Portland Book Events: February 20-26

From what we could find (please contact us if you have an event you would like us to add to this or future schedules), the local book events for the week of February 20, 2010 through February 26, 2010 are:

Saturday February 20-

Bringing History to Life (Lewis & Clark College, Miller Center for the Humanities, @9:30am): Lewis & Clark College Special Collections in cooperation with the Lewis & Clark Trail Heritage Foundation will host a series of three lectures by Stephen Dow Beckham, Gary E. Moulton, and Roger Wendlick. Recently all three of these individuals have spent time working on historical projects in the Lewis & Clark College Special Collections, and at this event the three will share their discoveries.

The Title Wave Used Bookstore Sale (Title Wave Used Bookstore, @10:00am): Bag of Books Sale (books & audiobooks only). Fill a bag with books for only $10! Paper grocery bags and reusable library bags are available. No limit on number of bags of books purchased. Books must fit in bag completely. No outside bags permitted.

Mother Daughter Book Club (Hillsboro Main Library, @10:00am): A book discussion group for girls in grades 3-5 and their mothers or other significant women in their lives to read and discuss great books together. The group meets the third Saturday each month at 10 a.m. at the Main Library. New members are always welcome and no registration is required! February’s Book: The Magician’s Elephant by Kate DiCamillo When 10-year-old orphan Peter Augustus Duchene encounters a fortune teller in the marketplace one day and she tells him that his sister, who is presumed dead, is in fact alive, he embarks on a remarkable series of adventures as he desperately tries to find her.

Book Club Social (Hillsboro Main Library, @2:00am): Learn about book club kits and other resources available at the library. We will be launching a new collection of “book group kits,” which can be checked out from the library. This is a great chance to meet people interested in book groups, mingle, and sample the free snacks!

Toni Partington presents Wind Wing: New Poetry (St. Johns Books, @2:00pm): Toni Partington is a poet, editor, collage artist, life/career coach, and grant writer. Her new book, Wind Wing, a collection of poems dedicated to the women who transformed her life, will be available for $10. Toni’s poetry has appeared in the NW Women’s Journal, Selected Poems of the River Poets’ Society, The Cascade Journal, VoiceCatcher (editions 3 and 4), OutwardLink.net and others. She is the author of a poetry chapbook, Jesus Is A Gas (2009). She serves as an associate editor on the collective of VoiceCatcher, an annual Pacific Northwest anthology of women writers. Toni is a regular columnist for Writing The Life Poetic, an online Zine that complements the print version of the book by Sage Cohen, .

Victoria Jamieson (Green Bean Books, @4:00pm): Author and illustrator Victoria Jamieson reads her latest book Bea Rocks the Flock.

Young Writers’ Workshop (A Children’s Place Bookstore, @4:30pm): One of the most common things an editor tells a first-time author is, “Your characters are flat.” Join authors Rosanne Parry (Heart of a Shepherd), Edith M. Hemingway (Road to Tater Hill), and Fran Cannon Slayton (When The Whistle Blows) as they discuss methods for bringing characters alive on the page. Participants are invited to bring their own characters, writing, and ideas to share.

Sunday February 21-

Free Craft Exchange (In Other Words Women’s Books & Resources, @1:00pm): Bring your unwanted arts & crafts supplies to In Other Words and pick out some new ones to take home. Everyone’s got extra crafts supplies laying around you may never use. Come trade them in for supplies for new projects! Yarn! Fabric! Beads! Brushes! Paper! Paints! You Name It! A drop box will be available at In Other Words starting Feb. 15th if you’d like to drop off supplies early and can’t make it to the Free Sale. Leftover goods will be donated to SCRAP and the Knittn Kitten.

Writer’s Mill (Cedar Mill Community Library, @1:00pm): Whether you’re hoping for publication, planning to self-publish, or writing just for fun, join us for a hands-on inspiring gathering of people who love to write. Newcomers welcome! We meet the 3rd Sunday of the month in the upstairs meeting room. To RSPV, contact Liza Peltola, Facilitator, randyliza[at]verizon.net.

Bookselling for Absolute Beginners (St. Johns Books, @2:00pm): Whether you dream of your own bookstore, want to work in one, love books, or are merely curious, this is a great opportunity to learn more.  St. Johns Books owner Nena Rawdah answers the most frequently asked questions about operating a small neighborhood bookstore in the Age of Amazon.  Fiddle with play money, price used books, review catalogues, and ask the questions that have been on your mind.

Burns Rubber: Babymouse #12 (Powells Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, @2:00pm): Brother-sister team Matthew Holm and Jennifer L. Holm are back for the 12th title in the popular Babymouse series. Babymouse’s big dreams of becoming a race car driver come true when she and her best pal, Wilson, enter the “Race of the Century “(or at least the school year). But will she and Wilson crash and burn? Find out in Burns Rubber (Random House).

NW Author Series: The Nonfiction Book presented by Cindy Hudson (Wilsonville Public Library, @3:30pm, $5): Do you have a specialty you believe would make a good nonfiction book? Are you passionate about a topic that you could be recognized as an expert on? Discover how to take your expertise and turn it into a published book in this 90-minute presentation that will cover the nonfiction book process from start to finish. You’ll get ideas on ways to build your recognition among your potential readers and become widely accepted as an expert on your topic while building your platform. You’ll also get tips on selling yourself and your idea in a book proposal to increase your chances of landing an agent and a publisher. Finally, you’ll get practical advice to help you write your first draft and prepare for publication.

Cindy Hudson is the author of Book by Book: The Complete Guide to Creating Mother-Daughter Book Clubs (Seal Press, October 2009). After founding two long-running mother-daughter book clubs with her two daughters, she began publishing the website MotherDaughterBookClub.com. Since then, she has been interviewed by national and regional media and has written magazine articles on the topic. She also advises clubs nationwide on how to get started and maintain their groups.

Comics Reading and Discussion Group with John Isaacson (IPRC, @7:00pm): Have you been a fan of comics for years? Have you never really read comics? Do you enjoy reading and discussing art and literature? If so, this is the group for you! We will be splitting the hour-long group in to two parts: in the first half we will read and discuss short cartoons and comics, this first half is open for drop-in—no pre-reading necessary! In the second half, the group will discuss pre-assigned comics and discuss them. The group will meet regularly every other Sunday from 7-8:15, it is free and open to the public. Readings on 2/21 include: Potential by Ariel Schrag, Tough Love by Abby Denson, and Fox Bunny Funny by Andy Hartzell

Girl Power (Powells City of Books, @7:30pm): In the early ’90s, riot grrrl punk exploded onto the underground music scene, inspiring girls to pick up instruments, create fanzines, and become politically active. Girl Power (Faber and Faber) examines the role of women in rock since the riot grrrl revolution, weaving Marisa Meltzer’s personal anecdotes and interviews with key players such as Tobi Vail from Bikini Kill and Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls. Library Journal declares, “Meltzer’s in-depth research and interviews blend into a tightly woven yet flowing narrative….[A]bsorbing.”

Spare Room presents Bill Berkson (Concordia Coffee House, @7:30pm, $5 suggested donation): Born in New York in 1939, Bill Berkson is a poet, critic, teacher and sometime curator, who has been active in the art and literary worlds since his early twenties. Director of Letters and Science at the San Francisco Art Institute from 1993 to 1998, he taught art history, critical writing, and poetry, and directed the public lectures program there from 1984 to 2008. He studied at Trinity School, The Lawrenceville School, Brown University, Columbia, the New School for Social Research, and New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts.

He is the author of eighteen books and pamphlets of poetry — including, recently, Gloria, a portfolio of poems with etchings by Alex Katz (Arion Press), Our Friends Will Pass Among You Silently (The Owl Press), Goods and Services (Blue Press), and most recently, Portrait and Dream: New & Selected Poems (Coffee House Press).

Monday February 22-

Flying Friars, Hovering Witches (Lewis & Clark College, Templeton Campus Center, @3:30am): Dr. Carlos M. N. Eire, one of the world’s foremost scholars of religion and society in medieval and early modern Europe, will offer a free public lecture for Lewis & Clark College’s annual Throckmorton lecture in history. The lecture is titled, “Flying Friars, Hovering Witches: On the History of the Impossible in Early Modern Europe.”

Citizens Read Book Group (Gerding Theater at The Armory, @6:00pm): Discuss “The Ghost Map: The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic — And How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World” by Steven Johnson at the City Club’s monthly book and discussion group. Free and open to the public. Space is limited; please RSVP to 503.228.7231, ext. 110. More information available at www.pdxcityclub.org.

Bill Berkson (Reed College, Eliot Hall, Room 314, @6:30pm): Born in New York in 1939, Bill Berkson is a poet, critic, teacher and sometime curator, who has been active in the art and literary worlds since his early twenties. Director of Letters and Science at the San Francisco Art Institute from 1993 to 1998, he taught art history, critical writing, and poetry, and directed the public lectures program there from 1984 to 2008. He studied at Trinity School, The Lawrenceville School, Brown University, Columbia, the New School for Social Research, and New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts.

He is the author of eighteen books and pamphlets of poetry — including, recently, Gloria, a portfolio of poems with etchings by Alex Katz (Arion Press), Our Friends Will Pass Among You Silently (The Owl Press), Goods and Services (Blue Press), and most recently, Portrait and Dream: New & Selected Poems (Coffee House Press).

CAFFEINATED ART No. 83 – Maryrose Larkin, Jen Coleman and Lindsay Hill (Three Friends Coffee House, @7:00pm): Maryrose Larkin lives in Portland, where she works as a freelance researcher. She is the author of Inverse (nine muses books, 2006), Whimsy Daybook 2007 (FLASH+CARD, 2006), The Book of Ocean (i.e. press, 2007), DARC (FLASH+CARD, 2009) and The name of this intersection is frost (Shearsman Books, Forthcoming). Maryrose is one of the organizers of Spare Room, a Portland-based writing collective, and is co-editor, with Sarah Mangold, of FLASH+CARD, a chapbook and ephemera poetry press.

Jen Coleman is a Portland poet transplanted from Minnesota by way of Wisconsin, DC and then New York. She’s the author of the chapbook Propinquity, and her work has appeared in many excellent journals including Chain, Ixnay and Tangent. She has co-edited the former literary journal Pom-Pom and co-hosted the In Your Ear reading series in DC.

Lindsay Hill was born in San Francisco and is a graduate of Bard College. His published books include Avelaval (Oyez, Berkeley), Archaeology (St. Luke’s, Memphis), Kill Series (Arundel Press, Los Angeles) NdjenFerno (Vatic Hum, San Francisco) and Contango (Singing Horse Press, San Diego). Lindsay lives in Portland, OR with his wife, the painter Nita Hill, and their two children, Ian and Helena.

Oregon Writers Colony Presents: Bibi Gaston (Looking Glass Bookstore, @7:00pm): Bibi Gaston reads from her memoir The Loveliest Woman in America. Bibi Gaston has been a practicing landscape architect for twenty years. She divides her time between New York City and the Columbia River Gorge, where, like her grandmother, she is learning to fish and tie her own flies. She has kept a diary since the age of eight.

Rachel Kramer Bussel (Powells City of Books, @7:30pm): From breastfeeding to swingers to underage sexting, the thinnest condom ever and sex work to the thrill of voyeurism and the story of X-rated Tijuana bibles, Best Sex Writing 2010 (Cleis Press) covers the latest, hottest topics from the world of sex. Editor Rachel Kramer Bussel is joined by contributor Kerry Cohen.

PSU MFA Monday Night Lecture Series Features: Kristan Kennedy (Portland State, Shattuck Hall Annex, @7:30pm): Kristan Kennedy will lecture about her work! The public is invited (its free, tell your friends).

Tuesday February 23-

Heidi Durrow (Portland State, Smith Memorial Student Union, Room 236, @2:00pm): Durrow is co-host of the live weekly podcast Mixed Chicks Chat, Executive Director of the annual Mixed Roots Film and Literary Festival, and author of The Girl Who Fell From the Sky, 2008 winner of the Bellwether Prize for Fiction that addresses issues of social justice and the impact of culture and politics of human relationships. Durrow will discuss her identity as a biracial woman in  a world that wants to see her as either black or white, and societies ideas of race, class, and beauty.

Babymouse Takes Hollywood! (Hollywood Library, @6:30pm): Meet the brother and sister team behind the very popular Babymouse graphic novels. Matt and Jenni Holm will tell us where they get their ideas, how they’ve turned them into a great story for kids and what’s coming next. Matt will be drawing as he speaks and will bring some of his original art work to share. Book signing to follow the presentation.

The Girl Who Fell From the Sky (IFCC, @7:00pm): Heidi Durrow grew up in IFCC‘s theatre program in the 1980’s. This neighborhood kid has grown up to be a woman of astonishing talent- a graduate of Stanford, Columbia Journalism and Yale Law Heidi has been a lawyer, actor, martial arts champion, engineer, world traveler and is always a writer. Come share this homecoming with her and celebrate her Bellwether Prize winning book: a coming-of-age story and society’s ideas of race, class, and beauty.

Ariel Gore (Broadway Books, @7:00pm): Ariel Gore will read from her latest book, Bluebird: Women and the New Psychology of Happiness (Farrar, Strauss and Giroux). Discovering that many “experts” believe that women with feminist values are somehow less “happy” than those in more traditional roles, Ms. Gore asks the following question: Can a woman be smart, empowered, and happy? Written by a woman of intense wit and boundless curiosity, this book looks at the history, science, and experience of women’s happiness. It is a smart, no-nonsense, and uplifting study of the real secret of joy and whether it is truly at odds with the goals of modern women.

Tokyo Vice (Powells City of Books, @7:30pm): From Jake Adelstein, the only American journalist ever admitted to the insular Tokyo Metropolitan Police Press Club, comes Tokyo Vice (Pantheon), a unique, firsthand, revelatory look at Japanese culture from the underbelly up. Adelstein tells the riveting, often humorous tale of his journey from an inexperienced cub reporter — who made rookie mistakes like getting into a martial-arts battle with a senior editor — to a daring investigative journalist with a price on his head. Publishers Weekly calls it “a deeply thought-provoking book: equal parts cultural expose, true crime, and hard-boiled noir.” This event is co-sponsored by the World Affairs Council of Oregon.

Wednesday February 24-

Evening Book Group (Hillsboro Main Library, @6:45am): Join a lively discussion of a popular fiction or nonfiction book. This month’s selection is “The Shadow of the Wind” by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.

Verse in Person featuring Scot Siegel and David Elsey (Northwest Library, @7:00pm): Listen to Oregon poets read from their works. This monthly program is organized by local poets to highlight two to three poets each reading.

Evening Book Group (Tigard Public Library, @7:00pm): The Evening Book Group invites readers to discuss John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath.  First published in 1939, The Grapes of Wrath is a landmark of American literature.  This Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Great Depression chronicles the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s and tells the story of one Oklahoma farm family who is forced off their land by the “land companies” and decide to travel west to the promised land of California.

Ledding Library Book Club (Milwaukie Ledding Library, @7:00pm): We will discuss Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen.  Join Us!

Catholic Writers Debate (University of Portland Bookstore, @7:00pm): The University of Portland will host a ‘Catholic Writers Debate’ featuring theology professor Rev. Charles Gordon, C.S.C., an expert on Catholic writers, and Portland Magazine editor and author Brian Doyle. It is free and open to the public and is sponsored by the Garaventa Center for Catholic Intellectual Life and American Culture.

Classics Book Group (Powells Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, @7:00pm): This month we meet to discuss War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. Join us!

Jim Wallis (Powells Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, @7:00pm): Rather than join the throngs asking, “When will this economic crisis be over?” New York Times-bestselling author Jim Wallis (God’s Politics) says the right question to ask is “How will this crisis change us?” In the pages of Rediscovering Values (Howard Books), Wallis provides us with a moral compass for this new economy — one that will guide us on Wall Street, Main Street, and Your Street.

Open Mic Night (Marylhurst University, Wiegand Recital Hall, @7:00pm): The Marylhurst Writers’ Club is hosting an Open Mic night. The quarterly event is organized to provide a forum for performers to practice public presentations of their creative works. All writers, musicians, singers are welcome to perform. Come, sign up, share your talent, and enjoy the gathering.

Gina Ochsner (Annie Bloom’s Books, @7:30pm): The Russian Dreambook of Color and Flight is the debut novel by acclaimed short story master Gina Ochsner. In a crumbling apartment building in post-Soviet Russia, there’s a ghost who won’t keep quiet. Mircha fell from the roof and was never properly buried, so he sticks around to heckle the living: his wife, Azade; Olga, a translator/censor for a military newspaper; Yuri, an army veteran who always wears an aviator’s helmet; and Tanya.

Loggernaut presents Jennifer Richter, Keith Scribner, and Dao Strom (Urban Grind East, @7:30pm $3-5 suggested donation): Jennifer Richter is a former Stegner Fellow and Jones Lecturer at Stanford University and the author of the poetry collection, Threshold, forthcoming from Southern Illinois University Press. Her work has appeared in many journals, including Poetry, Ploughshares, The Missouri Review, and the anthology A Fierce Brightness: Twenty- five Years of Womenʼs Poetry.

Keith Scribner is the author of the novels Miracle Girl and The Good Life (chosen by the New York Times as a Notable Book of the Year and by Barnes and Noble for its Discover Great New Writers series). He teaches in the MFA program at Oregon State. His third novel, The Oregon Experiment, will be released by Knopf in the Spring of 2011.

Born in Vietnam, Dao Strom has published two books of fiction, Grass Roof, Tin Roof (2003) and The Gentle Order of Girls and Boys (2006), and released two albums, Send Me Home (2004) and Everything That Blooms Wrecks Me (2008). She has received a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship, a James Michener Fellowship, and first prize in the Chicago Tribune Nelson Algren Award. She recently settled in Portland with her son and husband.

Thursday February 25-

Film Screening: Every War Has Two Losers (Lewis & Clark College, South Campus Conference Center, @12:00pm): Based on the book Every War Has Two Losers: William Stafford on Peace and War, edited by Kim Stafford (Milkweed Editions, 2003), this 30-minute documentary film features readings by Alice Walker, Maxine Hong Kinston, Naomi Shihab Nye, Coleman Barkes, Michael Meade, W.S. Merwin, and others. Produced and directed by Haydn Reiss (associate producer, Kim Stafford), the film examines the history of violence through war, and alternatives to war through language, personal witness, and cultural engagement. Narrated by Peter Coyote and Linda Hunt, the film closes with the William Stafford poem “At the Un-national Monument,” set to music by John Gorka. Section of documentary were filmed on the Lewis & Clark campus. To view the trailer, visit: everywar.com.

Dr. Regina G. Lawrence and Dr. Melody Rose (Portland State University, University Place, @4:00pm): Hillary Clinton won 18 million votes in 2008—nearly twice that of any presidential contender in recent history—yet she failed to secure the Democratic nomination. What happened? Join us for a conversation with Dr. Regina Lawrence & Dr. Melody Rose as they share their thoughtful analysis and insights into Hillary Clinton’s historic run for the White House, garnered from their new book Hillary Clinton’s Race for the White House.

Visiting Writers Series: Joanne Greenberg (Reed College, Psychology 105, @6:30pm): An internationally known, prize-winning writer, Joanne Greenberg is the author of 14 novels and four collections of short stories. Her second novel, I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (1964), a classic and poignant representation of recovery from schizophrenia, was translated into numerous languages, made into a movie, and re-issued in 2009 with a new afterward by the author. Her novel, In This Sign (1970), broke new ground in the representation of the deaf. For more information, visit the Visiting Writers website.

April Henry (Sherwood Public Library, @7:00pm): Join us for a fun and informational evening with local, award-winning author April Henry. April’s first book, Circles of Confusion, was short-listed for the Agatha Award and the Anthony Award, and was nominated for the Pacific Northwest Bookseller’s Award…Other books in the Claire Montrose series are Square in the Face, Heart-Shaped Box, and Buried Diamonds…The stand-alone thriller Learning to Fly was April’s fourth book…Shock Point, April’s first young-adult thriller, was published by Putnam in 2006…Her next young-adult book, Torched, a thriller about a girl who goes undercover in an environmental extremist group, was published in March 2009.

Mapping Ghosts, Mapping Filth in Victorian England (Portland State University, Smith Memorial Center, Room 238, @7:00pm): Dr. Pamela Gilbert, Albert Brick Professor of English at the University of Florida and author of “Disease, Desire and the Body in Victorian Women’s Popular Novels,” “Mapping the Victorian Social Body,” “The Citizen’s Body,” and “Cholera and Nation” will talk about disease and culture in Victorian England.

Frank Black and Carl Wilson: A Conversation About Modern Music (Someday Lounge, @7:00pm): Frank Black writes and plays music as a solo artist and as a member of Grand Duchy and The Pixies. Carl Wilson is a Toronto-based music editor for The Globe and Mail and the author of Lets Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste.

Peter Sears and Penelope Scambly Schott (Looking Glass Bookstore, @7:00pm): Peter Sears reads from his latest book of poems Green Diver, and Penelope Scambly Schott from her latest poetry collection Six Lips.

Joanne Fluke (Powells Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, @7:00pm): In Apple Turnover Murder (Kensington), New York Times-bestselling author Joanne Fluke’s latest murder mystery (with recipes!), it’s June in Lake Eden, Minnesota — and for Hannah Swenson, that means bridal showers galore, not to mention a killer who never learned that charity begins at home.

Open Mic Event (Milwaukie Ledding Library, @7:00pm): Please come to read and enjoy. If you would like to read, you can sign-up by letting Tom Hogan know by phone or e-mail. There will also be a sign-up sheet at the event. Readers will have approximately 5-7 min. to share their own work or some favorite poems. After those who have signed up have read, all who are interested in reading will have their opportunity to read and share. Poems will be available as will refreshments. We also are planning to have a video recording option for those readers who are willing to participate.

Brenda Peterson (Powells City of Books, @7:30pm): Fundamentalism meets deep ecology in Brenda Peterson’s unusual memoir I Want to Be Left Behind (Da Capo Press). The author’s father, a forest ranger, leads her to embrace the entire natural world, while her Southern Baptist fundamentalist relatives prepare to leave this world. “[A] witty, enrapturing account of a spiritual journey of great relevance to us all,” cheers Booklist (starred review).

Entertainment for the People (The Woods, @8:00pm, $10/12 online/$14 at the door): A night of really fun stuff, music included! Cold Beer and Naughty Wine will be served! Featuring: ARTHUR BRADFORD, presenting video and stories from his time as writer, producer and director of MTV’s How’s Your News; NATHANIEL BOGGESS, from the band Jetfighter, currently selling out his one-man show This is Not a Date, telling true and revealing stories; FOUREVER YOUNG, aka Ritchie Young from Loch Lomond and his three younger brothers playing pop-tacular tunes; Destination DIY’s JULIE SABATIER and SCRAP digging dirt with a live DIY demo; EASTLAND ACADEMY (Shelley McLendon & Frayn Masters), a funny, smart sketch comedy duo.

Friday February 26-

Owl Book Group (Cedar Mill Community Library, @1:00pm): You are invited to join the Owl Book Group! Newcomers always welcome. Please join us for a great book discussion in the Lewis Community Room upstairs at the Cedar Mill Community Library.  February’s selection is Ten Cents a Dance by Christine Fletcher.

Lecture & Book Signing: Tom Hayden (Reed College, Vollum Lecture Hall, @6:00pm): Tom Hayden gained national awareness as an activist during the demonstrations at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. To this day, he remains a leading voice for ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, eradicating sweatshops, and saving the environment. Hayden will talk about his most recent book, The Long Sixties: From 1960 to Barack Obama.

Meg Mullins (Broadway Books, @7:00pm): Meg Mullins reads from her second novel, Dear Strangers (Viking). This book is the story of siblings Oliver and Mary, whose world is forever changed by a series of childhood tragedies: the deaths of a neighbor and their father, and the resulting abandonment by their mother of a child who was to have been adopted into the family. As adults, Oliver searches for his almost-brother and Mary copes with loss through denial. This is a luminous, moving portrait of grief, atonement, romance, and longing. It unearths the possibilities of hope and renewal in the unexpected bonds forged with family and strangers alike.

The Bread of Angels (Powells City of Books, @7:30pm): The Bread of Angels (Doubleday) is a gorgeous, romantic memoir of Stephanie Saldana’s year in Damascus, where she studied the Muslim Jesus, fled to an ancient desert monastery to heal her past, and unexpectedly found herself in love with a French novice monk. “A beautifully woven exploration of language and spirituality,” hails Kirkus Reviews.

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

Image credit Zorger.