Shopping Bag
My AccountFrom what I could find (please contact me if you have an event you would like me to add to this or future schedules), the local book events for the week of January 25, 2009 through January 31, 2009 are:
Here are links to the community calendars for the Tri-County area Libraries (there are a phenomenal amount of events held at our local libraries, we should count ourselves lucky): Washington County, Multnomah County, Clackamas County
Sunday January 25-
Energy Protection (New Rennaisance Bookshop, @ 10:30am, Cost $30): Energy protection is learning how to protect ourselves energetically, physically and psychically. We can prevent others from robbing us of energy and avoid giving energy away. It is essential for the work environment as well as your personal and social lives. Using the chakras, the meridians and other energy pathways for protection increases your vitality and promotes a sense of self empowerment. Once you learn these simple techniques you will feel confident and enjoy a sense of liberation. Anna Abraham has been in practice for 15 years. She is devoted to empowering people’s participation in their healing process. Anna specializes in emotional healing and counseling for individuals and couples and is a shaman, Reiki Master, hypnotherapist and reverend.
100 Poems by 100 Poets from the Past 100 Years (Gallery Homeland @2:00pm): The Spare Room reading series celebrates seven years of presenting experimental writing in Portland with a marathon hundredth reading.From Helen Adam to Louis Zukofsky, from Futurism to Personism, from Hiroshima to Blackhawk Island, from a Polish count to a Peruvian communist, from a Dada priest to a MoMA curator, from prisoners of war to secret agents, from mimeographers to bloggers . . . come hear a small but representative slice of the extraordinary range of poetries practiced in the past century!
Platform Primer For Aspiring Authors with Christina Katz (Wilsonville Public Library, @2:30pm, Cost $5.00): Northwest Author Series Kicks Off The Second Half of Their Second Year. The Northwest Author Series is a literary speaker series sponsored by The Wilsonville Public Library, The Wilsonville Friends of the Library, and the Wilsonville Arts & Culture Council. Everyone who attends will be entered to win two out of three of the following door prizes from Writer’s Digest Books: Subscription to Writer’s Digest Magazine for one year, Subscription to Writersmarket.com for one year and/or $25 gift certificate to purchase Writer’s Digest Books. Starbucks coffee and refreshments from Lamb’s Thriftway will be served.
Monday January 26-
Oregon Writers Colony Presents: Kay Plumb (Looking Glass Bookstore, @7:00pm): Kay Plumb, author of Using Beauty and the Beast to Introduce the Human Shadow (WorldView Press, 2008) will discuss finding your writer’s voice. A perpetual scholar with a lifelong interest in literature, comparative religion and archetypal psychology, Plumb has a Bachelor of Science with Honors in Arts & Letters from Portland State University; is the mother of three, stepmother of three, step-grandmother of nine; and a damn good weeder on the three acres she and her husband call home near Portland, Oregon. www.humanshadowtalk.com
Learn To Meditate (New Rennaisance Bookshop, @ 7:00pm, Cost $42): Begin a journey that can change your life and lead you to entirely new levels of inner peace, joy and clarity. We will learn to dissolve the layers of tension in body and mind that prevent us from relaxing completely. Experience the power of devotional chanting to open and soften the heart in preparation for meditation. Learn the importance of posture, or asana, and how to create an environment and routine that supports you in your practice. The ancient rishis of India knew that consciousness was linked to breath. They developed the science of breath, or pranayama, to calm the mind and open the way to higher states of consciousness. Through pranayama watch the mental chatter and restlessness give way to states of deep peace. Class is based on the ancient science of yoga and the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda. Jamey Potter, co-founder of New Renaissance, is a longtime member of Ananda. He has been meditating for over 30 years and is delighted to share these simple, yet powerful teachings of Yogananda with you.
Norman Bussel Reading (Powells Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, @ 7:00pm): Norman Bussel, a 19-year-old B-17 crewman, was shot down over Germany in the spring of 1944. He spent the rest of the war as a POW and returned home suffering from what is now known as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). My Private War (Pegasus) is Bussel’s searing and honest story of his battle with PTSD, a battle that speaks to the hearts and minds of veterans of all wars who find themselves with liberated bodies but captive minds.
Luke Bergmann Reading (Powells Books on Hawthorne, @7:30pm): An intimate and revealing look at the lives of two young black drug dealers in Detroit, Getting Ghost (New Press) is a bracing and original analysis of the forces that shape their world, by a rising young scholar. “Not just illustrative and emotive, this pummeling, immersive social text is grounded in street-level reportage and seeded with wisdom,” hails Kirkus Reviews.
Matt Miller Reading (Powells City of Books, @7:30pm): In The Tyranny of Dead Ideas (Times Books), leading political and business thinker Matt Miller offers a unique blend of business-world acumen and public-policy vision to lay bare how conventional wisdom holds America back. Miller introduces a new way of thinking — what he calls “tomorrow’s destined ideas” — to reinvigorate the economy.
Tuesday January 27-
Macintosh Users Group (Powells Technical Books, @ 6:30pm): Join us every other Tuesday for a fun and informal meeting with like-minded Mac geeks. Bring your questions and tips to share with the group.
Annual William Stafford Celebration (Broadway Books, @7:00pm): Please come for our annual event to celebrate William Stafford – his life, his work, and his birthday! This evening’s event will be hosted by Harold Johnson. The celebration will begin with the featured readers: Casey Bush, Paula Lowden, Joanna Rose, Mazarine Treyz, Stephanie Van Horn, and FWS Board Member Tim Barnes. Then we’ll open the floor to members of the audience who wish to read. As a birthday gift to William Stafford, bring one his poems to read to the group. We hope you’ll join us for what is always one of the most fun events at the store each year.
Mark Zaifman Reading (Powells Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, @ 7:00pm): When Your Money or Your Life was first published in 1992, the book struck a chord with readers who appreciated its message of how to live well for less. A revised edition arrives at a time of economic crisis, when many of us are struggling to pay mortgages and pay off credit cards while simultaneously weathering layoffs and diminishing financial portfolios. Regardless of whether you are in debt or whether you have savings, you can embark on the road to financial independence and finally begin to make a life, rather than just make a living. Coauthor Mark Zaifman will be in attendance.
Washington County Peak Oil Book Group (Powells Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, @ 7:00pm): This month the peak oil book group meets to discuss the second half of Plan C by Pat Murphy. New members to the group are always welcome.
Michele Ulriksen Reading (Powells City of Books, @7:30pm): Reform at Victory (Pizan Media) is a nonfiction account of author Michele Ulriksen’s harrowing experience in an unlicensed/unregulated fundamentalist Baptist reform school, where the only way home is full conformity. She spends one full year at the locked-down facility, which is located in the California desert.
Wednesday January 28-
Classics Book Group (Powells Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, @ 7:00pm): This month we meet to discuss The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. New members to the group are always welcome.
Erica Bauermeister Reading (Powells Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, @ 7:00pm): Reminiscent of Chocolat and Like Water for Chocolate, Erica Bauermeister’s The School of Essential Ingredients (Putnam) is a gorgeously written novel about life, love, and the magic of food. Eight students gather in Lillian’s Restaurant every Monday night for cooking class. It soon becomes clear, however, that each one seeks a recipe for something beyond the kitchen. “[A] remarkable debut,” proclaims Publishers Weekly. “[C]ertain to satisfy.”
Stephanie Kallos Reading (Annie Blooms Books, @7:30pm): Sing Them Home is a portrait of three siblings who have lived in the shadow of unresolved grief since their mother’s disappearance when they were children. Everyone in Emlyn Springs knows the story of Hope Jones, the physician’s wife whose big dreams for their tiny town were lost along with her in the tornado of 1978. For Hope’s three young children, the stability of life with their preoccupied father, and with Viney, their mother’s spitfire best friend, is no match for Hope’s absence. Larken, the eldest, is now an art history professor who seeks in food an answer to a less tangible hunger; Gaelan, the son, is a telegenic weatherman who devotes his life to predicting the unpredictable; and the youngest, Bonnie, is a self-proclaimed archivist who combs roadsides for clues to her mother’s legacy, and permission to move on. When they’re summoned home after their father’s death, each sibling is forced to revisit the childhood tragedy that has defined their lives. With breathtaking lyricism, wisdom, and humor, Kallos explores the consequences of protecting those we love.
Loggernaut Reading Series-”Hopes,” fiction and poetry by Peter Fogtdal, Zachary Schomburg, and Matthew Korfhage (Mississippi Studios, @7:30pm):Peter Fogtdal splits his time between Oregon and Denmark. He’s written twelve novels in Danish, three of which have been translated into French, two into Portuguese, and one into English (The Tsar’s Dwarf, Hawthorne Books, 2008). In 2005 he won The Francophonian Literature Prize for Le Front Chantilly. He teaches at Portland State University and maintains the blog Danish Accent (http://fogtdal.blogspot.com).
Matthew Korfhage was born in the desert, surrounded by the rest of Oregon. He lives in Portland, where he is an editor for Inkwater Press and freelance writer for Willamette Week and other publications. He is currently working on a novel.
Poet Zachary Schomburg is the author of The Man Suit, the forthcoming Scary, No Scary (2009) and two forthcoming chapbooks: I Am a Small Boy (Factory Hollow 2009) and The Pond (Greying Ghost 2009). His translations of Andrei Sen-Senkov and Irina Shostakovskaya are in the journals Circumference, Mantis, and Jacket. His collaborations with Emily Kendal Frey are in jubliat, Anti-, and Sir!. He co-edits Octopus Magazine and Octopus Books. He lives in Portland where he teaches at Portland State University and Portland Community College.
Melissa Rossi Reading (Powells City of Books, @7:30pm): The latest edition of Melissa Rossi’s popular series, What Every American Should Know about the Middle East (Plume Books) gives a crash course on one of the most complex and important regions of the world. In this highly informative and entertaining reference book, Rossi offers a clear analysis of the issues playing out in the Middle East, delving into each country’s history, politics, economy, and religions.
Thursday January 29-
Sound Awakening Evening (New Rennaisance Bookshop, @ 7:00pm, Cost $12): Take an evening to slow down with a beautiful sacred sound journey. Soak in an evening of deep vibrations with Tom Lange and Jen Ervast. They will fill the room with didjeridus, singing bowls, gongs, flute and more. These instruments from ancient cultures around the world will be played throughout the room on and over people so you feel as well as hear the music. You are invited to relax and release into these sounds, allowing them to take you on your own harmonic journey. Tom has been playing music most of his life and the didjeridu for the past 12 years. He has focused on the healing powers of sound for most of that time. Jen has a scientific background but discovered a strong resonance with these instruments. Info: sonicmassage.com. Registration limited.
William Stafford Birthday Reading (Branford P. Millar Library, Portland State University, @7:00pm): Featuring Michael Achtrman, Kate Bucko, Chris Cottrell , Michele Glazer, Verlena Orr, and FWS Board Member Shelley Reece. Contact: Kimberly Willson-St. Clair 503-725-4552 willsons@pdx.edu or Shelley Reece reeces@pdx.edu
Stephanie Kallos Reading (Powells Books on Hawthorne, @7:30pm): With her bestselling debut novel Broken for You, Stephanie Kallos established herself as a writer of uncommon “wisdom and soulfulness” (Sue Monk Kidd). Sing Them Home (Atlantic Monthly Press) is a magnificent tapestry of lives connected and undone by tragedy, lives poised — unbeknownst to the characters — for redemption. “[A] fresh, invigorating novel,” cheers Library Journal (starred review).
Hannah Holmes Reading (Powells City of Books, @7:30pm): With wit, humility, and penetrating insight, science journalist Hannah Holmes casts the inquisitive eye of a trained researcher and reporter on… herself. And not just on herself, but on our whole species. Deftly mixing personal stories and observations with the latest scientific theories and research results, The Well-Dressed Ape (Random House) is an engaging and informative field guide to that oddest and yet most fascinating of primates: the human. “Holmes makes the scientific personal in prose that is juicy and humorous,” cheers Publishers Weekly (starred review).
Friday January 30-
“Now/Past/Future”-Write Around Portland’s 28th Anthology Release (First United Methodist Church, @6:30pm): Write Around Portland will release its 28th anthology, Now/Past/Future, of community writing, from adult and youth fall writing workshop participants and invites the public to attend this reading of its writer’s powerful work. Readers will include burn survivors, adults and youth living with mental illness, people living in low income housing, adults with developmental disabilities, women living HIV/AIDS and many others.
Altar Your Space (New Rennaisance Bookshop, @7:00pm, Cost $12): Join Jagatjoti Khalsa (whom many clients call the holy trickster), author of Altar Your Space, and learn how to make your home and office more sacred, restorative and calming. Discover more about yourself at the same time. He’ll explain how to design your office or home to express yourself, rather than impress others, how to create a place that feels like you are journeying to a special space each time you cross the threshold and how to live a life where you are the altar and never the alternative. Jagatjoti is a Portland-based designer, photographer and entrepreneur, who believes that “By joining spirit and purpose, a personal living space will become a sacred place, where form and function blend seamlessly into a unique, life-affirming haven.”
Smorg Reading Series-Peaches and Bats Release (The Waypost, @7:00pm): Please come out to The Waypost (3120 N Williams Ave.) Friday, January 30th at 7pm to celebrate the release of a new issue of Peaches and Bats. Smorg is pleased to host David Abel, Joseph Bradshaw, Kaia Sand and Sam Lohmann, founder and editor of Peaches and Bats. There will be music by Warren Lee (harmonium), Ian Ackerman (violin) and Gabriel Will (viola). Please come out and support these wonderful Portland poets!
The Bakery Show (Fleur De Lis Bakery/Cafe, @7:30pm): Johnny Stallings, BT Shaw, Dan Kaplan, Leanne Grabel and Judith Arcana. Poetry about bread and cake, baking and cooking: some by these Portland folks, some by Neruda, Paley, Carruth, Olds, Shakespeare – and maybe more. Admission Free …… Purchase Food & Drink + Books by the Poets/Performers.
Saturday January 31-
Soul Development Through Handwriting (New Rennaisance Bookshop, @10:30am, Cost $65): Using the Vimala Alphabet (taught in several Portland area schools and originated by Vimala Rodgers), everyone will leave with specific, individualized instructions on exactly how to change your handwriting to: • Support your desires instead of sabotaging them; • Take charge of your soul development; • Immediately and dramatically change your life. Jennifer Crebbin, certified hand-writing consultant and life coach, wrote Soul Development Through Handwriting for teachers and adults on how to use the Vimala Alphabet as a transformative tool.
Celebrate William Stafford’s Birthday (Looking Glass Bookstore, @3:00pm): Join us in celebrating the life and work of William Stafford’s, in this annual birthday celebration sponsored by the Friends of William Stafford. As your gift, please bring along a favorite Stafford poem to read for the rest of the group. The celebration will begin with a few featured readers and then will be open for those in the audience who wish to read. Hosted by Willa Schneberg. Featuring: Frances Payne Adler, Christine Delea, Robert McFarlane, John Morrison, Emma Oliver, and FWS Board Members Dennis and Helen Schmidling.
Coming Home: Finding the Way Back to Our Essential Nature (New Rennaisance Bookshop, @7:00pm, Cost $12): We all long to feel real, at rest, intimately in touch with our essential selves. This evening introduces participants to the practice of inquiry and provides an experiential taste of what happens when one stays curious and open to the unfolding now. True inquiry brings us closer to our essential nature, helping us intimately to know the depth and mystery of the moment. Inquiry is a central practice of the Diamond Approach, a contemporary spiritual teaching that incorporates knowledge from depth psychology and timeless wisdom traditions, developed and taught by A.H. Almaas. Candace Harris is a long-time student of A.H. Almaas and his work, an ordained Diamond Approach teacher and core faculty member of Antioch University in Seattle.
