For a first novel, Nathaniel Rich's The Mayor's Tongue makes for a good read. But even though he's "not yet 30," he is a senior editor at The Paris Review (and the author of San Francisco Noir), and so you do expect him not to offer you some rewarmed Roth in the first place. He's down at Elliott Bay Book Company on Monday night, April 21st, giving the usual free reading/Q&A and not fielding questions......

N+1, the NYC-based literary magazine, launched with a bang back in the fall of 2004. In the inaugural issue, the editors took aim Dave Eggers & the McSweeneys/Believer crowd, deriding them as "the regressive avant-garde," and at the iconic critic James Wood (then at The New Republic, now at The New Yorker) whom they called a "designated hater," and who--along with his TNR co-horts Leon Wieseltier and Dale Peck--they accuse of writing literary criticism that......

Sports: The Sonics are 6-9, on a two game losing streak, and everybody's fighting. The Orlando Magic are 11-4, have won their last four, feature Dwight Howard, and come from some place very warm! What's not to love? Tip-off is right when the next snowstorm is supposed to hit. Worth risking your life for? Yes! 7:00pm // Key Arena // tickets Books, or something similar: Elliott Bay Books has their monthly open mic night......

Wednesday, October 25 >>>Rendezvous Jewel Box Theater, 7:30-10pm. Are you afraid of the dimmed lights in a theater? A Guide to Visitors presents their annual Ghost Story night. Spooky stories about haunted office buildings and ghost quests, told by people such as the woman who leads a ghost tour of Pike Place Market. The press release says the Jewel Box is haunted, so maybe the dead will chip in a tale or two themselvs.......

When's the last time you attended a reading by a genuine, MacArthur-certified genius? Tonight's your chance -- local author and Science Fiction Museum board member Octavia Butler will read from Fledgling, her first novel in 7 years, at 7:30 at Elliott Bay Book Co. Butler's appearance is being co-presented by the Central District Forum for Arts & Ideas, an organization Seattlest confesses we'd never heard of before. Their mission: "To offer progressive programs that encourage......

Now that Independence Day weekend has come and gone, Seattlest has gotten all that nasty "freedom" and "liberty" and "love for one's country" out of our system---so it's back to cynicism as usual. With that in mind, it's the perfect time to hit up Elliott Bay Book Company for the reading/signing tonight by politically-minded cartoonist Ward Sutton. Ward lived in Seattle from '91 to '95, when he illustrated posters for local bands (of the grunge......

If we had to pick the founding mothers of chick lit, we'd call 'em as Helen Fielding (Bridget Jones' Diary) and Melissa Bank (The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing). Seattlest can see both sides of the chick-lit debate: yeah, at this point the books seem cookie-cutter and boy-obsessed--but if they're getting more people to read books, could that be so bad? That's a question you could ask Melissa Bank on Wednesday night, if......