Oh, the Places You Will Go the Week of October 4, 2010

It’s another monster week for bibliophiles. There are nearly fifty different literary events at over a dozen venues in-city. It’s daunting, to say the least. Grab a pen and paper, or your BlackBerry, or whatever you use to schedule yourself, and prepare to take notes. Deep breath… you ready? Okay, here we go:

10/04/10 6 p.m. Pilot Books
Writer’s Group
“New exercises every week. Come prepared to write and discuss.” Aye, Cap’n!

10/04/10 7 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Lan Samantha Chang
All is Forgotten, Nothing is Lost
A novel about poets by the author of Hunger and Inheritance.

10/04/10 7 p.m. Town Hall Seattle
Michele Norris with Lynne Varner
The Grace of Silence: A Memoir
Ms. Norris is co-host of NPR’s All Things Considered. She will be speaking about her first book with Seattle Times columnist Varner.

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10/04/10 7:30 p.m. Town Hall Seattle
Hardy Green
The Company Town: The Industrial Edens and Satanic Mills That Shaped the American Economy
Green discusses how company towns have both reflected and influenced American capitalism, for better or for (usually) worse.

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10/05/10 7 p.m. UW Bookstore
Cherie Priest
Dreadnought
The author of Boneshaker returns with a semi-sequel.

10/05/10 7 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
James Howard Kunstler
The Witch of Hebron
Author of many books, as well as the blog column Clusterfuck Nation, Kunstler is promoting his sequel to A World Made By Hand.

10/05/10 7 p.m. Clover Park Technical College
Scott Simon
Baby We Were Meant for Each Other: In Praise of Adoption
Simon isn’t going to be talking about his book, but I bet he’ll sign your copy, if you ask nicely.

10/05/10 7 p.m. Secret Garden Books
Tad Hills
How Rocket Learned to Read
A little yellow birdie tells us that the author & illustrator of the Duck and Goose books will be in to read and sign. Awww.

10/05/10 7:30 p.m. Town Hall Seattle
Robert Reich
Aftershock: The Next Economy And America’s Future
Former Secretary of Labor and author of Supercapitalism is in town to promote his new book and suggest that the middle class is getting reamed. No shit, Sherlock.

10/05/10 7:30 p.m. Benaroya Hall
T.R. Reid
The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care
Reid is a journalist and documentary film-maker; he produced the Frontline series Sick Around the World. In this talk, he will examine why the richest country in the world ranks 37th in health care cost, quality, and coverage. I believe MvB will be attending this. (I may have precipitously called it “a total snooze.”) Ahem. I’m sure it will be very interesting. And informative!

10/06/10 6 p.m. Pilot Books
E.E. King
Dirk Quigby’s Guide to the Afterlife: All You Need to Know to Choose the Right Heaven Plus a Five-Star Rating System for Music, Food, Drink, & Accommodations
Despite the title, King is not Douglas Adams, back from the dead. I think.

10/06/10 6 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Kristen Hersh
Rat Girl: A Memoir
Co-founder of Throwing Muses, musician Hersh turns author with this lovely and open memoir.

10/06/10 7 p.m. Secret Garden Books
Steve Duno
Last Dog on the Hill: The Extraordinary Life of Lou
Lou could kick Lassie’s fuzzy ass.

10/06/10 7:30 p.m. Town Hall Seattle
Eliza Griswold
Tenth Parallel: Dispatches from the Fault Line Between Christianity and Islam
The journalist and poet discusses the interrelationships between religion, commerce, and politics at the conjunction of Christian and Muslim ideologies, using the 10th parallel as a geographic delineator.

10/07/10 7:30 p.m. Barnes & Noble U Village
Steve Johnson
Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation
Our editor reviewed this book, last week. You should go read what he had to say.

10/06/10 8 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
R. Tripp Evans
Grant Wood: A Life
A fascinating and frank biography of the deeply closeted creator of the iconic painting American Gothic.

10/07/10 5 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Robert K. Elder
Last Words of the Executed
Professor Elder has collected last words from the 17th century to the present, and organized them by execution method and period. Deeply, deeply disturbing on so very many levels.

10/07/10 7 p.m. UW Bookstore
Bo Caldwell
City of Tranquil Light
A novel about a missionary in China in the early 20th century. Apparently, God called

10/07/10 7 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Jessica Kane & Tiphanie Yanique
The Report / How to Escape from a Leper Colony
Two debut authors from the same press share time at EBBC, this evening. Elliott Bay would have us believe this is entirely happenstance. Likely story.

10/07/10 7 p.m. Richard Hugo House
Joseph Skibell
A Curable Romantic
Hugo House, Elliott Bay Book Company, Jewish In Seattle, and the UW chapter of HILLEL come together to welcome the award-winning author.

10/07/10 7 p.m. Sunset Tavern
Kurt B. Reigley
United States of Americana: Backyard Chickens, Burlesque Beauties, & Handmade Bitters: A Field Guide to the New American Roots Movement
Reighley makes another appearance, this one at the Sunset Tavern. Sponsored by Secret Garden Books.

10/07/10 7 p.m. Secret Garden Books
Michael Wright
Jake Goes Peanuts
Jake is still awake, and now he has to go to school. Bummer!

10/07/10 7 p.m. Sorrento Hotel
Steven Johnson
Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation
The author will discuss his really quite interesting book while attendees get sozzled on wine, courtesy of Snoqualmie’s Whistlestop.

10/07/10 7:30 p.m. Town Hall Seattle
David Rakoff
Half Empty
“Assume the worst, and you will never be disappointed.” Unless, of course, you lack imagination.

10/07/10 7:30 p.m. Town Hall Seattle
Richard Rhodes
The Twilight of the Bombs
The Pulitzer winner finishes up his history of the nuke in the post-Cold War era and looks to the future. Which, frankly, I didn’t believe in when I was in the 8th grade, because it seemed pretty likely that we were going to blow ourselves to hell, any day, but no.

10/08/10 7 p.m. UW Bookstore
Ben Greenman
Celebrity Chekhov
Some people don’t find this recast of Chekhov with current celebrities contrived and problematic. Those people probably read The New Yorker without wincing.

10/08/10 7 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Steven Kotler
A Small Furry Prayer: Dog Rescue and the Meaning of Life
Kotler is the owner of Rancho de Chihuahua, a sanctuary for special needs dogs. Rancho de Chihuahua. Ahem.

10/08/10 7 p.m. Seattle Public Library
Washington Center for the Book
Washington State Book Awards
Lucia Perillo, author of Inseminating the Elephant won for poetry. It’s been over a year since the collection came out and the the title still makes me giggle.

10/08/10 7:30 p.m. Open Books Poem Emporium
Matthew Zapruder
Come On All You Gods
San Francisco poet and editor for Seattle’s Wave Books, Zapruder will read from his third collection of poetry.

10/09/10 1 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Amy Lang
Birds + Bees + YOUR Kids: A Guide to Sharing Your Beliefs About Sexuality, Love, and Relationships
How to talk to your kids about sex like a sane person. Not birds, not bees, not flowers or trees, but sex: fornication, reproduction, the whole humpty dance. Do it for the children!

10/09/10 12 p.m. Seattle Mystery Bookshop
Alan Jacobson
Velocity
FBI profilers, DoD “covert” operatives, a missing police officer… there are a lot of people toting guns in this book.

10/09/10 2 p.m. Borders
Jack de Yonge
Boom Town Boy
A boy comes of age in Alaska. Whatever.

10/09/10 2 p.m. Fremont Branch Library
Washington Poets Association
Poetry in Fremont
A new program in the series.

10/09/10 4 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Allison Hoover Bartlett
The Man Who Loved Books Too Much: The True Story of a Thief, a Detective, and a World of Literary Obsession
A terrific book about a man who steals terrific books.

10/09/10 4 p.m. Seattle Public Library
An Evening on the Strings of Poetry and Music at the University Branch
Русский (in Russian)
в исполнении Аллы Тихоновой и Валерии Винярской; ведущий: Лешек Худзинский. Бедный человек i изучил русского на леты, поэтому я не имею никакие идеи чего я говорю.

10/09/10 4 p.m. Green Lake Branch Library
PoetsWest
Open mic.

10/09/10 6 p.m. UW Bookstore
Creepy Tales!
StoryTime for Grown-ups
Every Saturday in October, UW Bookstore staff will read classic tales of terror. And yes, of course Shirley Jackson is on the list. Sheesh.

10/09/10 6:30 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Angie Chau
Quiet As They Come
The Hedgebrook alumna introduces her debut book, a collection of short stories.

10/09/10 9:30 a.m. SAAM
Peter Moran
Circling the Center: Pilgrimage in the Tibetan Cultural World
Part of the Saturday University Sacred Sites of Asia Lecture Series.

10/10/10 1 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Novel Live & Arts Crush
Literary Week launch party
Youth workshops until 5 p.m. (pre-registration required). At 6 p.m. Garth Stein and Nancy Pearl will kick off The Novel: LIVE! Wheeeeee!!!

10/10/10 3 p.m. Secret Garden Books
Seattle Children’s Theatre
The Borrowers
Secret Garden teams up with Seattle Children’s Theatre, this season, to present interactive events with artists from the Theatre.

10/10/10 9 p.m. The Can Can
The Bushwick Book Club
Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse 5
Local musicians come together to present original music based on a novel. Nifty! Part of the Arts Crush festival; a book discount is available from Elliott Bay by mentioning “The Bushwick Book Club.”