Each month, the Elliott Bay Book Club reads and discusses the best in contemporary fiction with the occasional classic thrown in for good measure. Considered by contemporary critics to be Anthony Trollope's greatest novel, The Way We Live Now is a satire of the literary world of nineteenth-century London and a bold indictment of the new power of speculative finance in English life. The story concerns Augustus Melmotte, a French swindler and scoundrel, and his daughter, to whom Felix Carbury, adored son of the authoress Lady Carbury, is induced to propose marriage for the sake of securing a fortune. Trollope's portrait of Lady Carbury, impetuous, unprincipled, and unswervingly devoted to her own self-promotion, is one of his finest satirical achievements. In his kaleidoscopic depiction of a society on the verge of moral bankruptcy. Trollope gives us life as it was lived more than a hundred years ago, while speaking eloquently to some of the governing obsessions of our own age. Victoria Glendinning said of the novel, "The Way We Live Now is the essence of Trollope. If he had written no other novel, it would have ensured his immortality."

Co-presented with the TOWN HALL CENTER FOR CIVIC LIFE. Demos co-founder David Callahan explores the rise of progressive political influence on Wall Street, Hollywood, Silicon Valley, and elsewhere in his new book, Fortunes of Change: The Rise of the Liberal Rich and the Remaking of America (Wiley). "Reading Fortunes of Change is like finding the missing piece to a jigsaw puzzle. Sweeping economic changes are profoundly reshaping our politics—and not in ways we usually think. These shifts are reshaping the beliefs of the upper class and creating a new and very potent political force—the liberal wealthy elite. Callahan's must-read book provides a whole new perspective on our economy and political culture." - Richard Florida. $5 tickets are available at the door starting at 6:30 p.m. or in advance via www.brownpapertickets.com (1-800-838-3006). Town Hall Seattle is at 1119 Eighth Avenue (at Seneca). Preferred seating for Town Hall members. For more information on this evening, please call Elliott Bay at (206) 624-6600, Town Hall Seattle at (206) 652-4255, or see www.townhallseattle.org.