Two Readings (and Another Flash Mob) the Week of December 27, 2010

The publishing industry, and the attendant publicity machine, drops off the face of the planet the last week or two of every year. Everybody deserves a vacation, and those people work like dogs, so I don’t begrudge them the annual vanishing act. As a result, though, the literary calendar is feather-light.

This week we’ve got two readings featuring local authors: Jayne Ann Krentz continues her Arcane Society novels with book number ten, and The Best Music Writing series offers the 2010 edition. Both are yummy holiday reading, suitable for making the bathtub a slightly less depressing place to hide while your relatives duke it out elsewhere.

12/28/10 12 p.m. Seattle Mystery Bookshop
Jayne Ann Krentz
In Too Deep
The first novel in a new Arcane Society set, The Looking Glass Trilogy. The book is quite good. The cover is, unfortunately, quite dreadful. I have chosen to protect you, our loyal readers, from the trauma. Don’t say I never did anything for you.

12/28/10 7 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Ann Powers, Sean Nelson, Chris Estey
Best Music Writing 2010
“Best of” collections can be challenging. Occasionally, I think the editors of such volumes are brachycephalic cretins who should seek other work. Not so with the Best Music Writing series—the books have consistently featured smart, modern pieces that somehow manage to hang onto relevance (and humor) long after the original publication date.

Elliott Bay Books & Cafe was visited by a flash mob, by the way. Local choreographer Bobby Bonsey managed to get a few hundred Janet Jackson fans together on Sunday to hit Pioneer Square, University Village, and Capitol Hill. Apparently, Ms. Jackson is going on tour in 2011, but she seems to be leaving it up to fans to choose the cities she’ll visit. The day’s mobs were intended to encourage her to make Seattle one of her tour dates.

The video stutters, but you get the idea:

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I had not quite realized that Ms. Jackson has been putting out albums for 30 years, now. My, how the time flies.