We have a couple open mic nights, an immensely popular mystery author out at the Kitsap Mall, and a book with the unfortunate title of The She Spot: Why Women Are the Market for the Changing World—and How to Reach Them, as well as many more readings tonight.

At the Seattle Veterans Hospital Chapel, there will be a reading and remembrance for local poet Crysta Casey. Casey died on June 24th after a fifteen year battle with cancer.

At the Northwest African American Heritage Museum, local author Andrew Ward reads from The Slave’s War: The Civil War in the Words of Former Slaves.

Ethan Canin is up at Third Place Books tonight. He’s a fine and generous reader of his own work, and his newest novel, America America, is the kind of big ambitious book about politics that everybody should have to read in the summer before a presidential election.

And at the University Book Store, Jay Lake and Brenda Cooper will be reading from their new science fiction novels. Cooper is the author of Reading the Wind, a science fiction novel about a brother and a sister and a war. Lake is a fine example of the New Weird school of sci-fi, a subgenre that includes China Mieville. Tonight, Lake reads from Escapement, which is a sequel to his novel Mainspring. He’s totally charming and awesome and funny. If you have any interest in science fiction, you’ll want to attend this reading. I met Lake at Norwescon and his enthusiasm for sci-fi was completely infectious. He rattled off a list of a dozen authors that I wanted to read immediately. This one is recommended.

The full readings calendar, including the next week or so, is here.