7:00 PM – Midge Raymond: Forgetting English: Stories
UW Bookstore, U District
The winner of the 2007 Spokane Prize for Short Fiction will read from her newest collection.
[LINK]

7:30 PM – Amy Stewart: Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln’s Mother & Other Botanical Atrocities
Elliott Bay Book Co.
Best title so far this year! From the publisher: “A tree that sheds poison daggers; a glistening red seed that stops the heart; a shrub that causes paralysis; a vine that strangles; and a leaf that triggered a war. In Wicked Plants, Stewart takes on over two hundred of Mother Nature’s most appalling creations. It’s an A to Z of plants that kill, maim, intoxicate, and otherwise offend. You’ll learn which plants to avoid (like exploding shrubs), which plants make themselves exceedingly unwelcome (like the vine that ate the South), and which ones have been killing for centuries (like the weed that killed Abraham Lincoln’s mother). Menacing botanical illustrations and splendidly ghastly drawings create a fascinating portrait of the evildoers that may be lurking in your own backyard. Drawing on history, medicine, science, and legend, this compendium of bloodcurdling botany will entertain, alarm, and enlighten even the most intrepid gardeners and nature lovers.” Stewart is a wonderful horticultural writer; both The Earth Moved and Flower Confidential were educational, edifying, and highly entertaining.
[LINK]

7:30 PM – Laleh Khadivi: The Age of Orphans
Barnes & Noble University Village
Lyrical, brutal, and compelling, this debut is the story of Reza, a young Kurdish boy, whose family is slaughtered. Conscripted into the very army that destroyed his people, Reza eventually becomes overseer, and oppressor, of his former homeland. A powerful debut novel, and apparently the first of a trilogy.
[LINK]

8:30 PM – Lee Child: Gone Tomorrow
SPL Central Library, Microsoft Auditorium
The author reads from his 13th (!!!) Jack Reacher novel.
[LINK]