When he's not writing sharp, rabble-rousing editorials for the New York Times (like last week's declaration of war on Mike Huckabee for pardoning Maurice Clemmons), local author Timothy Egan writes award-winning books about historical events that even people who slept through 12 years' worth of history classes can't put down. His newest book, The Big Burn, is about a 1910 wildfire that torched more than three million acres in Idaho and Montana. We're still enjoying the consequences of the fire—a great national parks system—today. Egan turns the story into a page-turner. (Third Place Books, 17171 Bothell Way NE, 366-3333. 7 pm, free.)