Monday, March 19: The Dark Corners of the City: Literary Murder in Seattle

See our Event of the Week column for more details. Third Place Books Lake Forest Park, 17171 Bothell Way NE, 366-3333, http://thirdplacebooks.com, 7 pm, free.

Tuesday, March 20: The Northwest Garden Manifesto Reading

John Albers puts more than 30 years of Northwest gardening experience to work in his latest book, which will help you make your surroundings more of a genuinely Northwest landscape. Alberts is interested in environmentally sound gardening procedures and keeping gardens regionally appropriate.
Third Place Books Ravenna, 6504 20th Ave NE, 525-2347 http://thirdplacebooks.com, 7 pm, free.

Wednesday, March 21: Happiness Reading

Aminatta Forna's latest novel, Happiness, is about an American woman who goes to London to study the habits of urban foxes and who encounters a psychiatrist from the west African nation of Ghana. It's a book about coincidences and happenstance and serendipity. Seattle Public Library, 1000 4th Ave., 386-4636, http://spl.org, 7 pm, free.

Thursday, March 22: Sacred in the Everyday

Seattle poet Shin Yu Pai appears in conversation with zen teacher Peter Levitt, who has written 14 books. Levitt will share some of his most recent poems and then he'll talk about zen and poetry and teaching with Pai, who knows quite a bit about poetry and about thinking deeply about the world. Phinney Neighborhood Association, 6532 Phinney Ave N, 7:30 pm, free.

Friday, March 23: Bhopal Dance Reading

Jennifer Natalya Fink's latest novel imagines a world in which corporations can pollute and destroy the environment with almost no repercussions. Ha ha ha. Crazy, right? Of course it's fiction. Fink will appear in discussion with Seattle author Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore Elliott Bay Book Company, 1521 10th Ave, 624-6600, http://elliottbaybook.com, 7 pm, free.

Saturday, March 24: Baby Story Time

It's never too early to start enjoying stories. The High Point branch of the Seattle Public Library hosts this reading of stories and poems aimed at Seattle's youngest book aficionados Seattle Public Library, High Point Branch, 411 SW Raymond St, http://spl.org, 11:30 am, free.

Sunday, March 25: King-Snohomish County Regional Spelling Bee

Exciting! Some 90 middle-schoolers join in M-O-R-T-A-L C-O-M-B-A-T to determine who is the best speller in the region. The winner will go on to face the best spellers in the country. I took part in a spelling bee in elementary school; I went on to regionals and then I lost because I spelled "VENEER" "V-E-N-I-E-R." I guarantee that several of these kids are going to remember the words they lost on for the rest of their lives, too. Campion Ballroom at Seattle University, 914 E. Jefferson St, 12:15 pm, free.