Readings

BORDERS BOOKSTORES

Various locations
borders.com

John Prendergast — The human rights activist co-wrote The Enough Moment with actor Don Cheadle to reveal the steps being taken by engaged citizens to combat genocide, rape and child soldierdom in Africa (9/21, 18th & L Streets NW)
Deborah Tannen — You Were Always Mom’s Favorite (9/22, 18th & L)
Michael Hirsh — Capital Offense explores why every president from Reagan through Obama has put Wall Street before Main Street (9/23, 18th & L)
Nigel Barker — Nigel Barker’s Beauty Equation (9/25, Annapolis)
Tucker Max — Assholes Finish First is a dirty collection of 25 true tales of entertaining depravity (9/29, 18th & L)
Stacy Clark — Connect the Dots (10/2, Rockville)
Mick Foley — Countdown to Lockdown (10/6, Rockville)
Michael Connelly — The Reversal (10/7, Baileys Crossroads)
Dorie Greenspan — Around My French Table will make cooks fall in love with France all over again (10/12, Baileys Crossroads)
Rita Mae Brown & Jon Katz — Celebrity authors read and sign from their new works, Rose in a Storm and Nose for Justice, respectively (10/13, Baileys Crossroads)
Ted Bell — Warlord (10/14)
Jason Wilson — Boozehound is part travelogue, part spirits history and part recipe collection from the Washington Post spirits columnist (10/19, 18th & L)
Ted Fishman — Bestselling author explores the astonishing ramifications of the world’s aging population in Shock of Gray (10/20, 18th & L)
Robert Dallek — The Lost Peace reevaluates mid-20th Century diplomacy (10/21, 18th & L)
Nicolle Wallace — Eighteen Acres combines political and family drama (10/25, Baileys Crossroads)
Kee Malesky — All Facts Considered can help you with inessential yet irresistible knowledge, written by an NPR librarian (10/26, 18th & L)
Willie Geist — American Freak Show (10/27, 18th & L Streets NW)
David Baldacci — Hell’s Corner is the latest from this noted mystery writer, about a terrorist plot directed at the U.S. President and the British Prime Minister (11/9, Baileys Crossroads)
Patrick O’Donnell — Give Me Tomorrow is a tribute to veterans of all branches of the military (11/11, Baileys Crossroads)
Orson Scott Card — Ender’s Game author introduces his newest novel, Pathfinder (11/23, Baileys Crossroads)
David Rohde & Kristen Mulvihill — A Rope and a Prayer recounts a New York Times reporter’s abduction by the Taliban and his wife’s struggle to free him (12/3, 18th & L)

FOLGER SHAKESPEARE LIBRARY

201 East Capitol St. SE
202-544-7077
folger.edu

PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction Gala: ”Indiscretion(s)” — Nicholas Delbanco, Lisa Grunwald, Jane Hamilton, Maxine Hong Kingston, Walter Kirn, Laura Lippman, Manuel Muñoz, Audrey Niffenegger, Bich Minh Nguyen, Howard Norman, Z.Z. Packer and Gail Kern Paster lend their imagination to the theme ”Indiscretion(s)” at a benefit evening of readings followed by a black-tie dinner (9/20)
Edward Hirsch — The author of the national bestseller How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry reads from his published works (9/28)
Colum McCann — Irish-born author McCann received the National Book Award for his novel Let the Great World Spin (10/8)
PEN/Faulkner: Nick Hornby & Ben Folds — An exclusive reading from English novelist Hornby’s Juliet, Naked and ”musical short stories” from the album Lonely Avenue, with lyrics by Hornby and music by Ben Folds (10/19)
Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize: Matthew Ladd and Rosanna Warren — Prize recipient Ladd, author of The Book of Emblems, reads with Warren, the Hecht judge and former Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets (10/19)
To Catch a Thief: The Durham First Folio Goes Home — The curator and conservators who identified the priceless book will talk for the first time about the exciting events in this high-profile case (10/28)
PEN/Faulkner: Lan Samantha Chang and Samantha Hunt — Chang wrote Hunger and Inheritance, while Hunt’s first novel is The Seas (11/1)
Thomas Campbell — The director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art delivers a lecture on Henry VIII’s tapestries (11/5)
Vera Pavlova — Moscow-born poet Pavlova reads from her first English collection If There Is Something To Desire (11/8)
Margaret George — The Autobiography of Henry VIII (11/29)
PEN/Malamud Award Reading: Edward P. Jones and Nam Le — Jones is Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Known World, while Le’s first book, The Boat, was selected as a New York Times Notable Book (12/3)
Anthony Del Col and Conor McCreery — Co-creators of Kill Shakespeare, an adventurous graphic novel that incorporates Shakespeare’s greatest characters into a single epic tale (2/15/11)
Michael Hollinger, playwright/translator of The Cyrano (5/9/11)
Todd Kliman — Author of The Wild Vine explores the history and mysteries of American wine (5/20/11)

JEWISH LITERARY FESTIVAL

DCJCC
1529 16th St. NW
202-777-3250
washingtondcjcc.org

Selected Highlights: Opening Night — In ”Strangers in a Strange Land: The Lives of Jewish Immigrants,” some of D.C.’s finest actors explore what remains and what is changed when we adopt a new home based on works by Gary Shteyngart, Anzia Yezierska, Alfred Kazin, Dalia Sofer and others (10/17)
Laurel Snyder‘s Baxter, the Pig Who Wanted to Be Kosher (10/17)
Screening of Sayed Kashua: Forever Scared — A documentary about the award-winning Israeli Arab author, columnist and screenwriter, who struggles with identity and identification (10/18)
Ruth Franklin — Senior Editor at The New Republic discusses her book A Thousand Darknesses: Lies and Truth in Holocaust Fiction (10/19)
Miryam Kabakov — Keep Your Wives Away From Them is a groundbreaking new anthology bringing together the first-person accounts of lesbians of various experiences (10/20)
Judith Freidenberg — The Invention of the Jewish Gaucho: Villa Clara and the Construction of Argentine Identity (10/22)
Sarah Silverman — The Bedwetter is the TV star’s whip-smart and outrageously humorous collection of essays about her life (10/23)
Jerry Muller — Capitalism and the Jews discusses the disproportionate success of Jews in capitalist economies, explores the most plausible explanations for this striking phenomenon and examines the remarkable range of Jewish responses to capitalism (10/25)
Closing Night: Rebecca Newberger Goldstein — 36 Arguments for the Existence of God is a hilarious, heartbreaking and intellectually captivating novel exploring the rapture and torments of religious experience in all its variety (10/27)

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

10 First St. SE
202-707-8000
loc.gov/events

David Baldacci, Kathy Reichs and Sandra Brown — These three writers discuss their books in an event titled ”Hardcover Mysteries,” a special program commemorating the 10th year of the National Book Festival (9/20, Coolidge Auditorium, Thomas Jefferson Building)
Kristen Fudeman — Vernacular Voices: Language and Identity in Medieval French Jewish Communities (9/20, African/Middle Eastern Reading Room, Jefferson Building)
Lee Haring — Translating Africa in Global Contexts (9/22, Pickford Theater, James Madison Building)
Gene Feldman — Feldman, of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, seaks on ”Observing the Living Oceans from Space” (9/22, Dining Room A, Madison)
Peasant Movement of Papaye — Chavannes Jean-Baptise of this group, known as MPP, presents ”MPP Responds to the Earthquake in Haiti and to its Aftermath: Actions, Vision and a Plan” (9/27, Pickford)
Michael Ward — Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C.S. Lewis (9/29, West Dining Room)
John B. Hench — Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing and the Battle for World Markets in the Era of World War II (10/5, Pickford)
Robert Darnton — The Case for Books: Past, Present, Future (10/12, West Dining Room, Madison)
Nancy K. Loan — Following the Drum: Women at the Valley Forge Encampment (10/26, Pickford)

LISNER AUDITORIUM AT GWU

730 21st St. NW
202-994-6800
lisner.org

David Sedaris — Humorist and essayist returns to Lisner, this time to present a new work of fiction, Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary, a collection of fables(10/4)
Sarah Vowell — Offbeat historical writer reads from her new book, Unfamiliar Fishes, about the odd history behind Hawaii’s annexation to the U.S. (11/13)

NATIONAL BOOK FESTIVAL

National Mall
3rd and 7th Streets NW
loc.gov/bookfest

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama are honorary chairs for the 10th Annual National Book Festival, organized and sponsored by the Library of Congress and featuring the nation’s best and best-selling authors discussing their work and interact with fans. Those on the lineup this year include: Isabel Allende, Scott Turow, Wil Haygood, Jonathan Franzen, Jane Smiley, Jonathan Safran Foer, David Remnick, plus chefs/cookbook authors Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and Spike Mendelsohn (9/25)

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC LIVE!

Grosvenor Auditorium
NGS Headquarters
1600 M St. NW
202-857-7700
nationalgeographic.com/nglive/

Jennifer Jordan — The Last Man on the Mountain tells the story of Dudley Wolfe, an American socialite who attempted to summit Pakistan’s K2, only to become its first victim (10/7)
Jean Michel Cousteau: My Father, The Captain: My Life with Jacques Costeau (10/8)
K. David Harrison — Swarthmore linguistics professor and head of National Geographic’s Enduring Voices Project documents languages verging on extinction in The Last Speakers (10/12)
Susan Orlean — Noted New Yorker writer and author of The Orchid Thief gives a talk based on her stories of offbeat characters and unusual adventures (10/14)
Annie Griffiths — Veteran photographer selected the finest photographs from National Geographic’s archives for Capturing Beauty (10/25)
Dan Buettner — Thrive: Finding Happiness the Blue Zones Way looks at the world’s ”happiness hotspots,” where people live long lives of high quality (11/29)
Peter Gwin and Brent Stirton — National Geographic writer and photographer discuss their experience reporting from the Sahara desert and tales of energy interests, armed uprisings, drug smuggling and al Qaeda (11/30)

POLITICS AND PROSE

5015 Connecticut Ave. NW
202-364-1919
politics-prose.com

Deborah Fallows — Dreaming in Chinese: Mandarin Lessons In Life, Love and Language (9/16)
Larry Rohter — Brazil On The Rise: The Story of a Country Transformed from the New York Times‘ former Rio bureau chief (9/18)
Audrey Niffenegger — Author of The Time Traveler’s Wife releases her first graphic novel, The Night Bookmobile (9/18)
Feryal Ali Gauhar — No Space for Further Burials, novel informed by author’s experience as a political prisoner in Pakistan (9/18)
Isabel Wilkerson — Pulitzer Prize-winning author recounts African-American migration from the South to the North in The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration (9/19)
Rebecca Traister — Big Girls Don’t Cry: The Election That Changed Everything for American Women recounts this Salon reporter’s experience covering the 2008 election (9/20)
Ambassador Nancy G. Brinker — Promise Me: How A Sister’s Love Launched the Global Movement to End Breast Cancer is a moving memoir about the sister of the late Susan G. Komen (9/21)
Robert B. Reich — Former Secretary of Labor provides analysis of the current financial crisis in Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future (9/22)
David Rakoff — Half Empty is another collection of humorous essays from this author reveling in the power of negative thinking (9/23)
Jonathan Franzen — Franzen frenzy is back, this time over Freedom (9/24)
Richard Rhodes — The Twilight Of The Bombs: Recent Challenges, New Dangers and the Prospects for a World Without Nuclear Weapons (9/25)
William Gibson — Visionary author presents his latest novel, Zero History (9/26)
Steve Lerner — Sacrifice Zones: The Front Lines of Toxic Chemical Exposure in the United States (9/26)
Fatima Bhutto — Daughter and niece of two former Pakistani prime ministers offers a memoir, Songs of Blood and Sword (9/27)
Jeff Sharlet — C Street (9/28)
President Jimmy Carter — White House Diary, based on the 5,000 pages of notes Carter kept while in office (9/29)
Gail Beckerman — When They Come For Us, We’ll Be Gone: The Epic Struggle to Save Soviet Jewry also documents the rise of human rights in American foreign policy (9/30)
Keith Jeffrey — The Secret History of M16, co-sponsored by the International Spy Museum (10/1)
Scott Simon — NPR host offers a memoir in Baby, We Were Meant for Each Other: In Praise of Adoption (10/2)
Mark Feldstein — Poisoning the Press: Richard Nixon, Jack Anderson and The Rise of Washington’s Scandal Culture (10/2)
Mark Ozer — Massachusetts Avenue in the Gilded Age: Palaces & Privileges (10/3)
Harold Ford Jr. — former Congressman offers a memoir, More Davids Than Goliaths: A Political Education (10/4)
Steven Johnson — Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation (10/5)
Seth Stern — co-author of Justice Brennan: Liberal Champion (10/8)
Ron Chernow — Washington: A Life (10/9)
Diane Rehm — NPR host offers Life with Maxie, about her dog (10/9)
Michele Norris — Another NPR host offers The Grace of Silence: A Memoir (10/12)
Ari Berman — In a conversation with Howard Dean, Berman offers insights from Herding Donkeys: The Fight to Rebuild the Democratic Party and Reshape American Politics (10/13)
Condoleezza Rice — Extraordinary, Ordinary People: A Memoir of Family (10/15)
James Zogby — Pollster presents Arab Voices: What They Are Saying To Us, and Why It Matters (10/15)
Martin Tolchin and Susan J. Tolchin — Pinstripe Patronage: Political Favoritism from the Clubhouse to the White House and Beyond (10/17)
Wray Herbert — On Second Thought: Outsmarting Your Mind’s Hard-Wired Habits (10/17)
Steven Rattner — Overhaul: An Insider’s Account of the Obama Administration’s Emergency Rescue of the Auto Industry (10/18)
Edwidge Danticat — Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work (10/21)
Robert Shogan — Prelude to Catastrophe: FDR’s Jews and the Menace of Nazism (10/23)
Phil Trupp — Ruthless: How Ordinary Investors Beat the Biggest Scam in Wall Street History (10/23)
Joseph J. Ellis — First Family: Abigail and John Adams (10/27)
Alan Riding — And The Show Went On: Cultural Life in Nazi-Occupied Paris (10/28)
Douglas R. Egerton — Year of Meteors: Stephen Douglas, Abraham Lincoln and the Election that Brought on the Civil War (10/30)

SIXTH & I HISTORIC SYNAGOGUE

600 I St. NW
202-408-3100
sixthandi.org

Mark Bittman — New York Times food columnist offers The Food Matters Cookbook: 500 Revolutionary Recipes for Better Living (10/5)
David Grossman — One of Israel’s most acclaimed writers presents his latest novel about the cost of war, To The End of the Land (10/14)
Nicole Krauss — Great House (10/18)
V.S. Naipaul — The Masque of Africa: Glimpses of African Belief (10/21)
Amy Sedaris — Uproarious author offers Simple Times: Crafts for Poor People, in which she explains how to make popular crafts, such as crab-claw roach clips and crepe-paper moccasins, and how to avoid common crafting accidents, from feather asphyxia to pine cone lodged in throat(11/8)
Stacy Schiff — Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer takes on one of the greatest figures in history in CLEOPATRA: A Life (11/11)
Salman Rushdie — Luka and the Fire of Life revisits the magic-infused, intricate world noted author first brought to life in Haroun and the Sea of Stories (11/17)
Avrom Bendavid-Val — The Heavens are Empty: Discovering the Lost Town of Trochenbrod (11/21)