Books Reading Tonight
posted by on April 1 at 9:56 AM
Three readings tonight, for fans of mysteries, horror-themed science fiction, and, um, hearts.
At noon, Lisa Lutz is doing a signing at Seattle Mystery Bookshop with her new book, Curse of the Spellmans. This is apparently a series about a family of private detectives. I know some people who really like this book, and they’re people that I like and whose book tastes I generally trust. Go figure.
At the University of Washington, Karen Matthews is reading from her book Getting to the Heart of the Matter: Psychobiological Origins of Cardiovascular Disease. In the calendar, I wrote that this book “is all about how you’re fucking your heart over years before your first heart attack,” and I will forever listen to Karen Matthews if she refers to her book in exactly those terms: I think more people would pay attention to public health warnings if they were cuss-filled. (C. Everett Koop says: “Don’t fucking smoke, you fucking stupid dumbasses!” And so on.)
Finally, at the University Bookstore, Jim Butcher reads from his tenth (!) volume in the Harry Dresden Files, Small Favor. It’s a private investigator series set in a world where fantasy mixes with reality. Here is an excerpt, from the beginning of chapter three. Quite a bit more is here, at Jim Butcher’s website.
And you’re sure they were faeries?” Bob the Skull asked.I scowled. “How many other things get their blood set on fire when it touches iron and steel, Bob? Yes, I think I know a faerie when I get my nose broken by one.”
Full readings calendar, including the next week or so, here.
You are so right about cuss-filled public health announcements. There is a huge pedagogical value to swearing - especially if it's extremely rare (once a semester, maybe twice is a good rule of thumb) and used to highlight something extremely important. It could be a good way to signal how important a public health threat is - f-bombs for smoking and obesity, for example, "darn" for not eating enough veggies, and no swear at all when they talk about how one study of ten subjects might possibly suggest that doing crossword puzzles could prevent autism in some people.
Now I remember Jim Butcher. I saw the cover for one of the other books in the series, and it had 「マトリクス」 written backwards on it. That was when I decided I was done with Jim Butcher.
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