to MP3 audio What happens when Philadelphia seniors open up by sharing stories from their lives? On Seniors' Storytelling Day, be ready to smile, laugh and even cry as our city's seniors take the stage to read stories that they have written, and answer questions from the audience. Inspired by her friendship with her grandma, Benita Cooper launched The Best Day of My Life (So Far), a multimedia storytelling project to connect seniors with younger generations. Find out more about the project @ www.thebestdayofmylifesofar.blogspot.com and view a short video of a class in action: www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3ZAb8o0FAg
	Bill Bryson | A Short History of Nearly Everything Recorded 5/20/2003 Listen to MP3 audio Bill Bryson is the bestselling author of wiseacre travelogues A Walk in the Woods and I’m a Stranger Here Myself, as well as excursions into the English language including Mother Tongue and Bryson’s Dictionary of Troublesome Words. A Short History of Nearly Everything is an inviting exposition of some of the most difficult ideas designed.
	Jared Diamond | The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies? Recorded 1/13/2013 Listen to MP3 audio A globally renowned scholar and recipient of a National Science Medal, Jared Diamond is the author of the bestselling book Guns, Germs and Steel, recipient of the Pulitzer Prize. An ecologist and evolutionary biologist, Diamond is a professor of geography and physiology at UCLA and a founding member of the board of the Society of Conservation Biology. His other works include Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, Why is Sex Fun?, and The Third Chimpanzee. Informed by his decades of fieldwork around the globe, as well as evidence from Inuit, Amazonian Indians, and Kalahari San people, The World Until Yesterday offers a comprehensive depiction of traditional human societies and the practices we can learn from them.
	Christopher Paolini | Eldest Recorded 8/26/2005 Listen to MP3 audio Christopher Paolini, a precocious, home-schooled teenager from Montana made headline news in 2003 with his debut fantasy novel Eragon. Book one of a planned trilogy, Eragon tells the tale of a fifteen-year-old boy, his blue dragon, Saphira, and their adventures. A #1 New York Times bestseller, the book has been translated into at least 30 languages; the film version of Eragon was released in 2006. Eldest, the second book in the series, follows Eragon and Saphira to Ellesmera, the land of the elves, for further Dragon Rider training.
	Paul Greenberg | American Catch: The Fight for Our Local Seafood Recorded 7/1/2014 Listen to MP3 audio Paul Greenberg is the author of the James Beard Award–winning New York Times bestseller Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food, a fellow with The Blue Ocean Institute, and the writer in residence at New York City’s South Street Seaport Museum. In American Catch, he looks to New York oysters, gulf shrimp, and Alaskan salmon to reveal why 91 percent of the seafood eaten in the United States is imported from foreign waters, and proposes a way to break this destructive pattern of consumption.
	Virginia Morris | How to Care for Aging Parents, 3rd Edition: A One-Stop Resource for All Your Medical, Financial, Housing, and Emotional Issues Recorded 6/24/2014 Listen to MP3 audio Award-winning journalist Virginia Morris’ book How to Care for Aging Parents is “a compassionate guide of encyclopedic proportion” (The Washington Post). Completely revised and expanded in an up-to-date new edition, this comprehensive resource covers the emotional, legal, financial, medical, and logistical issues in caring for the elderly. “The bible of eldercare” (ABC World News), the book covers topics such as knowing when to rethink your parent’s living situation, talking about money, managing guilt, sharing the care with siblings, balancing career and care giving, dealing with difficult parents, and caring for parents with Alzheimers.
	Francois Furstenberg | When the United States Spoke French: Five Refugees Who Shaped a Nation Recorded 7/17/2014 Listen to MP3 audio In 1789, as the French Revolution shook Europe, a distinguished circle of five French leaders sought refuge in Philadelphia, then capital of the United States and home of the wealthiest merchants and financiers. François Furstenberg follows these five men and reconstructs their American adventures in his book, When the United States Spoke French: Five Refugees Who Shaped a Nation, as they integrated themselves into the city and its elite social networks and became enmeshed in Franco-American diplomacy. Through their stories, Furstenberg shows some of the most prominent events of early American history in a new light, from the diplomatic struggles of the 1790s to the Haitian Revolution to the Louisiana Purchase.
	Marisa McClellan | Food in Jars: Preserving in Small Batches All Year Long Recorded 7/10/2014 Listen to MP3 audio Marisa McClellan is a food writer and canning teacher better known as the personality behind the award-winning blog Food in Jars, dedicated to the joyful preservation of time in a jar, storing away the tastes of all seasons for later. Organized by season, her new cookbook Preserving by the Pint focuses on small batches of jams, jellies, pickles, and chutneys. Her unique recipes, including Blueberry Maple Jam, Mustardy Rhubarb Chutney, Sorrel Pesto, and Zucchini Bread and Butter Pickles, are perfect for small households, families who get CSA shares, and those with small backyard gardens. In conversation with Kristen Wiewora
	Ru Freeman | On Sal Mal Lane with Anna Badkhen | The World is a Carpet: Four Seasons in an Afghan Village Recorded 6/26/2014 Listen to MP3 audio “An achingly gorgeous heartbreaker,” (The Boston Globe) Ru Freeman’s novel On Sal Mal Lane takes place over the five years leading up to Sri Lanka’s 26-year civil war. The children growing up on a quiet street in Colombo fill their days with cricket matches, tentative romances, and small rivalries, their innocence in sharp contrast to the petty biases of the adults charged with their care and the mounting tremors of encroaching violence. A social justice activist and freelance journalist, Freeman is also the author of A Disobedient Girl, a finalist for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature. The tiny, remote western Afghanistan village of Oqa is known for its beautiful carpets. Woven meticulously by hand, a carpet takes about seven months to make and its sale to a dealer for roughly $200 can sustain a family for a year. In her new book The World is a Carpet, Anna Badkhen charts the lives of one family as their daughter-in-law, the family’s sole breadwinner, completes one magnificent carpet. She follows the family to weddings, funerals, through Ramadan and winter snowstorms, amid tedium and grinding poverty—made bearable by opium for young and old alike—faithfully documenting the harsh realities of staying alive. This podcast contains explicit content.
	Romance Panel featuring Megan Hart | Flying with Sara Humphreys | Vampire Trouble and Geri Krotow | Navy Orders Recorded 6/30/2014 Listen to MP3 audio Megan Hart is the author of many genres of romantic fiction, including historical, contemporary, romantic suspense, romantic comedy, futuristic, fantasy, and erotic. Her books include Tear You Apart, The Favor, Precious and Fragile Things, Deeper, Naked, and Dirty. In Flying, a woman travels to a new city every other week in search of no-strings-attached romance and an escape from difficult memories at home. Sara Humphreys has been attracted to the fantasies of science fiction, paranormal, and romance since her adolescence when she had a mad crush on Captain Kirk. A public speaker and speaking trainer, Sara lives with her husband and her four amazing boys in Bronxville, NY. Recipient of the Daphne du Maurier Award for Romantic Suspense, Geri Krotow is the author of six contemporary and historical romance novels inspired by her former career as a Naval Intelligence Officer. Her 2007 debut, A Rendezvous to Remember, won the Yellow Rose of Texas Award for Excellence. Her new book, Navy Rescue, is a suspenseful story of attraction, trust, and following orders. In conversation with Dena Heilik

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