Ann Patchett | The Dutch House

Tue, September 24, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: $47/$32 - two seats + book/seat + book

SOLD OUT! BUT--you can still buy tickets for Ann Patchett's event with the Open Book Bookstore “Exquisite” and “impossible to put down” ( New York Times ), Ann Patchett’s many novels include the PEN/Faulkner Award–winning Bel Canto , the  New…

Adult Author Events Speakers and Lectures Author Events - Ticketed Series Author Events Literature

Ta-Nehisi Coates | The Water Dancer

Wed, September 25, 2019 8:00 P.M.
Irvine Auditorium | 3401 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104

Cost: $30 - $60 book included with ticket
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In conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer David Blight, author of Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom ( Two seats + one book option ) Ta-Nehisi Coates won the 2015 National Book Award for  Between the World and Me , a “searing meditation on what it means to be black in…

Adult Author Events Speakers and Lectures Author Events - Ticketed Series African American Author Events Fiction Literature History

Malcolm Gladwell | Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know

Thu, September 26, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Irvine Auditorium | 3401 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104

Cost: $30 - $60 book included with ticket

EVENT SOLD OUT! With “an uncanny ability to simplify without being simplistic” ( Seattle Times ), Malcolm Gladwell synthesizes academic research and critical analysis with engaging prose and relatable anecdotes to fashion surprisingly counterintuitive conclusions about our everyday…

Adult Speakers and Lectures Author Events Author Events - Ticketed Series Author Events General Research Science Social Science

Richard Vague | A Brief History of Doom: Two Hundred Years of Financial Crises

Mon, October 7, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: $15.00
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In conversation with Joe Torsella, State Treasurer for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Venture capitalist and longtime Philadelphia-area philanthropist Richard Vague serves on the Penn Medicine board, is Chairman of the University of Pennsylvania Press, and is the president of the Philadelphia…

Adult Author Events Speakers and Lectures Author Events - Ticketed Series Author Events Business & Economics Personal Finance & Investing

Debbie Harry | CANCELED | ALL TICKETS AND FEES WILL BE REFUNDED

Tue, October 8, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts 3680 Walnut Street

Cost: $46 Orchestra/$44 Balcony - pre-signed book included with ticket

EVENT CANCELED HOWEVER--if you would like to purchase a signed copy of Debbie Harry's new book, please reach out to The Joseph Fox Bookshop via their website  and type "signed copy" in the comment field. Alternatively you may call or email the shop at 215-563-4184 or …

Adult Author Events Speakers and Lectures Author Events - Ticketed Series Author Events Biography & Autobiography Artist Talk

Cleo Wade | Where to Begin

Tue, October 8, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: $26 - book included with ticket-advance purchase recommended

Join the Free Library's Authors Up Close series for a reading and book signing by bestselling author Cleo Wade, as she reads from her new book:  Where to Begin: A Small Book About Your Power to Create Big Change in Our Crazy World. Cleo Wade is an artist and poet. Her work…

Adult Author Events Speakers and Lectures Author Events - Ticketed Series

Susan Rice | Tough Love: My Story of the Things Worth Fighting For

Thu, October 10, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: $15.00; $35.00 with book
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In conversation with Tamala Edwards, anchor, 6ABC Action News morning edition U.S. ambassador to the United Nations from 2009 to 2013 and President Obama’s national security advisor from 2013 to 2017, Susan Rice has been at the forefront of some of the 21st century’s most…

Adult Author Events Speakers and Lectures Author Events - Ticketed Series African American Author Events Biography & Autobiography Politics

Tim O’Brien | Dad’s Maybe Book

Tue, October 15, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: $47/$32 - two seats + book/seat + book
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In conversation with Andy Kahan, director, author events “As good as any piece of literature can get” ( Chicago Sun Times ), Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award, and stands as perhaps the…

Adult Author Events Speakers and Lectures Author Events - Ticketed Series Author Events

Bill Bryson | The Body: A Guide for Occupants

Wed, October 16, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: $50/$35 - two seats + book/seat + book
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Auditorium sold out; in-house simulcast tickets available Bill Bryson is the bestselling author of the wiseacre travelogues  A Walk in the Woods  and  I’m a Stranger Here Myself . His other strolls through language, the history of science, his adopted British homeland, and…

Adult Author Events Speakers and Lectures Author Events - Ticketed Series Author Events Health & Fitness Health

Adam Rippon | Beautiful on the Outside

Thu, October 17, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: $15.00; $34.00 with book
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In conversation with award-winning broadcaster, Tracey Matisak The first openly gay U.S. male athlete to win a winter Olympics medal, Adam Rippon earned bronze as part of the figure skating team event at the 2018 games. He was also the winner of the 2016 U.S. National Championships and the 2010…

Adult Author Events Speakers and Lectures Author Events - Ticketed Series Author Events Biography & Autobiography LGBTQ Sports & Recreation

Hoda Kotb | I Really Needed This Today: Words to Live By

Fri, October 18, 2019 1:00 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: $29--book included with ticket
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The co-anchor of the flagship hour of the venerable Today show, Hoda Kotb has also been a Dateline correspondent for the past 21 years. Her New York Times –bestselling books include Ten Years Later and Hoda , and the children’s books I’ve Loved You Since Forever and You Are My…

Adult Author Events Speakers and Lectures Author Events - Ticketed Series Author Events Body, Mind & Spirit Movies & Television Self-Help

Patti Smith | Year of the Monkey

Mon, October 21, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, 3680 Walnut St.

Cost: $44 Orchestra/$42 Balcony - book included with ticket
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Patti Smith—dubbed the “punk poet laureate”—won a 2010 National Book Award for  Just Kids , a “moving portrait of the artist as a young woman” ( Los Angeles Times ). Her 1975 debut album,  Horses , is often cited as one of the greatest in music…

Adult Author Events Speakers and Lectures Author Events - Ticketed Series Author Events Biography & Autobiography Body, Mind & Spirit Music General Research

James B. Stewart | Deep State: Trump, the FBI, and the Rule of Law

Wed, October 23, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: $15.00
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Tickets on sale Wednesday September 18, 2019 at 10:00 a.m. Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist James B. Stewart is the author of the number-one New York Times bestseller Den of Thieves , the story of the most notorious insider-trading ring in financial history; DisneyWar , the boardroom…

Adult Author Events Speakers and Lectures Author Events - Ticketed Series Author Events Politics History

Joshua Foer, Dylan Thuras, and Ella Morton | Atlas Obscura | 2nd Edition: An Explorer’s Guide to the World’s Hidden Wonders

Thu, October 24, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: $15.00; $38.00 with book
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The bestselling Atlas Obscura garnered popular acclaim in 2016 as a joyous plunge into some of Earth’s weirdest and most mysterious places. Replete with rigorous research, lavish charts and illustrations, and brisk writing, a revised and updated second edition treats readers to 120 new…

Adult Author Events Speakers and Lectures Author Events - Ticketed Series Author Events Environment & Nature History

Gail Collins | No Stopping Us Now: A History of Older Women in America

Tue, October 29, 2019 12:00 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: $15.00
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A columnist for the New York Times and a member of its editorial board since 1995, Gail Collins was the Gray Lady’s editorial page editor from 2001 to 2007, the first woman to hold that position. Her books include America’s Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates and Heroines ;…

Adult Senior Author Events Speakers and Lectures Author Events - Ticketed Series Author Events Seniors

Sean Brock | South: Essential Recipes and New Explorations

Tue, October 29, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: $55/$40 two seats + book/seat + book
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In conversation with Jason Freeman Praised as “an absolutely transformative figure” by the late Anthony Bourdain, Sean Brock is the founding chef of the Husk restaurant group, which has four locations in South Carolina and Georgia. In 2015, he won the James Beard Award for Best…

Adult Author Events Speakers and Lectures Author Events - Ticketed Series Author Events Cooking & Nutrition

Booker T. Jones | Time Is Tight: My Life Note by Note

Wed, October 30, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: $15.00
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In conversation with musician and writer, Wesley Stace The frontman for R&B band Booker T. & the M.G.’s, songwriter, producer, arranger, and multi-instrumentalist Booker T. Jones was a driving figure in the creation of the Memphis soul sound, selling millions of records and…

Adult Author Events Speakers and Lectures Author Events - Ticketed Series Author Events Biography & Autobiography Music

Michael Beschloss | Presidents of War

Wed, November 6, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: $15.00
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A “deft researcher and a first-rate storyteller” ( Washington Post ), Michael Beschloss is the author of nine books on the American presidency, including two volumes on Lyndon Johnson, the bestsellers Presidential Courage and The Conquerors , and works about FDR, Truman, Eisenhower,…

Adult Author Events Speakers and Lectures Author Events - Ticketed Series Author Events History American Presidency

An Evening with U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo

Wed, November 13, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: $15.00
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Co-sponsored by Monday Poets This year, Joy Harjo became the 23rd United States Poet Laureate, the first Native American honored with this position. Her 16 poetry collections include She Had Some Horses , Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings , and, most recently, An American Sunrise . She is also…

Adult Author Events Speakers and Lectures Author Events - Ticketed Series Author Events Poetry

Susan Orlean | The Library Book

Thu, November 14, 2019 7:30 P.M.
Parkway Central Library

Cost: $15.00
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A staff writer for the New Yorker  since 1992, Susan Orlean won wide acclaim for the 1998  New York Times bestseller The Orchid Thief , the story of a renegade Florida swamp plant poacher that was adapted into an Academy Award–winning film by Charlie Kaufman and Spike Jonze.…

Adult Author Events Speakers and Lectures Author Events - Ticketed Series Author Events History Library Science