This week, Jamie Ford is back in Seattle on another book tour for his debut novel; meanwhile, Ron Reagan fils is still on tour with his memoir of Ron Reagan pere, My Father at 100: A Memoir.
Frankly, the Reagan memoir is not that interesting. I've been trying to come up with something to say about it for a couple of weeks now, and keep butting up against the fact that President Reagan was a boring guy who had a somewhat exciting life. The Reagan family history, which takes up a good third of the memoir, could be about anyone in America, including my own near-ancestors. I'd hoped My Father would be livelier than Edmund Morris's (well-written, but ultimately soporific) Dutch, but instead, My Father is simply shorter--a kind of virtue in itself, I suppose.
And onto the calendar...
1/31/2011 6 p.m. Pilot Books
Writer's Group
New exercises every week. Come prepared to write and discuss. Aye, Cap'n!
1/31/2011 7 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Deborah Rodriguez
A Cup of Friendship
Ms. Rodriguez's last book was the memoir, Kabul Beauty School, which was entertaining, but apparently not strictly truthful. Or something. This one is listed as fiction, straight up.
1/31/2011 7 p.m. Temple De Hirsch Sinai
Michael J. Sandel
Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do?
Professor Sandel challenges us to examine the ethical foundations of public issues.
2/1/2011 11 a.m. Barnes & Noble U-Village
Celebrate Black History Month
A thematic storytime to celebrate African-American heroes.
2/1/2011 12 p.m. Seattle Public Library
PNW Ballet
Cinderella
Join Doug Fullington for a lecture and video preview of Prokofiev's ballet.
2/1/2011 6 p.m. Seward Park Center
Nancy Lord
Early Warming: Crisis and Response in the Climate-Changed North
Alaska's Writer Laureate discusses global warming.
2/1/2011 7 p.m. UW Bookstore
Dick Startz
Profit of Education
The UW professor argues that teachers should be treated like skilled professionals. Anyone taking the "con" view? Bueller?
2/1/2011 7 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Sean Beaudoin
You Killed Wesley Payne
EBBC says, "Costumes are encouraged! The audience member with the best film noir-inspired outfit will win a signed book and a You Killed Wesley Payne t-shirt. Drinks will be provided."
2/1/2011 8 p.m. Richard Hugo House
Castalia
Reading Series
A monthly series featuring work from grad students at the UW.
2/1/2011 8:30 p.m. Rebar
Seattle Slam
Open Mic
Seattle Poetry Slam has a new home!
2/2/2011 6 p.m. Richard Hugo House
Write Time
Weekly Series
A drop-in writing circle for teens, facilitated by the Hugo House writer-in-residence, Karen Finneyfrock.
2/2/2011 6:15 p.m. Ballard Branch Library
Great Decisions 2011
Rebuilding Haiti
The second of six civic-education discussions sponsored by the Foreign Policy Association.
2/2/2011 6:30 p.m. Seattle Public Library
Medical Lecture Series V
Harnessing the Body's Own Healing Potential
Athletes use their own blood to heal faster. I guess that's better than using someone else's. More efficient, at least.
2/2/2011 7 p.m. Secret Garden Books
Deborah Reber
Love, Love, Love: Language of Love
Ms. Reber has written dozens of books, but this is her first novel for young adults. Join her at Secret Garden for a book launch party with games and treats.
2/2/2011 7 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Joseph McElroy
Night Soul and Other Stories
"Accomplished and often overlooked literary stylist McElroy hauls out some old and some new stories that question what's knowable and what is being subverted ... Within these fractured narratives, the reader is ushered into what one story calls a 'shimmering theory' of blasted perceptions ... McElroy is ever nimble and probing, and these stories read like intricate puzzles to be patiently pieced through." – Publishers Weekly
2/2/2011 7 p.m. UW Bookstore
Rachel Chapman
Family Secrets: Risking Reproduction in Central Mozambique
Apparently, women in Mozambique don't seek pre-natal and maternity care. Ms. Chapman discovered why.
2/2/2011 7:30 p.m. Town Hall Seattle
Brian Greene
The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos
Any Heinlein fans out there? If so, you might want to attend this reading. (My doppelganger is currently in your house, drinking all your Jack Daniels and smoking all your weed.)
2/3/2011 3 p.m. Seattle Public Library
FriendShop
Elizabeth Kassoff & Toni Yuly
The FriendShop hosts local artists.
2/3/2011 5:30 p.m. Richard Hugo House
Two Books Enter, One Book Leaves
Book Swap
A book swap/happy hour. Extra books will be donated to Friends of the Library.
2/3/2011 6:30 p.m. Kane Hall, Room 130
Winona LaDuke
Danz Lecture Series
Ms. LaDuke will discuss indigenous concepts of sustainability, including Ojibwa mythology, and current Native projects.
2/3/2011 7 p.m. UW Bookstore
Alice Hoffman
The Red Garden
A fictional history of a fictional town in the non-fictional Berkshire Mountains. Which aren't really mountains, at all; they are hills. I've been there, I know these things.
2/3/2011 7 p.m. Oddfellows West Hall
Karen Abbott & Friends
American Rose: A Nation Laid Bare: The Life and Times of Gypsy Rose Lee
Presented in conjunction with Miss Indigo Blue's Academy of Burlesque: "American Rose is a fitting tribute to an amazing woman, telling her story beautifully while revealing as much about post-Depression America as it does about celebrity life. It's cultural history at its best." - Rebecca Skloot
2/3/2011 7:30 p.m. Town Hall Seattle
Conor Grennan
Little Princes: One Man's Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal
Human trafficking is nasty and gets me all red-faced and upset.
2/3/2011 7:30 p.m. Town Hall Seattle
Mark Hersgaard
HOT: Living Through the Next Fifty Years on Earth
How will you survive the next 50 years? Personally, I've started an avocado grove in my dining room. And I'm totally not kidding about that.
2/4/2011 4 p.m. Green Lake Branch
PoetsWest
Open Mic
PoetsWest will be hosting open readings the first three Saturdays of February.
2/4/2011 6 p.m. Woodmark Kirkland Hotel
Anne Byrn
The Cake Mix Doctor Bakes Gluten Free
I like cake. I like pie better, but cake is nice. Cake mixes are evil, though. Cakes are easy! Even GT cakes are easy. I remain flabbergasted that there is an industry devoted to making cakes difficult and nasty-tasting, so much so that someone can then make a career around putting yet more work into making cake mixes taste less bad. Flour, sugar, eggs, butter, baking powder, milk, and vanilla. Really, it's not difficult. Substitute 1/3 each chickpea flour, and a couple of non-wheat flours, add an extra egg and 1/2 tsp of baking powder, maybe some cornstarch, and Voila! GF cake. Cheap, easy, and delicious.
2/4/2011 7 p.m. Seattle Public Library
Douglas Brinkley
The Quiet World: Saving Alaska's Wilderness Kingdom, 1879 – 1960
The author of a couple of dozen books, including a biography of Teddy Roosevelt, Professor Brinkley is back to talk about the Great White North, tragically known as "Palin Country" these days.
2/4/2011 7 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
Ida Hattemer-Higgins
The History of History
"With unbridled imagination and exquisite command, Hattemer-Higgins explores the concept of remembrance and confronts the 'spiritual aftershock' of the Holocaust in a gloriously hellish and fiercely surreal dreamscape with echoes of fairy tales, Heinrich von Kleist, and Herman Hesse, to create a bewitching and unnerving novel stunning in its artistry, audacity, and insight." – Donna Seaman, Booklist
2/4/2011 7 p.m. Richard Hugo House
The Edge
Hanford Challenge
The improv troupe takes on nuclear waste to benefit the Hanford Challenge, a non-profit group trying to clean up the mess. Food & bev provided.
2/5/2011 12 p.m. Seattle Mystery Bookshop
Cherie Priest
Bloodshot
A vampire novel from the author of Boneshaker.
2/5/2011 2 p.m. Ballard Branch Library
Jamie Ford
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
Mr. Ford's debut novel combines history and fiction into a lovely tale about Seattle's historic Panama Hotel, the I.D., and WWII. "Set during one of the most conflicted and volatile times in American history, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is an extraordinary story of commitment and enduring hope. In Henry and Keiko, Jamie Ford has created an unforgettable duo whose story teaches us of the power of forgiveness and the human heart." - Secret Garden Books
2/5/2011 2 p.m. Seattle Public Library
Lynn B. Iglitzin
Margaret Bourke-White
An illustrated lecture on the pioneering photojournalist.
2/5/2011 2 p.m. Barnes & Noble U-Village
Ron Reagan
My Father at 100: A Memoir
Not-Junior discusses his memoir about his dead dad, former U.S. President Ronald Reagan.
2/5/2011 2 p.m. Borders
Sara Wiseman
Your Psychic Child: How to Raise Intuitive & Spiritually Gifted Kids of All Ages
I don't even know where to start with this one. No, I do know, but it will probably get me arrested. Grrr, argh.
2/5/2011 7 p.m. Elliott Bay Book Company
David Levithan
The Lover's Dictionary
Mr. Levithan is touring his first novel for adults, just in time for PDA Day.
2/5/2011 9 a.m. Seattle University
Search for Meaning
Spirituality Book Festival
Over forty authors are presented over the course of the day. Keynotes this year are by Anne Lamott, author of Bird By Bird and Tariq Ramadan.
2/6/2011 2 p.m. Seattle Public Library
Jamie Ford
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
Mr. Ford's debut novel combines history and fiction into a lovely tale about Seattle's historic Panama Hotel, the I.D., and WWII. "Set during one of the most conflicted and volatile times in American history, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is an extraordinary story of commitment and enduring hope. In Henry and Keiko, Jamie Ford has created an unforgettable duo whose story teaches us of the power of forgiveness and the human heart." - Secret Garden Books
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