READINGS

THURSDAY 6/1

JAMES GARBARINO, Ph.D.

Dr. Garbarino, a professor of human development at Cornell University, has dug deeply into the reasons why some boys become violent (like me), while others don’t (like my brother). (My personal excuse for all those wanton bludgeonings I administered in adolescence is simple: too much sugar and all those damn Roadrunner cartoons!) Garbarino’s well-received book, Lost Boys, is an in-depth look at this mystery of child development, “including finding ways to identify problems early and develop tools to prevent violence.” All kidding aside, this is a serious subject: unruly, mean, pugnacious young boys are a menace to society, and you should come hear the honorable professor read from this important new book. Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave, 441-0191, 7:30 pm, tickets required (single event or “Tools for Parents 2000” series passes available).

LEILA AHMED

Feminist scholar Ahmed (a professor of women’s studies at UM Amherst) has written a memoir about her personal experiences with gender identity and cultural/geographic border-hopping. Diana L. Eck of Harvard called A Border Passage: From Cairo to America–A Woman’s Journey “a remarkable book… fascinating, moving and often poetic” and a work that “sheds invaluable light on a woman’s understanding of Islam and her experience of immigration.” Elliott Bay Book Company, 101 S Main, 624-6600, 5 pm, free tickets available at store.

MOLLY TENENBAUM

By a Thread is Tenenbaum’s first full-length collection of poetry, and tonight she will be reading from and signing it for local fans. Her poems are said to “celebrate everyday life in a mix of styles, voices and images.” University Book Store, 4326 University Way NE, 634-3400, 7 pm, free.

JENNIFER LOUDEN

Yet more New Age hocus-pocus for the spiritually unraveled. The Comfort Queen’s Guide to Life is a “beautifully illustrated spiritual organizer… for creating all that you need with just what you’ve got.” Uh-huh. You know, back in the early 1900s, old men in three-piece suits used to pull into town in covered wagons to peddle snake oil to the dumb hillbillies–potions that were nothing more than alcohol-based tinctures loaded with opium. Well, everyone’s gotta make a buck, I guess. Third Place Books, 17171 Bothell Way NE, 366-3300, 7 pm, free.

NANCY MUELLER

Mueller’s book Work Worldwide: International Career Strategies for the Adventurous Job Seeker “gives tips on career strategies for researching and securing a job abroad.” Come listen to her talk before the global economy crashes to the basement floor. Marco Polo, 713 Broadway E, 860-3736, 7:30 pm, free.

FRIDAY 6/2

JANE SMILEY

Smiley (Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Thousand Acres) has written a novel about horses and horse racing. It’s called Horse Heaven. Publishers Weekly, in a recent review, raved that “this novel about horses and their breeders, owners, trainers, grooms, jockeys, traders, bettors, and other turf-obsessed humans is another winner.” Nice stretching of the metaphor, I must say, but I still don’t understand the concept of a novel being a “winner.” Oh, well. Elliott Bay Book Company, 101 S Main, 624-6600, 5 pm, free (tickets available at store).

KIERSTEN BRIDGER, NIKKI HODGES, IRIT WEISEL

This event, entitled New Voices: An Evening of Poetry and Prose, is part of “After Long Silence,” North Seattle Community College’s women’s poetry reading series. The featured writers (all published) are students of NSCC’s faculty members Ruth Brinton, Molly Tenenbaum, and Pesha Gerler. NSCC, Rose Room (College Center Building), 9600 College Way N, 526-7791, 7:30 pm, free (donations accepted).

TOM ROBBINS

The Stranger‘s own Grant Cogswell, for whom the pen is definitely mightier than the sword, called Robbins’ unimportant fictive output “just another brick in the wall of complacency.” Hah! This event is listed as a “signing only” (thank God) for his newest, Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates. University Book Store, 4326 University Way NE, 634-3400, 7 pm, free.

JAY DAVIS & ANDREW S. A.

At this “Lit-Ex Book Reading,” these two authors will be reading from each other’s new indie releases: Davis takes a stab at S. A.’s The Bellero Shie, and then vice versa for The Areas. Get it? Special music performance by Raft of Dead Monkeys, a showing of works by filmmaker Greg Serpa, and featuring artwork by Kelly Winkler. Paradox Theatre, 5510 University Way NE, 524-7677, 7 pm, $6.

BRIAN WEISS, M.D.

The author of the extremely popular and infinitely ridicule-able Many Lives, Many Masters has written a new one about the healing power of love, called Messages from the Masters: Tapping into the Power of Love. I’m not a Master, but I’ve got a message for the folk doing all this spiritual “tapping into” stuff: STOP WRITING THESE DAMN BOOKS! THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS PAST LIVES! NOBODY SPEAKS THROUGH YOU! YOU WEREN’T EVER JOAN OF ARC! GET REAL, FOR CHRIST’S SAKE! Thank you. Third Place Books, 17171 Bothell Way NE, 366-3300, 6:30 pm, free.

SATURDAY 6/3

RICHARD MELTZER

This Portland-based author and singer (frontman for the band Smegma) has been writing rock criticism for over 30 years, and much of that work has recently been assembled in A Whore Just Like the Rest: The Music Writings of Richard Meltzer. Nick Tosches has called Meltzer “one of the great underground treasures of the age. No one who has ever had his or her blood stirred or shaken by rock ‘n’ roll should be without Meltzer’s journeys into those stirrings and shakings and their source.” Elliott Bay Book Company, 101 S Main, 624-6600, 3 pm, free (tickets available at store).

APRIL SINCLAIR

The Bay Area author of Coffee Will Make You Black returns for the paperback release of her third novel, I Left My Back Door Open. Sinclair’s latest is described by The New York Times Book Review as “a ‘Bridget Jones’ Diary’ for black women,” and according to a write-up in Publishers Weekly, the novel “steers clear of sentimental inspirational writings by means of its frank and funny dialogue, and follows Sinclair’s earlier successes admirably.” Elliott Bay Book Company, 101 S Main, 624-6600, 7:30 pm, free (tickets available at store).

SUNDAY 6/4

NOVA POETRY PROJECT GROUP READING

Nova is an alternative public high school in the Seattle School District. At the end of every school year, poetry students assemble to read from their work, and this day marks the Sixth Annual “Nova Poetry Project.” Among the many, many readers are four of the six members of the “Seattle Youth Slam Poetry” team that tied for first at the national competition in San Francisco last April. Bravo to Nova teacher Barbara Osborne (who will also be on hand)! Elliott Bay Book Company, 101 S Main, 624-6600, 3 pm, free (tickets available at store).

MONDAY 6/5

ALISTAIR MACLEOD

This Canadian author of No Great Mischief–set two centuries back in Nova Scotia–has been praised by the likes of Michael Ondaatje (“one of the great undiscovered writers of our time”), Margaret Atwood (“a wonderfully talented writer”), and Alice Munro (“it’s hard to think of anyone else who can cast a spell the way Alistair MacLeod can”). In other words, he’s due for a literary breakthrough south of his country’s porous border. Elliott Bay Book Company, 101 S Main, 624-6600, 7:30 pm, free (tickets available at store).

BRICOLAGE LITERARY JOURNAL CELEBRATION

Bricolage is the University of Washington’s very own literary publication, a journal that regularly features the poetry, prose, and art of UW students, staff, and faculty. This special event/reading is a hobnobbing nod and hurrah to all the hard-working and talented contributors. University Book Store, 4326 University Way NE, 634-3400, 7 pm, free.

TUESDAY 6/6

ROBERT CRAIS

The L.A. Times called the intricate, homicidal web-spinning of Crais’ (the author of L.A. Requiem) newest thriller, Demolition Angel, “the kind of puzzle plot that sends mystery fans into paroxysms of joy.” (Now that would be a sight worth seeing.) University Book Store, 4326 University Way NE, 634-3400, 7 pm, free.

KEIF HILSBERY

The very-talented author Dale Peck praised the language in this Evergreen State College alum’s debut novel, War Boy, as “galloping, frenetic, all-consuming, reckless even, but never out of control; the resulting novel is disturbing, hypnotic, and impressive. You won’t be able to put it down.” Well! Hilsbery, along with creating all that galloping prose, is a contributing editor and columnist for Outside magazine. Elliott Bay Book Company, 101 S Main, 624-6600, 5:30 pm, free (tickets available at store).

ROSELLEN BROWN

Publishers Weekly said of this author’s newest novel, Half a Heart, “always a master of plotting, Brown brings events to a suspenseful climax through a nightmarish situation and its shattering aftermath…. Surely one of Brown’s most challenging, intelligent, and masterful accomplishments.” Elliott Bay Book Company, 101 S Main, 624-6600, 7:30 pm, free (tickets available at store).

CHARLES D’AMBROSIO

See Stranger Suggests. Richard Hugo House, 1634 11th Ave, 322-7030, 7 pm, $5 general/$3 upstairs pass-holders.

WEDNESDAY 6/7

LEWIS H. LAPHAM

See Stranger Suggests. Lee Auditorium, Seattle Public Library, 1000 Fourth Ave, 386-4650, 7:30 pm, free.

PEGGY ORENSTEIN

See Bio Box. University Book Store, 4326 University Way NE, 634-3400, 7 pm, free.

PHIL BORGES

Slide show! This globe-trotting photographer (whose books include Enduring Spirit and Tibetan Portraits) has just returned from travels to Siberia, Ecuador, the Philippines, and Mongolia. Marco Polo, 713 Broadway E, 860-3736, 7:30 pm, free.

LEE BERGER

Another slide show! This paleontologist and author of the controversial In the Footsteps of Eve will be lecturing on and challenging prevailing theories of human evolution, showing pictures, and signing his new book. Kane Hall, Walker Ames Room, UW Campus, 634-3400, 7 pm, free (tickets available through UW Bookstore).

NANCE VAN WINKLE

This Eastern Washington poet reads from her new work, After a Spell. Open Books, 2414 N 45th St, 633-0811, 7 pm, free.