Jess Walter speaking at GU’s Writers Series

No one has done more to expose the streets of Spokane to a national audience than Jess Walter.

Winner of an Edgar Award (for his novel “Citizen Vince”), nominated for a National Book (for his novel “The Zero”), Walter has used his East Valley High School and Eastern Washington University educations well.

He’ll demonstrate as much at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Gonzaga University, speaking as part of GU’s 2008-09 Visiting Writers Series. Walter’s talk, which is free and open to the public, will be held in the Cataldo Globe Room.

Walter is an all-purpose writer. A former Spokesman-Review staff writer, he used his personal reporting experiences to help him write the nonfiction study “Every Knee Shall Bow: The Truth and Tragedy of Ruby Ridge and the Randy Weaver Family.”

The New York Times Book Review called the book “a stunning job of reporting.”

Walter broke into fiction with the first of his Spokane trilogy, “Over Tumbled Graves,” which was followed by “Land of the Blind” and “Citizen Vince.”

Washington Post critic John McNally called Walter “an immensely talented writer” who, with “The Zero,” had “written a new thriller not only with a conscience but also full of dead-on insights into our culture and its parasitic response to a national tragedy.”

For further information, call GU English professor Tod Marshall at (509) 313-6681.

Library time

Eastern Washington University is holding its annual library fundraiser dinner and auction at 5 p.m. Saturday at JFK Library on EWU’s Cheney campus.

The event, called the Monster Mash Oktoberfest Bash, will feature a catered dinner, a wine-and-beer tasting, live music (by the Don Goodwin Group) and live and silent auctions.

Tickets are $35 ($175 for a reserved table of six), $15 for students. For information, go online at www.ewu.edu/Oktoberfest. Or call (509) 359-2264.

It’s a fandango

Auntie’s Bookstore will present a special guest for its annual Book Group Fandango, which will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday at the store, Main and Washington. Portland author Nicole Mones, whose novel “The Last Chinese Chef” is the November read of The Spokesman-Review Book Club, is the featured speaker.

Call (509) 838-0206.

Barnes reads

Idaho-based author Kim Barnes, who was supposed to read from her second novel “A Country Called Home” Thursday at Auntie’s Bookstore, has rescheduled the event for Nov. 5. She also will read on Oct. 29 at the University of Idaho Law School Courtroom.

For UI information, call (208) 885-7407.

The literary-review journal Booklist described “A Country Called Home” as an “incandescent novel of sacrifice and devotion, wildness and civilization. Such anguish, such beauty.”

Unless otherwise noted, all events are free and open to the public.

Book talk

•Dark City Mystery Book Group (“The Good Liar,” by Laura Caldwell), 7 p.m. Monday, Auntie’s Bookstore, Main and Washington. Call (509) 838-0206.

The reader board

•Peter G. Doumit (“What I Know About Baseball Is What I Know About Life”), signing, 1-2:30 p.m. today, Auntie’s Bookstore.

•T.J. English (“The Westies”), limerick reading, 6 p.m. Monday, Jack and Dan’s, 1226 N. Hamilton St. Call (509) 487-6546.

•Craig Romano (“Columbia Highlands: Exploring Washington’s Last Frontier”), slide-show talk/signing, 7 p.m. Tuesday, REI, 1125 N. Monroe St. Call (509) 328-9900.

•John Soennichsen (“Bretz’s Flood: The Remarkable Story of a Rebel Geologist and the World’s Greatest Flood”), reading, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Auntie’s Bookstore.

•Nicole Mones (“The Last Chinese Chef”), reading, 7 p.m. Thursday, Auntie’s Bookstore.

•Alison Meyer (“Palouse Perspectives”), signing, 3 p.m. Friday, University of Idaho Bookstore, 710 Deakin Ave., Moscow, Idaho. Call (208) 885-6469.

•MaryJane Butters (“MaryJane’s Outpost: Unleashing Your Inner Wild”), signing, 1-2 p.m. Saturday, Budding Rose Art Gallery, 510 S. Whitman Ave., Rosalia, Wash. Call (509) 523-4278.

•V.A. Park (“The Vampire Chronicles of Jonathan Carter”), signing, 1-3 p.m. Saturday, North Side Hastings, 7706 N. Division St. Call (509) 483-2154.

•Jean Flanigen (“The Zhombie Conspiracy”), signing, noon-3 p.m. Saturday, Pat’s Books, 526 S. Whitman Ave., Rosalia, Wash. Call (509) 523-3045.