Author Events
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Rick Perlstein How did a Republican Party that was shattered in the mid-’70s pivot toward its nearly hegemonic power today? This is the question considered in The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan (Simon & Schuster, $23.72), which Perlstein begins with Watergate and ends with President Gerald Ford’s seeming defeat of the Gipper. Whence the motivating power of the Reagan Revolution? Perlstein digs up a Ford memo calling Reagan’s supporters “highly motivated right-wing nuts.” Well, yes, but those nuts turned out to be the future of the GOP-populating think tanks, dominating talk radio, funding super-PACs, and rising from law-school professorships to the Supreme Court. The Invisible Bridge is also a cultural history of the roiling moment, a nation divided and unbalanced: OPEC and Patty Hearst, killer bees and Robert Altman’s Nashville, Hank Aaron’s home-run chase and Chevy Chase stumbling on SNL. BRIAN MILLER Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave., 652-4255, townhallseattle.org. $5 7:30 p.m. Wed., Sept. 3.
Michael Pitre A veteran of the Iraq War, his debut novel is Fives and Twenty Fives. Elliott Bay Book Co., 1521 10th Ave., 624-6600, elliottbaybook.com. 7 p.m. Wed., Sept. 3.
John Scalzi A horrible virus lays waste to mankind in his sci-fi thriller Lock In. University Book Store, 4326 University Way N.E., 634-3400, bookstore.washington.edu. 7 p.m. Wed., Sept. 3.
Paul Roberts He’ll discuss his The Impulse Society: America in the Age of Instant Gratification. Town Hall, $5. 7:30 p.m. Thurs., Sept. 4.
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Jim Woodring In his new anthology JIM (Fantagraphics, $29.99), the local artist reaches back over 30 years into the phantasmagoric trove of his imagination, first manifested on paper with a 12-page zine in 1982. His is a world of everyday hallucination and unexpected transmogrification. Monsters are always at hand, woven into life’s ordinary texture (if anything can be called ordinary in Woodring’s art). Much of JIM riffs on the early reading matter of his youth, including comic books, ads, and Highlights magazine. Certain threads of autobiography are present, as we see a young artist taking classes and gathering material, gradually gaining confidence in his craft. Even so, disgust-at himself and the world in general-and self-doubt are pervasive. B.R.M. University Book Store, 7 p.m. Thurs., Sept. 4.
Rachel Kramer Bussel The editor of The Big Book of Orgasms and other volumes reads from those works. Center for Sex Positive Culture, 1608 15th Ave. W., 274-4525, thefspc.org. 3 p.m. Sat., Sept. 6.
Tom Cho From Australia, his new story collection is Look Who’s Morphing. He’s joined by fellow gay scribes Mattilda Bernstein (The End of San Francisco) and Chad Goller-Sojourner (Riding in Cars With Black People & Other Newly Dangerous Acts: A Memoir in Vanishing Whiteness). Local poet Imani Sims hosts the evening, and shares verse from her Beloved Collision. Elliott Bay, 7 p.m. Sat., Sept. 6.
Parents Writing About Parenthood Brian McGuigan, Ross McMeekin, and Kristen Millares Young discuss parenting. RSVP at facebook.com/events/1455769411369832. Rainier Valley Cultural Center, 3515 S. Alaska St. 3 p.m. Sat., Sept. 6.
Sam Hamill He shares new verse from Habitation: Collected Poems. Elliott Bay, 7 p.m. Sun., Sept. 7.
Ann Hedreen Her caregiving memoir Her Beautiful Brain deals with her mother’s Alzheimer’s disease. Elliott Bay, 3 p.m. Sun., Sept. 7.
Richard Flanagan Her historical novel The Last of the Blacksmiths is set before the Civil War. Seattle Public Library, Northeast Branch, 6801 35th Ave. N.E., 684-7539, spl.org. 6:30 p.m. Mon., Sept. 8.
Susan Szenasy The editor of Metropolis magazine discusses her Szenasy, Design Advocate with Natalia Ilyin and Thaisa Way as part of the Seattle Design Festival. Cornish College, 1001 Lenora St., 726-5151, cornish.edu. 7:30 p.m. Mon., Sept. 8.
Elissa Washuta She reads from My Body Is a Book of Rules and joins in a discussion with fellow locals Suzanne Morrison (Yoga Bitch) and Claire Dederer, erstwhile Seattle Weekly writer and author of the bestselling memoir Poser. Elliott Bay, 7 p.m. Mon., Sept. 8.
Richard Flanagan From distant Tasmania, he reads from his WWII-set novel The Narrow Road to the Deep North. Elliott Bay, 7 p.m. Tues., Sept. 9.
