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Free online lectures: Explore a world of ideas

Funding provided by:

Georgia Center for the Book

Founded in 1920, the Georgia Center for the Book, based at the DeKalb County Public Library, is the statewide affiliate of the Library of Congress with a mission of serving libraries, literacy and literature. We sponsor two popular literary competitions for students, develop and encourage programming for and other literary-related organizations and sponsor some 90 literary programs each year, bringing more than 125 authors to metro Atlanta and the state for free public events.

http://www.georgiacenterforthebook.org

Russell Shorto: Descartes' Bones

Tue, Oct 21, 2008

Russell Shorto, author of *Decartes' Bones: A Skeletal History of the Conflict Between Faith and Reason*, discusses the new intellectual detective story. It examines how the skull of the 17th century French thinker became separated from the rest of his remains and where it is today. Shorto is also the author of *The Island at the Center of the World*.

Forum Network

Partner:

Georgia Center for the Book
Michael Largo: Genius and Heroin

Mon, Oct 20, 2008

Author Michael Largo discusses his new book, *Genius and Heroin: The Illustrated Catalogue of Creativity, Obsession, and Reckless Abandon Through the Ages*, which describes how the famously talented mix their genius with an urge for self-destructiveness. Largo's other work, *The Portable Obituary*, chronicles how the rich and famous died.

Forum Network

Partner:

Georgia Center for the Book
Glenda Gilmore: Defying Dixie

Tue, Mar 18, 2008

Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore, a native North Carolinian and the C. Vann Woodward Professor of History at Yale University, discusses her revealing new book, *Defying Dixie: The Radical Roots of Civil Rights, 1919-1950*, which looks at forgotten black and white southern activists, whose courageous work in the face of Jim Crow segregation laws, helped lay the foundation for the later civil rights movement.

Civil Rights Movement Series

Partner:

Georgia Center for the Book
Steven T. Wax: Fighting for Justice in the War on Terror

Wed, Oct 22, 2008

Public defender and author Steven T. Wax talks about his book, *Kafka Comes to America: Fighting for Justice in the War on Terror*. He reveals where and how our civil liberties have been eroded and how each of us can make a difference. Wax interweaves the stories of two men that he and his legal team represented: Brandon Mayfield, an American-born, small town lawyer and family man, arrested as a suspected terrorist in the Madrid train station bombings after a fingerprint was incorrectly traced back to him by the FBI; and Adel Hamad, a Sudanese hospital administrator taken from his apartment to a Pakistani prison and then flown in chains to the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Forum Network

Partner:

Georgia Center for the Book
George C. Herring: From Colony to Superpower

Tue, Oct 28, 2008

Award-winning historian and author George C. Herring gives an overview of American diplomacy, as described in his new book, *From Colony to Superpower: US Foreign Relations Since 1776*. Herring uses foreign relations as the lens through which to tell the story of America's dramatic rise from 13 disparate colonies huddled along the Atlantic coast to the world's greatest superpower. This book is the latest volume in the Oxford History of the United States series.

Forum Network

Partner:

Georgia Center for the Book
Ron Rash: Serena

Thu, Oct 30, 2008

Ron Rash, the Appalachian storyteller, discusses his fourth novel, *Serena*, a tale of of violence and beauty, love and honor. The story unfolds in 1929 and focuses on a beautiful and ruthless wife, Serena.

Forum Network

Partner:

Georgia Center for the Book
An Evening with Judson Mitcham

Thu, Mar 29, 2007

Georgia poet and novelist Judson Mitcham, the state's only two-time winner of the prestigious Townsend Prize, makes a special appearance to talk about his work and to answer questions.

Forum Network

Partner:

Georgia Center for the Book
Karen White: Learning to Breathe

Wed, Mar 28, 2007

Karen White reads from her new novel, *Learning to Breathe*, about a woman who finds that taking a leap of faith is better than wondering what might have been.

Forum Network

Partner:

Georgia Center for the Book
Grace Under Fire: Letters of Faith in Times of War

Tue, Apr 17, 2007

Andrew Carroll reads from his new book, *Grace Under Fire: Letters of Faith in Times of War*, a moving record of the importance of religion and spirituality to troops and their families from the American Revolution to the fighting in Iraq. The letters capture the spirit, the humor, and the courage of the men and women on the front line.

Forum Network

Partner:

Georgia Center for the Book
Hitler's Filmmaker: A Biography of Leni Riefenstahl

Wed, Apr 25, 2007

Steven Bach, author of *Marlene Dietrich: Life and Legend*, offers a stunning new biography of one of the 20th century's most fascinating and controversial figures, known as "Hitler's filmmaker", Leni Riefenstahl. In his superbly written *Leni: The Life And Work of Leni Riefenstahl*, Bach debates the moral intricacies of this artist working under the Nazi regime, and presents evidence that Riefenstahl was herself, part Jewish.

Forum Network

Partner:

Georgia Center for the Book