Monday
BOOK CRUSH: Librarian Nancy Pearl´s latest book is Book Crush, a guide to books you loved when you were growing up. How does she know? Head over to the launch party and find out.

7-8:30pm // Seattle Central Public Library Microsoft Auditorium // FREE

PETER BEAGLE SPEAKS: For the Fantastic Fiction Salon, fantasy author Peter Beagle (The Last Unicorn, Tamsin, and The Innkeeper's Song) teaches "Dialogue Says it All."

7pm // Hugo House // $4 donation

Tuesday
NICE WORK, EINSTEIN: Biographer Walter Isaacson (Benjamin Franklin and Kissinger) talks about his forthcoming book, Einstein: His Life and Universe, which weaves together the threads of Einstein’s revolutionary scientific achievements, political beliefs, complex personal life, and fascinating personality.

7:30pm // Town Hall // $5

CALAMITY PHYSICS: Marisha Pessl's novel, "Special Topics in Calamity Physics," is an academically themed mystery, whip-smart, and hard to put down. So be careful if you pick it up.

7:30pm // University Bookstore // FREE

Wednesday
SUBURBAN NATION: Architectural historian Witold Rybczynski speaks about his lengthy new title, Last Harvest: How a Cornfield Became New Daleville: Real Estate Development in America from George Washington to the Builders of the Twenty-first Century, and Why We Live in Houses Anyway. He discusses why so many Americans choose to live in suburbs (as opposed to denser city centers) despite often lengthy commutes.

7:30pm // Town Hall // $5

CLIMATE CHANGE SLIDESHOW: The discussion, moderated by Beverly Duperly Boos of Opening of the Heart and The Climate Project, is based on Al Gore´s Oscar award-winning film "An Inconvenient Truth", and explores the global indicators of climate change and solutions at individual and community levels.

6:30-8pm // Seattle Central Public Library // FREE

DAYCARE MYTH & REALITY: For "Children in Daycare: Science, the Media and Public Opinion," Dr. Booth-LaForce talks about the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, a study of more than 1,000 children from birth through age 15. She covers the effects of daycare on children’s social-emotional and cognitive development, and the extent to which these effects are temporary or long-lasting.

7-8pm // UW Kane Hall Rm 130 // FREE w/RSVP

Thursday
AYATOLLAH HOTEL: On November 4, 1979, radical Islamist students, inspired by the Ayatollah Khomeini, stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran, taking 52 Americans hostage and keeping most of them for 444 days. In Guests of the Ayatollah, Mark Bowden tells this story through the eyes of the hostages, the soldiers sent on the impossible mission to free them, their naive captors, and the diplomats working to end the crisis.

7pm // Third Place Books // FREE

RANT CLUB: Chuck Palahniuk reads from his new book Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey. Palahniuk is the bestselling author of several novels including Fight Club and the non-fiction profile of Portland, Fugitives and Refugees.

7pm // Town Hall // $5

Friday
AUTISM EPIDEMIC?: In Unstrange Minds: Remapping the World of Autism, anthropologist and father of an autistic child, Roy Grinker talks about how a diagnosis of autism is as much cultural as it is scientific, and how our current understanding of autism is much more sophisticated than it has ever been.

7pm // University Bookstore // FREE

ASPECTS OF LA BOHEME: Seattle Opera General Director Speight Jenkins and Education Director Perry Lorenzo discuss various aspects of Giacomo Puccini's canonical La Bohème.

7:30pm // Elliott Bay // $5

Saturday
VOICES IN WARTIME: Poet and Iraq War veteran Brian Turner headlines an evening of poetry reading and story telling by veterans and civilians who have witnessed war. Turner is joined by Andrew Himes, director of the Voices in Wartime Education Project and executive producer of Voices in Wartime documentary.

7pm // Town Hall // $15

DARK AND TROUBLING: Lynn Stegner reads from her novel, Because a Fire Was in My Head: "A strikingly rendered, dark and troubling novel about one woman's confused journey toward what she believes may well be herself. A harrowing book, beautifully told," says Bret Lott.

7:30pm // Elliott Bay // FREE

Sunday
STYLE GUIDE: Style maven Tim Gunn, from the popular Bravo reality show Project Runway, is here to help the rest of us put ourselves together, sartorially speaking, with his book, A Guide to Quality, Taste, and Style.

7pm // University Bookstore // FREE

TV WRITES YOU!: If you’ve ever said, “I could have written that!” to your TV, you can find out how to do it. Ellen Sandler has written for more than 25 prime-time network series, and here offers step-by-step, comprehensive techniques for writing a spec script.

5:30pm // Third Place Books // FREE