From the meaning of status, architecture, travel, Proust, sex, work, religion and love, de Botton turns his attention to the news industry. "The News" ranges across news categories -- from politics to murders, from economics to celebrities, from the weather to paparazzi shows -- in search of answers to the questions: "What do we want from this?" and "Is it doing us any good?"Alain de Botton is the author of three works of fiction and six works of nonfiction, including "How Proust Can Change Your Life," "The Consolations of Philosophy" and "The Art of Travel." He lives in London, where he founded The School of Life.

Magee combines history, art and healing to tell an inspirational story of courage, hope and transformation. "Into the Light" is an account of a Latvian-born artist who survived four years in slave labor and concentration camps and chose to leave Europe and move to Los Angeles in 1949. He quickly became a successful artist, painting notables such as author Henry Miller, Ronald Reagan and composer Andre Previn.In this illustrated talk, Magee will discuss the impact of the Holocaust on Aron’s life and art and his response to it over a lifetime. Through his art, she traces his personal transformation as he metabolized on canvas the evil he experienced and reclaimed his own light, and she illustrates the powerful results of his decision at age 78 to tell his story.Susan Beilby Magee was director of the Mayor's Office of Women's Rights in Seattle under Mayor Wes Uhlman. She has been a White House fellow, and held policy and executive positions at the U.S. Treasury and Commerce Departments. Twenty-six years ago, she became a certified hypnotherapist and meditation teacher. She also participates in healing ministry at the Washington National Cathedral.

Four fantastic teen authors will join us to read from their new books and give a sneak-peek at some soon-to-be-published books, including:"The Unfinished Life of Addison Stone" by Adele Griffin (early fall 2014)"We Were Liars" by E. Lockhart (May 2014)"Don't Even Think About It" by Sarah Mlynowski (March 2014)"The Waking Dark" by Robin WassermanAfter these new works, we'll get a chance hear the authors' fledgling literary attempts. All writers have those skeletons in their closets... but do they read them to you? Not usually, but it will happen tonight! Wasserman, Mlynowski, Lockhart and Griffin will read from their sometimes-awkward early attempts at writing. Come cringe with us and eat cookies while we listen to their weird and spindly early writings.

University of Pittsburgh Press presents an evening of poetry from three distinguished poets with distinctly different voices.New Poetry in the Pitt Poetry SeriesIn "Tiger Heron," Becker explores relationships between humans and other creatures, while also reaching into core human experiences, such as the deaths of parents.Hamby’s "On the Street of Divine Love" is a collection of 25 years of "word-drunk excursions into the American female consciousness with stops in Italy, Paris, and London."In Ostriker's new collection, "The Old Woman, the Tulip, and the Dog," she presents a sequence of poems in the voices of an old woman full of memories, a glamorous tulip, and an earthy dog who always has the last word.About the poetsRobin Becker is a professor of English and Women’s Studies at Pennsylvania State University and is the award-winning author of seven poetry collections, including “Domain of Perfect Affection,” “The Horse Fair,” “Giacometti’s Dog,” and “All-American Girl,” winner of the Lambda Literary Award.Barbara Hamby is the award-winning author of four poetry collections, including "All-Night Lingo Tango" and "Babel." She has co-edited "Seriously Funny," an anthology of poetry. She is a distinguished university scholar at Florida State University, specializing in poetry and fiction.Alicia Suskin Ostriker is the award-winning author of 15 poetry collections, including “The Book of Life: Selected Jewish Poems, 1979–2011” and “The Little Space: Poems Selected and New, 1968-1998,” as well as several books on the Bible. She is professor emerita of English at Rutgers University and teaches in the low-residency MFA program of Drew University.

"They Called Me Number One: Secrets and Survival at an Indian Residential School" is the first full-length memoir about life in St. Joseph's Mission at Williams Lake, British Columbia.Along with other Aboriginal, Inuit and Métis children across Canada, Sellars was removed from her community and forced to attend a church-run residential school whose aim it was to “civilize” Native children through Christian teachings, forced separation from family and culture, and strict discipline.In addition, beginning at the age of five, Sellars was isolated for two years at Coqualeetza Indian Tuberculosis Hospital in Sardis, B.C.Bev Sellars was first elected chief of the Xat’sull (Soda Creek) First Nation in Williams Lake, BC in 1987. She earned degrees in history and law, and served as adviser for the B.C. Treaty Commission. Chief Sellars has spoken out on behalf of her community on racism and residential schools and on the environmental and social threats of mineral resource exploitation in her region.

Why are some cultural groups in the United States generally more successful than others? Chua and Rubenfeld draw on groundbreaking research and statistics to identify a unique combination of traits -- insecurity, a superiority complex, impulse control -- that drives some groups to succeed more than others.Amy Chua is the author of the international bestseller "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother," which unleashed a firestorm debate about the cultural value of self-discipline, as well as the bestselling "World on Fire." She was named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world in 2011.Jed Rubenfeld has written extensively on how Americans’ desire for instant gratification undermines their ability to live for the future. He is the author of the international bestseller "The Interpretation of Murder."

In a future, long-declining America, society is strictly stratified by class. Long-abandoned urban neighborhoods have been re-purposed as high-walled, self-contained labor colonies. The members of the labor class -- descendants of those brought over en masse many years earlier from environmentally-ruined provincial China -- find purpose and identity in their work to provide pristine produce and fish to the small and elite satellite charter villages that ring the labor settlement."On Such a Full Sea" takes Chang-rae Lee's elegance of prose and masterly storytelling, along with his long-standing interests in identity, culture, work and love, and lifts them to a new plane. Stepping from the realistic and historical territories of his previous work, Lee brings us into a world created from scratch. Against a vividly imagined future America, Lee tells a stunning, surprising and riveting story that will change the way readers think about the world they live in.Lee is also the author of "Native Speaker," winner of the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award for First fiction, "A Gesture Life," "Aloft" and "The Surrendered. He teaches in the Creative Writing Program at Princeton University.

"A Jury of Her Peers" by Susan Glaspell.It was clear she’d killed her husband, but no man could find the evidence that would convict her. A classic tale inspired by a true story.

Seventh-century Britain comes to life through a young girl’s rise to prominence in a time of political foment and change. Hild is the king’s niece and she becomes his seer, charting the course of history as people begin to trust in her ability to see into the future."The novel resonates to many of the same chords as Beowulf, the legends of King Arthur, Lord of the Rings, and Game of Thrones -- to the extent that Hild begins to feel like the classic on which those books are based." - Neal Stephenson"What a fabulous book! Hild has all the joys of historical fiction -- transportation into a strange, finely detailed world -- along with complex characters and a beautiful evocation of the natural world.” - Karen Joy FowlerSeattle author Nicola Griffith, originally of Yorkshire, England, has received several awards for her writing that include the Nebula, Lambda and James Tiptree, Jr. Awards. Her previous works include "Ammonite," "Slow River" and the Aud Torvingen crime novels.

"War-Toys" chronicles the artist's collaborations over the course of two years with children in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The book shows drawings the children created alongside the photographs they inspired. The resulting series provides powerful context for the children’s accounts while documenting the playthings available in each area. These cheap, plastic arsenals mirror what the children see every day -- in the news and on the streets.