BOOK IT!: “WHAT OFF SEASON ?!?!?!?”

01 Oct BOOK IT!: “WHAT OFF SEASON ?!?!?!?”

I repeat: “WHAT Off-Season?!?!?!?!?”

Major fests are over. Academic and sport schedules dictate the rhythm. Start making off-season to-do list. Um, scratch that last one.

Way too many cool events have fallen like splendid leaves into our events calendar, offering locals and visitors a menagerie of bookish brain food for the ever-lessening minutes of daylight. Pull out the phone/pen and ink these in. Hopefully life will afford you the opportunity to partake in at least one if not all of these golden nuggets …

October 1-5 • 9a.m.-5p.m. • Banned Books Week National Read-Out @ Between the Covers

Did you know that over 300 books were challenged last year by individuals or entities who took it upon themselves to pull books from shelves and curriculums all across our free nation? This has been happening for decades. From children’s picture books like “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” and edgy fiction like “Fahrenheit 451” and classics like “Black Beauty” and “Heart of Darkness,” there are dozens upon dozens of banned books lists on the Internet. The multitude is dizzying but Banned Books Week HQ is a great place to start: http://www.ala.org/advocacy/banned/bannedbooksweek.

To celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the Freedom to Read, Between the Covers is facilitating an interactive out-loud reading event all this week. Either inside the store against a backdrop of books or outside with a backdrop of gorgeousness, we’ll tape you reading an excerpt from your favorite banned book and then upload to the national BBW YouTube site (http://www.youtube.com/user/BannedBooksWeek).

There’s a great three-minute spot by Bill Moyers on exercising your First Amendment right to read these taboo tomes right there on the homepage. Do take a listen and then get your inspired American self in to be a part of the moment. If you’d rather perform solo feats of filmmaking, you can upload your own entries there as well. Bring your friends, bring your kids, and let fREADom ring!

Silence Majority, Amy Goodman

October 7 • Noon • Amy Goodman @ The Palm

What a great handoff of the freedom baton will occur next weekend: From Banned Books Week to the diminutive doyenne of Democracy Now!, we’re thrilled to once again have KOTO pull us in to help out with the book-signing part of this important event.

In addition to that excitement is the fact that Amy’s newest book, “The Silenced Majority: Stories of Uprisings, Occupations, Resistance, and Hope”—out Tuesday, October 9—has been released pre-publication date for Sunday’s talk by this multiple New York Times bestselling author.

With Denis Moynihan, co-founder of Democracy Now!, Amy has penned a paperback that “pulls back the veil of corporate media reporting to dig deep into the politics of ‘climate apartheid,’ the implications of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the movement to halt the execution of Troy Anthony Davis, and the globalization of dissent ‘From Tahrir Square to Liberty Plaza.’ Throughout, Goodman and Moynihan show the power of ordinary people to change their media—and change the world.”

When a national speaking tour comes through, people listen. Amy’s presentation is a fundraiser for KOTOfm radio. Tickets are $20 for adults, $10 for students.

Hope to see you in the signing line in The Palm lobby afterwards!

Tuesday, October 9 • 7p.m. • Kaya McLaren @ BTC

The breed of human that comes to a ski town and ends up staying forever is a fun one to analyze under the

Sparkle, Kaya McLarenmicroscope of fiction. Kaya McLaren, author of the just released “How I Came to Sparkle Again,” should know: She’s a dog-owning telemark skier, who lives and teaches on the east slope of Snoqualmie Pass in Washington state. She and her first book “On the Divinity of Second Chances” was and continues to be well-received since her reading at Between the Covers back in 2009.

That storyline of a broken-down family took place in a ski town during the summer. The new novel takes place in wintertime Sparkle, a fictitious Colorado ski hamlet “where the ski bums have big hearts and name their dogs after beer.”

The main characters, two women and a 10-year-old girl, suffer through and survive heartbreaking hardships by leaning on good people, be they a literary hippie uncle who lives in the basement of the lodge and spews the sweetest nature-based advice or the fun-loving ski area employees who live in a shack they call “The Kennel.” When the characters go skiing, we hear what they think and are right there with them when they’re working out a problem or a concern that’s hampering them in the flat lands below. We all know that laps on the mountain, alone or with friends, is usually the best therapy a pass can buy. We love this gal. She gets us because she is one of us. Come take a look in Sparkle’s mirror and fall in love all over again.

Friday, October 12 • 8pm • Craig Childs @ Wilkinson Public Library

Apocalyptic Planet, Craig Childs

“Apocalyptic Planet: A Field Guide to the Everending Planet” is the latest exploration of our planet by intrepid traveler, observer, chronicler, NPR commentator, and Crawford resident Craig Childs.

As readers, we join his journey to Chile, Central Iowa, the Bering Sea and beyond as he examines apocalypse, “touching the truth behind the speculation.” Called a combination of science and adventure, it is the fieldwork research we expect from the author of such perennial favorite local reads as “The Secret Knowledge of Water,” “Soul of Nowhere,” “House of Rain,” and “Finders Keepers: A Tale of Archaeological Plunder and Obsession.”

Childs’ findings? Well, “ours is not a stable planet, it is prone to sudden, violent natural disasters and extremes of climate. Alternate futures, many not so pretty, are constantly waiting in the wings.”

Childs “refutes the idea of an apocalyptic end to the earth and finds clues to its more inevitable end in some of the most physically challenging places on the globe.”

And the best news of all? According to Craig, we can “change our place within the cycles that rule the planet.”

In addition to the narrative feast, Childs will share a visual presentation from his travels, amuse the restless genes within, and allow a ray of evolutionary hope to permeate the hard shell of bad news.

Tuesday, October 16 • 5:45 p.m. , SHARP! • Live from New York, It’s a conversation between bestselling authors Anne Patchett & J.K. Rowling • Wilkinson Public Library

Although this is a free-but-ticketed event for BTC’s loyal customers, we are taking this moment to reach out to those we may have missed through the invite process. Broadcast only through independent booksellers, this dialogue between the woman who gave the world “Bel Canto” and the woman who gave the world “Harry Potter” promises to be an engaging hour that could literally go anywhere. To join us for this one-hour event, stop by or call to get on the invite list.

Attendance is limited, so jingle a friend soon and make it a date.

That’s about all we’re allowed to say.

Saturday, October 27 • Time TBA • Bill Betenson • Location TBA

Butch Cassidy’s great nephew is coming to town to present his new book “Butch Cassidy, My Uncle.” More details to follow …

I feel like a teacher, doling out October’s homework assignments.Extra credit goes to those who turn everything in. Enjoy the marvels of fall for soon we’ll nestle under winter’s blanket …