ALOUD @ Los Angeles Public Library

Join the Studio City Podcast People as they interview Emma Steinkellner about her book, The Okay Witch, and about being an author and cartoonist.Interviewers:Cyrus: Book Club memberDaniella: Youth Worker/Messenger ClerkEva: Book Club memberIsabel: Book Club memberKiana: Book Club memberLauren: Children’s LibrarianNicholas: Book Club MemberSebastien: Book Club memberWrigley: Book Club MemberZarek: Book Club memberSpeaker:Emma Steinkellner, author of the book The Okay WitchTech Support:Lauren Kratz, Children’s Librarian Studio City Library

In this #1 New York Times bestseller, Michael Pollan offers a mind-bending investigation into the medical and scientific revolution taking place around psychedelic drugs—and the spellbinding story of his own life-changing psychedelic experiences as he set out to research the active ingredients in magic mushrooms. Blending science, memoir, travel writing, history, and medicine, How to Change Your Mind is a triumph of participatory journalism through Pollan’s discovery of how these remarkable substances are improving the lives not only of the mentally ill, but also of healthy people coming to grips with the challenges of everyday life. Sharing his deep dive into altered states of consciousness, Pollan discusses this unexpected new frontier in our understanding of the mind, the self, and our place in the world.

In an impassioned call to action for elites and everyday citizens alike, former New York Times columnist Anand Giridharadas shines a light on the shady side of philanthropy. Winners Take All offers a scathing investigation of how the global elite’s efforts to “change the world” preserve the status quo and obscure their role in causing the problems they later seek to solve. This bestselling groundbreaking book poses many hard questions like: Why should our gravest problems be solved by the unelected upper crust instead of the public institutions it erodes by lobbying and dodging taxes? Giridharadas shares with us some of his bold answers, including how we must take on the grueling democratic work of building more robust, egalitarian institutions to truly change the world.

Rachel Cusk is an international literary superstar. Her most recent trilogy–Outline, Transit, and Kudos–draws its hero, Faye, through a collage of vignettes. Through tales told by the people Faye encounters–an airline companion, a disgruntled neighbor, and a fellow writer, among others–Faye’s own haunting past is stealthily revealed, making for an artful and hypnotic reading experience. “After her controversial memoirs of motherhood and marriage, the writer has a new design for fiction,” writes Judith Thurman in the New Yorker in a profile titled “Rachel Cusk Gut-Renovates the Novel.” Now, the UK-based writer brings the work that has captivated the writing (and reading) community to Los Angeles for a rare Stateside reading and conversation.

On the heels of one of last year’s boldest, most celebrated novels, My Year of Rest and Relaxation, join us to hear from Ottessa Moshfegh for a celebration of a new edition of her groundbreaking debut novella, McGlue. Set in Salem, Massachusetts, 1851—the same year as the publication of Moby Dick—McGlue follows the foggy recollections of a hard-drinking seafarer who may or may not have killed his best friend. Discussing her sharply observational body of work that illuminates the exhilaratingly dark psychologies of wayward characters, Moshfegh will share the stage with Amanda Stern, the author of Little Panic, a fiercely funny new memoir on anxiety.