“But for an accident of birth, you might be as they are,” went the line from the film Freaks — a passage of compassion that was rare back in 1932 but a bit more prevalent these days as we better understand the role genetics play in our every undertaking — and the limits of can-do spirit. Andrew Solomon, author of the New York Times bestseller Far From the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity, appears in conversation with L.A. Times staff writer Thomas Curwen to discuss slightly more modern examples in courage. His book reveals the lives of various families whose members — the prodigies and the autistics, the schizophrenics and the transgendered — are profoundly different from their parents and yet prosper because those families truly love them in all their exceptionalism. Love is a powerful emotion, Solomon demonstrates, which not only defines the family as a whole but also gives children the impetus to find the strength to become as whole individual adults as they possibly can. Part of the Library Foundation's ALOUD series, this one is sure to make you think, and rethink, everything you thought you knew. Mark Taper Auditorium at the Central Library, 630 W. Fifth St., dwntwn.; Tues., Oct. 22, 7:15 p.m.; free. (213) 228-7500, lfla.org.

Tue., Oct. 22, 7:15 p.m., 2013

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