Wednesday, November 15
>>>UW iSchool at Kane Hall, 7:00-9:00pm. "Voices in an Empty Room: Five Apologies for the Narrative": Children's author Richard Peck discusses his writing and teaching careers, and his experiences with the kids today. He'll read from On The Wings Of Heroes, his new novel about a World War II childhood. Free with RSVP. Kane Hall, Rm. 220.

>>>Third Place Books, 7:00pm. We saw this book talk about adoptive parents and thought we'd better alert the media (i.e., Dan Savage) but it looks like he already knows about it: "Professional writers (including Jacqueline Mitchard and Dan Savage) provide engaging essays and insights." Free. Like hugs.

Thursday, November 16
>>>Town Hall, 7:30pm. It's the post-election edition of Seattle Follies, with commentary on who really won and lost. Horse's Ass David Goldstein takes left and John Moe, author of Conservatize Me, takes right. Sally Clark referees, Richard Conlin offers alternatives to the new 520 bridge, and special guests are the Irish musicians Dale Russ and Finn MacGinty, with Rob Jones on piano. Tickets: $15 at the door/$10 Town hall members, students, seniors.

>>>Town Hall, 8:00pm. Forum: The Evangelical Phenomenon. Who's afraid of a Christian theocracy? Valerie Tarico, PhD, ex-fundamentalist; Rev. Rich Lang, minister of Trinity United Methodist; Dr. David Domke, author of God Willing; and Rabbi Daniel Weiner, Temple De Hirsch Sinai, explore Christian fundamentalism’s uncanny resemblance to a mob of pitchfork-waving peasants. $5 at the door. Pitchforks, $15.

Friday, November 17
>>>Third Place Books, 6:00pm. In the land of the glass objet d'art, the one-eyed man is king. Dale Chihuly talks about his new book Fire, presents a slideshow, and scrawls something beginning with a C across your copy. Free with a fixation on "seaform" art. Signing: 6:30pm.

>>>Elliott Bay, 7:30pm. If our stripper post only stoked your interest, Seattle author Sarah Katherine Lewis reads from Indecent: How I Make It and Fake It as a Girl for Hire. It's a "gritty, smart, funny and self-aware account" of Lewis's ten years in the sex industry. Free, which we understand is unusual in the sex industry.

Saturday, November 18
>>>Seattle Public Central Library, 3:00-4:30pm. 87-years-young ex-nun Madeline DeFrees reads from her eighth book of poetry, Spectral Waves: New & Uncollected Poems. She's joined by Thomas Aslin (Sweet Smoke) and Gary Thompson (On John Muir´s Trail). Free, bring your own spectre to wave. Microsoft Auditorium.

>>>Third Place Books, 6:30pm. Mark A. Michaels and Patricia Johnson's Essence of Tantric Sexuality is perfect for all you sex-negative, whitebread types: "From autoerotic mysticism to sex magic, this book reveals how internal energies can be used to reach altered states of consciousness and transcendence." Sweet, huh? Free with a yoni or lingam icebreaker pun.

>>>Elliott Bay, 5pm. Janet Ore on the Seattle bungalow. (See Monday listing, too.) Free.

Sunday, November 19
>>>Elliott Bay, 2:00pm. Two Northwest women poets: Willa Schneberg reads from Storytelling in Cambodia, a book of poems about Cambodia's history, from myth to present day, and Anita Feng reads from her two recent poetry collections, Sadie & Mendel and Internal Strategies. Free.

Monday, November 20
>>>Richard Hugo House, 7:00-9:00pm. It's the Raven Chronicles publication party and reading. Thomas Hubbard emcees this birthday party for Vol. 12, No. 2, on the theme of "Obsessions." Free. We know, it's like we're obsessed with free things. Free shiny things.

>>>Third Place Books, 7:00pm. Oh, the Seattle bungalow. Janet Ore's history honors your "ordinary people" feel, and your cramped and leaky cultural legacy. Free if you flash a Lowe's or Home Depot receipt.

>>>NSWA at UW, 6:30pm. It's NANOTECHORAMA! All nanotech, all the time, with special guests: Francois Baneyx (director of the UW's Nanotech center), Xiaohu Gao (bioengineering, talks on early diagnosis, prognosis, and cancer treatment), Patrick Stayton (bioengineering, talks on "Smart Materials That Talk and Listen in Nanospace") and Valerie Daggett (talks on using realistic computer simulation methods to address biological problems). Free with RSVP. UW Bagley Hall, Rm. 154.

Tuesday, November 21
>>>Seattle Arts & Lectures at Benaroya Hall, 7:30pm. Frank McCourt, of the Limerick McCourts (you know, one of Angela's boys) hopes to bend your ear on the subject of his many years teaching writing to the fresh faces at Stuyvesant High. Sure, it'll be a fine time. Tickets: $20-$25/$10 25 and under.

>>>Third Place Books, 7:00pm. All the way from Vancouver, B.C., comes geneticist and environmentalist David Suzuki, host of PBS's The Nature of Things and author of more than 40 books. He reads from the second volume of his autobiography, recalling the upside of his childhood's racism: his free bunk in a Canadian internment camp during WW II. Free. We can even laugh about it now that internment camps are a thing of the distant past.