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Seattle, WA – 03/26/10 – Elliott Bay Book Company – Mark Spragg & Laura Bell

Who
Mark Spragg & Laura Bell
When
Friday, March 26, 2010
7:00pm - All Ages
Where
1521 Tenth Avenue
Seattle, WA, USA 98122

The Elliott Bay Book Company is Seattle's leading independent bookstore and hosts an incredible reading series. Elliott Bay moved from it's location in Seattle's Pioneer Square (a historic district that is known as the source of the term "Skid Road") in April 2010. On the new location, Elliott Bay Book Company says,

"Be assured--the new place will have its own distinct charms, many of them very similar to what people have known and enjoyed about our Pioneer Square home. Everyone that we know of who's had a sneak peek as construction has ensued has gone 'wow' in appreciation and anticipation."

Other Info
Wyoming is the story with this visit by two excellent writers who call the state home. Mark Spragg, who has been this way before with his award-winning memoir, Where Rivers Change Directions, and his novels The Fruit of Stone and An Unfinished Life, is here tonight with a new novel, Bone Fire (Knopf). A murder in a Wyoming town methlab sets certain things in motion, the unfolding of mysteries of a larger dimension. “A tribute to the human state and an outstanding work … Not one word is out of place, and each and every character is well drawn and intensely believable … This ‘bone fire’ is in fact the burning we call life, symbolizing our shared pain as human beings.” – Henry Bankhead, Library Journal. From Cody, Wyoming, comes Laura Bell with a remarkable nonfiction debut, Claiming Ground: A Memoir (Knopf). “First, it is the language you notice: phrases, whole passages composed with the musical authority of psalms. Then it is the evocation of place, Wyoming rising from these pages as actual as a wild perfume. But, start to finish, it is her honesty that keeps you up in the night, wondering at the frailty of what it means to be human and glad and brave and, at times, broken.” – Mark Spragg.

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Seattle, WA – 03/24/10 – Elliott Bay Book Company – Indu Sundaresan

Who
Indu Sundaresan
When
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
7:00pm - All Ages
Where
1521 Tenth Avenue
Seattle, WA, USA 98122

The Elliott Bay Book Company is Seattle's leading independent bookstore and hosts an incredible reading series. Elliott Bay moved from it's location in Seattle's Pioneer Square (a historic district that is known as the source of the term "Skid Road") in April 2010. On the new location, Elliott Bay Book Company says,

"Be assured--the new place will have its own distinct charms, many of them very similar to what people have known and enjoyed about our Pioneer Square home. Everyone that we know of who's had a sneak peek as construction has ensued has gone 'wow' in appreciation and anticipation."

Other Info
A writer whose work is popular in her home country of India, Indu Sundaresan has been doing that writing here in the Seattle area – and winning readers in the U.S. (and elsewhere), as well. She follows her recent book of present-day stories, In the Convent of Little Flowers, with a return to historically-set, Mughal-era novels that she is first known for. The Twentieth Wife, The Feast of Roses, and The Splendor of Silence, are now joined by her newest, Shadow Princess (Atria). “Sundaresan returns to 17th-century India in this romantic fictionalization of the life of Jahanara, the oldest child of the empress Mumtaz Mahal, Shah Jahan’s cherished wife … Simdaresan has a scholar’s fascination with the period …” – Publishers Weekly. Mumtaz Mahal was immortalized, in death, by the building of the Taj Mahal. This novel becomes the imagined story of the life of a princess who in history did play a part in governance, albeit with much intrigue and mystery. All the richer, hence, for the place of fiction – and this winning, wonderful new novel.

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98122, WA – 03/22/10 – Seattle Public Library – Douglass-Truth – Dolen Perkins-Valdez

Who
Dolen Perkins-Valdez
When
Monday, March 22, 2010
6:30pm - All Ages
Where
2300 E. Yesler Way
98122, WA, USA 98122

Library service in the Central District dates back to 1914 with the opening of what was then called the Henry L. Yesler Memorial Library - the first Seattle branch library not financed by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie.

Other Info
Dolen Perkins-Valdez’ historically-set debut novel, Wench (Harper Amistad) is one of those books we’ve most wanted to share with readers this season. The chronicle of four slave women who are also their masters’ mistresses, Wench is set in a popular Ohio resort where slaveholders (and mistresses) gather during the summer. Witness to the growing abolition movement with this Free State, these women must each decide whether to run or stay. Dolen Perkins-Valdez, who is bicoastally based in both Seattle and the Washington known as D.C., based this novel on research into the period and the actual Xenia, Ohio resort where this story is set. “Heart-wrenching, intriguing, original, and suspenseful, this novel showcases Perkins-Valdez’ ability to bring the unfortunate past to life.” – Publishers Weekly.

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Seattle, WA – 03/22/10 – Leif Erikson Lodge – Jo Nesbo

Who
Jo Nesbo
When
Monday, March 22, 2010
7:00pm - All Ages
Where
2245 NW 57th Street
Seattle, WA, USA 98107

Leif Erikson Lodge members are involved in a wide variety of special events throughout the year featuring both traditional and contemporary programs with a unique Norwegian-American flavor.

Other Info
Elliott Bay is thrilled to be hosting this much-anticipated visit by award-winning, internationally-renowned author, musician, songwriter, and economist Jo Nesbø. He is traveling the U.S. from his Oslo home for the newest of his noir novels featuring detective Harry Hole to be published in the U.S., The Devil’s Star (Harper, translated from the Norwegian by Don Bartlett). “Nesbø brilliantly incorporates threads from earlier novels, including Hole’s often tumultuous relationship with his lover, Rakel, without ever losing the current story’s rhythm. Even with – or perhaps because of – his flaws, Hole is arguably one of today’s most fascinating detectives.” – Publishers Weekly. The Devil’s Star follows The Redbreast and Nemesis, and yes, more are to come. Also due to be on hand is Jo Nesbø’s children’s book debut, Doctor Proctor’s Fart Powder (Simon & Schuster), a novel of fun, charm, and mischief intended for intermediate (ages 8 – 12) readers

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Seattle, WA – 03/20/10 – Microsoft Auditorium – SPL Central Library – Jodi Picoult

Who
Jodi Picoult
When
Saturday, March 20, 2010
2:00pm - All Ages
Where
1000 Fourth Ave.
Seattle, WA, USA 98104

Microsoft Auditorium has theater seating, and fixed seats for 275 and space for 100 overflow
(50 additional people can be accommodated with use of a special projection screen.) The Meeting rooms seat from 25 to 200 people. There is additional spaces for special events.

Other Info
A teenage with Aspergers is wrongly accused of the murder of his tutor in popular novelist Jodi Picoult’s newest book, House Rules (Atria). These bestselling novels, which pair compelling and timely stories with thoughtful, sympathetic characters, are favorites of many book groups – locally and around the country. “Picoult is at her razor-sharp best with House Rules. It’s both a tender look at the depths of a mother’s love and a searing examination of how we treat those who are different, and whether we expect them to play by the same rules.” – BookPage.

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Seattle, WA – 03/18/10 – Seattle Public Library – Rainier – Peter Nathaniel Malae

Who
Peter Nathaniel Malae
When
Thursday, March 18, 2010
6:30pm - All Ages
Where
9125 Rainier Ave. S.

Seattle, WA, USA 98118

Library service in Rainier Beach dates back to 1912, when The Seattle Public Library opened a deposit station at the Montera Pharmacy.

Other Info
A young writer whose work has been selected for both the Best American Essays and the Best American Mysteries series, and has written a praised book of stories (Teach the Free Man), Peter Nathaniel Malae visits with a powerful debut novel, What We Are (Grove Press). “The voice is gold … A high energy rant by a half-Samoan/half-white drifter trying to survive in a world bent on marginalizing seekers of truth and integrity … [What We Are] bears a message that in the face of the madness of the modern world, the most important thing is to know yourself and to hold onto that at whatever cost.” – Publishers Weekly. “Malae possesses a prodigious command of the masculine American idiom and its ironies. Paul – the unforgettable protagonist of What We Are – is that rarest of literary creatures these days: a hard-living, oft-brawling, culture-straddling, foul-mouthed juggernaut, one who’s as liable to throw a punch as he is to break your heart.” – Rattawut Lapcharoensap, joined in early praise by Sherman Alexie and Russell Banks.

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