Friday, June 29, 2012, 7:30 pm: The Daily Show’s Kevin Bleyer with Lawrence O’Donnell

We hold some truths to be self-evident, and the most obvious is that The Daily Show with Jon Stewart is really funny. Kevin Bleyer is one of the writers on The Daily Show, and he is of course really funny. Follow the logic here: Kevin has written a book about the Constitution, and it too is really really funny. Not the ship, the Constitution, but the other Constitution, that brief document that has shaped our legal system, our government, our electoral system, and our society for the past 225 years.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012, 7:30 pm: In Association with RAND Corporation, Seth Jones and NPR’s Mike Shuster on The Pursuit of Al Qa’ida Since 9/11

The difference between fictional thrillers and Seth Jones’ new book, Hunting in the Shadows: The Pursuit of Al Qa’ida Since 9/11, is that Seth Jones’ thriller is nonfiction. For lovers of the spy thriller genre, or the newer fictional genre pertaining to global terrorism, you’ll wonder when the next fictional thriller bestseller will credit Seth Jones’ terrific new study. Seth Jones may not be a bestselling thriller writer just yet, but he produces heart-stopping nonfiction literature.

Wednesday, June 13, 2012, 7:30 pm: Man Up, Joel Stein and Rob Huebel: A Stupid Quest for Masculinity

Time magazine isn’t supposed to be funny. Nor is it supposed to be provocative and politically incorrect. But thanks to Joel Stein, it is all that. Joel’s Time pieces cover issues of the moment that we’ve absorbed and internalized– and he takes those issues, holds them up to us, and has at it.

The Patrick Melrose Novels by Edward St. Aubyn: An Appreciation

Once in a while, a book, or an author, finds its way into your hands and you’re forced to halt in your tracks.  You can do nothing except focus on the urgent matter at hand, which is to remain motionless until you’ve finished the whole glorious thing, however long it takes.  The Patrick Melrose Novels is a series of five sequential books about the turbulent and dysfunctional life of Patrick Melrose, written by British author Edward St. Aubyn.  The first four books are now available…