Portland Book Events: October 27-November 1

From 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 October 27, 2009 through November 1, 2009 are:

Tuesday October 27-

Zinesters Talking (North Portland Library, @6:30pm): Local independent publishers read from their zines in the fifth annual Zinesters Talking series. MExplore emotional terrain in “The Empire Builder” with A.M. O’Malley and find out what’s in “Free Box the Magazine” with Bece Kidder. Bring your own giveaways to deposit in a special free box at the event — or come ready to peruse the free box for goodies to take away!

George Wright presents Driving To Vernonia (Broadway Books, @7:00pm): George Wright will be here tonight to read from his newest novel, Driving to Vernonia. The story is told by Edmund Kirby-Smith, who is approaching his fiftieth birthday. Just when his life should be at its peak, he loses everything. With compassion and daring, Wright explores one man’s loss of self and chronicles his journey to reconnect with his past and reclaim what is there. Driving to Vernonia is a penetrating story of deprivation, laced with love and anger, violence and self-discovery. Wright is also the author of the Oregon Trio: Baker City 1948, Tillamook 1952, and Roseburg 1959 — three novels set in small-town Oregon in the forties and fifties.

What’s the Big Idea? Lecture Series, Presents: Myron Orfield (Portland State, Smith Memorial SU Ballroom, @7:00pm): Myron Orfield, of the University of Minnesota and Brookings Institute, will be speaking at PSU on October 27th from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm. Myron is known as an expert on state and local finance, land use planning, civil rights, and state and local government. He is also a law professor and director of the Institute of Race and Poverty at the University of Minnesota. Many of you are familiar with his books Metropolitics: A Regional Agenda for Community and Stability and American Metropolitics: The New Suburban Reality.

We hope that you can join us for this thought provoking, timely conversation. This event may be an excellent opportunity for your students. If you would like to coordinate bringing a class to this event, please let us know so that we can appropriately accommodate.

Kate Elliott & Ken Scholes (Powells Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, @7:00pm): Traitors’ Gate (Tor) returns readers to Elliott’s exquisitely crafted land of the Hundred in a thunderous conclusion to the saga. In Scholes’s Canticle (Tor), the noble allies who have come to the Ninefold Forest for a feast in honor of General Rudolfo’s first-born child are attacked by invisible assassins.

Whole Earth Discipline (Powells City of Books, @7:30pm): Stewart Brand’s Whole Earth Discipline (Viking) shows exactly where the sources of environmental dilemmas lie and offers a bold and inventive set of policies and solutions for creating a more sustainable society.

Wednesday October 28-

Hobgoblin Puppet Show (Green Bean Books, @4:00pm): Come to a free puppet show at Green Bean Books!  The show will be a Halloween hobgoblin tale that is not too scary and appropriate for kids ages 3-6 years.   The talented Yvonne De Maat of Heart in Hand Preschool will perform with her one of a kind handmade puppets. Don’t miss it!

Opening Party for Chris Crites’ America (Ampersand, @6:00pm): The paintings in America are an examination of three distinct image sets that are, by and large, obsessed over within American culture. The female figure, firearms & criminals are icons of pop culture & have been widely used in advertising & entertainment. Painting on a recycled substrate (in this case brown paper bags) & drawing upon vintage photographs, Seattle artist Chris Crites re-contextualizes the notion of recycled imagery. He invites us to question whether the meaning of such images do, in fact, ever change, or whether they always remain static symbols of a culture drawn to sex, guns & crime.

Spooky Write-Off (IPRC, @7:00pm): Halloween is coming up, and the IPRC is hosting another Write-Off. The theme is Ghost Stories–but not as you have ever experienced them before! We are giving you the theme but not the genre. In each competitive round, a new genre will be picked from a hat (ie. an ode, a movie script, how-to, obituary), and contestants will write their brains out–about ghosts, in the given genre under a time limit. Cool prizes go to the contestants who demonstrate the most versatility and originality (and the most screams!).

Moe Bowstern of Xtra Tuf and IPRC director Justin Hocking will co-host the event, and a panel of judges will award prizes for the most terror-ific writing. We can guarantee a very entertaining evening. Participation is open to anyone up for the challenge, and attendance is free and open to all!

Verse in Person – Poetry Readings (Northwest Library, @7:00pm): At the last reading before we take a break until January, Bill Siverly and Barbara Drake will read from their newest books of poems. This monthly program is organized by local poets Barbara LaMorticella, Robert Davies, and Mike Ferrell, who draw on their extensive contacts in the Oregon poetry community to highlight two to three poets each reading.

Secrets of a Buccaneer-Scholar (Reading Frenzy, @7:00pm): Join us for a reading and signing with James Marcus Bach, author of Secrets of a Buccaneer-Scholar: How Self-Education and the Pursuit of Passion Can Lead to a Lifetime of Success.

With Secrets Of A Buccaneer-Scholar, James doesn’t seek to eliminate schools but he does want to deconstruct the belief that formal education is the only path to a great education. In his uniquely pithy and anecdotal style, James outlines the eleven elements of his self-education method and shows how every reader — simply by investing time and passion into educating themselves about the things that really interest them — can develop a method for acquiring knowledge and expertise that fits their temperaments and enhances their unique abilities and skills.

James Bach is an expert in the field of computer software testing who has taught critical thinking and software testing around the world at such places as the Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He lives in Eastsound, Washington with his wife and son.

Dragons, Ghosts & Grails: A Young Adult Halloween Reading (Annie Bloom’s Books, @7:00pm): Get started on your Halloween fun with three great, local young adult authors in one night! Susan Fletcher, Laura Whitcomb and Pamela Smith Hill will each read the spookiest 13 minutes from their books and then take questions from the audience.

Classics Book Group (Powells Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, @7:00pm): This month we meet to discuss At the Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft. Join us!

Tom Cathcart & Daniel Klein (Powells City of Books, @7:30pm): From the bestselling authors of Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar comes Heidegger and a Hippo Walk through Those Pearly Gates (Viking), a look at what the Deep Thinkers have to say on the subject of death.

Thursday October 29-

Lecture: Harriet Murav “Bergelson, Benjamin, and Berlin: Justice Deferred” (Reed College, Biology 19, @5:30pm): Harriet Murav is professor of Slavic languages and literatures and comparative literature at the University of Illinois, Urbana–Champaign. She has a Ph.D. from Stanford University and is the author of Holy Foolishness: Dostoevsky’s Novels & the Poetics of Cultural Critique, the award-winning Russia’s Legal Fictions, and Identity Theft: The Jew in Imperial Russia and the Case of Avraam Uri Kovner. She is currently working on a new book, Music from a Speeding Train: Russian Jewish and Soviet Yiddish Literature of the 20th Century.

Sweet & Saucy Sixteenth Birthday (In Other Words Women’s Books & Resources, @6:00pm, $7-30 Sliding Scale Donation): Come celebrate Portland’s finest feminist literature establishment at this freaky fancy affair! The mainstage will feature readings by Emcee Sossity (of Dirty Queer fame), Ariel Gore, & Hope Hitchcock. There will be a cash bar in the lounge with live music provided by “This Charming Man” – a Smith’s cover band and Marisa Anderson. This event will be ASL interpreted.

Visiting Writers Series: Matthew and Michael Dickman (Reed College, Psychology 105, @6:30pm): Matthew Dickman’s first book, All-American Poem, won the 2008 APR/Honnickman First Book Prize, chosen by Tony Hoagland and published by Copper Canyon Press. His poems have appeared in a wide range of publications, including The New Yorker and Tin House. Michael Dickman’s first collection is The End of the West (Copper Canyon Press, 2009). His poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The American Poetry Review, Field, Tin House, Narrative magazine, and other journals. Twins Michael and Matthew Dickman will also give a colloquium, “Thinking in Images,” 6:10 p.m., Tuesday, October 27, in Vollum lounge. For more information, visit the Visiting Writers website.

Barbara Drake & Lynn Thompson (Looking Glass Bookstore, @7:00pm): “Barbara Drake’s witty humor, appreciated over the years by many readers, seeps joyfully into these [Driving One Hundred] pages. But that’s not all. There’s the ever-accurate observation of birds and the natural world, brought vividly into the reader’s imagination; and the startling and beautiful images: I’m left with a red horse standing chest high in a marsh. Underneath the well-honed poetic voice, stretches a bedrock of wisdom gained from looking squarely at the world around her and at the passing of years in a life well examined.” —Judith Barrington

In Lynn Thompson’s Far From the Edge, readers will appreciate the signs of compassion and integrity in his wide range of subjects. Thompson has faced reality straight-on and writes the decades of his life, painting unique images showing glimpses of the past that will catch the reader’s breath. There is enough tension, passion, and mischievous wit to make this book of poems a page-turner. Thompson has chosen poems for “Far From the Edge” that extend the reader’s sense of his playfulness, poems that feel like friendly conversations, words meant to be shared, spoken out loud, or considered over a cup of coffee. The subject matter tweaks the seemingly mundane: daydreaming in bed, standing in line, gardening, grocery shopping, reminiscing about childhood, reflecting on growing older – the usual subjects.

Eoin Colfer: Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Powells Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, @7:00pm): The genius behind the Artemis Fowl series presents And Another Thing… (Hyperion), the authorized sixth book in the late Douglas Adams’s wildly popular Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy saga. Please note: A purchase of And Another Thing… is required at the event to get additional books signed by the author.

Jess Walter (Powells City of Books, @7:30pm): From National Book Award finalist Jess Walter comes The Financial Lives of the Poets (Harper), a hysterically funny — and painfully timely — novel of one man’s attempt to save his family from economic disaster by putting his entrepreneurial leanings toward a life of petty crime.

The Collector: David Douglas and the Natural History of the Northwest (Powells Books on Hawthorne, @7:30pm): In The Collector (Sasquatch Books), Jack Nisbet tells the story of David Douglas, the premier botanical explorer in the Pacific Northwest, whose discoveries include hundreds of western plants, most notably the Douglas fir.

Friday October 30-

Friends of Hillsboro Library Fall Used Book Sale (Hillsboro Library-Main Branch, @10:00am-8:00pm): The Friends of the Hillsboro Public Library are having the Fall Book Sale in the Meeting Room during regular library hours. For more information about the Friends, visit their website at www.hillsborolibraryfriends.org.

Roving Writers Read + Open Mic (Flying Cat Coffee, @6:00pm): Prose and poetry on spookier subjects–such as skeletons in family closets and humans behaving monstrously. Thea Constantine, Gloria Geiser, Eleanor Malin, Luna Nova, Diana Rogero, Cecilie Scott, and Alida Thacher. Open mic to follow.

BACK FENCE PDX Presents: “I’ve Got Confidence” (IFCC, Doors @7:00pm/Show @8:00pm, $10 Tickets): Free cupcakes. Delicious vodka. People in costumes. Hilarity. What better way to spend Halloween weekend!?!?!?

Starring- EASTLAND ACADEMY: Funny, smart sketch comedy duo Frayn Masters, co-host of Back Fence PDX, and Shelley McLendon of The Liberators; AND SexyNurd: auGi Of Mortified performing his brand new one man show!

Free cupcakes from Saint Cupcake AND Vodka drinks from New Deal Vodka (with any size donation, like even a quarter) and beer, wine for sale. Come in costume to win prizes!

Zombie Night (Guapo Comics and Coffee, @7:00pm): Zombies + Guapo = best night ever! Doors at 7 and Movie at 8. Beer, popcorn, Zombies! Dress like a zombie and the event is FREE, dress like a civilian and it’s a $3 charge for not getting into the Halloween spirit.

Zombies: A Record of the Year of Infection (Powells Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, @7:00pm): Set in the year 2011, when an undead infestation devastates the world’s population, Don Roff’s Zombies (Chronicle) is a frightening new contribution to the massively popular zombie resurgence.

Raising the Perfect Child through Guilt and Manipulation (Powells City of Books, @7:30pm): Elizabeth Beckwith’s Raising the Perfect Child through Guilt and Manipulation (Harper) spoofs traditional parenting guides while teaching parents how to employ the essential components of guilt and manipulation to mold their children.

Reading with Neeli Cherkovski (The Writers’ Dojo, @7:30pm): Neeli Cherkovski reads from his new book of poems, From The Canyon Outward. Cherkovski lives and writes in San Francisco. His poertry books include Animal, Elegy for Bob Kaufman, Leaning Against Time, which earned an PEN Award for Excellence in Literature, Fronteras Rotas, published in a bi-lingual edition, and the newly released From the Canyon Outward. Another collection, The Manila Poems, is forthcoming. He has also written biographies of Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Charles Bukowskii, and is the author of a book of critical memoirs, Whitman’s Wild Children. For many years, Cherkvoski served as writer-in-residence at the now closed New College of California where he also taught literature and philosophy. He continues to teach poetics at various locales throughout the SF Bay Area and is completing a new memoir.

Saturday October 31-

Friends of Hillsboro Library Fall Used Book Sale (Hillsboro Library-Main Branch, @10:00am-6:00pm): The Friends of the Hillsboro Public Library are having the Fall Book Sale in the Meeting Room during regular library hours. For more information about the Friends, visit their website at www.hillsborolibraryfriends.org.

Halloween Party w/ Susan Fletcher, Laura Whitcomb, and Pam Smith-Hill (A Children’s Place Bookstore, @11:00am): Celebrate Halloween with us and some of our favorite young adult authors! Three talented, local writers read scary selections and answer your questions. Spooky stories, costumes and more!

Halloween Party (Second Glance Books, @12:00pm): Join us on Halloween for tricks, treats and stories. Every kid in costume gets a free book, all day! We will have lots of treats for trick or treaters and their grown up friends too. Katie will be here from 12-3 telling spooky stories. We will have a few surprises in store too. Hope to see you all there!

Halloween Party w/ Lee White (Green Bean Books, @3:00pm): Lee White will read from his wonderfully illustrated books, Druscilla’s Halloween and The Library Ghost.  He’ll even teach you how to draw a perfectly creepy witch!  Wear your costume!  Trick or Treating all day from 11-6pm!  Extend the fun and Trick or Treat at Igpei Toys, Milagros Boutique and Grasshopper too!

Anthony Alvarado & Tony Morgan (Cosmic Monkey Comics, @5:00pm): Meet writer Anthony Alvarado and artist Tony Morgan who will be signing copies of their new book – “Throwing Bones.” Featuring a reading by the author.

BACK FENCE PDX Presents: “I’ve Got Confidence” (IFCC, Doors @7:00pm/Show @8:00pm, $10 Tickets): Free cupcakes. Delicious vodka. People in costumes. Hilarity. What better way to spend Halloween weekend!?!?!?

Starring- EASTLAND ACADEMY: Funny, smart sketch comedy duo Frayn Masters, co-host of Back Fence PDX, and Shelley McLendon of The Liberators; AND SexyNurd: auGi Of Mortified performing his brand new one man show!

Free cupcakes from Saint Cupcake AND Vodka drinks from New Deal Vodka (with any size donation, like even a quarter) and beer, wine for sale. Come in costume to win prizes!

Sunday November 1-

Friends of Hillsboro Library Fall Used Book Sale (Hillsboro Library-Main Branch, @12:00pm-6:00pm): The Friends of the Hillsboro Public Library are having the Fall Book Sale in the Meeting Room during regular library hours. For more information about the Friends, visit their website at www.hillsborolibraryfriends.org.

For further events check out the links to the community calendars for Tri-County area Libraries: Washington County, Multnomah County, Clackamas County.