LFPL's At the Library Series

In "Watergate," novelist Thomas Mallon conveys the drama and high comedy of the Nixon presidency through the urgent perspectives of seven characters, moving readers from the private cabins of Camp David to the klieg lights of the Senate Caucus Room, and ultimately into the hive of the Watergate complex itself.

In "China Airborne," James Fallows documents, for the first time, the extraordinary scale of China's five-year plan to spend a quarter of a trillion dollars to jump-start its aerospace industry. He explains why this is a crucial test case for China's hopes for modernization and innovation, and examines what this latest demonstration of Chinese ambition means for the United States and the rest of the world.

Award-winning historian Jonathan D. Sarna's newest book, "When Grant Expelled the Jews," gives a riveting account of General Ulysses S. Grant's decision, in the middle of the Civil War, to order the expulsion of all Jews from the territory under his command. The book gives the first complete account of this little-known episode in American history - including Grant's subsequent apology, his groundbreaking appointment of Jews to prominent positions in his administration, and his unprecedented visit to the land of Israel.

In "The Presidents Club," executive editor of TIME magazine Michael Duffy tells the inside story of the world's most exclusive fraternity. He tells how presidents from Hoover through Obama worked with - and sometimes, against - each other when they were in and out of power.

Distinguished science writer George Dyson's newest book, "Turing's Cathedral," has been called "the definitive history of the computer." The book chronicles the Institute for Advanced Study in the 1940s and 1950s, when work on Turing's dream of a universal machine led to computers, digital television, modern genetics, and more.

Part of LFPL's Boom Time series, this conversation features professionals with creative lives on the side, including Susan McNeese Lynch, a marketing consultant and actress; Dr. Ron Lehocky, a pediatrician and clay artist; Marta Miranda, CEO of the Center for Women and Families and a poet; and Baptist Health Care executives Tom McGee and Don Riggs of the band, The Remedy. Brad Dillon, a lawyer and bread baker extraordinaire, serves as moderator.

Part of LFPL's Boom Time series, this discussion features experts on caring for ill or aging family members, a situation in which one out of every three people will find themselves.

Part of LFPL's Boom Time series, this discussion features city folks with farm lives on the side. Participants include Tommee Clark, Debbie Galloway, Tomese Buthod, and Ramsi Kamar.

Led by historian Rick Bell, author of "The Great Flood of 1937," this panel discussion also features Keith Runyon, Courier-Journal editor, discussing the role of the local media; Kelley Dearing-Smith of Louisville Water and Jay Ferguson, historian, sharing the story of how a group of men fired up the old steam engines to provide the city with drinking water; and LFPL's Kentucky History Librarian Joe Hardesty, talking about how to research information on the Great Flood at the Louisville Free Public Library.

Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer talks to the audience at LFPL's livestream of the TedX Manhattan conference.

World-class chef Gabrielle Hamilton's New York Times bestselling memoir, "Blood, Bones & Butter," tells her unconventional story through the many kitchens she has inhabited over the years.

Kim Edwards' latest novel, "The Lake of Dreams," is a powerful family narrative and a story of love lost and found. It tells the story of a woman's homecoming to the lake of her childhood, and the discovery of a secret past that will alter her understanding of her heritage, and herself, forever.

Ingrid Betancourt was a Colombian politician and presidential candidate celebrated for her determination to combat widespread corruption. In 2002 she was kidnapped by the FARC - a terrorist guerrilla organization - and held hostage in the Colombian jungle for more than six years. She was finally rescued on July 2, 2008. "Even Silence Has an End" tells her story, in her own words.

Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Stacy Schiff brings to life one of the most intriguing women in the history of the world: Cleopatra, the last queen of Egypt. In her book "Cleopatra: A Life," Schiff returns to classical sources to create a deeply original portrait of the queen, whose death ushered in a new world order.

Lee Child is the #1 internationally bestselling author of thirteen Jack Reacher thrillers, including The New York Times bestsellers "The Enemy, One Shot, and The Hard Way." His latest in the series, "The Affair," is actually a prequel, taking readers back to the start of it all.

Marc Freedman's "The Big Shift" makes an impassioned call to the nation's 78 million baby boomers to accept the decades opening up between midlife and anything approximating old age for what they really are - an entirely new stage of life, which he dubs the encore years.

Dr. Laura L. Carstensen, who founded Stanford University's Longevity Center, will discuss her book "A Long Bright Future: Happiness, Health and Financial Security in an Age of Increased Longevity."

Amanda Little's book "Power Trip: The Story of America's Love Affair with Energy" brings a journalist's reporting experience and a story-teller's flair to exploring our energy history, its role in our contemporary lives - and possible solutions.

Inspired by the wartime experiences of her late father-in-law, award-winning author and Kentucky native Bobbie Ann Mason's latest novel follows an American World War II pilot shot down in Occupied Europe. Intimate and haunting, The Girl in the Blue Beret is an affecting story of love and courage, war and redemption, and the startling promise of second chances.

Award-winning reporter Janny Scott's latest book explores the life of the woman who most shaped Barack Obama - his mother. A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mother follows the life of Stanley Ann Dunham, from Kansas and Washington state to Hawaii and Indonesia. Compiled from nearly two hundred interviews with Dunham's friends, colleagues, and relatives (including both her children), personal and professional papers, letters to friends, and photo albums, the book uncovers the full breadth of this woman's inspiring and nontraditional life, and shows the remarkable extent to which she shaped the man Obama is today.