Readings and Signings for the Week of January 24, 2011

Edmund Morris, who was scheduled to visit the SPL back on December 10, 2010, will finally share the third volume of his definitive biography of Theodore Roosevelt on Wednesday, 1/26.  The first volume won a Pulitzer, don'tcha know. Unfortunately, Town Hall has Sherry Turkle booked at the same time, which causes a dismaying conflict between history and modernity.

Also highly recommended this week are Stephanie Coontz at Town Hall tonight, discussing The Feminine Mystique 50-ish years later; tomorrow's lecture about dark matter by Richard Panek; and Inaugural poet Elizabeth Alexander on Thursday, 1/27, at Kane Hall.

1/24/2011 12:15 p.m. UW Bookstore
City Club
A Conversation with Dr. Phyllis Wise
A public interrogation of the UW (Interim?) President; go ask about budgets, research, tuition, and curriculum.

1/24/2011 7:30 p.m. Benaroya Hall
Seattle Arts and Lectures
Elizabeth Strout
SAL presents the Pulitzer-winning author of multiple novels.

1/24/2011 6 p.m. Pilot Books
Writer's Group
New exercises every week. Come prepared to write and discuss. Aye, Cap'n!

1/24/2011 7 p.m. Town Hall Seattle
Stephanie Coontz
A Strange Stirring: The Feminine Mystique and American Women at the Dawn of the 1960s
The social historian and Evergreen State professor "analyzes the impact of Betty Friedan's groundbreaking 1963 book on the generation of white, middle-class women electrified by Friedan's argument that beneath the surface contentment, most housewives harbored a deep well of insecurity, self-doubt, and unhappiness ... Coontz contends that Friedan's great achievement was uplifting so many women out of despair even if her book ignored the problems of working women, especially blacks, and tapped into concerns people were already mulling over ... This perceptive, engrossing book provides welcome context and background to a still controversial bestseller that changed how women view themselves."- Publishers Weekly

1/24/2011 7 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Susan Noyes Platt
Art and Politics Now: Cultural Activism in a Time of Crisis
The local art historian and critic considers art that engages issues such as war, terrorism, and racism.

1/25/2011 6:30 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Stages
The Coast of Utopia, by Tom Stoppard
The EBBC drama book group discusses Stoppard's brilliant Russian trilogy.

1/25/2011 7:30 p.m. Town Hall Seattle
Richard Panek
The 4-Percent Universe
96% percent of the universe is a complete mystery. Sort of like the human brain.

1/25/2011 12 p.m. Seattle Mystery Bookshop
Donna Fletcher Crow
A Very Private Grave
A young seminarian finds a dead friar. Hijinks ensue.

1/26/2011 7 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Janice Shapiro
Bummer and Other Stories
Another Brooklyn-based writer debuts a short story collection.

1/26/2011 7 p.m. Seattle Public Library
Edmund Morris
Colonel Roosevelt
Previously canceled due to inclement weather, Mr. Morris will finally present the triumphant final volume in his Roosevelt trilogy.

1/26/2011 7:30 p.m. Town Hall Seattle
Sherry Turkle
Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other
The MIT professor presents the final volume of her trilogy about humans and technology. "Based on an ambitious research program , and written in a clear and beguiling style, this book will captivate both scholar and general reader and it will be a landmark in the study of the impact of social media." – Jill Ker Conway

1/27/2011 7 p.m. UW Bookstore
Cherie Priest
Bloodshot
A vampire novel from the author of Boneshaker.

1/27/2011 7 p.m. Barnes & Noble U-Village
Bill Cotter
Seattle's 1962 World's Fair
The Space Needle, Elvis, and other follies, documented in vintage photographs.

1/27/2011 6:30 p.m. Kane Hall, Room 130
Elizabeth Alexander
Hearing America Singing: Multi-Vocal Cultures in America
Join the poet and professor for a discussion of race and culture.

1/27/2011 7 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Kim Edwards
The Lake of Dreams
Based in Kentucky, Professor Edwards is the author of The Memory Keeper's Daughter and The Secrets of a Fire King.

1/27/2011 7 p.m. Seattle Public Library
The Seattle Times
"2010: Year in Pictures"
The local paper struggles desperately for relevance.

1/27/2011 7 p.m. Northwest African American Museum
Wes Moore
The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates
"This should be required reading for anyone who is trying to understand what is happening to young men in our inner cities." – Geoffrey Canada

1/27/2011 7 p.m. Secret Garden Books
Paul Schmid
A Pet for Petunia
Launch party, including age-appropriate libations and treats.

1/28/2011 7 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Aminatta Forna
The Memory of Love
"Aminatta Forna's new novel takes an oblique look at the Sierra Leonean civil war of the 1990s ... [and] turns each scene into a metaphor that reverberates with meaning beyond the event itself ... A remarkable novel." – Helon Habila, The Guardian

1/28/2011 11 a.m. Barnes & Noble U-Village
Peter Rabbit
Storytime
Bring your wee bairns to meet the costumed character.

1/28/2011 8 p.m. Pilot Books
Lonely Christopher
The Mechanics of Homosexual Intercourse
The author will be joined by Mark Gluth and Gregory Laynor.

1/29/2011 7 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Nancy Lord
Early Warning: Crisis and Response in the Climate-Changed North
"Nancy Lord combines her knowledge and her love of the North to give us a vitally necessary, and in places, hauntingly beautiful account of what's already happening in those places the rest of us think of as wild and untouched." – Bill McKibben

1/29/2011 2 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Bill Cotter
Seattle's 1962 World's Fair
The Space Needle, Elvis, and other follies, documented in vintage photographs.

1/29/2011 2 p.m. Barnes & Noble U-Village
Nick Galifianakis
If You Loved Me, You'd Think This Was Cute: Uncomfortably True Cartoons About You
Galifianakis draws his cartoons to accompany the advice column by Carolyn Hax, on washingtonpost.com and named by Time magazine as America's best advice columnist. The column appears in the Washington Post and is syndicated nationally.

1/30/2011 2 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Pacific Northwest Ballet
Cinderella
Dancers, choreographers, and techies discuss what goes on behind the scenes.

1/30/2011 3 p.m. Open Books Poem Emporium
Edward Harkness & Anne Pitkin
Poetry Reading
Two local poets share some time.

1/30/2011 4 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Siobhan Fallon
You Know When the Men are Gone
"The crucial role of military wives becomes clear in Fallon's powerful, resonant debut collection, where the women are linked by absence and a pervading fear that they'll become war widows. Fallon writes with both grit and grace: her depiction of military life is enlivened by telling details, from the early morning sound of boots stomping down stairs to the large sign that tallies automobile fatalities of troops returned from Iraq. Significant both as war stories and love stories, this collection certifies Fallon as an indisputable talent." – Publishers Weekly