Charles Kupchan reads at Town Hall tonight. Kupchan, a member of the National Security Council during the Clinton administration, explains How Enemies Become Friends.
Seattle Public Library hosts Laurie R. King, who writes the engrossing Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes series of mysteries, the newest of which is titled The God of the Hive. I bet she'll have something interesting to say about the Guy Ritchie Sherlock Holmes atrocity movie.
Former Stranger Genius in Literature Matt Briggs reads and hosts a workshop at Pilot Books as part of Small Press Fest tonight. It is free, and you should go.
Unless you go to Elliott Bay Book Company, where Turkish author Elif Shafak reads from her new novel, The Forty Rules of Love. J.T. Oldfield reviews the novel in this week's book section. It's a novel told in two parts, the story of a woman who becomes entranced by an author of a novel about Rumi:
The chapters alternate between Ella's story and Aziz's novel. Sweet Blasphemy is less about Rumi the poet and more about his (in)famous friendship with the mystic Shams of Tabriz, who encourages his poetic side. Rumi's reputation becomes ruined by the conservative mystic, and he retreats further and further away from his family, deep in thought and conversation with Shams.
Any of these four readings should be interesting.
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.
