Sign up for the Events Newsletter: What's happening in town? From underground club nights to the biggest outdoor festivals, our top picks for the week's best events will always keep you in on the action.
From a guy who knows something about Muslim extremism, the subject of his new novel, Shalimar the Clown, is a bold choice. It deals with the clash of religious and cultural sensibilities at the border of India and Pakistan. Fantasy, political assassination, and, yes, 9/11 figure in the plot. You'll have to explain to us how film director Max Ophüls becomes a character in the story. Thurs., Sept. 22. Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave., 206-652-4255, www.townhallseattle.org.
To cope with writer's block, the Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist turned to her own bookshelves for succor: 100 titles of a self-devised canon including Don Quixote, White Teeth, and Atonement. The result, which she'll discuss with our local über-librarian Nancy Pearl, is Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel. Wed., Sept. 28. Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave., 206-652-4255. www.townhallseattle.org.
Perhaps America's pre-eminent writer on mountaineering (even before Jon Krakauer), he looks back on his own risk-filled youth in On the Ridge Between Life and Death: A Climbing Life Reexamined. If you've ever lost a friend or suffered an accident in the hills—and even if you haven't—you owe it to yourself to hear him speak. Thurs., Sept. 29. REI, 222 Yale Ave. N., 206-223-1944, www.rei.com.
After his Krakatoa, the master of disaster examines a cataclysm closer to home in A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906. The decrepit, dangerous viaduct along our waterfront only makes his tale more important. Wed., Oct. 19. Benaroya Hall, 200 University St., 206-621-2230, www.lectures.org.
Drawing from some of his reportage in The New Yorker, The Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq takes an unstinting look at Dubya's policies, our military miscalculations, and—most important—the human cost on the ground, felt by both U.S. and Iraqi families. Any bets as to how many will have died by the time he speaks? Wed., Nov. 16. University Book Store, 4326 University Way N.E., 206-634-3400, www.bookstore.washington.edu.
Current political thinking is that the South actually won the Civil War (look at who's running our country). So it's a good time, then, for the great American novelist to look back at that period in The March, set along Gen. Sherman's brutal path. The scars are still with us. Fri., Nov. 18. Seattle Central Library, 1000 Fourth Ave., 206-386-4636, www.spl.org.
Books Calendar
Note venue information at end of list. Dates are subject to change. Call ahead to confirm.
19 RICHARD HELL The punk-rock/lit figure mixes past and present, memoir and fiction in his Godlike. (Also Oct. 21 at Richard Hugo House.) University Book Store.
21 CYNTHIA OZICK Seattle Arts & Lectures presents the acclaimed novelist and essayist, a longtime contributor to The New Yorker. Benaroya Hall.
26 JONATHAN KOZOL Another reason to vote for school levies: The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America. Presented by Foolproof. Town Hall, www.foolproof.org.
26 ARIEL LEVY With porn stars all over the best-seller lists, she tackles a titillating topic in Female Chauvinist Pigs: Woman and the Rise of Raunch Culture. University Book Store.
26 TERRY PRATCHETT He continues his comic-fantasy Discworld series with Thud! University Temple Methodist Church, 1415 N.E. 43rd St., 206-634-3400, www.bookstore.washington.edu.
25 DAVID RAKOFF The NPR humorist shares his complaints from Don't Get Too Comfortable: The Indignities of Coach Class, the Torments of Low Thread Count, the Never-Ending Quest for Artisanal Olive Oil, and Other First World Problems. Elliott Bay.
28 PAMELA PAUL More with the XXX exegesis: Pornified: How the Culture of Pornography Is Changing Our Lives, Our Relationships, and Our Families. University Book Store.
29 ROBERT PINSKY Presented by the Nextbook series on Jewish culture, he makes the biblical figure into a man of action in The Life of David. Benaroya Hall, www.nextbook.org.
29 JIM WALLIS Even liberals can believe in God, according to the author of God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It. Presented by Foolproof. Town Hall, www.foolproof.org.
OCTOBER
4 NEIL GAIMAN African trickster gods somehow figure in the workings of Anansi Boys, from the perennial sci-fi best seller. University Temple Methodist Church, www.bookstore.washington.edu.
7 ZADIE SMITH She of White Teeth returns with On Beauty, a novel built partly upon Howard's End. Elliott Bay.
11 BRIAN JACQUES He loves the Northwest, and he's bringing two books to this evening (and several following events): High Rhulain, about an uprising among otters; and The Redwall Cookbook, which has nothing to do with cooking or eating otters. University Temple Methodist Church, www.bookstore.washington.edu.
What's happening in town? From underground club nights to the biggest outdoor festivals, our top picks for the week's best events will always keep you in on the action.
