6:30 PM: David Shields: The Thing About Life Is That One Day You’ll Be Dead
SPL University Branch
I’ve been collecting morbid witticisms for decades (“Life is an STD,” “Breathing is an addiction”), which probably indicates that I have some sort of death wish. I don’t know if Shields has a death wish, too, but his book assembles personal anecdotes, quotes by famous people, and various death-related trivia for our entertainment and edification. [LINK]

7:00 PM: Various: David Foster Wallace
Richard Hugo House, Cabaret
Local authors Paul Constant, Cienna Madrid, and David Schmader read from the work of David Foster Wallace (Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, Infinite Jest, et cetera). [LINK]

7:30 PM: Aaron Glantz: The War Comes Home: Washington’s Battle Against America’s Veterans
Town Hall Seattle, Downstairs, $ 5.00
Journalist and author, Aaron Glantz, adds another chapter to the Post-Bush horror-show, with this damning expose of the shameful and inexcusable treatment of veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. I’ve got to quit reading this stuff; exposes of the Bush years have become their own genre, but every new one raises my blood pressure another 10 points. I simply can’t believe the breadth and scope of greed, fraud, and inhumanity that was not only allowed, but encouraged, by the last administration. /rant [LINK]

7:30 PM: Abraham Verghese: Cutting for Stone
Elliott Bay Book Co.
The author and doctor has published a couple of non-fiction books to excellent reviews. With Cutting for Stone, his first novel, he unleashes a complex tale that spans generations and countries. [LINK]

7:30 PM: Richard Robbins & Gary Thompson: The Untested Hand / To the Archeologist Who Finds UsOpen Books
The poets read from their respective works. [LINK]

CORRECTED: QUINCY JONES IS TOMORROW 02/27. DEEPEST APOLOGIES FOR THE EGREGIOUS ERROR.