Wednesday January 18th: WordsWest 22

West Seattle’s liveliest reading series begins 2017 with Hugo House Writer-in-Residence Anastacia Renee Tolbert and Seattle Times reporter Claudia Rowe, whose brand-new true crime book The Spider and the Fly tells the true story of her correspondence with a serial killer. The two writers will read on the theme of “dreams deferred.” C&P Coffee Co., 5612 California Ave. SW, http://wordswestliterary.weebly.com. Free. All ages. 7 p.m.

Thursday January 19th: A Word for Love Reading

Visiting author Emily Robbins’s debut novelA Word for Love is about an exchange student who travels to Syria, falls in love with the language, and then falls in love with a Syrian. Robbins, who studied in Syria on a Fulbright Fellowship, will likely have some things to say about the intersection of fiction and nonfiction. Elliott Bay Book Company, 1521 10th Ave, 624-6600, http://elliottbaybook.com . Free. All ages. 7 p.m.

Friday January 20th: Occupy Inauguration

Technically this isn’t a reading, but the truth is, the We Defy event with Sherman Alexie and Ijeoma Oluo at Town Hall tonight is already sold out (though they do often have standby tickets at the door if you feel like waiting in line) and tonight is a night for political action. Go be heard. Westlake Park, 401 Pine St., http://www.seattle.gov/parks/find/parks/westlake-park Free. 5 p.m.

Saturday January 21st: Bushwick Book Club

See our Event of the Week Column for more details. Town Hall Seattle, 1119 8th Ave., 652-4255, townhallseattle.org. $5. All ages 8 p.m.

Sunday January 22nd: Looking for Betty MacDonald Reading

Betty MacDonald’s 1945 memoir about life on the Olympic Peninsula, The Egg and I, is an underappreciated Northwest classic. Seattle-area historian Paula Becker celebrates the UW Press’s republication of three long out-of-print books by MacDonald with a reading from her book which celebrates MacDonald’s history and legacy. Elliott Bay Book Company, 1521 10th Ave, 624-6600, elliottbaybook.com . Free. All ages. 7 p.m.

Monday January 23rd: The Revolution Where You Live Reading

Author Sarah van Gelder is a co-founder of the Bainbridge Island-based Yes! Magazine. Today, she debuts her new book, The Revolution Where You Live: Stories from a 12,000 Mile Journey Through a New America. Hopefully, she has some ideas for a new form of activism. Lord knows we need it. Elliott Bay Book Company, 1521 10th Ave, 624-6600, elliottbaybook.com . Free. All ages. 7 p.m.

Tuesday January 24th: This Is How It Always Is Reading

No less a towering talent than the Northwest’s own Ruth Ozeki praises Seattle author Laurie Frankel’s third novel, This Is How It Always Is, for charging us “to look beyond the traditional binary oppositions of boy vs. girl, right vs. wrong, real vs. make-believe, and to find courage and beauty in the in-between.” Elliott Bay Book Company, 1521 10th Ave, 624-6600, elliottbaybook.com . Free. All ages. 7 p.m.