Today's Featured Book Event-Title Raves: The Great Northwest at The Central Library

Today’s Featured Book Event:

Title Raves: The Great Northwest (Central Library, @12:00pm): Celebrate your love of reading and local writers.  Join in a discussion about your favorite Northwest authors, what book you have read lately and why you liked it.  Leading off the discussion will be a panel of people known around town for their love of reading and books:

• Lono Waiwaiole, whose Wiley crime noir series takes place in Portland
• Dennis Stovall and Karen Brattain, publishers at PSU’s student-run Ooligan Press
• Jeff Baker, book editor, The Oregonian

Other Book Event’s Today:

Spring 2009 Release Party of The Spectrum (PSU Smith Memorial SU, Room 236, @12:30pm): The Spectrum, a new student publication at Portland State University will be unveiling its first issue, comprised of student submissions on issues concerning sex and gender equality, oppression, discrimination, and advocacy within the community.  You are invited to attend the release party that is currently scheduled to kickoff the 2009 Review with featured guest speakers, collaborators, supporters and FREE FOOD.

Rev. Charles Gordon Annual Lecture (UP Buckley Center, @4:00pm): Gordon’s lectures, Conversations with Fr. Charlie, aim to expose the community to the richness of Catholic literature. This year, he will highlight British novelist Evelyn Waugh, author of Brideshead Revisited, and whose biting humor mocked British aristocracy and high society for several decades in the 20^th Century. The title of Gordon’s talk is “The Church as One’s Foundation: The Spirituality of Evelyn Waugh, Catholic Novelist.”

The Joy Of Censorship (Midland Library, @6:30pm): In his long-running, nationally acclaimed program, MAD Senior Editor Joe Raiola takes an illuminating, satiric and at times disturbing look at America’s most hotly debated First Amendment issues, including the dramatic effect of 9/11 on free speech. He sheds light on the endless arguments over banned books, movie rating, the FCC, the Patriot Act, Internet filters, flag burning, indecency, the true meaning of obscenity and more.

Raiola also traces MAD’s unlikely and colorful history, from renegade publisher Williams Gaines’ historic showdown with the United States Senate over comic book censorship to MAD’s emergence as a revolutionary satirical force.

The Joy of Censorship includes a one-of-a-kind slide presentation spotlighting many of MAD’s most controversial, thought-provoking and outrageous covers and articles.

Sage Cohen Offers Writing the Life Poetic Presentation (The Old Church, @7:00pm): Poetry is one of the great pleasures in life. And no one needs an advanced degree in creative writing to reap its rewards. Sage Cohen’s new book, Writing the Life Poetic: An Invitation to Read and Write Poetry (Writer’s Digest Books) is packed full of captivating new ways to generate ideas and have fun with the writing process. In her “Writing the Life Poetic” workshop, Sage will share some of her favorite exercises and invite writers of all backgrounds to experience their life through a poetic lens. Participants will discover new ways to think and write about the subjects that interest them–and get inspired to start capturing those observations on paper immediately.

Sage Cohen is the author of Writing the Life Poetic: An Invitation to Read and Write Poetry (Writers Digest Books, 2009) and the poetry collection Like the Heart, the World. She writes four monthly columns about the craft and business of writing and serves as Poetry Editor for VoiceCatcher 3. Co-curator of a monthly reading series at Barnes & Noble, Sage teaches the online class Poetry for the People. Sage is publisher of the Writing the Life Poetic blog and zine; drop by and join in the conversation at www.writingthelifepoetic.typepad.com! To learn more about Sage, visit www.sagesaidso.com.

Two Judiths with Grace! (Broadway Books, @7:00pm): Grace Paley’s last book Fidelity – a beautifully designed poetry collection first published in cloth in March 2008, seven months after her death — has just been published in paperback. Offering some of her most personal work, this collection includes poems about family, friendship, aging, death, and her longtime homes in New York and Vermont. Join us tonight as two of her Portland friends, colleagues-in-poetry Judith Arcana and Judith Barrington, read poems from Fidelity, talk a bit about Grace, and read a few of their own poems. Through the magic of technology, hear Grace reading one of her best-loved poems.

April Henry Reading (Powells Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, @7:00pm): In Fox News correspondent Lis Wiehl’s novel Face of Betrayal (Thomas Nelson), written with April Henry, three fiercely smart and justice-seeking women investigate the disappearance of a Senate page connected to a philandering politician.

Craft Circle Book Group (Powells Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, @7:00pm): This month’s craft circle book group meets to discuss Knit One, Kill Two by Maggie Sefton. Bring your crafting supplies as we talk books and crafts the first Tuesday of each month. New members to the group are always welcome.

Ben Parzybok Reading (St. Helen’s Bookshop, @7:00pm): The Do Drop In Reading Group’s selection of “Couch” for April brings an evening open to all. Portland author Benjamin Parzybok will visit to discuss and sign his humorous debut novel that has quickly taken readers on a fun quest of self-discovery, secret histories, and unexpected revelations. The story features three guys taking their couch around Portland after a freak accident floods their apartment. Maybe it’s not just a couch…?

Alva Noë Reading (Powells City of Books, @7:30pm): Alva Noë is one of a new breed of thinkers — part philosopher, part cognitive scientist, part neuroscientist — who are radically altering the study of consciousness by asking difficult questions and pointing out obvious flaws in the current science. Debunking the outmoded philosophies that rule the scientific study of consciousness, Out of Our Heads (Hill & Wang) is a fresh attempt at understanding our minds and how we interact with the world around us.

Book Release Party For Chelsea Martin (The Maiden, @8:00pm): Chelsea Martin is the author of Everything Was Fine Until Whatever, just released from Future Tense.  Come join her and special guests Matthew Simmons and Brandon Scott Gorrell to celebrate this collection of Chelsea’s stories, weird lists, art, and random small print distractions. Chelsea’s web site is www.jerkethics.com if you want to see more about her.

Please check your community Libraries schedule using these links: Washington County, Multnomah County, Clackamas County. For other book events this week, please check the list.