There's a lot going on for a Saturday.

At Seattle Mystery Bookshop, Earl Emerson, who is a local author who writes about Seattle fire fighters, returns with Cape Disappointment, which is hopefully not a self-fulfilling prophecy. I'm embarrassed to say I haven't read Earl Emerson, which is ridiculous since I've worked in the Seattle book industry for nine years now. Maybe I'll give this one a shot.

At the Central Branch of the Seattle Public Library, Bruce Barcott reads from The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw: One Woman's Fight to Save the World's Most Beautiful Bird, which was a very popular book last year. Up in the Montlake branch of the library, Tony Wolk reads from Lincoln's Daughter, which is the last book in a trilogy about a time-traveling Abraham Lincoln and the daughter he left behind in 1964. I don't know what this book reads like, but this idea is, as the kids said five minutes ago, MADE OF AWESOME.

Three big events at Elliott Bay Book Company. Stephen Mitchell reads from The Second Book of the Tao, a new translation of the sequel to the tremendously powerful 1984 romantic comedy The Tao de Ching. Or something. Then, a little later in the day, Xinran reads from China Witness: Voices from a Silent Generation. This is the latest in a string of book describing what it is like in China right now. This one has interviews, and Xinran is a good author despite the troublesome mononomenclature. Then, finally, the African American Writers Alliance will read pieces to celebrate the conclusion of another African American History Month.

And up at Third Place Books, Azadeh Moaveni, who is a Time magazine correspondent who winds up in Iran in the middle of some tough times, reads from her book about the experience, Honeymoon in Tehran.

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