* 2:00 PM: Elliott Bay Book Company hosts Christina Pratt, author of An Encyclopedia of Shamanism. [LINK]

* 2:00 PM: “If you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes,” is something Seattle-ites say a lot. Why? Why is our weather so messed up? Cliff Mass, UW atmospheric scientist and radio personality explains it all in his book The Weather of the Pacific Northwest. Finally! He’ll be at SPL Central Library, Level 1, Microsoft Auditorium, to answer our burning, freezing, and rain-drenched questions. Mass says, “The weekend looks generally dry (a few light showers perhaps in the north half of the state) and cloudy. Highs in the mid 50s.” Shocking. [LINK]

* 2:00 PM: The Ballard Branch Library hosts local author Michael Schein. He’ll be reading and signing Just Deceits: a Historical Courtroom Mystery. Strangely, I can’t find any holdings at SPL, so don’t expect to be able to check out the book from the Library. Schein is director of LitFuse Poets’ Workshop. Sponsored by Secret Garden Bookshop. [LINK]

* 3:00 PM: Local science fiction/fantasy author David Page will be at the Northgate B&N to talk about his latest novel, Mithras Court: A Novel of the Mists. [LINK]

* 4:00 PM: Travel writer Rolf Potts has travelled back in time from the future to talk about his book Marco Polo Didn’t Go There: Stories and Revelations from One Decade as a Postmodern Travel Writer, at Elliot Bay Book Company. Ask him how! [LINK]

* 5:30 PM: Michael Eric Dyson, author of a ton of books on race and class, is hosted at Mount Zion Baptist Church (1634 19th Ave, Seattle) by the Bush School and Seattle King County NAACP for a lecture entitled “Power, Justice, Freedom: Vote!” The election may be over, but the topic lives on. And can I just take a moment to say, “Yes, we can!” WOOT! I’m finally recovered from the almost debilitating relief. [LINK]

* 7:30 PM: Leslie Walker Williams, author of The Prudent Mariner, yet another novel of the American South, will read and sign at Elliott Bay Books. How many gripping, wise, lucid, inventive, evocative novels of the American South have been written and published to date? Way, way too many. [LINK]

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for Friday, October 31, 2008

Happy Halloween, Samhain, All Saint’s Eve…

* 7:00 PM: The U-District UW Bookstore is hosting a literary Halloween party for those who long to dress up as their favorite fictional character or author. Could be a fabulous time; could be a sucking black hole of pseudo-intellectual narcissism. [LINK]

* 7:30 PM: Juan Cole, author of Napoleon’s Egypt: Invading the Middle East will be reading and discussing his book in Room 120, Kane Hall, University of Washington. Cole, a historian of the Middle East at the U of Michigan, uses primarily French first hand accounts for this book, and concentrates on the first seven months of the French occupation. If you are interested in Napoleon, Egypt, or the history of military logistics (ME! Mememememememe!!!), I suggest and recommend Paul Strathern’s Napoleon In Egypt and/or Mirage: Napoleon’s Scientists and the Unveiling of Egypt by Nina Burleigh, instead. Both are less didactic and more encompassing than Cole. [LINK]

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for Thursday, October 29, 2008

* 7:00 PM: The Burke Museum, rare contributor to our local Lit scene, busts out with Richard Ellis and his non-fiction book Tuna: A Love Story. Ellis is a noted marine artist, as well as the author of over a dozen (really interesting) books, including The Book of Sharks, Imagining Atlantis, and Encyclopedia of the Sea. Presented in conjunction with Elliott Bay Books. [LINK]

* 7:00 PM: Daniel Chirot, UW Sociology professor, co-wrote Why Not Kill Them All?: The Logic and Prevention of Mass Political Murder with Clark R. McCauley. Now he’ll be discussing the book at the University of Washington Club tonight. Genocide, it’s what’s for dinner. [LINK]

* 7:00 PM: On an only slightly less bloodthirsty note, David Wolman will be at the U-District UW Bookstore to discuss and sign his book Righting the Mother Tongue: From Olde English to Email, the Tangled Story of English Spelling, a subject near and dear to my heart. Although, technically, there is no such thing as Olde English. There is Middle English, and before that the language wasn’t English at all, it was Anglo-Saxon, thank you very much. A former professor of Middle English was very firm on this point. I’m still scarred. [LINK]

* 7:30 PM: Open Books in Wallingford hosts Chicana poet Lorna Dee Cervantes. [LINK]

* 7:30 PM: A bunch of New York Review of Books heavyweights will be at Town Hall to discuss the war on terror, the occupation of Iraq, and this year’s presidential election, including Tom Powers, Martin Kettle, Jonathan Raban, and Michael Tomasky. Apparently, there was a series of essays published in the Review, The Consequences to Come: American Power After Bush. I confess, I never read the Review. I do read Jonathan Raban, though, whose presence alone makes this Town Hall worth the cover. Well, Raban and the promise that all of the writers featured will have harsh words for our current president and his, er, administration. Just six more days… or too many months, depending on whether your glass is half full or half empty. $5 at the door, or via www.brownpapertickets.com, 800/838-3006. [LINK]

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for Wednesday, October 29, 2008

* Seattle Public Library has announced that My Jim by Seattle author Nancy Rawles is the 2009 Seattle Reads selection. My Jim is based on the character of Jim in Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Told from the perspective of Jim’s wife, Sadie, My Jim offers a different perspective on the familiar novel. SPL has ordered 38 new trade paperbacks in anticipation of demand, to supplement the six hardcovers currently in stock. [LINK]

The past few years have seen a number of authors retelling classic novels: Ahab’s Wife by Sena J. Naslund, (Moby Dick); March by Geraldine Brooks (Little Women); Wicked by Gregory Maguire (The Wizard of Oz). I’ll be interested in how Rawles’s contribution to the genre compares. Has anyone out there already read it? What did you think?

* 12:15 – 1:45 PM: SPL’s Wallingford Branch hosts Book-It Repertory Theatre for another presentation of their “Danger: Books!” program. Professional actors will read from banned or challenged books. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is way up there on the list of frequently banned or challenged books, which ties in nicely with Seattle Reads 2009. [LINK]

* 6:30 PM: YA Fantasy author Patrick Carman visits SPL Ballard Branch to read from Stargazer, the fourth novel in his “Land of Elyon” series. [LINK]

* 7:00 PM: Laura Anne Gilman will be at the U-District UW Bookstore to read and sign book number five in her “Retrievers” series, Free Fall. A little different from the current wave of paranormal romance novels dominating genre fiction sales, Gilman’s “Retrievers” books tend more towards the Science Fiction end of the spectrum than Fantasy/Horror. They aren’t bad. [LINK]

* 7:30 PM: Town Hall Seattle presents Mike Chinoy, former Senior Asia Correspondent for CNN and author of Meltdown: The Inside Story of the North Korean Nuclear Crisis. Chinoy will talk about North Korea policy in the Bush Administration, as well as what challenges the country may present to our next president. $5 at the door, or via www.brownpapertickets.com, 800/838-3006. [LINK]

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~Mason Cooley

Readings, signings, and other things vaguely literary for Wednesday, October 22, 2008—
* Author Richard Farr will be at the SPL Douglass-Truth Branch at 6:30 PM to read from Emperors of the Ice: A True Story of Disaster and Survival in the Antarctic, 1910-13. It really is about penguins. Who doesn’t love penguins? Penguins are awesome!

* The Montlake Branch hosts Deborah Rohan, author of The Olive Grove: A Palestinian Story. Rohan will read and sign from 6:30 – 7:45 PM.

* For children and their dependents, local authors Kathryn Galbraith and Deb Lund will drop by the Ballard Branch to share their newest picture books. 6:30 – 7:30 PM.

* The SPL Central Library will honor the winners of the Washington Center for the Book’s 2008 Washington State Book Awards at 7:00 PM in the Microsoft Auditorium (Level 1). 2008 marks the 42nd year of the awards. This year’s winners are Matt Ruff in Fiction, for Bad Monkeys; Samuel Green in Poetry, for The Grace of Necessity; Coll Thrush in History/Biography, for Native Seattle: Histories from the Crossing-Over Place; David R. Montgomery in General Nonfiction, for Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations; George Shannon (w/ Laura Dronzek, illus.) and Sherman Alexie share the Scandiuzzi Children’s Book Award.

* Frightening and bizarre Food Network host Sandra Lee is making the rounds with her Semi-Homemade books. She’ll sign copies at the Women’s University Club at 7:00 PM.

* At 7:30 PM, Town Hall Seattle will feature Russell Shorto, author of Descartes’ Bones: A Skeletal History of the Conflict Between Faith and Religion in the Great Hall. Shorto traces the current “culture war” between science and faith back to Rene Descartes’ Discourse on Method. Downstairs, David Zirin will be promoting A People’s History of Sports in the United States. As usual, $5 at the door, or via www.brownpapertickets.com.

* Elliott Bay Books has Jonathan Carroll in-store at 7:30 PM to read and sign his new novel, The Ghost in Love. Library Journal Review says The Ghost in Love is an “occasionally scary, often luminous work of unconventional fantasy.” The description reminds me of A. F. Rützy’s End Credits , only with a dog. And luminous, instead of funny. Anyway, I’m looking forward to comparing the two.

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~James Russell Lowell

* SPL’s Ballard Branch Library has decided that there are not enough poetry months in the year, and thus has declared October as Alternative Poetry Month. They’ll be kicking off the alternative festivities at 6:00 PM tonight with a program by Band of Poets, a bunch of poets who read aloud to the accompaniment of improvised jazz, blues, and country music. Yee-haw! LINK

* Tony Wagner, co-director of the Change Leadership Group at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and adviser to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, speaks about his book, The Global Achievement Gap: Why Even Our Best Schools Don’t Teach the New Survival Skills Our Children Need — And What We Can Do About It, 6:30 PM tonight at the University Child Development School (5062 9th Ave. NE, U-District, Ph: 206 547 8237). Apparently, he was at Town Hall Seattle, last night, so anyone who missed him yesterday can catch up to the rest of the class today. LINK

* Marilynne Robinson will read and sign her new novel, Home, 7:00 – 8:30 PM in the Microsoft Auditorium (Level 1) of the SPL Central Library. Set in the same time and place as Robinson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Gilead, Home tells the story of the Boughton family. Robinson won the PEN/Faulkner award for Housekeeping; any ideas for what Home is going to win? LINK

* Also at 7:00 PM, U-District UW Bookstore hosts Rowan Jacobsen, author of Fruitless Fall: The Collapse of the Honeybee and the Coming Agricultural Crisis. Jacobsen writes about colony collapse disorder and the end of the world as we know it. I can’t get too excited about the topic, myself: honeybees are not native to the America’s (they were introduced by European immigrants: N. American honeybees are a motley hybrid of three European and an African subspecies) and somehow native people managed to survive without them. Jacobsen also wrote A Geography Of Oysters : The Connoisseur’s Guide To Oyster Eating In North America, which I highly recommend for its readability as well as its subject matter. Mmmm, oysters… although, I suppose honey is tasty, too. LINK

* Elliott Bay Books is hosting Danny Goldberg, in-store, at 7:30 PM. Goldberg has written Bumping into Geniuses: My Life Inside the Rock and Roll Business. Goldberg combines cocktail party-type anecdotes with occasionally unsavory revelations about the music business. LINK

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~The Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas

* Robert Kull (not Krull, as I wrote yesterday. Bad blogger, no cookie!) is back to talk about Solitude: Seeking Wisdom in Extremes, this time at Elliott Bay Books, 6:00 PM tonight. LINK

* University Bookstore and University Temple United Methodist Church present poet and author Kathleen Norris tonight at 7:00 PM. Norris will be talking about apathy, depression, and sloth, i.e. her book Acedia and Me: A Marriage, Monks and a Writer’s Life. A lively time will be had by all, I’m sure. LINK

* At 7:30 PM, Seattle Science Lectures, University Bookstore, and Town Hall Seattle host professional tree-climber Nalini Nadkarni. Nadkarni will be promoting and signing her book Between Earth and Sky: Our Intimate Connections to Trees, and discussing, what else? our intimate connections to trees. $5, Downstaris, Town Hall. LINK

* Finally, at 8:00 PM, business writer Stephen Baker will be at Elliott Bay Books to talk about The Numerati. Interesting, but disturbing, The Numerati is non-fiction cyberpunk: Baker predicts a near-future in which computers track our habits, opinions, and preferences to tailor advertising, product development, politics, et cetera, to individual consumers. It’s like looking down the barrel of a glittery, pink, Hello Kitty! gun. LINK

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~ W. Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

Wednesday, September 24, 2008 is courtesy of Elliott Bay Books. I love them, but they are a bit pervasive, no?

* At 6:00 PM, Mark Richardson will be in store to talk about a book about a book. Richardson wrote Zen and Now: On the Trail of Robert Pirsig and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, which is (duh!) about every yuppie’s favorite book, Pirsig’s Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance : An Inquiry Into Values. Richardson is touring the US via (what else?) motorcycle to promote his book. It’s all very deep and self-referential. And why isn’t the word spelled yuppy?

* Town Hall Seattle hosts Tariq Ali at 7:30 PM. Ali puts out a book every year or so, both fiction and non-fiction. He’s currently promoting The Duel: Pakistan on the Flight Path of American Power. An activist as well as a prolific writer, Ali’s primary themes are religion, politics, and place.

* Back at the store, Irvine Walsh, author of Trainspotting, will read and sign his latest novel, Crime, at 8:00 PM. Pedophiles and cocaine, oh my!

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~Gaston Bachelard (1884-1962)

* Tor author Steven Erikson delivers another book in his massive, gory fantasy series, Toll the Hounds: Book Eight of the Malazan Book of the Fallen. He’ll be reading and signing at the U-District UW Bookstore, tonight, Monday, September 22nd at 7:00 PM.

* University Bookstore and the Town Hall Center for Civic Life present French philosopher and author Bernard-Henri Lévy at Town Hall (downstairs), 7:30 – 9:00 PM tonight. Lévy will be discussing his book Left in Dark Times: A Stand Against the New Barbarism… and taking a stand. He’s a French philosopher, ergo expect lots of -isms. Tickets are $5.

* Alternatively, in the Great Hall, upstairs, NYT correspondent Dexter Filkins will be discussing his book, The Forever War (not to be confused with Joe Haldeman’s classic SF novel). A prize-winning war correspondent, Filkins is noted for the empathy he brings to his subjects, as well as his clear, accessible prose. Also, 7:30 – 9:00 PM, $5. Also presented by the Town Hall Center for Civic Life, in conjunction with Elliott Bay Books.

* Chuck Klosterman is at Elliott Bay Books tonight at 7:30 PM to read and discuss his first novel, Downtown Owl. I have not the faintest clue what it’s about. PW says, “Though no single narrative line binds the three—the event that ultimately unites them is a creaking deus ex machina—Klosterman creates a satisfying character study and strikes a perfect balance between the funny and the profound.” There you go.

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~Mason Cooley

* 6:30 – 7:30 PM tonight (Friday, September 19th), Steven Roby will be at Seattle Central Library to lecture about the life and music of Jimi Hendrix. Roby is the author of Black Gold: The Lost Archives Of Jimi Hendrix. The presentation includes photos, audio, and video, and will be followed by a question and answer period. Level 1 / Microsoft Auditorium.

* Before the drunken debauchery of Oktoberfest, why not balance your karma? At 7:30 tonight, Somaly Mam will be at Elliott Bay Books to discuss her book and her life. Mam is the author of The Road of Lost Innocence: The True Story of a Cambodian Heroine, her horrific account of childhood sexual slavery in Southeast Asia. She’s also president and cofounder of Cambodia’s AFESIP (Acting for Women in Distressing Circumstances) and of the Somaly Mam Foundation in the U.S.

* On Saturday, September 20th at 2:00 PM, Elliott Bay Books hosts local author Harry Rutstein. Rutstein is the executive director of Marco Polo Foundation, Inc. and has released two books: In the Footsteps of Marco Polo: A Twentieth-Century Odyssey (with Joanne Kroll) and The Marco Polo Odyssey: In the Footsteps of a Merchant Who Changed the World.

* I have no idea what a “religious legal thriller” (Publishers Weekly) might be, but apparently Larry Beinhart has written one. He’ll read and sign Salvation Boulevard twice on Saturday, September 20th: Noon at Seattle Mystery Bookshop and 7:30 PM at Elliott Bay Books.

* Fans of dance will be excited by the chance to meet Twyla Tharp on Sunday, September 21st at 2:00 PM. The famed choreographer will be at Elliott Bay Books as part of a Pacific Northwest Ballet special event: PNW Ballet Educational Programs manager Doug Fullington, artist Charlie Neshbyba-Hodges, ballet master Paul Gibson, soloist Chalnessa Eames, and Tharp will discuss art, dance, or whatever else strikes their fancy. Tharp will also be available to sign her book The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life.

* Poetry in the Park returns to Victor Steinbrueck Park on Sunday, 4:00 – 6:00 PM. Susan Lane, Mercedes Lawry, Nancy Pagh, Anne Pitkin, and Joannie Stangeland will read.

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