Here's a book trailer for musician Alina Simone's new collection of essays, You Must Go and Win, featuring comedian Eugene Mirman and writer/activist Stephen Elliott. (A second trailer, also with Mirman, Elliott, and a very pregnant-looking Simone appears after the jump.) I wrote about Simone in the music section this week—her new album Make Your Own Danger is excellent—but her book is wonderful, and surprisingly different from her moody music. The book is a series of funny (really, legitimately funny) essays about being a struggling musician, and there's a lengthy excerpt that you can read for free on her site. (Here's a direct link to the PDF.) The excerpt includes the entirety of an essay about Simone visiting for the first time the Ukrainian city of Kharkov, where many of her ancestors came from. It reveals Simone to be a wry, dry, acutely observant and honest writer. I highly recommend taking a peek.

Alina Simone performs tonight—both playing songs and reading from You Must Go and Win—at the Record Room, 8 NE Killingsworth, 7 pm, FREE.