CHARLES BERGMAN
Pacific Lutheran University professor and self-appointed wildlife crusader Bergman sets out to save the wasteland of a formerly fertile Mexican landscape in Red Delta. Elliott Bay Book Company, 101 S Main St, 624-6600, 5 pm, free.
T. COOPER
Cooper's literary debut traces the emotional gestalt of relationships in Some of the Parts. University Bookstore, 4326 University Way, 634-3400, 7 pm, free.
DANIEL GOLEMAN
At over 2,000 pages, Business: The Ultimate Resource claims to serve as the be-all-end-all of economics literature, with the same smug, cigar-smoking self-importance that cloaks all businessmen in my imagination. Harbor Club, 801 Second Ave, 467-1451, 5:30 pm, $16.
* LAWRENCE OTIS GRAHAM
Graham lays it all out for us with Our Secret History: The Black Elite, which begins this way: "Bryant Gumbel is, but Bill Cosby isn't. Lena Horne is, but Whitney Houston isn't. Andrew Young is, but Jesse Jackson isn't. And neither is Maya Angelou, Alice Walker, Clarence Thomas, or Quincy Jones." Mount Zion Baptist Church, 1634 19th Ave, 322-6500, 7 pm, $10.
KATHLEENE WEST
Former Puget Sound resident West reads from her latest slim volume of verse, Death of a Regional Poet. Elliott Bay Book Company, 624-6600, 7:30 pm, free.
FRIDAY 11/15
MAXINE HONG KINGSTON
Exhausted with a tireless career as a celebrated prose writer, Kingston takes the easy road of flowery elocution as a poet. And then she writes a book about it. University of Washington campus, Kane Hall, room 130, 634-3400, 7 pm, free, also Elliott Bay Book Company, 624-6600, Sun Nov 17 at 3 pm, free.
JOEL KOVEL
Green Party presidential hopeful Kovel is dressed up for Christmas with his complementary red idealism--promoting his "eco-Marxist" views with his latest tome, The Enemy of Nature. Elliott Bay Book Company, 624-6600, 7:30 pm, free.
IAN STEWART
Shot in the head by West African rebels (how's that for an intro?), former AP war correspondent Stewart charts his road to recovery in Ambushed. Third Place Books, 17171 Bothell Way NE, 366-3333, 6:30 pm, free.
SATURDAY 11/16
TAMARA KREININ
Kreinin discusses Girls Night Out, an exploration of women's groups throughout the country. Elliott Bay Book Company, 624-6600, 7:30 pm, free.
SUNDAY 11/17
I seep sincerity like runny cottage cheese.
MONDAY 11/18
TOM ARNOLD
You mean the Tom Arnold?!?! Signs How I Lost Five Pounds in Six Years. Third Place Books, 366-3333, 8 pm, free.
DERRICK BELL
The self-congratulatory Mr. Bell is noted for the tenacity of his convictions--he turned down a tenured position at Harvard Law because of the school's substandard number of minority women on faculty, for example--and succeeds in rubbing his piety in the faces of all us undeserving masses in Ethics: Living a Life of Meaning and Worth. University of Washington campus, Kane Hall, room 130, 634-3400, 7 pm, free.
* WAYNE GRYTTING
The powerful say the darnedest things. Seattle resident and Z Magazine columnist Grytting signs his debut, American Newspeak: The Mangling of Meaning for Power and Profit. Elliott Bay Book Company, 624-6600, 7:30 pm, free.
TUESDAY 11/19
JON BECKWITH
One of the scientists first responsible for isolating a gene from a living chromosome, social activist and Harvard microbiologist Beckwith's Making Genes, Making Waves discusses a life of seeming dichotomy--science with a conscience. University Bookstore, 634-3400, 7 pm, free.
AMY FUSSELMAN
"The only books that matter are those without definition, that are, as Jonathan Raban says, 'neither fish, nor flesh, nor fowl, nor good red herring,' and such is Fusselman's short book The Pharmacist's Mate: A Story of Birth, Death, Guitars, and Goldfish. It's an essay on death, a work of music criticism, fiction, an autobiography, and so on. Fusselman was discovered and published by the unstoppable McSweeney's." (Charles Mudede) Zeitgeist, 171 S Jackson, 583-0497, 7 pm, free.
TASLIMA NASRIN
Former Bangladeshi physician/poet/essayist Nasrin, who has spent the last nine years in European exile because of her liberal views on female empowerment, signs Meyebela, her memoir of Islamic girlhood. Elliott Bay Book Company, 624-6600, 7:30 pm, free.
DUFF WILSON
2002 Washington State Book Award-winner and Pulitzer Prize nominee Wilson tells us how we're all gonna die at the hands of the fertilizer industry and there's nothing we can do about it, in Fateful Harvest. Third Place Books, 366-3333, 7 pm, free.
WEDNESDAY 11/20
JOHN D. FREYER
After putting nearly all of his possessions on the open market via eBay (an unopened box of taco shells, half a bottle of mouthwash, almost all of his clothes, his favorite records, his sideburns in a plastic bag, his family's Christmas presents [not yet given], furniture, etc.), Freyer followed his possessions into their new surroundings--documenting the journey in All My Life for Sale. University Bookstore, 634-3400, 7 pm, free.
* DAVID THOMSON, RICHARD T. JAMESON & KATHLEEN MURPHY
Local film critics Jameson and Murphy join New Biographical Dictionary of Film author Thomson to discuss the publication of the book's revised edition. Elliott Bay Book Company, 624-6600, 7:30 pm, free.
POETRY/OPEN MICS
IT'S ABOUT TIME--Featured poets Bruce Taylor, Waverly Fitzgerald, Paul Hunter, Judith van Praag. Thurs Nov 14 at 6:30 pm. Seattle Public Library, 5009 Roosevelt Way NE, 684-4063, free.
OR.A.TRIX--With featured readings by Tara Hardy, Kristin Aurora, Brenda Brown, Katinka Kraft, Amy Mahoney, and Alexandria M. Red. Sat Nov 16 at 8 pm. Richard Hugo House, 1634 11th Ave, 322-7030, $5-$10.
POETSWEST--Featuring such poets as Nancy Dahlberg, Pat Duggan, J. Glenn Evans, Laura Snyder, Leonard Tews, Rodney Williams, Pieter Zilinsky, Murray Gordon, Michael Magee, and Carol Shaw. Thurs Nov 14, 7-9 pm. Lux Café, 2226 First Ave, 682-1268, free. Also Sun Nov 17, 7-9 pm, with Nancy Abercrombie, Joannie K. Strangerland, and Alek Swanson at Wit's End Book Store, 4262 Fremont Ave N, 682-1268, free.
