The Stranger

Hank Stuever's new book, Tinsel, documents three consecutive Christmases in the upper-middle-class Texas town of Frisco, including a woman who decorates McMansions for $150 an hour, a man whose overly decorated home is a YouTube sensation, and other ghastly holiday monstrosities. But maybe, Stuever convincingly argues, all this commercial excess is "more historically appropriate" than a pious, Christian Christmas. Stuever's clear-eyed examination of America in holiday orgy–mode is energetic, acerbic, and informative. (Elliott Bay Book Company, 101 S Main St, 624-6600. 7 pm, free.) by Paul Constant

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Cherie Priest blows up Seattle real good in her new sci-fi novel, Boneshaker. It's a steampunk alternate-reality thriller. (Nerd-to-English translation: While our fair city is festooned with blimps in Boneshaker—which is, of course, totally fucking awesome—we are also plagued by air pirates and zombielike creatures named Rotters.) Local author Priest knows how to bring the fun to science fiction, and Boneshaker zips along like a smart, seductive summer blockbuster. That the main character is the kind of smart, ass-kicking heroine you rarely see anchoring such an adventure is merely a happy bonus. (Third Place Books, 17171 Bothell Way NE, 366-3333. 7 pm, free.) by Paul Constant

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For a tiny segment of the world's music lovers, drones are as essential as oxygen. While many find this minimal, seemingly static style somnolent, true drone-oisseurs exalt it as the ultimate expression of sonic transcendence. Gregg Kowalsky proved his mettle with 2006's Through the Cardial Window, a nutritious aural soup of guitar, violin, melodica, and field recordings. With this year's Tape Chants, Kowalsky feeds the sounds of shruti box, gongs, and percussion through a cassette recorder, forging intimate, whorling sine-wave symphonies. It's pure bliss. (Josephine, 608 NW 65th St, www.myspace.com/thejosephine. 9 pm.) by Dave Segal

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Just when you think you'll never read another novel about a man going through a midlife crisis, local author Jess Walter goes and makes you his bitch. His new book, The Financial Lives of the Poets, is about a middle-aged man who's about to lose his house and his cushy middle-class life after his website that gives financial advice in the form of poetry goes belly-up. He winds up making deals with pot dealers who used to be lawyers in a narrative that's as compulsively readable as a Grisham thriller and as beautifully written as anything you'll read this year. (Third Place Books, 17171 Bothell Way NE, 366-3333. 7 pm, free.) by Paul Constant

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Penguins is Scot Augustson's dark, shockingly funny late-night serial comedy chronicling a gangland war between priests and nuns. In advance of this spring's much-anticipated Episode 2, Annex is remounting Penguins, Episode 1: Heaven the Hard Way, directed by Bret Fetzer and featuring a uniformly sharp cast. As I wrote in my gushy original review: "Penguins comes on like a hard-boiled crime thriller, with gangster priests, gun-toting nuns, and a bottomless well of depravity." It's quite wonderful. (Annex Theatre, 1100 E Pike St, www.annextheatre.org. 11 pm, $10. Through Dec 19.) by David Schmader

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An acidly funny black comedy from Chile, The Maid is about a live-in housekeeper for a wealthy Santiago family who becomes a raging passive-aggressive sociopath when her employers bring in extra help. What might have been a condescending social-issue drama about oppressed servants or a shrill send-up of the ruling class instead becomes a carefully etched character study: With her troll-like physique, lipless grimace, and frumpy curls, Catalina Saavedra's ferociously territorial cleaning lady is an indelible creation—pathetic and vindictive, but never entirely ridiculous. (See Movie Times: thestranger.com/film.) by Jon Frosch

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