6:00 PM – Julie Whitesel Weston: The Good Times Are All Gone Now: Life, Death and Rebirth in an Idaho Mining Town
Elliott Bay Book Co.
The story of how a small town turned into a Superfund site. I think it has something to do with mining, the usual reason in the American West. Of course, I live near a Superfund site that has nothing to do with mining, so what do I know?
[LINK]

6:00 PM – Selden Edwards: The Little Book
Queen Anne Books
Romance, history, and time-travel.
[LINK]

7:00 PM – Greg Hofmann: No Surrender
Richard Hugo House
“Local artist, writer and zinester Greg Hofmann reads from his debut illustrated novel, “No Surrender.” Featuring additional performances by author Isaac Marion and musical acts Bagheera and Josh Powell.” -RHH
[LINK]

7:00 PM – Rowan Jacobsen: The Living Shore: Rediscovering a Lost World
University Bookstore U-District
Jacobsen is slightly less alarmist about our wee sweet Olympia oysters, than he was about honeybees. Did you know that honeybees are not native to North America? Olympia oysters are. Perhaps one should keep such things in mind when writing books about THE END OF THE WORLD.
[LINK]

7:00 PM – Dr. Donald C. Johanson: Lucy’s Legacy: The Quest for Human Origins
Town Hall Seattle
Ah, yes, where did we come from, or rather, who?
[LINK]

7:00 PM – Ryan Boudinot: Misconception: A Novel
University Bookstore U-District
I am looking forward to reading this book, but I hate titles that end with “A Novel.” No, really? Finding it in the fiction section apparently is not clue enough, I need “A Novel” writ large on the cover and spine?
[LINK]

7:30 PM – Glen Chilton: The Curse of the Labrador Duck: My Obsessive Quest to the Edge of Extinction
Town Hall Seattle
Winner of this month’s “Most Awesome Title” Award. I want to see Chilton’s collection of 55 stuffed ducks. Hey, he’s Canadian: I’m sure if I stopped by unannounced one day, he’d totally invite me in for tea and duck-gaping.
[LINK]

7:30 PM – Lauren Weber: In Cheap We Trust: The Story of a Misunderstood American Virtue
Elliott Bay Book Co.
I’m fascinated by the new interest in frugality, savings, and conservation, really. Suddenly, I’m not a cheap-skate, TV-less freak of nature: I’m thrifty and admirable. How charming.
[LINK]

7:30 PM – Ray C. Anderson: Confessions of a Radical Industrialist: Profits, People, Purpose—Doing Business By Respecting the Earth
Town Hall Seattle
Hear a carpet company CEO talk about creating a sustainable business. Bill McKibben thinks Anderson is a “hero.” YMMV.
[LINK]

8:00 AM – Diane Ackerman: Dawn Light: Dancing with Cranes and Other Ways to Start the Day
Elliott Bay Book Co.
I’m sure that having a morning presentation about a book on the joys of dawn is a lovely idea, but I have to get up at O’Dark-Thirty to catch a bus for work. And on a Monday, no less. Wah!
[LINK]

7:00 PM – John Webster: discusses Shakespeare
University Bookstore U-District
Totes awesome!
[LINK]

7:30 PM – David Byrne w/ Others: Bicycle Diaries
Town Hall Seattle I’ve been eagerly awaiting this book, but tickets are $30! If you have the dosh, go see Mr. Byrne be his interesting self in re: bicycles.
[LINK]

12:00 PM – Carola Dunn: Sheer Folly
Seattle Mystery Bookshop
#18 in a series set in the ’20s. Adorable.
[LINK]

5:00 PM – Robert L. Bergman: Mindless Psychoanalysis, Selfless Self Psychology and Further Explorations
Elliott Bay Book Co.
“Plain spoken and deeply personal yet theoretically sophisticated essays on questions that matter to psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, and anyone with a serious interest in human nature. Written with humor and grace, [this book] takes us on a remarkable exploration of the author’s own psyche as well as our own. Dr. Bergman’s first book is a gift, a deep meditation about what our field and, more importantly, about the mysteries of being human.” – Daniel Jacobs, M.D.
[LINK]

7:30 PM – William Dewey: Without a Soul to Move
Elliott Bay Book Co.
Another post-9/11 novel, set in Denver, by a New Zealand-based writer.
[LINK]

*

Sunday, September 27, 2009

2:00 PM – June Cotner: Dog Blessings
Barnes & Noble University Village
“Calling all Pet Owners and Lovers — Enjoy a special visit with author June as she shares her wonderful book of dog stories and blessings — you’ll laugh, cry and bond with all our guests and their pets!” –B&N
[LINK]

2:00 PM – ReAct Theatre: The Agony & The Agony
Elliott Bay Book Co.
The last offering in Elliott Bay’s Tenth Annual Staged Play Reading Series.
[LINK]

6:30 PM – Dahr Jamail: The Will to Resist: Soldiers Who Refuse to Fight in Iraq and Afghanistan
University Temple Church
A benefit for Coffee Strong.
[LINK]

7:00 PM – Colin Beavan: No Impact Man: The Adventures of a Guilty Liberal Who Attempts to Save the Planet, and the Discoveries He Makes About Himself and Our Way of Life in the Process
University Bookstore U-District
Hopefully this will turn out to be better than My Suburu, but I don’t know yet. Have you read it? Fill me in! (Not that My Suburu was terrible, it just wasn’t as interesting as anticipated. Also, the author of My Suburu thought he was funnier than he actually is. Tragic, really.)
[LINK]

7:30 PM – Charles P. LeWarne: The Love Israel Family: Urban Commune, Rural Commune
Elliott Bay Book Co.
The local historian is at Elliott Bay to promote his book about a bunch of people who didn’t much believe in promoting things.
[LINK]

7:30 PM – Jason Whitmarsh: Tomorrow’s Living Room
Open Books
The poet will read from his first full-length collection, which won the 2009 May Swenson Poetry Award from Utah State University Press.
[LINK]

4:00 PM – Lorene Edwards: Canning and Preserving Your Own Harvest and Hortus Miscellaneous
Queen Anne Farmers Market
A canning demo and signing. Yum.
[LINK]

7:00 PM – Samantha Scholfield: Screw Cupid: The Sassy’s Girl’s Guide to Picking Up Hot Guys
University Bookstore U-District
This is not flipping familiar gender roles. This is totally buying into gender roles. This is a literary Sadie Hawkins and it makes the top of my head pop off.
[LINK]

7:30 PM – George Bowering & Kathleen Flenniken: Poetry Reading
Elliott Bay Book Co.
Bowering, two-time Governor General’s Award winner, and the author of over 70 books, has also served as the first Canadian Parliamentary Poet Laureate. He was made an Officer of the Order of Canada, was awarded the Order of British Columbia, has taught all across Canada and Europe, and has served as writer-in-residence at the University of Rome. He will read from his new collection of poems, The Box. Flenniken will read from her first collection, Famous.
[LINK]

7:30 PM – Max Blumenthal: Crises Among the Radical Right
Town Hall Seattle
“Investigative journalist Max Blumenthal is famous for his left-leaning articles and videos, and lately he’s leaning even further—right into the personal lives of the Republican Party’s extreme right-wing forces. Blumenthal, author of Republican Gomorrah, says the GOP’s leading figures have more in common than just their power in conservative ranks: personal lives stained by crisis, ranging from mental illness to murder. Inspired by the work of psychoanalyst Erich Fromm, who asserted that the fear of freedom leads anxiety-ridden people to embrace authoritarianism, Blumenthal maintains that a culture of personal crisis has defined the radical right, transforming the nature of the Republican Party for the next generation and setting the stage for the future of American politics. Presented by the Town Hall Center for Civic Life, with University Book Store.” -Town Hall
[LINK]

7:30 PM – Reading: Trading Places
Richard Hugo House
“Poet Daemond Arrindell, cartoonist David Lasky and novelist Cienna Madrid “trade” genres with each other and read from new work created in a form that isn’t their norm.” -RHH
[LINK]

5:30 PM – Sheila Himmell: Hungry: A Mother and Daughter Fight Anorexia
Elliott Bay Book Co.
“A courageous account of what it is to exist with a life-threatening eating disorder from two different standpoints—Lisa, the daughter who stops eating, and her mother, Sheila, a restaurant critic. The irony of this situation is not lost on neither, and both are unsentimental and deeply honest about their experience. … This book should comfort anyone confronted with this illness as well as provide much practical help for dealing with it.” – Marion Nestle
[LINK]

6:30 PM – Stephanie Kallos: Sing Them Home
Queen Anne Books
Everyone in Emlyn Springs, Nebraska, knows the story of Hope Jones, the physician’s wife whose big dreams for their tiny town were lost along with her in the tornado of 1978. For Hope’s three young children, the stability of life with their distant, preoccupied father, and with Viney, their mother’s spitfire best friend, is no match for their mother’s absence. Larken, the eldest, is an art history professor who seeks in food an answer to a less tangible hunger; Gaelan, the only son, is a telegenic weatherman who devotes his life to predicting the unpredictable and whose profession, and all too much more, depend on his sculpted frame and ready smile; and Bonnie, the baby of the family is a self-proclaimed archivist who combs the roadsides for clues to her mother’s legacy, and permission to move on. When, decades after their mother’s disappearance, they are summoned home after their father’s sudden death, they are forced to revisit the childhood tragedy at the center of their lives.
[LINK]

7:00 PM – Mary Lou Sanelli: Among Friends: A Memoir of One Woman’s Expectations, Disappointments, Regrets & Discoveries While Searching for Friends-For-Life
University Bookstore U-District
The title still depresses me.
[LINK]

7:00 PM – Rachel Simmons: The Curse of the Good Girl: Raising Authentic Girls with Courage and Confidence
Town Hall Seattle
“To dispel the curse of the good girl, and despite using those familiar, easily misconstrued labels as a touchstone, Simmons offers instructive tales out of school and workshops, revealing that flawed communication rituals and fear of confrontation contribute equally to a girl’s belief that it is more important to be liked than to be an individual … In [this] book, parents will find concrete strategies and tools … to help guide a girl’s growth into a young woman who can respect and listen to her inner voice, say what she feels and thinks, embrace her limits and present an authentic self to the world.” – Publishers Weekly
[LINK]

7:30 PM – Adam Eisenberg: A Different Shade of Blue: How Women Changed the Face of Police Work
Elliott Bay Book Co.
“A Different Shade of Blue is an excellent book that rescues early policewomen from the myth that they were only clerks and babysitters. Adam Eisenberg lets the women tell their own stories, capturing the wide range of police work they did—often unarmed and without glory. A fun and easy read, A Different Shade of Blue is a valuable addition to regional history, women’s history, and police history.” – Dorothy Moses Schultz, Ph.D
[LINK]

7:30 PM – Robert Spector: The Mom and Pop Store: How the Unsung Heroes of the American Economy Are Surviving and Thriving
Town Hall Seattle
Yup.
[LINK]

6:30 PM – Heather Barbieri: Lace Makers of Glenmara
SPL Montlake Branch
Fashion designer has crisis, travels to Ireland, and finds self (amid lingerie). Because pretty panties make everything better.
[LINK]

7:00 PM – Stephanie Kallos: Sing Them Home
University Bookstore U-District
“Everyone in Emlyn Springs, Nebraska, knows the story of Hope Jones, the physician’s wife whose big dreams for their tiny town were lost along with her in the tornado of 1978. For Hope’s three young children, the stability of life with their distant, preoccupied father, and with Viney, their mother’s spitfire best friend, is no match for their mother’s absence. Larken, the eldest, is an art history professor who seeks in food an answer to a less tangible hunger; Gaelan, the only son, is a telegenic weatherman who devotes his life to predicting the unpredictable and whose profession, and all too much more, depend on his sculpted frame and ready smile; and Bonnie, the baby of the family is a self-proclaimed archivist who combs the roadsides for clues to her mother’s legacy, and permission to move on. When, decades after their mother’s disappearance, they are summoned home after their father’s sudden death, they are forced to revisit the childhood tragedy at the center of their lives.”– I have no memory of where this description came from.
[LINK]

7:30 PM – Staged Reading: Abe Lincoln in Illinois
Town Hall Seattle
“Town Hall Seattle and Intiman Theatre present a dramatic reading of selections from the Lincoln-Douglas Debates convened during the 1858 Illinois senatorial campaign. Lincoln, the Republican challenger, was a little-known upstart taking on a political giant. His oratorical brilliance and passionate support of racial equality helped make him an American hero. In this year of the Lincoln Bicentennial, actors Erik Lochtefeld and R. Hamilton Wright – who will play Lincoln and Douglas in Intiman’s production of Abe Lincoln in Illinois – will recreate this seminal moment in political history. The 45-minute reading will be followed by a discussion with the audience.” -Town Hall
[LINK]

7:30 PM – Carolina De Robertis: The Invisible Mountain
Elliott Bay Book Co.
“The history of Uruguay through the 20th century sparks personal tragedies amid political intrigues and cultural upheavals in this enchanting, funny and heartbreaking debut novel. Three generations of women populate this sweeping saga … This novel is beautifully written yet deliberate in its storytelling. It gains momentum as the women’s lives spin increasingly out of control while Uruguay sinks into war, economic instability, and revolution. An extraordinary first effort whose epic scope and deft handling reverberate with the deep pull of ancestry, the powerful influence of one’s country and the sacrifices of reinvention.” – Publishers Weekly
[LINK]

7:30 PM – Jess Walter: The Financial Lives of the Poets
Barnes & Noble University Village
“…a hysterical, heartfelt novel about how we can reach the edge of ruin—and how we can begin to make our way back.” –from the publisher’s description
[LINK]

7:30 PM – Red Pine: In Such Hard Times: The Poetry of Wei Ying-wu
SPL Central Library Microsoft Auditorium
“Planned to be in large part a bilingual reading, this evening showcases this first book of English translation devoted to the work of Wei Ying-wu (737 – 791), a poet who quietly worked in government posts and crafted simple poetry rooted in the natural world. Red Pine’s other translations from Copper Canyon include the classical anthology, Poems of the Masters, The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain, and the forthcoming reissue of Lao-tzu’s Taoteching. As Bill Porter, he is the author of the recent, delightful travel account, Zen Baggage: A Pilgrimage to China.” –EBB
[LINK]

7:00 PM – John Crowley: Fantastic Fiction Salon
Richard Hugo House
“Three-time World Fantasy Award winner and recipient of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature, John Crowley is the author of eleven novels, including the classic “Little, Big.” Crowley will read from and sign his new novel, “Four Freedoms.”" – RHH
[LINK]

7:00 PM – Lesley Hazelton: After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Shia – Sunni Split in Islam
University Temple Church
“…Americans in general, and our politicians in particular, often can’t tell Sunni from Shi’ites. With the publication of this outstanding book, we no longer have any excuse. Hazleton (Jezebel) ties today’s events to their ancient roots, resurrecting seventh century Arabia with reverence and vivid immediacy … The battle to name Muhammad’s successor is gripping—but it is Hazleton’s ability to link the past and present that distinguishes this book … anyone with an interest in the Middle East, U.S. – international relations or a profound story masterfully told will be well served by this exceptional book.” – Publishers Weekly
[LINK]

7:00 PM – Nicolette Bromberg: Picturing the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition: The Photographs of Frank H. Nowell
University Bookstore U-District
ENOUGH ON THE EXPOSITION, ALREADY! [LINK]

7:30 PM – Janet O. Dallett: Listening to the Rhino: Violence and Healing in a Scientific Age
Elliott Bay Book Co.
“Dr. Dallett brings to bear science and intuition, weaving a tapestry of both theory and living examples to instruct as well as emotionally involve the reader. As an analyst, I always find her books provocative and illuminating. She is no ungrounded Pollyanna, but rather a shamaness who offers compassionate guidance into the dark forest—and knows when she must let us find our own way.” – Nicholas French, Ph.D
[LINK]

Saturday , September 18, 2009
7:00 PM – Shifting Words: Poetry Reading
Dunshee House
Shift hosts the fourth installment of this spoken word event. Part of National Recovery Month.
[LINK]

Sunday, September 19, 2009
4:00 PM – Kenneth A. Burr: Coming Out, Coming Home: Making Room for Gay Spirituality in Therapy
Elliott Bay Book Co.
“Gays, Guns, and God” takes on a creepy subtext with this book, which purports to “provide readers a rare opportunity to enlarge their belief systems, and interpretation of Scriptures so they can make room for spirituality that includes homosexuals.” I found this book problematic on many, many levels, not the least being the smarmy “see how enlightened we are? We don’t hate all teh gays… only those that don’t love Jesus!” tone. Excuse me while I gouge out my eyes with a spork.
[LINK]