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Harvard Book Store

Harvard Book Store is an independently run bookstore serving the greater Cambridge area. The bookstore is located in Harvard Square and has been family-owned since 1932. We are known for our extraordinary selection of new, used and remaindered books and for a history of innovation. In 2009, we introduced same-day "green delivery" and a book-making robot capable of printing and binding any of millions of titles in minutes. Find out more about us at www.harvard.com.

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Frank Dikotter explains Mao's Great Famine

Fri, Oct 8, 2010

Frank Dikotter discusses his new book, *Maos Great Famine: The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958--1962*. "Between 1958 and 1962, China descended into hell. Mao Zedong threw his country into a frenzy with the Great Leap Forward, an attempt to catch up to and overtake Britain in less than fifteen years. The experiment ended in the greatest catastrophe the country had ever known, destroying tens of millions of lives." So opens Frank Dikotter's chronicle of an era in Chinese history much speculated about but never before fully documented because access to Communist Party archives has long been restricted to all but the most trusted historians. A new archive law has opened up thousands of central and provincial documents that "fundamentally change the way one can study the Maoist era."

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Mark Vonnegut: Just Like Someone without Mental Illness

Wed, Oct 13, 2010

Mark Vonnegut talks about his memoir *Just Like Someone without Mental Illness Only More So*, a follow-up to the acclaimed *The Eden Express*. Here is Mark’s childhood spent as the son of a struggling writer in a house that eventually held seven children after his aunt and uncle died and left four orphans. And here is the world after Mark was released from a mental hospital to find his family forever altered. At the age of twenty-eight—and after nineteen rejections—Mark was accepted to Harvard Medical School, where he gained purpose, a life, and some control over his mental illness.

Mental Health Month

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David A. Kessler: The End of Overeating

Tue, Oct 5, 2010

**David A, Kessler,** former commissioner of the US food & drug administration, discusses ways the food industry manipulates the way we eat through his book, *The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite*. Most of us know what it feels like to fall under the spell of food-when one slice of pizza turns into half a pie, or a handful of chips leads to an empty bag. Its harder to understand why we cant seem to stop eating, even when we know better. *The End of Overeating* explains for the first time why it is exceptionally difficult to resist certain foods and why its so easy to overindulge, uncovering facts about how we lose control over our eating habits, and how we can get it back.

Forum Network

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Neil Landau and Matthew Frederick: 101 Things I Learned in Film School

Mon, Oct 18, 2010

Screenwriter Neil Landau talks about his bestselling *101 Things I Learned in Film School* with the creator of the *101 Things I Learned* series, Matthew Frederick. The evening includes a trivia contest on Boston film and television as well as a discussion of the how-to's and why-to's of filmmaking, screenwriting, book-to-film, and more. How does one effectively set a scene? What is the best camera angle for a particular mood? How does new technology interact with scenes? And how does one even get the financing to make a movie? These basic questions and much more are covered in this book on the film industry and making movies as a profession. With insights for someone who wants to make movies as a full-time career, or just someone who is interested in film, *101 Things I Learned in Film School* offers an inside view of the art and craft of filmmaking.

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Overhaul: Obama's Emergency Rescue of the Auto Industry

Fri, Oct 15, 2010

Steven Rattner discusses the story behind the bailout and his new book, *Overhaul: An Insider's Account of the Obama Administration's Emergency Rescue of the Auto Industry.* The first real look inside Team Obama mixes political warfare and big business shakeups in equal proportions, and comes from a uniquely informed source. From his Steven Rattner's vantage point at the helm of the historic auto-industry intervention, Rattner explains the political brinkmanship, corporate mismanagement, and personalities under pressure in a high-stakes clash between Washington and Detroit. He also explains the tough choices he and his team made, working against a ticking clock and facing vocal opposition from free market champions, to keep Chrysler and General Motors in operation.

Forum Network

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V.S. Naipaul: The Masque of Africa

Fri, Oct 22, 2010

V.S. Naipaul discusses his most recent work of travel writing as cultural history, *The Masque of Africa: Glimpses of African Belief*. V.S. Naipaul will be joined in conversation this evening by his editor, George Andreou. Like all of V. S. Naipaul’s travel books, *The Masque of Africa* encompasses a much larger narrative and purpose: to judge the effects of belief (in indigenous animisms, the foreign religions of Christianity and Islam, the cults of leaders and mythical history) upon the progress of civilization.

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Belle Boggs: Mattaponi Queen

Thu, Jun 17, 2010

Short story writer Belle Boggs reads from her first book, *Mattaponi Queen*, a collection of connected stories, some of which have previously appeared in *The Paris Review*, G*limmer Train*, *At Length*, *storySouth* and *Five Chapters*. Set on the Mattaponi Indian Reservation and in its surrounding counties, the stories in this linked collection detail the lives of rural men and women with stark realism and plainspoken humor. A young military couple faces a future shadowed by injury and untold secrets. A dying alcoholic attempts to reconcile with his estranged children. And an elderly woman's nurse weathers life with her irascible charge by making payments on a decrepit houseboat--the Mattaponi Queen. The land is parceled into lots, work opportunities are few, and the remaining inhabitants must choose between desire and necessity as they navigate the murky stream of possession, love, and everything in between. *Mattaponi Queen* is being published by Graywolf Press as a result of being chosen the 2009 winner of the Katharine Bakeless Nason Fiction Prize.

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Luis Alberto Urrea: Into the Beautiful North

Mon, Jun 21, 2010

Award-winning novelist, poet, and essayist Luis Alberto Urrea reads from and discusses his newest novel, *Into the Beautiful North*. Nineteen-year-old Nayeli works at a taco shop in her Mexican village and dreams about her father, who journeyed to the US when she was young. Recently, it has dawned on her that he isn't the only man who has left town. In fact, there are almost no men in the village--they've all gone north. While watching *The Magnificent Seven*, Nayeli decides to go north herself and recruit seven men--her own "Siete Magnficos"--to repopulate her hometown and protect it from the bandidos who plan on taking it over.

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Bret Easton Ellis: Imperial Bedrooms

Thu, Jun 24, 2010

Bret Easton Ellis, author of *Rules of Attraction* and *American Psycho*, reads from his newest novel, *Imperial Bedrooms*, which follows the infamous teenagers of his debut, *Less Than Zero*, into an even more desperate middle age. Clay, a successful screenwriter, has returned from New York to Los Angeles to help cast his new movie, and he's soon drifting through a long-familiar circle. Blair, his former girlfriend, is married to Trent, an influential manager who's still a bisexual philanderer, and their Beverly Hills parties attract various levels of fame, fortune and power. Then there's Clay's childhood friend Julian, a recovering addict, and their old dealer, Rip, face-lifted beyond recognition and seemingly even more sinister than in his notorious past. But Clay's own demons emerge once he meets a gorgeous young actress determined to win a role in his movie. And when his life careens completely out of control, he has no choice but to plumb the darkest recesses of his character and come to terms with his proclivity for betrayal.

Pop Culture

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Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan: The Fall

Thu, Sep 23, 2010

Director Guillermo del Toro and author Chuck Hogan discuss *The Fall*, the second installment in the *Strain Trilogy*. The pair are interviewed by the Brattle Theatre's creative director, Ned Hinkle. The vampiric virus unleashed in *The Strain* has taken over New York City. It is spreading across the country and soon, the world. Amid the chaos, Eph Goodweather, head of the CDC′s team and one of a small group who have banded together to fight the bloodthirsty monsters that roam the streets, finally manages to identify the parasite that causes the infection. But it may be too late.

Pop Culture

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