THURSDAY 9/4

* David Hoffman
The British Hoffman is one of the most renowned holistic herbalists in the world and has published a bunch of books about natural remedies, etc. Red and Black Cafe, 2138 SE Division St, 231-3899, 8 pm, $3-$5

Sand In My Bra & Other Misadventures
This roughly titled book (no pun intended) is a collection of 29 women's bizarre travel experiences. Editor Jennifer Leo and contributor Jennifer Colvin will share tonight. Annie Bloom's Books, 7834 SW Capitol Hwy, 246-0053, 7:30 pm, free

Caren Gussoff & Matthew McIntosh
Matthew McIntosh's Well takes place in Federal Way, an armpit along Highway 99, just south of Seattle (think Troutdale). Federal Way, however, is just the pot the soup is cooked in. Well's cast are like familiar thrift store Polaroids; too hideous to reckon, or too normal. They are kept alive by a thread, possibly Federal Way, but more likely, the almost-there '97 Seattle SuperSonics, or drugs, or the local watering hole, or even one another. The point is, something binds them together. This same intangible also holds them in place, forever leaving some of them empty while the others are left to run-off down a dead end street, or worse. LANCE CHESS Powell's Books on Hawthorne, 3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd, 238-1668, 7:30 pm, free

Gallery of Words
Reading Frenzy presents its First Thursday showcase for local self and small publishers. This month has Kate Schwab and Mark Russell on the block. Schwab is a member of the interesting, but sporadic arts group Red 76 and writes memoir pieces and music reviews. Something tells me she won't be reading the music reviews. Mark Russell masterminds Penny Dreadful, a periodically published collection of his own Edward Gorey-inspired cartoons and writings. Reading Frenzy, 921 SW Oak, 274-1449, 7 pm, free

Ezra Mark & JJ MAD Ensemble
Mark's from Seattle, where he co-founded the Subtext Reading Series Collective. He also has some books, with weird names like Narthex and Tenet. He claims to be interested in "the geography of the fracture," so all you geography of the fracture scholars better get in line. Spare Room Collective, at Pacific Switchboard, 2486 NW Kearney, 233-4562, 7:30 pm, $5 donation


SUNDAY 9/7

Judith Arcana & Judith Barrington
Can there be a literary event so taught, so terse / As two Judiths sharing verse? / Two lovely writers different, yet the same, / Unique in spirit, yet twins in name. Mountain Writers Center, 3624 SE Milwaukie, 236-4854, 7 pm, $3


MONDAY 9/8

Lama Surya Das
Surya Das must be reaching a lot of people with his latest guidance book Letting Go of the Person You Used to Be. He's been given a spot in the cavernous First Congregational Church, where his pithy Buddhist aphorisms will reverberate like the voice of God. Powell's, at First Congregational Church, 1126 SW Park Ave, 228-4651, 7:30 pm

* The Last Ridge
Truth is cooler than fiction. McKay Jenkins will read from his new book, about a team of U.S. mountain troops formed during World War II by world-class skier Minnie Doole. The best skiers in the world were, and still are European expatriates and wealthy ski bums, and so it was such a group of ragtag yuppies that, amazingly, brought a major German mountain force to its knees. Powell's Books on Hawthorne, 3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd, 238-1668, 7:30 pm, free


TUESDAY 9/9

Escaping the Twilight
Sigrid Weidenweber presents this intense-sounding book about a Sudanese girl who undergoes female circumcision at the age of nine, then has to save her daughter from the same fate later in life. In Other Words, 3734 SE Hawthorne Blvd, 232-6003, 7 pm

* The Fire that Changed America
David von Drehle's new book tells the story of a 1911 Greenwich Village factory fire that killed 146 people and sparked a strange alliance between labor reformers and the Democratic party. Drehle wants to convince you this fire gave rise to urban liberalism. Powell's City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St, 228-4651, 7:30 pm, free

* Nora Beck
Multnomah Library's sporadic Writers Talking series presents Beck, a jack of all trades who teaches music at Lewis & Clark, plays music, is an athlete and staunch advocate for homosexual tolerance in college sports, and somewhere in there finds time to write fiction. She has a novel out called Fiametta. U.S. Bank meeting room, Central Library, 801 SW 10th Ave, 988-5471, 7 pm, free


WEDNESDAY 9/10

Keith Scribner
In Scribner's Miracle Girl an atheist inventory and space planner who, ironically, works for the Catholic Diocese of Hudson City must reassess his faith when he witnesses a strange Vietnamese girl perform a miracle. What's an inventory and space planner? Twenty-Third Avenue Books, 1015 NW 23rd Ave, 224-5097, 7:30 pm, free