Two open mic nights, a group youth reading, a book about green homes in the Pacific Northwest, and a bunch of other stuff going on tonight.

At the University Bookstore are Caitlin Kittredge and Mark Henry. Henry is reading in support of his first novel, Happy Hour of the Damned, and Kittredge reads from werewolf/police procedural Night Life. That makes this the second werewolf/police procedural I’ve heard of this year. I met both these authors at Norwescon; Henry at a party where people were drinking some sort of toxic waste-themed beverage, and Kittredge at a panel about writing a short story in an hour. They were both charming and approachable. I have not read their books.

The Montlake Branch of the SPL is hosting a discussion about East Africa. Three experts on East African history and culture will speak. There was an SPL-hosted panel on the entire history of Africa a few weeks back, which seemed kind of unbelievable—can you imagine a History of North America in an Hour and a Half panel?—so it’s good that they’re breaking the country down into regions.

And Jonathan Steele is reading at Elliott Bay Book Company, from Defeat: Why the Americans and the British Lost Iraq. Maybe he can offer some insight as to why things have gone balls-crazy there again in recent days.

Full readings calendar, in lovely shades of blue and green, here.