Don’t Be a Grinch the Week of December 6, 2010

This week’s readings and signings are all about the gifts. History buffs will want to check out readings by Edmund Morris [CANCELED!] and James Bradley, both of whom have serious Teddy Roosevelt biographies out, or Charles Wilkinson, who opens a window on the Siletz people. Science geeks will be interested in seeing Stan Fields at Town Hall tonight, while Science Fiction geeks should head to Pilot Books for Ted Chiang and Erik Owomoyela.

If the current state of American politics raises your blood pressure and makes you froth at the mouth, or you have a Red-state relative that you really want to piss off, get a book signed by Joshua Holland, Wendell Potter, or Doug Massey, and send it off with your very best wishes. For relatives you don’t loathe and despise, there is Sam Verhovek’s history of the jet airplane or John Richardson’s A Life of Picasso, both of which have local relevance while being non-confrontational.

Trying to lure someone you actually like to Seattle? David Volk gives the scoop on how to live in Seattle on the cheap, while The SunBreak contributor Jay Friedman shares how to eat well. Art, poetry, and music round out this week’s list.

12/06/10 6 p.m. Pilot Books
Writer’s Group
“New exercises every week. Come prepared to write and discuss.” Aye, Cap’n!

12/06/10 7 p.m. UW Bookstore
David Volk
Cheap Bastard’s Guide to Seattle
It really all depends on your definition of “cheap.” Or, perhaps, “bastard.”

12/06/10 7 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Matthew Kangas
Burning Forest: The Art of Maria Frank Abrams
Seattle art critic and curator Kangas will discuss the work of local artist and Holocaust survivor Marina Frank Abrams.

12/06/10 7:30 p.m. Town Hall Seattle
Stan Fields
Genetic Twists of Fate
The UW professor explains that it really is all your parents’ fault.

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12/07/10 10 a.m. Barnes & Noble U-Village
Jeannie Ianelli
The Polar Express
Celebrity story-time, or so B&N claims. Who the hell is Jeannie Ianelli?

12/07/10 11:30 a.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
ReAct Theatre
Holiday Storytime
Actors will present classic holiday stories near the castle.

12/07/10 7 p.m. Bellevue Regional Library
Candace Dempsey
Murder in Italy
Not technically within my coverage zone, but our editor has a big thing for the Amanda Knox story, so I’m currying favor by including the reading.

12/07/10 7 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Christian Lander
Whiter Shades of Pale: The Stuff White People Like, Coast to Coast, from Seattle’s Sweaters to Maine’s Microbrews
Play a round of White Bingo during your next car trip. Fun for the whole family. (Hint: The answer is “mayonnaise.”)

12/07/10 7 p.m. Barnes & Noble U-Village
Joshua Holland
The Fifteen Biggest Lies about the Economy: And Everything Else the Right Doesn’t Want You to Know About Taxes, Jobs, and Corporate America
The editor and senior writer at AlterNet will discuss his book.

12/07/10 7 p.m. UW Bookstore
Truman Capote
A Christmas Memory
UW Book Buyer Brad Craft will read the holiday story.

12/07/10 7:30 p.m. Town Hall Seattle
Sam Verhovek
Jet Age
“Seattle journalist Sam Howe Verhovek, author of Jet Age, moderates a discussion with those who designed, built, sold, and flew the iconic jet airliner: Joe Sutter, legendary Boeing 707 engineer and “Father of the 747″; test pilot Brien Wygle; engineer Peter Morton; and PanAm stewardess Paula Clark. The event also features rare photographs and promotional film footage of the 707.” – UW

12/07/10 8 p.m. Pilot Books
Feminist SF
Book Club

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12/08/10 12:10 p.m. Seattle Public Library
Giovanni Pergolesi
La Serva Padrona (The Servant Mistress)
The Ladies Musical Club presents the comic opera for a little lunchtime relief.

12/08/10 6 p.m. Richard Hugo House
Write Time
Weekly
Weekly drop-in writing group for teens.

12/08/10 7 p.m. UW Kane Hall, Room 210
Charles Wilkinson
The People are Dancing Again
“The history of the Siletz is in many ways the history of many Indian tribes: a story of heartache, perseverance, survival, and revival. The history of the Siletz people began in a resource-rich homeland thousands of years ago. Today, the tribe is a vibrant, modern community with a deeply held commitment to tradition. Event co-sponsored by Kane Hall/Classroom Support Services, Native American Law Center, Native American Studies.” – UW

12/08/10 7 p.m. Richard Hugo House
Stage Fright
Weekly
Open mic for teens.

12/08/10 7:30 p.m. Benaroya Hall
John Richardson
A Life of Picasso
Seattle Arts and Lectures Richardson and art historian Gjis van Hensbergen, in conjunction with SAM’s exhibit, Picasso: Masterpieces from the Musée National Picasso.

12/08/10 7:30 p.m. Town Hall Seattle
Wendell Potter
Deadly Spin
Potter explains how underpants gnomes have high-jacked America’s health care system.

12/09/10 12 p.m. Seattle Mystery Bookshop
Jon Talton
South Phoenix Rules
In book six of the David Mapstone series, Mapstone’s sister could be in danger from Mexican drug cartels.

12/09/10 5:30 p.m. Barnes & Noble U-Village
Ray Roberts
Poetry Reading
The former Seahawks player will read poetry with Friends of the Children.

12/09/10 6 p.m. Ballard Branch Library
Writer’s Reading Series
It’s About Time
The 254th meeting of the reading and open mic series.

12/09/10 6:30 p.m. Pilot Books
Brian McGuigan
Adult Story Time
Hugo House’s McGuigan reads stories for grown-ups.

12/09/10 6:30 p.m. UW Kane Hall, Room 120
Doug Massey
“America’s War on Immigrants”
“Over the past three decades the United States has enacted an increasingly harsh set of polices directed at Latin American immigrants, especially those from Mexico, both documented and undocumented. This lecture offers an explanation for the rising animus against immigrants and traces the effects of the “Latino threat narrative” on public policies and how they have increasingly acted to “racialize” Latinos to produce a new American underclass.” – UW

12/09/10 7 p.m. Seattle Public Library
Aife Murray
Maid as Muse: How Servants Changed Emily Dickinson’s Life and Language
“Imaginative, informative, and consistently lively. A deeply felt response to Dickinson’s domestic context that amplifies our understanding of nineteenth-century American literary and social history.” – Vivian Pollack

12/09/10 7 p.m. UW Bookstore
Grace Krilanovich with Ryan Boudinot & Gabriel Blackwell
The Orange Eats Creeps
“…hobo vampire junkies roam a dreamy, apocalyptic Pacific Northwest scoring drugs and attending basement punk rock shows.” – UW

12/09/10 7 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Sarahlee Lawrence
River House: A Memoir
“Sarahlee Lawrence tells a story as carefully hewn and crafted, as lovingly rendered, as the log cabin she and her father have built in the high desert of central Oregon. It’s a story of roots, the pull of the land that calls her back to the heart of her family farm.” – Judy Blunt.

12/10/10 6 p.m. Borders
Aliqua
All I Want
The musical group will sign their CD.

12/10/10 6 p.m. Pilot Books
Chanukwanzmas Shopping Party
Food, entertainment, reps from local small presses, gift-wrap… whee!

12/10/10 7 p.m. Seattle Public Library
Edmund Morris [CANCELED]
Colonel Roosevelt
The third and final volume of Morris’s epic biography of Teddy Roosevelt.

12/10/10 7 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
James Bradley
The Imperial Cruise: A Secret History of Empire and War
“A provocative study … What is fascinating about Bradley’s reconstruction of a largely neglected aspect of Theodore Roosevelt’s legacy is the impact his racial theories and his obsession with personal and national virility had on his diplomacy. Engrossing and revelatory, The Imperial Cruise is revisionist history at its best.” – Ronald Steel, The New York Times Book Review [The phrase "revisionist history" scares me.]

12/10/10 7:30 p.m. Open Books Poem Emporium
Robert Wrigley
Beautiful Country
The poet extols the virtues of rural Idaho.

12/10/10 8 p.m. Pilot Books
Ted Chiang and Erik Owomoyela
Stories of Your Life and Others
A science fiction reading worth listening to.

12/11/10 11:30 a.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
ReAct Theatre
Holiday Storytime
Actors will present classic holiday stories near the castle.

12/11/10 3 p.m. Gilman Village, Issaquah
Pacific Northwest Writers Association
Holiday Party
Join Robert Dugoni, Susan Wingate, Marcella Burnard, and Elizabeth Boyle, among others, for the annual holiday party and book signing.

12/11/10 4 p.m. Green Lake Branch Library
PoetsWest
Open mic.

12/11/10 5 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Robin Goldstein, et al
The Fearless Critic: Seattle Restaurant Guide
The SunBreak’s own Jay Friedman will be on hand to tell you where and what to eat. Stop by and show him some love.