Reading Local: Portland

Today’s Featured Book Event:

Dave Eggers Booksigning (Powells City of Books, @12:00pm): Join us when bestselling author Dave Eggers signs copies of his most recent books, The Wild Things and Zeitoun (McSweeney’s). A riveting work of nonfiction, Zeitoun explores the life of a prosperous Syrian-American who chose to stay in New Orleans through Hurricane Katrina — and then abruptly disappeared. Loosely based on the picture book by Maurice Sendak and the screenplay co-written with Spike Jonze, The Wild Things is about the confusions of a boy, Max, making his way in a world he can’t control. Please note: This is a booksigning only; the author will not read from his work.

Other Book Events Today:

First Friday: Art and Letters (Downtown Camas, WA, @5:00pm): Local authors will sign, sell, and read from their books in shops and locations throughout downtown Camas. A collection of signed books donated by the authors will be raffled to benefit the nonprofit Friends of the Camas Library. Authors and local students will read from their works in the new Journey Community Church located on 4th Ave in downtown Camas.

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“Watching you is, in fact, what your government does best,” Shane Harris told an audience of about 45 at Powell’s Books on Hawthorne. Which is a pretty good crowd for a Monday night. Portlanders like to keep a close watch on their civil liberties.

A native Portlander, Harris lives in Washington, DC, where he writes for the National Journal. He was in town to promote The Watchers (Penguin Press HC), his new book about the rise of terrorism surveillance in the United States, told through the stories of five men who have been instrumental in this effort.

Well spoken and well groomed, Harris addressed the crowd confidently. He explained how writing about intelligence, homeland security and counterterrorism for the National Journal gives him access to all sorts of covert folks. Intelligence is a strange beat in journalism because it’s built around secrets and deceptions. “If there’s ever a story that lands in your lap,” he said, “be very careful.”

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[ The Butterflies of Grand Canyon | Margaret Erhart | Plume | $15.00 ]

Set in the 1950’s Southwest The Butterflies of Grand Canyon tells two intertwined stories. The first story is of Jane Merkle, a young woman married to a much older man, who comes to visit her in-laws who live near the Grand Canyon. The second story focuses on Elzada Clover and Lois Jotter, botanists turned sleuths, who arrive in town on the same day as Jane to explore a 13-year-old unsolved mystery revolving around a skeleton which has recently materialized in the garage of a local resident.

Jane begins to undergo a transformation almost at once. Arriving in Flagstaff on a June day along with her husband, she symbolically sheds her past upon discovering that all of the luggage she has brought with her, save for an inexpensive turquoise ring she has purchased en route, has been lost. She soon dons blue jeans, and introduced to the hobby of butterfly collecting by her brother-in-law, falls not only under the spell of the Grand Canyon, but also under the spell of a park ranger who is much closer to her in age than her husband.

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Please join me in welcoming Reading Local’s newest contributor, Amy Baskin:

Amy Baskin reads YA and children’s literature sometimes to escape, sometimes to help interpret reality. She writes for pretty much the same reasons. Like many Portlanders, she hikes, bathes, sleeps and eats with book in hand. Her limited concept of home decorating involves stacks of books- in corners, on tables, where the TV used to be. She blogs about kid lit at Euphoria and posts timed writing challenges at Prompt Writes.

Who is this masked man behind Reading Local anyway?  You can find out tomorrow (2/1 at noon) if you hop on over to the Central Library and attend Title Raves, wherein the Portland Mercury’s Alison Hallett, award winning author Laini Taylor, Multnomah County Library blogger Emily-Jane Dawson, and myself will be raving about our favorite books and the blogs that discuss them.  You will have the opportunity to rave about your reading faves as well, be they books or blogs!

I was asked to provide a list of the books and blogs I would be raving about, so I thought I might share them here as well:

Books- Couch by Ben Parzybok; Dot-to-Dot, Oregon by Sid Miller; Chasing Smoke and Lost Dog by Bill Cameron; Everything Was Fine Until Whatever by Chelsea Martin; Autobiography of a Recovering Skinhead – The Frank Meeink story, as told to Jody M. Roy.

Blogs- Portland Mercury’s Blogtown; Rose City Reader; Oregonian Books; Paper Fort; Pinball Publishing’s Coin-Op; Galley Cat; Tin House Books Blog; and the Hawthorne Books Blog.

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Today’s Featured Book Event:

WITS Student Reading (Powells City of Books, @7:00pm): Writers in the Schools (WITS), a program of Literary Arts, celebrates the release of their new anthology, A Whole New Subject, featuring poems, prose, drama, and comics written by Portland public high-school students who participated in semester-long creative writing residencies taught by local professional writers. Enjoy readings by students, their high-school teachers, and WITS writers.

Other Book Events Today:

Opening Night for “Animated Nature: An Exhibition of 18th Century Prints” (Ampersand, @6:00pm): Our February show features original antique engravings from the first American edition of An History of the Earth  and  Animated Nature by Oliver Goldsmith.  More images & information here.

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Today’s Featured Book Event:

Patti Smith (Bagdad Theater, @7:00pm): Patti Smith’s evocative, honest, and moving coming-of-age story reveals her extraordinary relationship with artist Robert Mapplethorpe. Part romance, part elegy, Just Kids (Ecco) is about friendship in the truest sense, and the artist’s calling. Please note: This ticketed event takes place at the Bagdad Theater, 3702 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Tickets, $27, include admission and a copy of Just Kids, and are available at the Bagdad Theater, the Crystal Ballroom, and Ticketmaster.

Other Book Events Today:

How to Start a Mother-Daughter Book Club (Northwest Library, @3:00pm): Girls, bring your moms to this interactive workshop with Cindy Hudson, author of “Book by Book: The Complete Guide to Creating Mother-Daughter Book Clubs.” Learn how to get your friends and moms together to talk about your favorite books.

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Today’s Featured Book Event:

Caffeinated Art #79 (Three Friends Coffee House, @7:00pm): Portland poets Zachary Schomburg, Sarah Bartlett, and Emily Kendal Frey will read.

Zachary Schomburg is the author of The Man Suit (Black Ocean 2007), Scary, No Scary (Black Ocean 2009), and several chapbooks including, most recently, a trilogy of collaborations with Emily Kendal Frey: Team Sad (Cinematheque Press), Feelings Using Wolves (Small Fires Press), and OK, Goodnight (Futuretense Books). His translations from the Russian of Andrei Sen-Senkov have been published in Circumference, Jacket, The Agriculture Review and others. He teaches film and writing at Portland State University and Portland Community College.

Sarah Bartlett lives in Portland, OR. Her chapbook (co-written with Chris Tonelli), A Mule-Shaped Cloud, was published by horse less press in 2008. Her recent work has appeared or is forthcoming in Coconut, Sir!, Sixth Finch, Diagram, and elsewhere. Poems co-written with Emily Kendal Frey have appeared or are forthcoming in New Pony: A horse less Anthology, sub-Lit, Portland Review, Caffeine Destiny, Alice Blue, and Bat City.

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This recap is provided by contributor, Teresa Bergen.  Ms. Bergen is the author of the novel Killing The President, and in addition to writing, transcribes and edits oral histories, paints animal portraits, makes costume devil horns, teaches yoga, and plays bass in an indie rock band.

Who ever expected to see a romantic and musical take on George Orwell’s 1984 that featured violin, piano, police whistle, duck calls, a pie tin and a baby in the audience laughing, perfectly timed, during the rests? Not me. But that’s what I saw at Reed College Friday night, when about 300 people gathered to see “Hearing Voices” by the Third Angle New Music Ensemble.

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Today’s Featured Book Event:

Writers Talking: Jess of Get Sconed! (Central Library, @1:00pm): Jess is the author of the award-winning vegan blog “Get Sconed!,” one of the longest-running vegan food blogs. She is the coauthor of Stumptown Vegans, a site for restaurant reviews and podcasts. She is also a recipe tester for Post Punk Kitchen cookbooks. Jess has been in Portland since 2004. She will talk about her blog, eating locally, and being a Portland vegan. Samples will be available! Samples will be available!

You can find other events on your community Libraries schedule using these links: Washington County, Multnomah County, Clackamas County, and the rest of this weeks Portland book events here.
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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 January 23, 2010 through January 29, 2010 are:

Saturday January 23-

Voices In Verse (Cedar Mill Community Library, @10:00am-11:00am): Bring along a cup of coffee and share your own poetry or listen to others read their favorites. The group meets on the fourth Saturday morning of each month in the library’s upstairs meeting room.

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Today’s Featured Book Event:

William Stafford Memorial Reading (First Unitarian Church, @7:00pm): Hosted by Stephen Pearce. Featuring Jonathan Merritt and FWS Board Member Leah Stenson. This year’s event features Portland’s Flash Choir performing “Strangers Together,” a musical interpretation derived from Stafford’s book, Passwords, and composed by the choir’s director Sarah Dougher. Audience members will also have an opportunity to read aloud one of their favorite poems by William Stafford following the performance.  Learn more about Flash Choir by checking out this fantastic profile on Neighborhood Notes.

Other Book Events Today:

Hearing Voices w/ special guest Ursula K. Le Guin (Reed College, Kaul Auditorium, @7:30pm, $30 Adults, $25 Seniors/Students ): Words and music combine in stories that delight, taking us on magical journeys into troll-infested woods, to planets where mechanical beings communicate in musical tones, to Italo Calvino’s magically realist Italy, or even back to George Orwell’s “1984,” which is retold as a romantic comedy. We premiere “Gulliver in FaReMiDo” by Oregon Symphony resident conductor Gregory Vajda, “Serpentine Variations: The Serpent King” by Robert Kyr, and “Greetings from 1984” by Jon Deak. Special guest Ursula K. Le Guin narrates her “A Ride on the Red Mare’s Back” accompanied by Bryan Johanson’s lovely score.

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