*PAULA KAMEN

Drawing from intimate interviews with over 100 subjects, Kamen's latest study, Her Way: Young Women Remake the Sexual Revolution, charts the "sexual evolution" of women now in their 20s and 30s. Lisa Miya-Jervis of Bitch magazine praised the way in which Kamen's book "documents women's sexual truths without judgment and--more important--without all the wrongheaded, double-standard-laden assumptions that all too often plague writing on this topic." Elliott Bay Book Company, 101 S Main, 624-6600, 5 pm, tickets required (available free at store).

DANIEL QUINN

Quinn, author of My Ishmael, returns with After Dachau, a novel that Publishers Weekly calls an "absorbingly cautionary tale imagining a future homogenous society" in which Adolf Hitler beats the Allies to the A-bomb and conquers the world. Elliott Bay Book Company, 7:30 pm, tickets required (available free at store).

CAROL FIELD

Field--celebrated culinary artist and author of The Italian Baker and In Nonna's Kitchen--cooks up some spicy new fiction with her debut novel, Mangoes and Quince, a story about a charismatic chef, a disappeared husband, and an alienated daughter. University Bookstore, 4326 University Way NE, 634-3400, 7 pm, free.

IT'S ABOUT TIME WRITERS READING SERIES

Featured readers are Darby Ringer, Janet Lawless, Carrington McDuffie, and Genevieve Beach, preceded and followed by an open mic. Seattle Public Library, 5009 Roosevelt Way NE, 684-4063, 6:30 pm, free.

STEWART O'NAN

O'Nan's latest novel, Everyday People, is "set in a black neighborhood of Pittsburgh during one eventful week in 1998... [focusing] on a group of residents struggling to survive amidst a landscape of poverty and gang violence" (Library Journal). Elliott Bay Book Company, 7:30 pm, tickets required (available free at store).

DANIEL QUINN

See Thursday listing. Third Place Books, 17171 Bothell Way NE, 366-3311, 6:30 pm, free.

CAROL FIELD

See Thursday listing. Grand Central Arcade and Bakery, 214 First Ave S, 624-6600, 6 pm, free.

*SEX & SINGLE GIRLS GROUP READING

Sex & Single Girls: Straight and Queer Women on Sexuality is a new anthology of essays on everyone's favorite subject, edited by Lee Damsky and published by local outfit Seal Press. See Stranger Suggests. Elliott Bay Book Company, 7:30 pm, tickets required (available free at store).

TORENA O'RORKE

Reading by the author of Always Another Dawn, a novel about the Women Auxiliary Air Service Pilots of World War II, and set in Seattle. Elliott Bay Book Company, 3 pm, tickets required (available free at store).

JAMES PATTERSON

Reading by the Edgar Award-winning author of 1st to Die. Third Place Books, 6 pm, free.

JAN BURKE

Reading by the Edgar Award-winning author of Flight. Seattle Mystery Bookshop, 117 Cherry St, 587-5737, noon, free.

JETT PSARIS & MARLENA S. LYONS

Psaris and Lyons are co-authors of Undefended Love. Elliott Bay Book Company, 4 pm, tickets required (available free at store).

RED SKY POETRY THEATRE

Tonight's featured performer is Judith Skillman. Open mic sign-up starts at 7 pm. Globe Cafe, 1531 14th Ave, 633-5647, 7:30 pm, free.

THREE POETS & AN OPEN MIC

Featured readers are Joel Kabakov, Lisa Noble, and Koon Woon. Wit's End Bookstore & Tea Shop, 770 N 34th St, 682-1268, 7 pm, free.

*JOYCE CAROL OATES

Oates--winner of the National Book Award for her novel Them--reads tonight as part of the King County Library Author Series. Kirkland Performance Center, 350 Kirkland Ave, 425-893-9827, 7 pm, free.

JONATHAN D. SPENCE

Reading and signing by the author of Treason by the Book, a historical retelling of the plot against an 18th-century Chinese emperor. Kane Hall, UW Campus, 634-3400, 7 pm, tickets required (available free at University Bookstore).

NICHOLAS CHRISTOPHER

Christopher's latest book, A Trip to the Stars, was praised by E. A. Johnston of the Toronto Globe & Mail as "a large, lavishly inventive novel... an erudite and artful entertainment." Elliott Bay Book Company, 7:30 pm, tickets required (available free at store).

JOHN BALBAN

Balban is a novelist, translator, memoirist, and National Book Award-winning poet. Tonight's conversation will be moderated by Nancy Pearl, executive director of the Washington Center for the Book. Seattle Public Library, 1000 Fourth Ave, 386-4650, 7 pm, free.

RADICAL WOMEN STUDY GROUP

Final weekly meeting to discuss Making Waves, an anthology of articles, poetry and essays by Asian American women. Everyone welcome. School of Social Work, 4101 15th Ave NE, 722-6057, 7 pm, free.

DAVID BROOKS

Reading by the author of Bobos in Paradise. Third Place Books, 7 pm, free.

EAST INDIA TRADING COMPANY

Poetry, prose, and spoken word open mic for all ages. Hosted by Ira Parnes. Coffee Messiah, 1554 E Olive Way, 208-1188, 7 pm, free.

MARK COOK

Cook was imprisoned for 24 years for his involvement with the Seattle-based revolutionary group The George Jackson Brigade. He is also the founder of the Walla Walla State Penitentiary chapter of the Black Panther Party. His talk tonight is a benefit for the Prison Legal News. Seattle Central Community College, 1701 Broadway, Room 1110, 324-8165, 7 pm, donation.

CLAUDIA RANKINE, MATTHEW ROHRER

Poetry reading presented by Seattle Arts & Lectures. See Stranger Suggests. ACT Theatre, 700 Union, 292-7676, 7:30 pm, $14/$8.50 students & under 25.

*PAUL LUSSIER

Historian Howard Zinn calls Lussier's new historical novel, Last Refuge of Scoundrels: A Revolutionary Novel, "a delightfully irreverent look at the Revolution and its leaders [with] outrageous and lovable characters," while Studs Terkel says the author "reveals a keen understanding of how this country was wrought from the dreams of the anonymous many." Elliott Bay Book Company, 7:30 pm, tickets required (available free at store).

NICHOLAS CHRISTOPHER

See Monday listing. University Bookstore, 7 pm, free.

MALACHY McCOURT

Discussion by the author of the best-selling memoirs A Monk Swimming and Singing Him My Song. Kirkland Performance Center, 7 pm, free.

YAWP! READING SERIES

An evening of performance poetry featuring Karen Finneyfrock and R. Eirik Ott. The Pearl, 4215 University Way NE, 547-3326, 8 pm, $3.

BILL HAYES

Anne Lamott calls Hayes' new book, Sleep Demons: An Insomniac's Memoir, "a lovely weave of memory and science, great characters, and compassionate humor. Insomniacs will love it for the sense of connection and solution." University Bookstore, 7 pm, free.

BROOKS HAXTON

Haxton's latest book is a translation of ancient verse. Says Nicholas Christopher of Fragments: The Collected Wisdom of Heraclitus, "Brooks Haxton has produced a luminous translation, putting himself comfortably in the proud tradition of poet-translators in English, from Pope to Pound." Elliott Bay Book Company, 7:30 pm, tickets required (available free at store).