Three nationally known authors reading at Auntie’s this week
One of the worst aspects to living in this part of the Inland Northwest is that we can go weeks and weeks without getting the chance to hear a nationally known author. And then, as is the case with the coming week, we’ll have three at once. Hometown favorite Sherman Alexie, Portland novelist Chuck Palahniuk and critically acclaimed memoirist Lee Stringer all will be reading from their latest works at Auntie’s bookstore (see below for specific times).
Stringer may be the least known to area readers. Author of “Grand Central Winter: Stories From the Street,” he is a formerly homeless man who, with nothing else to do one day while curled up in a crawl-space in New York City’s Grand Central Station, picked up a pencil and began writing about his life.
“Grand Central Winter,” wrote a critic for the trade journal Booklist, shows that “Stringer’s crisp detail, straight-no-chaser wit and uncompromising frankness are as bracing as his subject is significant.”
Stringer, who co-authored a book with Kurt Vonnegut titled “Like Shaking Hands With God: A Conversation About Writing,” will read from “Sleepaway School: Stories From a Boy’s Life,” an account of his two years at a school for kids at risk.
No matter what else he writes, Palahniuk is likely to always be known as the author of “Fight Club.” A look at his latest collection, titled “Stranger Than Fiction: True Stories,” shows that the bizarre worlds that he explores in fiction aren’t that much different from what he’s been able to find in real life. (For more on Palahniuk, see Thursday’s IN Life section.)
Alexie, born and raised on the Spokane Indian Reservation, has grown from a skinny kid who played basketball at Reardan (Wash.) High School into one of the most multitalented writers in the country. He’s written poetry, stories, novels and screenplays and even had directed a movie from one of his own scripts (“The Business of Fancydancing”).
But to some of us, Alexie is best experienced in person. He has an amazing knack of taking the stage and, like a good stand-up comic, riffing on one subject after the next, whether it be his experiences as a sickly reservation kid or his disdain for whites who think they know what it’s like to be Indian.
Palahniuk (Thursday) and Alexie (who will appear twice on Friday) both will attract standing-room-only crowds, while Stringer (Wednesday) deserves to.
So enjoy. Who know how long it’ll be before we again see such a literary lineup?
Books, books, books for sale
If you don’t have enough books (and who does?), you might want to show up at the downtown branch of the Spokane Public Library, 906 W. Main Ave., between 2 and 6 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The library is selling books (hardbacks for $1, paperbacks for 50 cents) in all genres. Funds from the sales, which are sponsored by the Friends of the Spokane Public Library, go to help keep the libraries running.
For further information, call 444-5300.
Just keep reading
Now that we’ve opted for Kim Barnes’ first novel, “Finding Caruso,” as the July choice for The Spokesman-Review Book Club, we need to look ahead. Coeur d’Alene reader Phoebe Hruska suggested Craig Lesley’s novel “Winterkill” (Picador, 306 pages, $14) as our August read. Since a summer book title with the word winter in it sounds appropriately ironic, Portland writer Lesley’s novel makes the list.
As for September, why don’t we go in a slightly different direction. We have, in Spokane, one of the most prolific religion writers in the country. Mitch Finley has written on so many different aspects of Catholicism that reading him amounts to earning a Ph.D. in religious studies.
One of his latest is “Prayer for People Who Think too Much: A Guide to Everyday, Anywhere Prayer From the World’s Faith Traditions” (Skylight Paths, 186 pages, $16.95). That’s what we’ll read in September.
As for October, well, I’d opt for something in science fiction. Maybe a novel by Spokane writer John Dalmas?
And remember: Go online at www.spokesmanreview.com and sign up for the book club. It costs you nothing; there is no obligation to buy anything. It merely gives you an opportunity to vent about the month’s read.
Unless otherwise listed, all events listed are free and open to the public.
Book talk
“ Modern Fiction Book Group (“Tortilla Curtain,” by T.C. Boyle), 7 p.m. Tuesday, Valley Barnes & Noble, just east of the Valley Mall (922-4014). August selection: “Girl With a Pearl Earring,” by Tracy Chevalier.
“ Gay & Lesbian Book Group (“Sleeping Bones,” by Katherine V. Forrest), 7 p.m. Wednesday, Auntie’s Bookstore, Main and Washington (838-0206).
“ Romance/Mystery (“Dissolution,” by C.J. Sansom; “Love: Undercover,” by Hailey North), 7 p.m. Thursday, Valley Barnes & Noble.
“ Valley Readers Book Group (“The Lost Continent,” by Bill Bryson), 7 p.m. Thursday, Valley Hastings, 15312 E. Sprague (924-0667).
The reader board
“ Tom Skierka (essay from the collection “Looking Back: Stories of Our Mothers and Fathers in Retrospect”), reading, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Auntie’s Bookstore.
“ Lee Stringer (“Sleepaway School: Stories From a Boy’s Life”), reading, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Auntie’s Bookstore.
“ Chuck Palahniuk (“Stranger Than Fiction: True Stories”), reading, 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Auntie’s Bookstore.
“ Luella Dow (“Juba’s Cup,” “Fire in Her Soul”), signing, 7-9 p.m. Friday, Borders Books, 9980 N. Newport Highway (466-2231).
“ Sherman Alexie (“Ten Little Indians”) 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. Friday, Auntie’s Bookstore. (Note: Due to the expected crowds, tickets will be required for admission to each show. The tickets, which are free, must be picked up at the store. Limit: two per person.)
“ Irene Anrode (“My Other Children: The True Stories of Two German Shepherd Dogs”), signing, noon-4 p.m. Saturday, Borders Books.
“ Jerry Travis (“Tales of the Dark Continent”), signing, 12:30-2:30 p.m. Saturday, Auntie’s Bookstore.
“ Jeanne Savery (“The Family Matchmaker”), Mary Buckham (“The Makeover Mission”), Bonnie Hamre (“Choices”), signings, 3-5 p.m. Saturday, Coeur d’Alene Borders, 450 W. Wilbur, Coeur d’Alene (208-762-4497).