Thursday, May 17, 2012, 6:00 – 7:00pm
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $5.
Georgetown Professor Francis Slakey (To the Last Breath) journeys to the most extreme points on Earth—and deep inside the human psyche. Before he decided to climb the highest mountain on every continent and surf every ocean, Slakey was, basically, detached. But as his travels veered off course, he was ambushed by guerillas, threatened by a storm in Antarctica, and confronted by a fatal decision on Everest
Thursday, May 17, 2012, 7:00 – 8:30pm
Great Hall; enter on 8th Avenue. Free, no tickets required.
Celebrated author John Irving reads from his new book, In One Person, which has evoked eager “firsts” and “mosts” even before its publication. The novel-which is narrated by Billy, a bisexual man-marks Irving’s first first-person work since 1989’s A Prayer for Owen Meany and has been called his “most political” work since 1985’s The Cider House Rules.
Thursday, May 17, 2012, 7:30 – 9:00pm
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $5.
China has big plans to jump-start its aerospace industry, and James Fallows exposes their extraordinary scale—and revolutionary potential.
Friday, May 18, 2012, 7:30 – 9:00pm
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $5.
Through stories, anecdotes, and a visual feast of more than 500 images, Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio lead a geographic and gastronomic adventure of what people eat around the world. It’s all deliciously compiled from their books Hungry Planet and What I Eat, the basis for a current exhibit at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture in Seattle.
Saturday, May 19, 2012, 7:30 – 9:00pm
Great Hall; enter on 8th Avenue. $4-$10.
Under the baton of Alan Shen, this extraordinary all-volunteer orchestra performs an ambitious program including Mozart’s Don Giovanni Overture; selections for guest vocalists Larissa Humphrey, soprano, and Frances Hoffman, soprano; Strauss’ Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks; and Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess: A Symphonic Picture.
Monday, May 21, 2012, 7:30 – 9:00pm
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $5.
The bestselling Seattle author of The Devil in the White City brings another past world alive—this time, the ominous realm of Nazi Berlin. With its focus on William E. Dodd, a mild-mannered history professor who becomes America’s first ambassador to Nazi Germany, and Dodd’s flirtatious and free-spirited 24-year-old daughter Martha, Erik Larson’s new book In the Garden of Beasts examines the people, politics, and social life of Berlin during Hitler’s first full year as chancellor
Tuesday, May 22, 2012, 6:00 – 7:00pm
Pub, enter on 8th Avenue. $5. Double feature! Ticket also gains admission to the Augusten Burroughs event at 7:30 pm.
Paul Ingrassia explores how cars— from the Model T to the Prius—have propelled and reflected the American experience. The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of Engines of Change offers an epic cultural history through 15 automobiles, as well as the personalities and tales behind them, ultimately showing how the car has expressed the particularly American tension between the lure of freedom and the obligations of utility.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012, 7:30 – 9:00pm
Great Hall; enter on 8th Avenue. $5.
Ten years ago, Augusten Burroughs totally redefined the modern memoir with Running With Scissors; now he takes on the self-help genre. This Is How, not surprisingly, is not your usual self-help book; you’ll find no therapist-approved solutions or tips to cynically mollify pain or make yourself feel better. Instead, by demonstrating how only rigorous, sometimes-uncomfortable honesty truly can set a person free, Burroughs explains that some problems are, in fact, insurmountable—and that recognizing this can be the next best thing to overcoming them.
Wednesday, May 23, 2012, 7:30 – 9:00pm
Pub; enter on 8th Avenue. $5.
As the only nuclear-armed state that doesn’t acknowledge its possession of the bomb, Israel has created a special “bargain,” says Avner Cohen. And by sticking to it, says the author of The Worst-Kept Secret, Israel has made a unique contribution to the nuclear age—but not necessarily a positive one, as the bargain relies on secrecy, violates the public right to know, and undermines the norm of public accountability and oversight …
Bill Bradley: America is Better Than This
Wednesday, May 16, 2012, 7:30 – 9:00pm
Great Hall; enter on 8th Avenue. $5.
If you’re tired of all this soul-sapping despair, frustration, and cynicism, you are not alone—and Bill Bradley has a wake-up call for us all. The former senator, author of We Can All Do Better, provokes thought and inspires change with insight on how we can break this cycle and partake in a more participatory form of democracy, reminding us that our common vision of America always has been more powerful than what divides us …