Wednesday September 20th: Season of Sacrifice Reading

Seattle writer Bharti Kirchner has written a ton of great novels that you should check out. Tonight, though, she’s debuting something new: the first book in a mystery series starring a Seattle private investigator named Maya Mallick. In Season of Sacrifice, she investigates the self-immolation death of a prominent scientist.
Elliott Bay Book Company, 1521 10th Ave, 624-6600, http://elliottbaybook.com . Free. All ages. 7 p.m.

Thursday, September 21st: Grab Back Comics Reading

Grab Back Comics started as a website collecting comics stories about sexual assault and harassment. Now it’s been collected in a beautiful print anthology. Tonight, the anthology’s editor, Erma Blood, appears with local cartoonists Amy Camber, Gillian Rhodes, Robin Elan, Tatiana Gill, and Tess LeBlanc. Third Place Books Seward Park, 5041 Wilson Ave S, 474-2200, http://thirdplacebooks.com. Free. All ages. 7 p.m.

Friday September 22nd: Over the Top

This one is a little different: The Washington National Park’s Discovery Group hosts a booze dinner in which scientific experts discuss projects they’re running in Washington national parks. At the end of the night, one of the projects will be funded by pooling everyone’s admission fee in a kind of American Idol for science. Georgetown Ballroom, 5623 Airport Way S., 762-4999. http://wnpf.org. $25. All ages. 5:30 p.m.

Saturday, September 23rd: A Lesser Love Reading

See our Event of the Week column for more details. Hugo House, 1021 Columbia St., 322-7030, http://hugohouse.org. Free. All ages. 7 p.m.

Sunday, September 24th: Poetry in Conversation: The Lice

Seattle poet Bill Carty presents a special book-club-type discussion about The Lice, a seminal 20th century American poetry collection by W.S. Merwin. (The book has been republished by Port Townsend publisher Copper Canyon Press this year.) Come and talk about poetry with a poet. If you disagree, feel free to argue. Poetry will survive the scrutiny. Open Books, 2414 N. 45th St., 633-0811, http://openpoetrybooks.com. Free. All ages. 4 p.m.

Monday September 25th: Dinner at the Center of the Earth Reading

You might remember Nathan Englander’s debut collection of short fiction, For the Relief of Unbearable Urges, for its beautiful sweaty cover. His new novel looks at a controversial subject — the conflict between Palestine and Israel — through the experiences of a disparate group of people including a prisoner and a waitress. Elliott Bay Book Company, 1521 10th Ave, 624-6600, http://elliottbaybook.com . Free. All ages. 7 p.m.

Tuesday September 26th: Bad Kansas Reading

Author Becky Mandelbaum recently moved to the Pacific Northwest, but before she did that, she published her first collection of short fiction. That book won the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, which is no fucking joke.Tonight, she’ll be interviewed by great American author Pam Houston. Elliott Bay Book Company, 1521 10th Ave, 624-6600, http://elliottbaybook.com . Free. All ages. 7 p.m.