*MARTIN AMIS

Acclaimed British novelist and aging literary "bad boy" Amis returns to Seattle to pimp his new memoir, Experience--a book tracing his development as a wicked satirist, with an emphasis on his relationship with famous father/writer Kingsley, and new insights into the tabloid scandal revolving around those pearly white choppers he bought himself a few years ago. Sponsored by Elliott Bay Books and the Washington Center for the Book. Seattle Public Library, 1000 Fourth Ave, 624-6600, 7 pm, free (first come, first serve basis).

ANCHEE MIN

See Bio Box. Elliott Bay Book Company, 101 S Main, 624-6600, 7:30 pm, advance free tickets available at store.

HOWARD BAHR

The origins and cycles of trends in modern literature are as numerous as they are stubborn, and it appears that we have yet to reach the terminus of the writerly craze for historical fictions set in, on, about, atop, and around the dread Civil War era. This new offering from Bahr (author of The Black Flower) is called The Year of Jubilo: A Novel of the Civil War, and it deals with the end and tangled aftermath of the great American bloodbath, following the fates of a handful of families caught in the wake of post-bellum anxieties. Reading and signing. University Book Store, 4326 University Way NE, 634-3400, 7 pm, free.

MARK JENKINS

All Powers Necessary and Convenient: A Play of Fact and Speculation is listed as a "dramatic reading" by actor and playwright Jenkins, to be followed by an audience-participatory discussion of a politically crucial nature. The work to be performed centers on the historical significance of the none-too-distant McCarthy era and the subsequent conversation will deal with important issues of civil rights raised by the bureaucratic witch-hunts and widespread persecutions of all those unbelievably paranoiac and cowardly HUAC hearings. Sponsored by the University Book Store (which is not now, nor has ever been, affiliated in any way, shape, or form with the Communist Party). The Playhouse, UW Campus, 634-3400, 7:30 pm, free.

ELIZABETH MARSHALL THOMAS

This anthropologist, author, and all-around animal lover will be reading from The Social Lives of Dogs: The Grace of Canine Company, her new sequel to The Hidden Life of Dogs. See Book Review Revue, page 35. Elliott Bay Book Company, 101 S Main, 624-6600, 5 pm, advance free tickets available at store.

MARTIN GOLDSTEIN, D.V.M.

Pets are good for you. Dr. Goldstein explains how you, in turn, can be good for your pet with his inspirational book on veterinary home-care, Nature of Animal Healing. Third Place Books, 17171 Bothell Way NE, 366-3300, 7 pm, free.

*HOWARD BLOOM

Bloom lobs another stodgy intellectual grenade into the digitized black hole of post-Modern Lit-Crit. According to Publishers Weekly, How to Read and Why is "a swift but satisfying joy ride through the West's most outrageous, original and exuberant texts... a testament to Bloom's view that reading is above all a pleasurably therapeutic event." Sponsored by Elliott Bay Books and the Washington Center for the Book. Seattle Public Library, 1000 Fourth Ave, 624-6600, 7 pm, free (first come, first serve basis).

BILL BRYSON

Of In a Sunburned Country, Janet Maslin recently had this to say: "In his earlier travel writings... Mr. Bryson presented himself as a sharp-eyed and hilariously self-deprecating observer, a traveler who was wry, eager, and endlessly game. Newly in danger of ossifying into a professional wag and curmudgeon, he is someone who often makes asides about book tours or speaking engagements and takes a three-day first-class train trip while recoiling at the horrors of traveling less comfortably." Sounds like Bryson has a reverse case of Hunter S. Thompson Syndrome. If so, the only cure for such pampered self-referentiality should be obvious: become a poet. Third Place Books, 17171 Bothell Way NE, 366-3300, 6:30 pm, free.

NILES ELDREDGE

Do Homo sapiens descend from primordial bio-sludge, or are we all distantly related to the be-figged Adam and Eve? Author Eldredge (touted in the press release as THE expert on evolution) weighs in on the Grand Old Debate his new book, The Triumph of Evolution and the Failure of Creationism, an up-to-the-minute piece of scholarship that "challenges us all to leave the stale arguments of the 19th century behind." Reading and signing, sponsored by University Book Store and KUOW. Kane Hall, Walker Ames Room, UW Campus, 634-3400, 7 pm, tickets required (available free at store).

BARRY SEARS, PH.D.

If the trope ain't broke, don't fix it. The best-selling author of The Anti-Aging Zone, The Zone: A Dietary Road Map to Lose Weight Permanently, Zone Perfect Meals in Minutes, and Mastering the Zone returns once again with the zone-errific The Soy Zone: The Healthiest Zone Diet Ever. Elliott Bay Book Company, 101 S Main, 624-6600, 3 pm, advance free tickets available at store.

SANDY DIAMOND

This Port Townsend poet will be reading from her new work, The Hunchback, as well as performing with her "poetically-inclined" band Quasimodo and the Bellringers. According to Hass Mroue, Diamond "is a warrior of a poet, and her words, at once gentle, painful, funny and ferociously honest, scream to be read, to be sung, to be heard." As my hick uncles used to say back in the '70s between sips of Pabst Blue Ribbon: "Sounds pretty hippie to me." Elliott Bay Book Company, 101 S Main, 624-6600, 7:30 pm, advance free tickets available at store.

There's nothing happening today.

*ALEKSANDAR HEMON

Nathan Englander (author of the widely acclaimed short story collection For the Relief of Unbearable Urges) calls this Bosnian-born, Chicago-based writer's debut book of fiction, The Question of Bruno, "astute and affecting... a complex and delicately crafted collection, as unsettling as it is hopeful." Elliott Bay Book Company, 101 S Main, 624-6600, 7:30 pm, advance free tickets available at store.

MARILYN BARRICK

Barrick has been a practicing clinical psychologist and relationship counselor for over 35 years, and her new book, Sacred Psychology of Change, "asks us to 'focus our attention on the higher intelligence of the heart' and then describes in loving detail ways of doing just that" (according to fellow author/psychologist Ruth Bly). Reading and signing. Barnes & Noble, 600 Pine St, 264-0156, 6:30 pm, free.

*ZADIE SMITH

See Book Review Revue, page 35. Elliott Bay Book Company, 101 S Main, 624-6600, 5 pm, advance free tickets available at store.

NANCY YAW DAVIS

In her new anthropological study, The Zuni Enigma: A Native American People's Possible Japanese Connection, Davis examines the following question (a question so specific and fantastically rarefied it approaches the poetic): "Did a group of 13th century Japanese pilgrims journey to the American Southwest and merge with the people of the Zuni tribe?" Reading and signing. University Book Store, 4326 University Way NE, 634-3400, 7 pm, free.

JOHN CROWLEY & PAUL PARK

This event, hosted by Clarion West, kicks off the annual six-week summer series of readings by writers working in the sci-fi/fantasy genre. Crowley's novels include Little, Big, The Deep, and Engine Summer; Park is the author of Celestis and The Starbridge Chronicles. Elliott Bay Book Company, 101 S Main, 624-6600, 7:30 pm, admission $4 ($3 students/seniors) at door.

ALETA PIPPIN

Just for the hell of it, come meet the author of Yikes! My Butt Is Falling. Third Place Books, 17171 Bothell Way NE, 366-3300, 5:30 pm, free.

SCOTT DRISCOLL

The X-Files is a weekly television series about a governmental conspiracy to cover up the reality of extraterrestrial beings; The Ex-Files, on the other hand, is a collection of stories about ex-loves, to which anthology the writer Scott Driscoll is a contributor. Third Place Books, 17171 Bothell Way NE, 366-3300, 7 pm, free.

*DAVID TRINIDAD, JANA HARRIS

David Trinidad deftly filters pop culture detritus through his deadpan poetics and gets published everywhere. His latest collection, Plasticville, is funny, smart, accessible postmodernism. Jana Harris, author of the absolutely astounding epic poem The Dust of Everyday Life, joins Trinidad to read from her new work. Hugo House, 1634 11th Ave, 322-7030, 8 pm, $6/$5.

TANANARIVE DUE

Local novelist (The Between and My Soul to Keep) reads from her new biographical/historical study, The Black Rose: The Magnificent Story of Madam C.J. Walker, America's First Black Female Millionaire. Co-sponsored by Elliott Bay Books. Mt. Zion Baptist Church, 1634 19th Ave, 624-6600, 7 pm, free (first come, first served).

MARTY ASHER

Publishers Weekly had this to say about Boomer, the debut novel from the editor-in-chief at Vintage Books: "Tracing the life of his protagonist, identified as 'the boomer,' from birth to death in childlike, 'see Spot run' prose, Asher delivers a spare outline of one man's life, which nevertheless manages to capture many boomer-generation milestones and anxieties with winning pathos... (the) protagonist is sure to remind America's largest demographic of someone they know very well." (What, exactly, is "winning pathos"?) Elliott Bay Book Company, 101 S Main, 624-6600, 7:30 pm, advance free tickets available at store.

ROBIN MERIGAN

This multi-media event, titled "Reluctance," will feature local poet Merigan reading from The Reluctant Electra, a newly completed manuscript (of which a poem contained therein won 1999's WPA's William Stafford Award) with musical interludes provided by Seattle bands Voyager One and Legion. Richard Hugo House, 1634 11th Ave, 322-7030, 7:30 pm, free, all ages.