Being a holiday week and all, events are a little sparse—but we still do have some good ones! So get your turkey-stuffed bodies out of the house, and enjoy your week in Seattle lit events.
This Week in Lit: Fantagraphics, Fables and the American Family
Can't Miss It: Tuesday
HAPPY HOUR, ANYONE?: Sound Magazine invites you to join in on the fun at their happy hour extravaganza tonight at the Highway 99 Blues Club in honor of their new June issue. The first 50 people to get in the door will receive free drink tickets compliments of Miller Lite, and your favorite Sound staffers will be on hand. There will be plenty of free copies of the latest issue if you have yet to snag one, and plenty of time to schmooze it up with the writers, photographers, and editors of the Northwest's finest music magazine. So bring your feedback, story ideas, questions, or accusations, and get ready to get down with Sound for some Tuesday night awesomeness.
6-9 p.m. // Highway 99 Blues Club, 1414 Alaskan Way // FREE, 21+
Speaking Tour: 4/30 - 5/6
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.
Speaking Tour: 4/23 - 4/29
SHERMAN FREAKING ALEXIE: The best-selling author returns with his first novel in ten years. Flight tells the story of an orphaned Indian boy who travels back and forth through time in a violent search for his true identity. Real Change-published poets (that would actually include Alexie, too) read as part of the program.
Speaking Tour: 4/16 - 4/22
CALL 911! CALL 911!: Political and economic commentator and White House strategist during the Nixon administration, Kevin Phillips talks about his book, American Theocracy: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21st Century. Phillips traces the set of related causes that caused the downfall of historical world powers. That same combination of ills he says -- global over-reach, militant religion, resource problems, and ballooning debt -- is at work in the U.S. today.
Speaking Tour: 4/9 - 4/15
PREQUEL TO MCARTNEY'S WINGS: Richie Unterberger, the author of several books on the history of rock, shows some film footage and plays some music recordings of unreleased Beatles material. He´s promoting his latest book, The Unreleased Beatles -- Music and Film. We had no idea they were in jail! (Ha! Because of the "unreleased" -- see how...oh...sure, we can move on.)
Speaking Tour: 4/2 - 4/8
THAT STARBUCKS "I WAS A CHILD SOLDIER" GUY: At twelve, Ishmael Beah found himself fleeing rebels, wandering from village to village. At thirteen, he was a soldier in Sierra Leone, hooked on drugs and capable of things he would never have imagined. Now, rehabilitated and living in the U.S., he tells his story in A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, in an attempt to raise awareness of the child soldier phenomenon.
Speaking Tour: 3/26 - 4/1
FANTASTIC FICTION SALON: Novelist, nonfiction author, and short story writer Terry Bisson has swept every honor in the science fiction field as well as France's Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire. He joins Hugo House's Writing Fantastic Fiction workshop series, where he will teach "Who Likes Short Shorts? We Like Short Shorts!"
Speaking Tour: 3/12 - 3/18
LESS IS MORE: In Trance of Scarcity: Stop Holding Your Breath and Start Living Your Life, Victoria Castle asks why we feel that nothing is ever enough. Castle's book shows us how to escape this malaise and become more relaxed and alive. Hopefully it doesn't involve crisscrossing the U.S. on a book tour.
Speaking Tour: 2/26 - 3/4
SEATTLEST BOOK CLUB PICK: For March, we're reading Jonathan Raban's Surveillance, set in a not-so-distant future, when everyone's actions are highly monitored. Get a head start on the conversation by hearing from Raban himself. (We'll know if you went or not.)
Speaking Tour: 2/19 - 2/25
AUTHOR, AUTHOR: In Bich Minh Nguyen's memoir, Stealing Buddha's Dinner, a young family escapes from Vietnam shortly before the fall of Saigon and relocates to Grand Rapids, Michigan. "In her recreation of a world populated by family ties, Ritz crackers, and Judy Blume books, she has captured the 1980s with perfection," says Kirkus Reviews.

