BookSwell

In conversation with Tim Curry (virtual event)
2025-11-03 18:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | CA
Join us for a virtual Live Talks Los Angeles event:
Monday, November 3, 2025, 6pm PT/9pm ET

**An Afternoon with Tim Curry
discussing his memoir, “Vagabond.”**
This event is taped with an audience on October 26.
VIRTUAL EVENT TICKETS (**US Orders Only**)
Monday, November 3, 2025, 6pm PT/9pm ET
$55 Virtual Admission + book with signed book plate (**includes shipping to US addresses only**). Includes access to watch the event on November 3 at 6pm PT/9pm ET and on video-on-demand for five days..
***With the upcoming 50th anniversary of The Rocky Horror Picture Show and the 40th anniversary of Clue, there’s never been a better time for Tim to share his story with the world. Tim’s memoir, Vagabond, is a celebration of his life’s work, and a testament to his profound impact on the entertainment industry.***
**Tim Curry **is an Emmy award-winning actor who’s worked in the entertainment industry for close to five decades. He is best known for his iconic roles in *The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Clue, It, The Pirates of Penzance, Spamalot, Hair, Home Alone 2, Muppet Treasure Island*, and countless others.
There are few stars in Hollywood today who can boast the resume Emmy that award-winning actor Tim Curry has built over the past five decades. From his breakout role as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in *The Rocky Horror Picture Show* to his critically acclaimed role as the original King Aurthur in both the Broadway and West End versions of *Spamalot*, Curry redefined what it meant to be a character actor as he portrayed heroes and villains alike with complexity, nuance, and a genuine understanding of human darkness.
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In his rip-roaring memoir, *Vagabond*, Curry takes readers through his early beginnings as a military brat with difficult family dynamics, to his formative school years, to the moment when he hit the stage for the first time. He shares what it was like to work on some of the most best-known works of the 20th century. He also explores the voicework that has defined his career more recently, which provided him with a chance to pivot after surviving a catastrophic and nearly fatal stroke over a dozen years ago.

An Evening with Jimmy Wales
2025-11-04 20:00 - 21:15 | Glorya Kaufman Performing Arts Center at Vista Del Mar, 3200 Motor Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, 90034, United States
Andrew Ross Sorkin on his book “1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History–and How It Shattered a Nation.”

Please note:
— Tickets cannot be re-sold on re-seller platforms. Re-sold ticket will not be honored.
— Tickets are non refundable and are not transferable.
— All ticket holders should be ready to show ID at the event.
— The name(s) you provide during registration will be on a will-call list at the event, where you will check-in and get your ticket to enter the theatre.
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Join us for an in-person and virtual* Live Talks Los Angeles event:
Tuesday, November 4, 2025, 8pm
*Virtual event airs on November 11 at 6pm PT/9pm ET

An Evening with Jimmy Wales
discussing his book, “The Seven Rules of Trust: A Blueprint for Building Things That Last.“
*interviewer to be added

TICKETS:

$50 General Admission ticket + signed copy of the book
$25 General Admisison tickets
Additional signed books available for purchase at event
Face masks recommended

The virtual version of this event airs on November 11, 2025, at 6pm PT/9PM ET and is available on video-on-demand for five days.
Tickets for the virtual event can be purchased here (includes the signed book)
ASL interpreter provided upon request.
Free parking at the venue

From the founder of Wikipedia, a sweeping reflection on the global crisis of credibility and knowledge, revealing “the rules of trust” that transformed Wikipedia from a scrappy experiment into a global utility used by billions of people—and how those rules can help others build things that last..Jimmy Wales is an internet entrepreneur who is best known as the founder of Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation. Named one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People, he was also acknowledged by the World Economic Forum as one of the top 250 leaders across the world for his professional accomplishments, his commitment to society, and his potential to contribute to shaping the future of the world. Born in Huntsville, Alabama, he lives with his family in London..“Trust is a feeling. We can’t ‘convince’ someone to trust, they have to feel it. Sadly, we now live in a world in which it’s often hard to know who or what we can trust. Where some of the biggest online companies are trying to allow for public regulation of their content, only to significantly harm their trustworthiness, Wikipedia is the exception. What does Wikipedia know that others don’t and how can more companies adopt their practices to make our digital world safer and, well, more trustworthy? Thank you to Jimmy Wales for founding Wikipedia and now, for the first time, telling us how he did it!”—Simon Sinek, New York Times bestselling author of Start with Why and The Infinite Game, and host of the podcast A Bit of Optimism..From the beginning, people predicted Wikipedia’s demise. Instead, this global experiment in sharing knowledge and expertise online has become part of the fabric of modern, connected life. Today, every month, people view Wikipedia 11 billion times—just in the English language. The Internet’s encyclopedia has become a global utility, like water or electricity, and we rarely pause to consider the extraordinary fact of its existence..Long before it became the biggest collection of knowledge in the history of the world, Wikipedia had to overcome its greatest challenge: getting strangers on the Internet to trust each other. They had to trust that others would not be abusive or uncivil. They had to trust that others would not unfairly change or erase their contributions. They had to trust that people had good intentions..Trust, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales says, is a treasure. But it is not inanimate, like gold or gems. Trust is a living thing that can and must be cultivated. This book will show you how. And it will reveal how his organization, this one-time punchline, has become a global authority—in the same two decades when the public’s trust in everything else, from government to social media, has trended backwards..Every community on earth depends on trust; it underpins our capacity to know things, and it is at an all-time low. Inspiring, approachable, and packed with candid lessons from the early days of Wikipedia, The Seven Rules of Trust is a guide to kickstarting a positive loop of accountability and creativity—and to building things that stand the test of time.

In conversation with Michael Lewis (virtual event)
2025-11-05 18:00 | CA
Join us for a virtual Live Talks Los Angeles event:
Wednesday, November 5, 2025, 6pm PT/9pm ET

**An Evening with Michael Lewis
on the 15 year anniversary of the book
and 10 year anniversary of the movie adaptation of
“The Big Short.”**
This event is taped with an audience on October 29
VIRTUAL EVENT TICKETS (International orders welcome)
Wedesday, November 5, 6pm PT/9pm ET
$40 Virtual Admission + The Big Short audio book. Includes access to watch the event on November 5 at 6pm PT/9pm ET and on video-on-demand for five days.
**The #1 New York Times bestselling account of how the U.S. economy was driven over the cliff. Hear the original story that was turned into an Oscar-winning film directly from the author, Michael Lewis, for the very first time.**
**Michael Lewis** is the host of the podcast Against the Rules and has published many New York Times bestselling books, including The Premonition, The Fifth Risk, Flash Boys, and Liar’s Poker. Movie versions of The Big Short, Moneyball, and The Blind Side were all nominated for Academy Awards. He grew up in New Orleans and remains deeply interested and involved in the city but now lives in Berkeley, California, with his family.
When the crash of the U.S. stock market became public knowledge in the fall of 2008, it was already old news. The real crash had taken place silently over the previous year, in obscure financial markets where the SEC doesn’t bother to look: the bond and real estate derivative markets where geeks invent impenetrable securities to profit from the misery of lower- and middle-class Americans who can’t pay their debts. The smart people who understood what was actually happening were paralyzed by hope and fear; in any case, they weren’t talking.
Newly narrated by the author himself, Michael Lewis creates a fresh, character-driven narrative brimming with indignation and dark humor, a fitting sequel to his #1 bestseller Liar’s Poker. In The Big Short, he asks: Who saw the real estate market for the black hole it would become, and eventually made billions of dollars from that perception? And what qualities of character made those few persist when their peers and colleagues dismissed them as Chicken Littles? Out of this handful of unlikely―really unlikely―heroes, Lewis fashions a story as compelling and unusual as any of his earlier bestsellers, proving yet again that he is the finest and funniest chronicler of our times.

Judd Apatow with Marc Maron (virtual event)
2025-11-06 18:00 | CA
Join us for a virtual Live Talks Los Angeles event:
Thursday, November 6, 2025, 8pm
**Judd Apatow in conversation with Marc Maron
discussing his book, “Comedy Nerd: A Lifelong Obsession in Stories and Pictures.”**
*This event is taped with an audience on October 30.*
VIRTUAL EVENT TICKETS (**US Orders Only**)
Thursday, November 6, 2025, 6pm PT/9pm ET
$60 Virtual Admission + signed book (**includes shipping to US addresses only**). Includes access to watch the event on November 6 at 6pm PT/9pm ET and on video-on-demand for five days..
**An intimate, rollicking highly-visual memoir of a comedic genius that offers a rare glimpse into the creative life and inner workings of legendary director producer Judd Apatow through never-before-seen photos, letters and behind-the-scenes stories.**
**Judd Apatow** wrote and directed the films The 40-Year-Old Virgin (co-written with Steve Carell), Knocked Up, Funny People, and This Is 40; he directed Trainwreck; and his producing credits include Superbad, Bridesmaids, and Anchorman. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Leslie Mann.
In his 16 year run as a podcaster, **Marc Maron** has interviewed everyone from President Barack Obama to Keith Richards to Robin Williams on WTF with Marc Maron. His latest stand-up special, Panicked, will be released in August on HBO. As an actor, Maron has logged numerous credits, including the upcoming indie film In Memoriam; Deliver Me From Nowhere, the Bruce Springsteen biopic from 20th Century Studios and reprises his role in the animated feature, The Bad Guys 2. In addition to his hit stand-up comedy specials, additional film/tv credits include: Glow, Maron, To Leslie, The Order, Stick, Joker, Respect and Spencer Confidential.
“Judd Apatow has put together an amazing scrapbook of his life and career. The best part? There’s a lot of pictures. And the stuff that isn’t pictures? You don’t even have to look at! Now if you do read the words, you’ll be delighted. But again, personally, I didn’t. Apatowww! You the best!!!”—**Adam Sandler**
In the mid-eighties, a young, self-professed comedy nerd from Syosset, Long Island, named Judd Apatow took to the stage to perform his first standup routine—and survived. Over the coming decades, Apatow would translate his obsession for comedy into one of the most successful careers in Hollywood, through genre-defining films such as The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Bridesmaids, and This Is 40 and iconic series such as Girls and Freaks & Geeks. Through his solo work as well as his collaborations with fellow comedians Steve Carrell, Adam Sandler, Amy Schumer, and countless others, Apatow reshaped the landscape of American comedy.
In this revelatory scrapbook memoir, Apatow has pulled hundreds of personal photographs, letters, scripts, drafts, and paired them with never-before-told stories to create a unique-in-format, deeply-personal-in-tone account of a storied career. Spanning decades, Comedy Nerd takes us on Apatow’s lifelong journey of fandom, creativity, and obsession: from the exacting, relentless work that goes into cracking people up; surprising stories about our favorite comedians; and insights into how Apatow has managed to push the limits of his craft in an ever-evolving cultural landscape. It is a candid, joyful, and fascinating portrait of an artist and storyteller who has spent decades making us laugh.

An Evening with KENNY CHESNEY (In-person)
2025-11-07 20:00 | CA
One of contemporary American music’s biggest names, Kenny Chesney, talks about his memoir HEART LIFE MUSIC in which he shares the stories of a kid from small town East Tennessee with a dream fueled by the sports and music around him. When his high school football dreams came to an end, he found something more in college. He made ﻿an unexpected connection between people, life and songs from a barstool with a guitar and song. These are the stories of the unlikely game changer who became the sound of coming-of-age in the 21st century, made friends with his heroes, rocked stadiums and founded No Shoes Nation — a state of mind that encourages his fans to embrace freedom, live in the moment and enjoy life’s simple pleasures. Chesney appears in conversation with his co-author Holly Gleason, an American music critic, songwriter and music industry consultant, focused primarily on country and roots music.
