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This recording is presented by Princeton Public Library. Independent mystery/thriller author Kevin G. Chapman shares experiences and practical advice for self-narrating an audiobook version of your book and conducts a live demonstration of the process.

Author Kevin G. Chapman discusses the advantages of having an audiobook version of your work and the nuts and bolts of setting up a home recording "studio." Kevin will narrate a short segment of text from one of his books and demonstrate live in real time how to record, edit, and master the audio track to meet the standards for publication for Audible and other audiobook retailers. Kevin will share resources and advice to give authors the confidence to try creating an audiobook for their own work.

This event was recorded on May 9, 2025.

This recording is presented by Princeton Public Library. Martha A. Sandweiss, joined in conversation by Esther Schor, presents her new book, "The Girl in the Middle: A Recovered History of the American West."

About the book (from the publisher):
In 1868, celebrated Civil War photographer Alexander Gardner traveled to Fort Laramie to document the federal government’s treaty negotiations with the Lakota and other tribes of the northern plains. Gardner, known for his iconic portrait of Abraham Lincoln and his visceral pictures of the Confederate dead at Antietam, posed six federal peace commissioners with a young Native girl wrapped in a blanket. The hand-labeled prints carefully name each of the men, but the girl is never identified. As "The Girl in the Middle" goes in search of her, it draws readers into the entangled lives of the photographer and his subjects.

Martha A. Sandweiss paints a riveting portrait of the turbulent age of Reconstruction and westward expansion. She follows Gardner from his birthplace in Scotland to the American frontier, as his dreams of a utopian future across the Atlantic fall to pieces. She recounts the lives of William S. Harney, a slave-owning Union general who earned the Lakota name “Woman Killer,” and Samuel F. Tappan, an abolitionist who led the investigation into the Sand Creek massacre. And she identifies Sophie Mousseau, the girl in Gardner’s photograph, whose life swerved in unexpected directions as American settlers pushed into Indian Country and the federal government confined Native peoples to reservations.

Spinning a spellbinding historical tale from a single enigmatic image, "The Girl in the Middle" reveals how the American nation grappled with what kind of country it would be as it expanded westward in the aftermath of the Civil War.

In conversation:
Martha A. Sandweiss is a historian of the United States, with particular interests in the history of the American West, visual culture, and public history. She is the author or editor of numerous books on American history and photography. Her publications include "Passing Strange: A Gilded Age Tale of Love and Deception across the Color Line" (2009), a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in History and the National Book Critics Circle Award in Biography, and "Print the Legend: Photography and the American West" (2002), winner of the Organization of American Historians’ Ray Allen Billington Award for the best book in American frontier history and the William P. Clements Award. Her other works include "Laura Gilpin: An Enduring Grace" (1986), winner of the George Wittenborn Award for outstanding art book, and the co-edited volume "The Oxford History of the American West" (1994), winner of the Western Heritage Award and the Caughey Western History Association prize for the outstanding book in western history.

Esther Schor, the John J. F. Sherrerd ’52 University Professor and Professor of English at Princeton, is a scholar, biographer, poet and essayist. Her 2006 biography Emma Lazarus won the National Jewish Book Award. She has published three books of poems, including "The Hills of Holland" and "Strange Nursery: New and Selected Poems;" with poets Meena Alexander and Rita Dove, she is also the co-author of "Poems for Sarra," a bilingual collection about the Venetian intellectual Sarra Copia Sullam. Her scholarship includes "Bearing the Dead: The British Culture of Mourning from the Enlightenment to Victoria" and "The Cambridge Companion to Mary Shelley." A cultural historian of the Esperanto movement, her most recent book is "Bridge of Words: Esperanto and the Dream of a Universal Language." Recently she was awarded an NEH/Center for Jewish History Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship to support her research on a biography of the philosopher Horace M. Kallen. She lives in Princeton, New Jersey and London.

Presented with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this programming do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This event was recorded on May 14, 2025.

This recording is presented by Princeton Public Library. Atkin discusses her book "Mightier Than the Sword: How Three Obscure Treaties Sanctioned the Enslavement of Millions and the Exploitation of Continents for More Than 400 Years."

About the book (from the publisher):
How can words on paper be more devastating than war? Why is there persistent inequality—racial, financial, structural? Why are things in our society the way they are? "Mightier Than the Sword: How Three Obscure Treaties Sanctioned the Enslavement of Millions and the Exploitation of Continents for More Than 400 Years" offers a perspective on the roots of the inequality of today. Documents written hundreds of years ago embody the biases and power strategies of their time, but they still have a long reach through history. Atkin examines three treaties—the Treaty of Tordesillas, the Treaties of Nanking, and the Conference of Berlin— that granted permission, or the sanctioned rationale, to decree that annihilation and confiscation of property was legal and just on five continents. Atkin argues these written words continued to achieve their objectives and exercise power by influencing, among other things, the codification of Eurocentric International Law. Enhancing trade was (and remains) the claimed intent but inequality serves this objective. Land dispossession, slavery, and the subjugation of Indigenous peoples are repeated themes in history and are unfortunately still with us today. This book will change how you understand today's events and the continuing influence of historic documents. This fresh perspective offers hope for real change in policy and the societies they shape.

In conversation:
Lorraine Atkin is not just a longtime student of history, law, and politics, but also a former leader in the criminal justice and political fields—all of which inspired her journey of discovery. She wrote "Mightier Than the Sword: How Three Obscure Treaties Sanctioned the Enslavement of Millions and the Exploitation of Continents for More Than 400 Years" with the hope that the reader can draw connections from the atrocities of the past as a result of these three historical documents to the adverse consequences and inequities we live with today. A mother of seven, a grandmother of 12, and a great grandmother, Lorraine Atkin lives in Princeton with her husband.

Stanley Katz is President Emeritus of the American Council of Learned Societies, the national humanities organization in the United States. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1955 with a major in English History and Literature. He was trained in British and American history at Harvard (PhD, 1961), where he also attended Law School in 1969-70. His recent research focuses upon developments in American philanthropy, the relationship of civil society and constitutionalism to democracy, and the relationship of the United States to the international human rights regime. He is the Editor in Chief of the recently published Oxford International Encyclopedia of Legal History, and the Editor Emeritus of the Oliver Wendell Holmes Devise History of the United States Supreme Court. He also writes about higher education policy, and has published a blog for the Chronicle of Higher Education. He is the co-founder and editor of the history of philanthropy blog www.histphil.org. Formerly Class of 1921 Bicentennial Professor of the History of American Law and Liberty at Princeton University, he is a specialist on American legal and constitutional history, and on philanthropy and non-profit institutions. He received the annual Fellows Award from Phi Beta Kappa in 2010 and the National Humanities Medal (awarded by Pres. Obama) in 2011.

Presented with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this programming do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This event was recorded on May 13, 2025.

This recording is presented by Princeton Public Library. Murray Carpenter discusses his recently published book "Sweet and Deadly: How Coca-Cola Spreads Disinformation and Makes Us Sick" with Jennie Erin Smith.

About the Book (from the publisher):
If we knew that Coca-Cola was among the deadliest products in our diet, would we continue drinking it in such great quantities? The Coca-Cola Company has gone to extraordinary lengths to make sure we don’t find out, as this damning exposé makes patently clear. Marshaling the findings of extensive research and deep investigative reporting, Murray Carpenter describes in "Sweet and Deadly" the damage Coke does to America’s health—and the remarkable campaign of disinformation conducted by the company to keep consumers in the dark.

Sugar-sweetened beverages are the single item in the American diet that most contributes to the epidemic of chronic disease—in particular, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease—and Coca-Cola is America’s favorite sugar-sweetened beverage, by far. Carpenter details how the Coca-Cola corporation’s sophisticated shadow network has masterfully spread disinformation for decades to hide the health risks of its product from consumers—risks disproportionately borne by Black, brown, and low-income communities. Working from a playbook of obfuscation and pseudoscience that has worked well for other harmful products, from tobacco and trans fats to opioids, Coca-Cola has managed to maintain an aura of goodness and happiness. This eye-opening book finally and fully reveals the truth behind that aura.

About the Author: Murray Carpenter is the author of "Caffeinated: How Our Daily Habit Helps, Hurts, and Hooks Us". He has worked as a print and radio journalist in Maine for 25 years, and has reported for the New York Times, NPR, and TheWashington Post.

About the Moderator: Jennie Erin Smith is the author of "Stolen World: A Tale of Reptiles, Smugglers, and Skulduggery." She is a regular contributor to The New York Times and has written for The Wall Street Journal, The Times Literary Supplement, The New Yorker, and others. She lives in Florida and Colombia.

This event was recorded on May 5, 2025.

Aimee LaBrie reads a selection from her book, "Rage & Other Cages."

This reading was recorded as part of Princeton Public Library's Local Author Day 2025, held on May 10, 2025.

Princeton Public Library
Princeton, NJ 08542

Michael Pedowitz reads a selection from his book, "ABRAHAM."

This reading was recorded as part of Princeton Public Library's Local Author Day 2025, held on May 10, 2025.

Princeton Public Library
Princeton, NJ 08542