• Very good novelist Mona Simpson reads at Elliott Bay Book Company tonight. The author of Anywhere But Here returns with her newest literary novel, My Hollywood.
• 826 Seattle is hosting a class called How to Write Like I Do. The teacher is Myla Goldberg. For those of you who don't know: Myla Goldberg is awesomesauce. Bee Season was a wonderful debut and her second novel was a brave, brilliant failure of a book. Here she will teach a class on creating compelling characters. I wish she was doing a reading, too. She's dreamy.
• And at the Hugo House, it's time again for Cheap Beer and Prose. The popular cheap-booze-and-stories reading series continues with a "ladies' night." Karen Finneyfrock, Wilson Diehl, Margot Kahn and Paullette Gaudet will read. The only author I am unfamiliar with on that list is Gaudet, but we shortlisted curator Brian McGuigan for a Genius Award because he's very good at choosing people who are exciting readers, so you can trust him to not choose a boring author. The other three are absolutely great readers. Beer will be $1.
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.