The Beacon Hill branch of SPL is hosting another edition of Citywide Conversations: Help Plan the Future of the Library. Gather around and put your opinions about the future of the library on large foam core signs.
Judith Skillman reads as part of Pilot Books' Small Press Month. Skillman is the author of The Never and dozens (maybe hundreds) of poems. She will read a few of those poems and then host a poetry marketing workshop. You can learn more about her here.
But if poetry isn't your thing, the reading of the night is at Elliott Bay Book Company. Ted Conover will be reading. Conover's Newjack was an astounding look inside America's prisons. Years later, he's finally returned with a new book about roads, titled The Routes of Man: How Roads are Changing the World and the Way We Live Today. I know what you're thinking: "Oh, God, not another glossy book that should've been a magazine article about how X is the most important thing ever." This is not the book you think it is.
Conover is a meticulous journalist, and his book is an illuminating look at world history, the blending of cultures, and the disparity between rich and poor. In one chapter, Conover begins in a ridiculously expensive New York City apartment that's being fitted for mahogany furniture and then he goes to South America and follows the path of mahogany from its source to where it eventually goes. Along the way, he gets altitude sickness, learns that a poor Latin American teenager idolizes Osama bin Laden as a hero of the poor, and spends a few days sleeping in the cab of a big rig. It's brilliant writing, and you should not miss this reading.
The full readings calendar, including the next week or so, is here. And if you're planning on staying in and you're looking for personalized book recommendations, feel free to tell me the books you like and ask me what to read next over at Questionland.
