Joshua Prince-Ramus, president and principal of REX, and Office for Metropolitan Architecture's (OMA) Rem Koolhaas were principal designers of the award-winning Central Library building, along with Seattle-based LMN Architects. The presentation was a key highlight of a daylong celebration of the successful conclusion of The Seattle Public Library's 10-year "Libraries for All" building program.

He was joined by Kim Thompson, translator of "Epileptic" and co-owner of Fantagraphics Books, influential publisher in comics history. "Epileptic," a 361-page classic, creates a unique, fantastic mythology out of a youth spent alongside an epileptic older brother. David B. co-founded the artist-run publisher L'Association, a group that revolutionized European comics and brought them market success in the English language. This program was part of "La Semaine de la Bande Dessinée" (a weeklong, multi-venue tribute to the French graphic novel).

Through a compilation of essays and blog entries on myriad issues including health care, employment, stem cells, and finances, "This Land Is Their Land" presents cutting and provocative social commentary on the Bush years. A frequent contributor to Harper's and The Nation, Ehrenreich has been a columnist at The New York Times and Time magazine.

In her new book, Lawrence presents a series of collages that explore popular concepts of the sublime. For the project, she combined images and texts to illuminate the results of a survey she conducted in November of 2004.

When Philmont Castle, a man with wealth, respect, and connections, is found dead on the grounds of a Harlem mansion, a young writer and the woman he loves are pulled into a 20-year search for the truth. Stephen L. Carter is the bestselling author of the novels, "New England White" and "The Emperor of Ocean Park," in addition to several works of nonfiction. He is the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at Yale University, where he has taught since 1982.

In his acclaimed new book, Shields begins with the facts of birth and childhood then expertly weaves in anecdotal information about himself and his father. Shields is the award-winning author of eight previous books, including "Black Planet: Facing Race During an NBA Season" and "Dead Languages: A Novel." His stories and essays have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Harper's, Salon, Slate, among others.

Thurman, widely regarded as the leading American expert on Tibetan Buddhism, explores just why His Holiness the Dalai Lama has earned the world's love and respect, and how restoring Tibet's autonomy within China is not only possible, but highly reasonable, and necessary for us to have a peaceful future as a global community. Thurman teaches at Columbia University and holds the first endowed chair in Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies in America.

Banks contemplates the questions of our American origins, values, heroes, conflicts and contradictions. Russell Banks is the author of 17 works of fiction. His work has been translated into 20 languages and has received numerous international prizes.

"The Other" tells a story of youth and idealism, adulthood and its compromises, and two powerfully different visions of what it means to live a good life. David Guterson is best known for "Snow Falling on Cedars," for which he won the PEN Faulkner Award in 1994. He is a longtime resident of Bainbridge Island, where he taught high school English for years.

Deeply personal and politically ferocious, "Rising, Falling, Hovering" addresses, as Wright has said elsewhere, "the commonly felt crises of [our] times"-from illegal immigration and the specific consequences of empire to the challenges of parenting and the honesty required of human relationships. C.D. Wright is the author of more than a dozen collections of poetry and prose. Among many honors, she is a recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship in 2004, and the Robert Creeley Prize in 2005.