I am very happy to be back on the west coast. Here's what's going on tonight.

Tonight, Julie Reinhardt reads from She-Smoke: A Backyard Barbecue Book, which is a grilling cookbook for women. I am torn about this reading, because the idea of a grilling cookbook for women is insipid (there are chapters in the book titled "Birds for Birds" and "Skirts [as in skirt steaks] for Skirts"). Are women afraid of fire? Is it too manly a task for them to handle? But at the same time, this reading is in a barbecue restaurant in Ballard. That might mean free samples. Your ethics or your belly? The eternal question.

Nancy Pearl talks about books and helps you plan your summer reading at the Bellevue Regional Library. She's the only librarian in the world with an action figure, so you gotta recognize.

And University Book Store hosts Matthew Amster-Burton, the author of Hungry Monkey: A Food-Loving Father's Quest to Raise an Adventurous Eater, which purports to find a "marvelous mélange" between food and rearing children. Hopefully, no one will confuse food with rearing children, because that would be an "Every Child Deserves a Mother and Father" for the ages.

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