THURSDAY 2/1


*MARC COOPER

Pinochet and Me, the new "anti-memoir" by journalist Marc Cooper, is a concise and utterly terrifying first-hand account of the toll Augusto Pinochet's genocidal reign of terror had on Chilean society. Throughout this incredible book, Cooper--who was living and working in Santiago when Pinochet seized power in 1973--remains unsentimental yet deeply honest in his depiction of suffering in Chile, and his clear analysis of the long-term political and social consequences of Pinochet's rule serves as a sort of primer for free-market capitalism run amok, South American style. Pinochet and Me is also a scathing indictment of U.S. foreign policy toward Chile, a combination of greed and complicity masked by some very undemocratic and self-serving hypocrisy. This is a very, very important book. Elliott Bay Book Company, 101 S Main, 624-6600, 7:30 pm, tickets required (available free at store).


JOSEF SCAYLEA

Scaylea is a 95-year-old photographer, storyteller, and documentarian of Seattle history, and tonight he will read from, sign, and show slides based upon his new book, Josef Scaylea. University Bookstore, 4326 University Way NE, 634-3400, 7 pm, free.


"CHILKAT ROBES" LECTURE

Discussion based on the revival of a nearly-vanished weaving technique by practitioners Evelyn Vanderhoop and her mother, Delores Churchill. Burke Museum, UW campus, 543-5590, 6:30 pm, free with museum admission.


JENNY SILER

Book-signing by the author of Iced, a new thriller about a repo woman, a police cruiser, and one dead cop. Seattle Mystery Bookshop, 117 Cherry St, 587-5737, noon, free.


FRIDAY 2/2


MADELYN ARNOLD

Lambda Award-winning Seattle author and SGN columnist Arnold reads from her second novel, A Year of Full Moons. Dorothy Allison (author of Bastard Out of Carolina and Cavedweller) says that Arnold "sets a new standard for lesbian fiction, portraying with marvelous intensity women I have known but rarely found presented with such emphatic insight." Elliott Bay Book Company, 8 pm, tickets required (available free at store).


CONTEMPORARY NORTHWEST COAST ART BY SUSAN POINT

This evening's event is a dinner, presentation, and lecture given by Gary Wyatt, curator of the Spirit Wrestler Gallery in Vancouver, B.C., Wyatt will discuss the beauty and intricacies of Northwest Coast art, with a special focus on the jewelry, paintings, and woodwork of internationally-acclaimed artist Susan Point. He will also be signing copies of his books Susan Point: Coast Salish Artist, Mythic Beings: Spirit Art of the Northwest Coast, and Spirit Faces: Contemporary Masks of the Northwest Coast. Kane Hall, UW Campus, 543-6269, 6:30 pm, $30 (reserve tickets by phone).


SATURDAY 2/3


*EDEN ROBINSON

Robinson's debut novel, Monkey Beach, was called "a great book" by Hollywood hot-shot Sherman Alexie, while Howard Frank Mosher praised it as "the best first novel and one of the most original books of any kind that I've read in years." See Stranger Suggests. Elliott Bay Book Company, 7:30 pm, tickets required (available free at store).


ELLIOTT BAY YOUNG WRITERS GROUP

Future Bukowskis of America (ages 8-12) are urged to attend this monthly get-together and read their poems, plays, essays, stories, and scathing polemics against the nefarious cabinet appointments of the new Bush administration. Elliott Bay Book Company, noon, free


SUNDAY 2/4


dan raphael, LAURA WINTER

An afternoon of readings by two Portland poets. Raphael is the author of Showing Light a Good Time; Winter's new chapbook, No Gravy Baby, is a collection "gathered over several years, celebrating various stages of immersion in the music, the physics of being, that 'jazz' is a common word for." (Oi! A poetically dangling participle!) See Stranger Suggests. Elliott Bay Book Company, 4 pm, tickets required (available free at store).


THREE POETS & AN OPEN MIC

Featured writers are Reta K. Jarvie, Thomas Hubbard, and David Thornbrugh. Wit's End Bookstore & Tea Shop, 770 N 34th St, 682-1268, 7 pm, free.


JOE SAFDIE

Safdie is the featured reader at this installment of the Red Sky Poetry Theatre, followed by a come-one-come-all open mic. (Sign up begins at 7 pm sharp.) Globe Cafe & Bakery, 1531 14th Ave, 253-735-MEAT, 7:30 pm, free.


MONDAY 2/5


SUSAN ORLEAN

Orlean, who was praised by Publishers Weekly as "one of The New Yorker's most distinctive stylists," follows last year's wildly popular The Orchid Thief with The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup: My Encounters with Extraordinary People, a new collection of essays and profiles that takes on such diverse subject matter as Tanya Harding, the Shaggs, and a New York taxi driver who also happens to be the king of expatriate Ghanians. Orlean is appearing at two separate events today: Elliott Bay Book Company, 5 pm, advance free tickets available at store; and University Bookstore, 7 pm, free.


DEBORAH COPAKEN KOGAN

Presentation by the author of Shutterbabe: Adventures in Love and War, which John Hockenberry describes as "a candid, sexy, and very funny romp that makes photojournalism seem like an x-treme sport... [Kogan] goes out and writes enough terrifying heroics from the last bits of the twentieth century to make T. E. Lawrence jealous." See Bio Box. Elliott Bay Book Company, 7:30 pm, tickets required (available free at store).


MARNE DAVIS KELLOGG

Book-signing by the author of Insatiable. Seattle Mystery Bookshop, noon, free.


TUESDAY 2/6


*MANIL SURI

Virginia Woolfe-ophile Michael Cunningham calls Suri's debut novel, The Death of Vishnu, "vibrantly alive, beautifully written, full of wonderfully rich and deeply human characters." Publishers Weekly writes that the author "has a discerning eye for human foibles, an empathetic knowledge of domestic interaction and an instinctive understanding of the caste-nuanced traditions of Indian society... by turns charming and funny, searing and poignant, dramatic and farcical... an irresistible blend of realism, mysticism and religious metaphor, a parable of the universal conditions of human life." Sounds good. Elliott Bay Book Company, 7:30 pm, tickets required (available free at store).


*ANDREI CHERNY

Reading and book-signing by the former White House speechwriter and author of The Next Deal: The Future of Public Life in the Information Age, a book that argues for less individualism and more individual power in national politics. "Andrei Cherny is smart, bold, thoughtful," says E. J. Dionne Jr., "and a fine writer." Kane Hall, Room 220, UW Campus, 7 pm, tickets required (available free at store).


JOANNA HERSHON

Hershon reads from and signs her debut novel, Swimming, a story of a family shattered by tragedy. University Bookstore, 7 pm, free.


*INDIE GIRL SHOWCASE

Rendezvous Reading Series presents a reading by several women of local indie rock eminence. See Stranger Suggests. Little Theatre, 608 19th Ave E, 275-6055, 8 pm, $5.


WEDNESDAY 2/7


*RUPERT THOMSON

Thomson (author of such high-brow noir thrillers as Soft! and The Five Gates of Hell) visits Seattle to celebrate the paperback release of his latest novel, The Book of Revelations. "One of the most eerily original novels in recent years," says the Kirkus Review. Elliott Bay Book Company, 7:30 pm, tickets required (available free at store).


DA CHEN

Reading and signing by the author of Colors of the Mountain, a memoir about surviving the ravages of Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution. University Bookstore, 7 pm, free.


*THE MOVIE GENERATION WINTER LECTURE SERIES

University of Washington professor emeritus of history Jon Bridgman discusses "The Second World War," the fifth in a series of six lectures on cinema and society. Kane Hall, UW Campus, 7 pm, $12/$10 students and Alumni Association members.


*ANDREI CHERNY

See Tuesday listing. Elliott Bay Book Company, 5:30 pm, tickets required (available free at store).


DAVID ABEL, CRAIG VAN RIPER

Monthly installment of the Subtext reading series featuring Abel (author of CUT, Rose, and Selected Durations) and Van Riper (contributing editor of Five Fingers Review and author of Convenient Danger and Making the Path While You Walk). Richard Hugo House, 1634 11th Ave, 323-7030, 7:30 pm, $5 suggested donation.