6:00 PM – Ellen Hopkins: Identical
SPL Central Library
Ellen Hopkins writes gritty young adult fiction in free verse, and masterfully tackles her often-times dark subject matter with honesty and empathy. Her new title features identical twins who struggle with their relationship with their father in the absence of a career politician mother. One girl feels she is losing the battle for her father’s attention, and the other receives inappropriate kinds of attention from the man. [Source: UW Bookstore]
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6:00 PM – It’s About Time: Readings
SPL Ballard Branch
The Ballard Branch welcomes the ongoing program “It’s About Time Writers Reading Series.”
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7:00 PM – Jon Scieszka: Party!
Secret Garden Bookshop
Library of Congress National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, Jon Scieszka is the author of many bestselling children’s titles, including The Stinky Cheese Man, which won a Caldecott Honor medal, The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, which has sold over three million copies and been translated into 14 languages, and the Time Warp Trio, a chapter book series, as well as the new memoir Knucklehead: Tall Tales and Almost True Stories of Growing Up Scieszka, and Guys Write for Guys Read. [Source: Secret Garden Books]
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7:00 PM – Lynda Mapes: Breaking Ground: The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe and the Unearthing of Tse-whit-zen Village
Burke Museum
Award-winning Seattle Times journalist Lynda Mapes spent over a year interviewing the people involved in the 2003 discovery of the oldest and largest Indian village ever unearthed in the Northwest. It began with a backhoe digging out a space for a massive local dry dock and stumbling upon the long-buried village of Tse-whit-zen, the central city to the Klallam people. The book looks at the history and culture of the Klallam, and the controversy that surrounded the cessation of the dig, which had already cost the state $70 million. [Source: UW Bookstore]
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7:30 PM – Ruth Reichl: Not Becoming My Mother, & Other Things She Taught Me Along the Way
Elliott Bay Book Co.
“The slender size of Reichl’s memoir of her late mother’s life belies its powerful tale of a young woman, Miriam Brudno, who bowed to societal and familial pressure to become a wife and mother over pursuing a fulfilling career. While Reichl is well known for writing about her culinary adventures, this beautifully crafted homage follows a more personal path as she pushes past “Mim Tales”—stories she told about her mother to entertain her readers and friends—to dive deep into her mother’s diaries and letters, paying tribute to a woman who was raised when ‘good women didn’t work if they didn’t have to’ … Reichl has created a masterful portrait of a mother-daughter relationship that will resonate with readers across generations.” – Publishers Weekly.
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7:30 PM – Tamim Ansary: Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes
Town Hall Seattle, Downstairs, $5
In the days after Sept. 11, Afghanistan native Tamim Ansary became a media celebrity, serving as a cultural interpreter with a unique perspective on U.S.-Middle East relations. His sweeping new narrative allows Ansary to interpret even broader swaths of culture, telling the story of world history as the Islamic world sees it, from the time of Mohammed to the fall of the Ottoman Empire and beyond. Through his uniquely qualified analyses of history, education, and modern-day conflicts, Ansary clarifies why Western and Islamic civilizations grew up oblivious to each other, what happened when they intersected, and how the Islamic world was affected by its slow recognition that Europe had somehow “hijacked” destiny. Sponsored by Town Hall and University Book Store. Part of the Town Hall Center for Civic Life. [Source: Town Hall Seattle]
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