Past Events
TUESDAY, JUNE 28 AT 6 PM
Herb Robinson and Eve Sandler are in conversation with Beuford Smith to celebrate the launch of METRO / New York / London / Paris.
MONDAY, JUNE 27 AT 6 PM
The memoir of a provocative Parisian art dealer at the heart of the twentieth-century art world, available in English for the first time.
Guests over the age of five must wear masks and show proof of vaccination (either a vaccine card or an Excelsior Pass).
Berthe Weill, a formidable Parisian dealer, was born into a Jewish family of very modest means. One of the first female gallerists in the business, she first opened the Galerie B. Weill in the heart of Paris’s art gallery district in 1901, holding innumerable exhibitions over nearly forty years. Written out of art history for decades, Weill has only recently regained the recognition she deserves.
Under five feet tall and bespectacled, Weill was beloved by the artists she supported, and she rejected the exploitative business practices common among art dealers. Despite being a self-proclaimed “terrible businesswoman,” Weill kept her gallery open for four decades, defying the rising tide of antisemitism before Germany’s occupation of France. By the time of her death in 1951, Weill had promoted more than three hundred artists—including Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Amedeo Modigliani, Diego Rivera, and Suzanne Valadon—many of whom were women and nearly all young and unknown when she first exhibited them.
Pow! Right in the Eye! makes Weill’s provocative 1933 memoir finally available to English readers, offering rare insights into the Parisian avant-garde and a lively inside account of the development of the modern art market.
Lynn Gumpert has been Director of the Grey Art Gallery, New York University’s fine arts museum, since 1997. Among the more than seventy exhibitions she has overseen at the Grey are Modernisms: Iranian, Turkish, and Indian Highlights from NYU’s Abby Weed Grey Collection (2019); The Beautiful Brain: The Drawings of Santiago Ramón y Cajal (2018); Inventing Downtown: Artist-Run Galleries in New York City, 1952–1965 (2017); Global/Local 1960–2015: Six Artists from Iran (2016); Tseng Kwong Chi: Performing for the Camera (2015); The Poetics of Cloth: African Textiles / Recent Art (2008); The Downtown Show: The New York Art Scene, 1974–1984 (2006); and Mapping Sitting: On Portraiture and Photography, A Project by Walid Raad and Akram Zaatari (2005). She previously worked as a writer, consultant, and independent curator, organizing shows in New York, Japan, and France. From 1980 to 1988 she was curator and senior curator at the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York. She authored the first major monograph on French artist Christian Boltanski (Flammarion, 1992) and has contributed essays to numerous publications. In June 1999 Ms. Gumpert was honored by the French government with the distinction of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters.
Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn is a curator, art advisor, gallerist, and activist who believes art is a catalyst for social change. With a career rooted in practicality, art history, and passion, Greenberg Rohatyn has garnered international acclaim for her keen eye and instinctual ability to identify and celebrate the rare artistic talents that push culture to new and interesting places. Prior to founding LGDR, Greenberg Rohatyn established Salon 94, the now iconic project space and gallery. She has championed a diverse range of artists from Huma Bhabha, Niki de Saint Phalle, Ibrahim El Salahi, Katy Grannan, Magdalene Odundo, Richard Prince, and more. In 2017, she founded Salon 94 Design, breaking hierarchies between design and high art showing radical designers Gaetano Pesce, Max Lamb, Jae Say Jung Oh and more. More recently, Greenberg Rohatyn has renovated a historic building at 3 East 89th Street that will serve as headquarters for LGDR, a collaborative platform for new dialogues between artists, writers, and collectors. In addition, she has advised major international figures on refining their private collections, and sits on the boards of White Columns and Performa, a non-profit organization dedicated to performance art.
Carlo McCormick is a critic and curator based in NYC.
THURSDAY, JUNE 23 AT 6 PM
“A gripping, fast-moving immersion into the lives of three bright new lights in a once fading town, City of Refugees is a meticulous and timely work of journalism.” —Dina Nayeri, author of The Ungrateful Refugee
Guests over the age of five must wear masks and show proof of vaccination (either a vaccine card or an Excelsior Pass).
For readers of Caste, this intimate portrait of newcomers revitalizing a fading industrial town illuminates the larger canvas of refugee life in 21st century America.
Many Americans imagine refugees as threatening outsiders who will steal jobs or be a drain on the economy. But across the country, refugees are rebuilding and maintaining the American Dream. In City of Refugees, journalist Susan Hartman shows how an influx of refugees helped revive Utica, New York, an old upstate manufacturing town that was nearly destroyed by depopulation and arson. Hartman follows 3 of these newcomers over the course of 8 years as they and their families adjust to new lives in America. There's Sadia, a bright, spirited Somali Bantu teenager who rebels against her formidable mother, Ali, an Iraqi translator who creates a home with a divorced American woman but is still traumatized by war, and Mersiha, a hard-working and ebullient Bosnian who dreams of opening a café. They are part of an extraordinary migration of refugees from Vietnam, Bosnia, Burma, Somalia, Iraq, and elsewhere, who have transformed Utica over the past four decades--opening small businesses, fixing up abandoned houses, and adding a spark of vitality to forlorn city streets. Other Rust Belt cities have also welcomed refugees, hoping to jump-start their economies and attract a younger population. City of Refugees is a complex and poignant story of a small city but also of America--a country whose promise of safe harbor and opportunity is knotty and incomplete, but undeniably alive.
Susan Hartman has written about immigrant communities for over 20 years. Her cover stories and profiles have appeared in the New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor, and Newsday. The author of two books of poetry, she was educated at Kirkland College and received an MFA from Columbia University's School of the Arts, where she now teaches. She lives outside New York City with her husband; they have 2 grown children.
Jennifer Percy is a contributing writer at the New York Times Magazine and recipient of the National Magazine Award for Feature Writing. She is the author of the nonfiction book DEMON CAMP (Scribner) which was a New York Times Notable Book and a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers pick Percy is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop where she received a Truman Capote Fellowship, as well as a graduate of the Nonfiction Writing Program at Iowa where she was an Iowa Arts Fellow. Percy has received numerous awards including a Pushcart Prize, the National Endowment for the Arts grant, fellowships from the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference and the MacDowell Colony. Her essays have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, The New York Times Sunday Book Review, Harper's, BookForum, The New Republic, Esquire, and elsewhere. She teaches writing at Columbia University in NYC.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 22 AT 6 PM
Beth Bernstein in conversation with Elizabeth Doyle about her chic, go-to guide for how to collect and wear antique jewelry, from the 1700s to the early twentieth century.
Guests over the age of five must wear masks and show proof of vaccination (either a vaccine card or an Excelsior Pass).
The ultimate go-to guide, The Modern Guide to Antique Jewellery takes the reader on a tour through time, venturing from the 1700s all the way through to the early 20th century. From how to look chic while wearing jewelry that outdates you by 100 years, to how to spot and score the best pieces, this book is a must-read for all enthusiasts and collectors who have an affinity for the jewels of the past.
Fun factual tidbits are presented in a witty, conversational style, and lively narratives explore each piece’s history. Part travelog, featuring the most influential shops in New York, LA, London, Paris and Amsterdam; part educational guide, with anecdotes from dealers and experts; and part celebration of historical jewelry, this book is an invaluable and accessible reference.
Topics covered include (but are not limited to): how to identify the most popular gemstones, materials, styles and collectible pieces in the market today, and how to select antique jewelry to complement your lifestyle. The Modern Guide to Antique Jewellery will reveal what to look for and where to locate rare finds, as well as how the experts score the pieces that decorate the fingers, ears, necks and wrists of the collector.
Beth Bernstein has over 20 years of experience in all facets of the jewelry industry. A jewelry historian, author and journalist, her books include If These Jewels Could Talk (ACC Artbooks, 2015), Jewelry's Shining Stars (Fine Points Publishing, 2013) and My Charmed Life (Penguin, 2012). Bernstein has contributed to many magazines, journals and publications including Forbes online, The Plunge.com, Accent, Forum, Departures, Newsday and The Huffington Post, and was Senior Editor for two national jewelry magazines. She launched her own online jewelry magazine in 2017, Bejeweledmag.com. Bernstein lectures at, runs and participates in seminars at various jewelry fairs and educational events.
Elizabeth Doyle co-founded Doyle & Doyle in 1998 with her sister, Irene Pamela Doyle. Her love of gems began while studying geology at Amherst College. Elizabeth’s decision to focus her studies on the world of jewels has shaped her life and livelihood.
After graduation, Elizabeth followed her passion by studying gemology at the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) in New York City. While attending GIA, she was simultaneously studying jewelry-making techniques at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT). But she earned her real education in gemology while working in the GIA gem and diamond lab after graduation. She examined and researched innumerable exotic gems and quickly developed an eye for rare and notable jewels.
A desire to broaden her knowledge of finished jewelry led Elizabeth to a position with an estate jewelry firm. She soon solidified her understanding of jewelry periods and designers. With this foundation and her gemology background, she began to shop for exceptional jewelry for clients. Initially selling privately, her clientele grew quickly. This led her to found Doyle & Doyle alongside her sister in 2000.
With over twenty years in the industry, Elizabeth is recognized as an authority on antique and vintage jewelry. She's been interviewed in a variety of press outlets, given talks and lectures, and curated exhibitions on themes including mourning jewelry, sentimental rings, and jeweled accessories. Elizabeth also serves on the Board of the American Society of Jewelry Historians (ASJH), a non-profit organization dedicated to providing education and information on jewelry history and related topics.
TUESDAY, JUNE 21 AT 6 PM
Photographer Harvey Stein celebrates the launch of Coney Island People 50 Years, in conversation with international traveler and photographer Margarita Mavromichalis.
Guests over the age of five must wear masks and show proof of vaccination (either a vaccine card or an Excelsior Pass).
Coney Island is an American icon celebrated worldwide, a fantasy land of the past with an evolving present and an irrepressible optimism about its future. It is a democratic entertainment where people of all walks of life and places are brought together. There isn’t anywhere else like it, and that is much of its appeal. Here 170 evocative black-and-white images taken by eminent photographer Harvey Stein from 1970 through 2020 simultaneously look back in time while giving a current view to the people and activities of this “poor man’s Riviera.” The images capture the wonder and intimacy of Coney Island. There is no photo book that has been published that documents a 50-year time period of a famous location taken by one photographer. Being in Coney Island is like stepping into another society, rather than just experiencing a day’s entertainment.
HARVEY STEIN is a professional photographer, teacher, lecturer, author and curator based in New York City. He is widely know for his ability to elevate the everyday to a space of wonder. Stein specializes in long term projects and is drawn to people and how humanity reveals the most about the spirit of a place and perhaps about life itself. He teaches at the International Center of Photography and the Los Angeles Center for Photography and has taught in several undergraduate and graduate photography programs. He has curated 67 exhibits since 2007. His photographs are widely exhibited in the United States and Europe-89 one-person and over 170 group shows to date. Stein’s images are in 58 permanent collections including the George Eastman Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Denver Museum, the Brooklyn Museum and the Bibliotheque Nationale. Coney Island People 50 Years (Schiffer Publishing) is his tenth published photobook. His most recent books are Mexico Between Life and Death (Kehrer, 2018) and Then and There: Mardi Gras 1979 (Zatara Press, 2020). His work is represented by Sous Les Etoiles Gallery in New York. See Harvey’s work on his website www.harveysteinphoto.com, @stein.harvey on Instagram and harveysteinphoto.com on Facebook.
MARGARITA MAVROMICHALIS has spent her life living and traveling all over the world. She speaks five languages and studied translation and interpreting. She likes to think that photography is her second language, as it’s a universal language, one that is understood by all across the world and that it conveys messages and stories in the most powerful way. Margarita is mostly attracted to street photography and the elements that evoke emotions and surprise in our every-day life. She is passionate about documenting current events that she feels very strongly about, highlighting their social impact. Her work has been exhibited in New York, Boston, and San Diego and most recently in Budapest, Athens, Paris, Berlin, Barcelona, London and Paris. View Margarita’s work at www.margaritamavromichalis.com and on Instagram @tita_mavro.
SEXMOB PLAYS FELLINI
RIZZOLI MUSIC APERITIVO
A music series at Rizzoli Bookstore
Rizzoli Music Aperitivo celebrates twenty-five years of Sexmob with Sexmob Plays Fellini, in which these giants of the NYC downtown scene dive headlong into Rota’s iconic Fellini film melodies.
This event is ticketed. Tickets are $20 and include a complimentary glass of wine.
FRIDAY, JUNE 17 AT 6 PM
A party celebrating INQUE, featuring readings from Catherine Lacey, Joyce Carol Oates, and Kathryn Scanlan.
THURSDAY, JUNE 16 AT 6 PM
Photographer Matthew Leifheit is in conversation with writer Jack Parlett to launch To Die Alive, his new photo book that documents Fire Island's gay communities in a nocturnal erotic fever-dream.
Guests over the age of five must wear masks and show proof of vaccination (either a vaccine card or an Excelsior Pass).
Featuring 77 color photographs and a faux leather cover, To Die Alive portrays Fire Island's world of desire and its layers of history: the Ice Palace bar's infamous underwear party, the men-only Belvedere Guesthouse, clandestine encounters in the Meat Rack, and landscapes in all seasons of the island's delicate maritime forest. The wide-ranging subjects of Matthew Leifheit's portraits reflect the intergenerational community who come to the island for refuge or employment, ranging from weekend visitors to sugar daddies to bartenders and sex workers. Tinged with sadness, the book's climax mixes feelings of pleasure with desperation and loss. As homosexuality gains mainstream acceptance, many queer Americans no longer need to go to geographic extremes like Fire Island, Provincetown, Palm Springs or Key West to express themselves. But what is the cost of assimilation? To Die Alive is both romantic and grotesque, challenging the sun-bleached history of homoerotic representation on this fragile island, which itself is under constant threat of erosion by the sea.
Matthew Leifheit is an American photographer, magazine editor and professor. A graduate of Rhode Island School of Design and the Yale School of Art, he was formerly photo editor of VICE and is currently on faculty at Pratt Institute. Leifheit’s photographic work has been exhibited internationally and is held in public collections. His photographs have appeared in publications such as The New York Times, The New Yorker, Aperture, TIME, and Artforum. Leifheit is Editor-in-Chief of MATTE Magazine, a journal of emerging photography he has edited and published since 2010.
Jack Parlett is a writer, poet and scholar working on queer American literature. His book The Poetics of Cruising: Queer Visual Culture from Whitman to Grindr was published by the University of Minnesota Press in February, and his new book, Fire Island: A Century in the Life of an American Paradise, about the island’s queer literary history, will be published by Hanover Square Press in June 2022. His debut poetry pamphlet came out with Broken Sleep Books in 2020, and his writing has appeared in the New Yorker,Boston Review, Literary Hub, Poetry London and elsewhere. He lives in Oxford, where he currently holds a Junior Research Fellowship at University College.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 15 AT 6 PM
Photographer Susan Kaufman celebrates the release of Walk With Me: New York, in conversation with Peter Som.
Guests over the age of five must wear masks and show proof of vaccination (either a vaccine card or an Excelsior Pass).
From photographer Susan Kaufman, an intimate celebration of the beauty and charm of New York City.
For some people, New York City exists only in their imaginations, a big-screen beacon of wonder and twenty-four seven delight. For others, it’s a dream destination: the diverse urban center where they will finally feel they belong. And still for many, it’s the place they already call home. No matter how you view New York, longtime fashion editor and photographer Susan Kaufman will help you see the city with fresh, appreciative eyes.
As she travels with her camera through New York, Susan Kaufman invites readers to see the city as she does: from the sidewalk. She explores the beauty of the city found in its charming townhouses, decorated shops, lovely parks, shop facades, and serene streetscapes. New York may be known as the city that never sleeps, but beneath the bustle, there’s a soulful side, with its own quiet power and universal allure. Walk with Me New York invites readers to appreciate the streets and buildings that have made the world’s most iconic city survive centuries of change yet retain its vitality and aspirational magnetism.
Susan Kaufman was the founding editor in chief of Time Inc.’s People StyleWatch magazine. She was named Editor of the Year in Ad Age’s “A-List” issue, and under her leadership, People StyleWatch landed the highly coveted number one position as Magazine of the Year” also in the “A-List” issue. Her previous roles also include fashion editor at Glamour, fashion director at Mademoiselle, and style director at People. She is now a photographer and Instagrammer in her post-publishing career. Kaufman splits her time between her Greenwich Village apartment and her home in the Hamptons, which she shares with her husband and black Labrador, Lucky.
Born in San Francisco, Peter Som is an award-winning fashion designer, culinary and lifestyle expert. Long known for his signature use of color and pattern with streamlined feminine silhouettes in the fashion arena, he’s also just as widely known for his entertaining and love of food. Peter’s brand of effortless sophistication has extended to all arenas of the lifestyle space, with recipes and articles featured in numerous publications and digital platforms including Bon Appétit, The Feed Feed (where he is a contributor), to Purewow, Vogue.com, Elle.com, T Magazine, Food and Wine, Refinery29 and Pinterest, where his 2.9M followers tune in weekly to watch his cooking content.
His clothes have sold at top retailers worldwide including Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, Moda Operandi and Nordstrom. He has had highly successful collaborations with brands including Kohls, Sferra, Lancôme and Anthropologie and has an ongoing collection with Rent the Runway. He was a finalist in the first CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund and twice nominated for the CFDA Emerging Designer Award. Notable women such as Michelle Obama, Beyoncé, Scarlett Johansson, and Maggie Gyllenhaal have worn Peter’s clothing.
TUESDAY, JUNE 14 AT 6 PM
Colleen McKeegan launches her debut novel The Wild One, in conversation with Jo Piazza.
Guests over the age of five must wear masks and show proof of vaccination (either a vaccine card or an Excelsior Pass).
THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED. We will announce the rescheduled date as soon as we can.
In this exciting sketch-off event, beloved illustrators race to finish on-the-spot drawings based on audience prompts, followed by a meet-and-greet with the illustrators and a raffle of their drawings.
Featuring Young Vo, author and illustrator of Gibberish; Cat Min, author and illustrator of Shy Willow; and Paul Zelinsky, illustrator of Red and Green and Blue and White, all published by Levine Querido.
Guests over the age of five must wear masks and show proof of vaccination (either a vaccine card or an Excelsior Pass).
Young Vo learned to draw before he could write. He drew a lot of characters, then began to write stories for them. There were not many job choices that he could make, so he decided to be an animator, illustrator, and author. Now he writes and draws his stories before the sun rises, then during the day, he animates.
Cat Min is an illustrator, animator, and writer. Cat grew up as a shy kid in Hong Kong, where she spent most of her childhood drawing and making comic books out of printer paper and staples with her best friend. She studied animation and film at New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, and completed the Illustration & Visual Storytelling Summer Residency Program at the School of Visual Arts in New York. She is also a member of SCBWI. Her (not so) guilty pleasures are: McDonald's french fries, sappy romance comics, mobile escape game apps, visual novels, and all things cheese.
Paul O. Zelinsky has become recognized as one of the most inventive artists in the field of children's literature. Among his many honors are the 1998 Caldecott Medal for Rapunzel, as well as Caldecott Honors for three other books: Hansel and Gretel (1985), Rumpelstiltskin (1987), and Swamp Angel (1995). In 2018, Paul was given the Carle Honor Award for Illustration. He lives with his wife in Brooklyn, New York. They have two grown daughters.
FRIDAY, JUNE 10 AT 6 PM
Join us for drinks and discover the earthly paradises of Erik Dhont, the renowned Belgian landscape architect. Presenting twenty years of his haute couture landscape design, his latest book offers a rare chance to gain entrance to his gardens, which are rarely open to the public.
THURSDAY, JUNE 9 AT 6 PM
Renowned designer Chip Kidd and bestselling novelist RJ Palacio celebrate the paperback launch of Go: A Kidd's Guide to Graphic Design.
ALL DAY ON WEDNESDAY, JUNE 8
A transatlantic window on the major literary trends of Italian fiction of our time, told by the authors who have written and are writing it.
6/7 - Center for Italian Modern Art, 421 Broome St
TUESDAY, JUNE 7 AT 6 PM
Rizzoli International Publications and Rizzoli Bookstore present a talk with Ted Flato, FAIA in celebration of Lake Flato Houses, followed by a signing.
Guests over the age of five must wear masks and show proof of vaccination (either a vaccine card or an Excelsior Pass).
MONDAY, JUNE 6 AT 6 PM
A night of conversation to celebrate the launch of How to Survive the Modern World, a hopeful guide to living well in the 21st century.
FRIDAY, JUNE 3 AT 6 PM
Rizzoli International Publications and Rizzoli Bookstore present a night with Mark Hunter celebrating the launch of The Cobrasnake: Y2Ks Archive.
Guests over the age of five must wear masks and show proof of vaccination (either a vaccine card or an Excelsior Pass).
A love letter to a time before Instagram and the legendary party scenes of the 2000s that brought together the new millennium’s rising stars of pop culture.
Under the moniker the Cobrasnake, the photographer Mark Hunter captured the party scenes of Los Angeles and New York during the hipster-glam heyday of the 2000s—and in doing so defined the look of a generation. Armed with just a Polaroid and a primitive website, Cobrasnake captured pioneers of youth culture from Kanye West and Steve Aoki to Jeremy Scott, Katy Perry, and Virgil Abloh—icons of the indie pop world in the making. Intimately connected with the people around him and keyed-in to the edgier fringes of the fashion, music, and art worlds, Hunter photographed influencers before they were influencers, in the wild and at play from the streets of LA to NYC and beyond. Collected here for the first time are more than three hundred of Cobrasnake’s favorite images alongside ephemera, from concert tickets and backstage passes to outtakes and unseen photographs from his many adventures. These photographs are records of the last generation of partiers to predate the livestreaming of culture afforded by today’s social media—capturing the energy and vibrancy of a time before Instagram.
Mark Hunter is a photographer who under the moniker of the Cobrasnake chronicled the party scenes of Los Angeles and New York in the 2000s. His work has appeared everywhere from editorials in Rolling Stone and Harper’s Bazaar to advertising campaigns for Calvin Klein and Helmut Lang. He lives in Los Angeles.
THURSDAY, JUNE 2 AT 6 PM ET
Photographer Matthew Brookes presents Into the Wild, an exhilarating homage to the surf and van culture of the California coast, in conversation with Zack Raffin.
Guests over the age of five must wear masks and show proof of vaccination (either a vaccine card or an Excelsior Pass).
The second monograph by New York– and Paris-based photographer Matthew Brookes, Into the Wild is a vibrant celebration of surf life. For this project, Brookes followed a group of young surfers from Venice Beach on their adventures up and down the coast. The result is a story of van culture along the California coast—a story of youth choosing to follow their dreams, living out of vans, existing for surf and travel and freedom, and always chasing the best waves. The documentary-style photographs are typical of Brookes’ work, with ethereal shots punctuating more naturalistic photos. The book includes interviews with the surfers done by Zack Raffin from the major surf magazine Stab Magazine. Raffin is a young surfer himself and grew up surrounded by van culture, positioning him as an insider voice as much as a journalist.
Matthew Brookes is a photographer known for his editorial projects and his natural and simplistic style. Born in England and raised in South Africa, Brookes’ photographs have been featured in major magazines such as GQ Style, Vogue and L'Uomo Vogue. In addition to his work with models and celebrities, Brookes is fascinated by the dynamism of the human form in motion and enjoys photographing athletes and dancers. In 2015 Brookes published his first monograph with Damiani, Les Danseurs, a portrait of the ballet dancers of the Paris Opera.
Zack Raffin is a lifelong surfer and surf journalist who has previously worked for titles such as Stab Magazine and LogRap. Having grown up in New York City, Zack found his passion for surfing on the shores of Montauk, New York where he grew under the tutelage of East Coast Surfing Hall Of Famer Tony Caramonico. After being transplanted to Venice Beach for university, Zack has since turned Malibu First Point into his local break where you can find him throughout the majority of the west coast’s summer South Swells.
THURSDAY, MAY 26 AT 6 PM ET
A launch party in celebration of Kim Daly's The True Crime File.
Guests over the age of five must wear masks and show proof of vaccination (either a vaccine card or an Excelsior Pass).
The perfect true crime gift for newcomers to the genre and aficionados alike, The True Crime File: Serial Killings, Famous Kidnappings, the Great Cons, Survivors and Their Stories, Forensics, and More compiled by Kim Daly delivers more than 200 stories of murder, madness, and survival.
From tales of slashers and serial killers, grifters and con men, to dogged investigators and miraculous survivors, this is more than your typical crime compendium. Compulsively readable, illustrated throughout, and animated with the frisson that comes with discovering there are real monsters under the bed, author Daly, who holds a master’s degree in trauma studies and has worked as a rape crisis counselor, gets to the heart of true crime while remaining respectful of the victims. And while readers will find entries on Belle Gunness and Ed Kemper, they will also find an emphasis on awareness, victim advocacy, social justice, and not repeating mistakes of the past.
There is something of interest in every page, from those readers just beginning to explore the thrilling vagaries of true crime to fans who have delved into the subject for years. The True Crime File dives deep to uncover the more complex bounty of crime stories, covering:
- Killers: from notorious serial killers like Jeffrey Dahmer to the missing and murdered women of Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.
- Bizarre Brutality: like the unsolved Black Dahlia murder, a killer whose tattoo of a crime scene was ruled a “nonverbal confession,” and the mysterious floating feet in the Salish Sea.
- Con Artists: learn about fake mummies, a larcenous “heiress,” and the real story behind the “Welfare Queen.”
- Thieves: from purloined penguins to the Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist and culinary crooks.
- Antics & Accidents: a tiger in Harlem, “The Watcher,” and drug smuggling pigeons.
- Crime Through Time: Stonewall, Chappaquiddick, and the LaLaurie mansion.
- Forensic Facts: including the use of familial DNA and genetic genealogy to solve cold cases and the “CSI effect.”
- Legal Concepts: from the reason there are so many “Florida Man” stories, the Operation Flagship sting, to the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act.
And more.
Equally appealing to flip through or settle in with for a long read, the book mixes re-explorations of the most publicized crimes with quick facts, recommendations, and quizzes—turn to any page and tumble down the rabbit hole.
Kim Daly writes about pop culture, true crime, and mystery when not working as copy chief at Workman Publishing. She holds a master’s degree in trauma studies and previously worked as a rape crisis counselor. She lives across from the Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 25 AT 6:30 PM
Join us for a night of live storytelling to celebrate the launch of The Modern Loss Handbook by Rebecca Soffer, with Sara Benincasa, Michael Cruz Kayne, Rachel Sklar, and Steve Waltien.
Please note that this is a ticketed event. Seating is limited; doors open at 6 pm. Tickets are also available at the door. Guests over the age of five must wear masks and show proof of vaccination (either a vaccine card or an Excelsior Pass).
Modern Loss is all about eradicating the stigma and awkwardness around grief while also focusing on our capacity for resilience and finding meaning. In this interactive guide, Modern Loss cofounder Rebecca Soffer offers candid, practical, and witty advice for confronting a future without your person, honoring their memory, dealing with trigger days, managing your professional life, and navigating new and existing relationships. You’ll find no worn-out platitudes or empty assurances here. With prompts, creative projects, innovative rituals, therapeutic-based exercises, and more, this is the place to explore the messy, long arc of loss on your own timeline—and without judgment.
Rebecca Soffer is cofounder of Modern Loss, which offers creative, meaningful, and practical content and community addressing the long arc of grief. She is also coauthor of the book Modern Loss: Candid Conversation about Grief. Beginners Welcome. (Harper Wave, 2018) and an internationally recognized speaker on loss and resilience. She writes regularly across media, including the New York Times, Glamour, NBC, and CNN. She is a Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism alumna and a former producer for the Peabody Award–winning The Colbert Report. She and her husband and sons split their time between New York City and The Berkshires.
Sara Benincasa is the host of the podcast “Well, This Isn’t Normal." She’s also a comedian, actress, and the author of "Real Artists Have Day Jobs," "Agorafabulous!," "D.C. Trip," and "Great."
Michael Cruz Kayne is a writer on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, host of the podcast "A Good Cry," and creator of the one-man grief comedy show "Sorry for Your Loss."
Rachel Sklar is a writer, speaker, songwriter & entrepreneur in New York City. What even kind of bio is that. Pick something, for God’s sake! She did not pick loss but it picked her, so. She is happy to support Modern Loss and this book.
Steve Waltien is a writer and actor, known for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (2015), The Opposition with Jordan Klepper (2017) and Don't Think Twice (2016).
- 1 of 33
- ››
New Arrivals
