Well, well. The drought of readings that I predicted last week has finally hit. Sherman Alexie is the keynote speaker at the Literary Voices 2008 event on the UW Campus. Ordinarily, I’d happily suggest any Sherman Alexie reading—the man is awesome when he’s onstage—but tickets for this are one hundred dollars. And it’s also sold out. So you’re out of luck.

Instead, in honor of the Pope’s visit to America, I’d like to direct your attention to a free download of a book called Awful Disclosures: or, The Hidden Secrets of a Nun’s Life in a Convent Exposed by Maria Monk.

The author of this book was a small, slender, uneducated, and persecuted young woman, who sought refuge in our country without a protector; but she showed the resolution and boldness of a heroine, in confronting her powerful enemies in their strong hold, and proved, by the simple force of truth, victorious in the violent conflicts which were waged against her by the Romish hierarchy of America and the popular press of the United States.

It looks like a weird bit of Anti-Catholic nastiness, but: naughty nuns! A reader on the book’s download page provides a little bit of background on the author:

“According to one account, author Maria Monk was a disturbed child who fled an asylum where her grandmother had committed her…She died in jail in 1849 after being arrested for pickpocketing in a bawdy house.”

Full readings calendar, including the next week or so, here.

UPDATE: This didn’t make it into the calendar, unfortunately, but there is a signing of a comic book called The Virgin Project at Jackson Street Books (Promenade Center, 23rd and Jackson) from two to four today. The Virgin Project is a comic book that anthologizes the true stories of how people lost their virginities. Some of the stories are short, some of the stories are long, some are told by men, and some are told by women. Most of them are very funny. There’ll be a review in an upcoming issue, but it’s worth it. And the authors are putting the proceeds from sales at this event to local agencies that help victims of sexual assault and domestic violence, since this is National Sexual Assault/Domestic Violence Awareness month. There’ll be another event tomorrow if you can’t make it to this one.