Want more? Here's everything we recommend this month: Music, Visual Art, Literature, Performance, Film, Food, This & That.

Author Talk: Susana M. Morris with Brooke Bosley, ‘Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler’

July 16

In a 1989 essay for Essence titled “Birth of a Writer,” the visionary writer Octavia Butler created the term “positive obsession” to describe channeling a deep, unwavering passion into a specific objective against all obstacles. Butler herself possessed this relentless drive for success, despite the resistance she faced as a young Black woman with financial hardships—have you ever seen her famous handwritten journal manifestation page in which she enumerates her goals to be a bestselling author? In her new biography, Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler, author and scholar Susana M. Morris takes us into the legendary dreamer’s lived experiences with interviews, letters, previously unpublished material, and more. She’ll be joined at this event by Afrofuturist and educator Brooke Bosley. (Third Place Books Lake Forest Park, 7 pm, free, all ages) JULIANNE BELL

Author Talk: Cassandra Khaw with Katee Robert, ‘The Library at Hellebore’

July 23

Last year, based on recommendations from the Seattle Public Library and Elliott Bay Book Company, I picked up Bram Stoker Award—winning author Cassandra Khaw’s novella The Salt Grows Heavy, a gothic retelling of The Little Mermaid featuring a murderous, flesh-eating siren and an androgynous plague doctor who join forces to take down a sinister death cult. The book was both eerie and sensual, so I’m excited for their newest release, The Library at Hellebore, a dark academia fantasy tale in which a group of students enrolled at a prestigious boarding school must team up to defend themselves from the cannibalistic faculty. New York Times bestselling erotic romance author Katee Robert will join Khaw in conversation. (Elliott Bay Book Company, 7 pm, free, all ages) JULIANNE BELL

Author Talk: Ken Jennings, ‘The Complete Kennections: 5,000 Questions in 1,000 Puzzles’

July 31

If you can’t get enough of brain-teasing games like the New York Times crossword, Wordle, and Connections, allow me to put you on to “Kennections.” Back in 2012, record-setting Jeopardy! GOAT and current host Ken Jennings created his own proprietary weekly trivia puzzle, which previously appeared in Parade and Mental Floss. It seems simple enough in theory, but is punishingly difficult in practice: answer five questions, the responses to which share a theme in common. (Example: feet, McDonald’s, fingerprints, and St. Louis are linked by all having arches.) Think you have what it takes? Jennings will celebrate the release of The Complete Kennections, which collects all of his past quizzes in one volume along with hundreds of new and updated ones, by dropping by Third Place Books for a talk, Q&A, and signing. (Third Place Books Lake Forest Park, 7 pm, all ages) JULIANNE BELL

More

Accidental Shepherd: How a California Girl Rescued an Ancient Mountain Farm in Norway by Liese Greensfelder July 2, Elliott Bay Book Company, 7 pm, free

The Connection Cure: The Prescriptive Power of Movement, Nature, Art, Service, and Belonging by Julia Hotz July 2, Third Place Books Lake Forest Park, 7 pm, free

A Pepper for Your Thoughts? by Howard Lev July 3, Elliott Bay Book Company, 8 pm, free

Situationship by E.M. Wilson July 3, Third Place Books Seward Park, 7 pm, free

Climate by Whitney Hanson July 9, Third Place Books Lake Forest Park, 7 pm, free

Crush: My Year as an Apprentice Winemaker by Nicholas O’Connell July 9, Elliott Bay Book
Company, 7 pm, free

The Buddhist Years: Collected Writings by Charles Shuttleworth July 10, Elliott Bay Book Company,
7 pm, free

Occupy Whiteness by Joaquín Zihuatanejo July 10, Third Place Books Ravenna, 7 pm, free

Overgrowth by Mira Grant July 10, Seattle Central Library, 7 pm, free

Spaces of Creative Resistance: Social Change Projects in Twenty-First-Century East Asia by Andrea Gevurtz Arai July 11, Elliott Bay Book Company, 7 pm, free

Hot Off the Press Book Fair July 12, Fantagraphics, 5 pm, free

Difficult Girls by Veronica Bane July 15, Third Place Books Lake Forest Park, 7 pm, free

Held Together: A Shared Memoir of Motherhood, Medicine, and Imperfect Love by Rebecca N. Thompson, MD July 15, Third Place Books Seward Park, 7 pm, free

The Way Around: A Field Guide to Going Nowhere by Nicholas Triolo with Ben Gibbard July 16, Elliott Bay Book Company, 7 pm, free

The Front Runner: The Life of Steve Prefontaine by Brendan O’Meara July 17, Elliott Bay Book Company, 7 pm, free

Coffeeshop in an Alternate Universe by CB Lee July 18, Third Place Books Ravenna, 7 pm, free

Girl in the Creek by Wendy N. Wagner July 21, Third Place Books Lake Forest Park, 7 pm, free

How Birds Fly by Peter Cavanagh July 22, Elliott Bay Book Company, 7 pm, free

The Lost and the Found: A True Story of Homelessness, Found Family, and Second Chances by Kevin Fagan July 24, Third Place Books Lake Forest Park, 7 pm, free

Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century by Kim Fu July 30, Seattle Central Library, 6:30 pm, free

Kuleana: A Story of Family, Land, and Legacy in Old Hawai’i by Sara Kehaulani Goo August 1, Elliott Bay Book Company, 7 pm, free

Tonight in Jungleland: The Making of Born to Run by Peter Ames Carlin with Cheryl Waters August 5, Third Place Books Seward Park, 7 pm, free

Early Warnings

Chuck Tingle Aug 20, Third Place Books Lake Forest Park, 7 pm, free

R.F. Kuang Sept 12, Town Hall Seattle, 7:30 pm

David Sedaris Nov 16, Benaroya Hall, 7 pm