THURSDAY 9/25
* Mailman
Rising literary star J. Robert Lennon presents his fourth novel, about the outwardly cheerful, inwardly troubled postal worker Albert Lippincott, and his adventures reading other people’s mail. Powell’s Books on Hawthorne, 3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd, 238-1668, 7:30 pm, free
Tony Cohan
Former jazz drummer Cohan presents his new memoir Native State, in which he reflects on his drug-fueled travels during the ’60s while also coming to terms with his father’s death in the present day. Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St., 228-4651, 7:30 pm, free
FRIDAY 9/26
Anne Lamott
Lamott has a history of writing excellent, gritty, compulsively readable nonfiction, and cloying, melodramatic, snooze-inducing fiction. Her newest book Blue Shoe, however, about a divorced woman trying to live her life, is supposedly at least a slight improvement on the awful Crooked Little Heart. Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St., 228-4651, 7:30 pm, free
Tony Horwitz
Horwitz is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who likes to pick historical topics and delve into them on an interactive level. For his new one Blue Latitudes he traced the steps of Captain Cook, the intrepid explorer who essentially opened the Pacific Ocean to Western civilization. Twenty-Third Avenue Books, 1015 NW 23rd Ave, 224-5097, 7:30 pm, free
SATURDAY 9/27
Robbie Conal
We think the politically charged drawings of street artist Robbie Conal are hideous, but somebody sure likes them, and has decided to anthologize his monthly LA Weekly art column Artburn, and slap on an intro by Howard Zinn. Reading Frenzy, 921 SW Oak, 274-1449, 7 pm, free
MONDAY 9/29
* Caroline Alexander
The author of Endurance presents another seagoing adventure The Bounty which approaches the classic Mutiny on the Bounty story from a new perspective: defending the oft-criticized Captain Bligh instead of declaiming him. Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St., 228-4651, 7:30 pm, free
TUESDAY 9/30
* Liv Arnesen & Ann Bancroft
Two lovely ladies, one Norwegian, one American, decided to cross Antarctica on skis, sleds, and sails. Their adventures are recaptured in No Horizon Is So Far. Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St., 228-4651, 7:30 pm, free
James Carroll
The National Book Award winner for An American Requiem, a memoir about being an antiwar priest in the ’60s, presents his first novel in eight years, Secret Father. It’s a thriller–again set in the ’60s–about a group of budding socialist army brats who take a trip to Berlin to attend a communist rally, and somehow wind up carrying a film reel that could start World War III. Twenty-Third Avenue Books, 1015 NW 23rd Ave, 224-5097, 7:30 pm, free
WEDNESDAY 10/1
April Reynolds
A black woman returns to her home in the deep south to attend an aunt’s funeral, and also to discover the truth about her family’s troubled past, in Reynolds’ Knee Deep In Wonder. Annie Bloom’s Books, 7834 SW Capitol Hwy, 246-0053, 7:30 pm, free
* Zoe Trope
The teenaged attacker of adolescent culture presents the release of a novel-length version of her extremely popular diary-style chapbook, Please Don’t Kill the Freshman. Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St., 228-4651, 7:30 pm, free