Two great events today.

But first, Patricia K. Batta reads at Seattle Mystery Book Shop at 2 this afternoon. What Did You Do Before Dying? is about an "amateur sleuth" from Bellevue who happens across a dead body while sketching in the wilderness.

At Third Place Books tonight, the authors of the romance fiction fan-blog Smart Bitches, Trashy Books discuss their love of the genre and their new book, Beyond Heaving Bosoms.

And Beth Taylor, who is a Quaker, writes about losing her older brother in The Plain Language of Love and Loss at Elliott Bay Book Company tonight.

Also today, up at the Panama Hotel Cafe, Todd Shimoda reads from his beautiful new novel Oh! A Mystery of Mono No Aware. I wrote about it in the books section this week:

The main character of Oh!, a young American named Zack Hana, travels to Japan to solve three mysteries: He is trying to uncover the secret story of his grandfather's youth, he wants to discover why he's wrapped in a shroud of apathy, and he's searching for one true instance of mono no aware, an old, possibly extinct Japanese term that, according to a character in Oh!, defines a moment that is "not sentimental or symbolic but rather a true feeling that floats calmly throughout the mind and body. It's what we feel when we experience something that makes us cry 'oh!'" Not all of these mysteries will be solved.

More, it's a gorgeous book by local publisher Chin Music Press, and they deserve your support.

And at Elliott Bay this afternoon, Mishna Wolff reads from I'm Down, her memoir about growing up in the Rainier Valley. It's a funny story about being born white to a white father who thinks he's black. Here is a preview of the book for you to read:

(Important note: That's not the real cover of the book.) I'd advise you to hit up the Wolff reading and then wander up to the ID for the Shimoda reading. And then you'll still have time to head out tonight and get plastered before 10 pm. What more could you ask out of a Saturday?

The full readings calendar, including the next week or so, is here. And if you're planning on staying in and you're looking for personalized book recommendations, feel free to tell me the books you like and ask me what to read next over at Questionland.