Just a reminder from our Laura Onstot:

In 1979, Iran went through a transformation straight out of Margaret Atwood's Handmaid's Tale. Overnight, new leadership and laws mandated chadors for women, banned anything un-Islamic, and made the country a pariah for our next four presidential administrations. Azar Nafisi lived through it, and she wrote about it in the 2003 bestseller Reading Lolita in Tehran. But her follow-up memoir, Things I've Been Silent About: Memories (Random House, $27), isn't just another eyewitness account of that tumultuous revolutionary period. It's mainly Nafisi's own story, that of a woman with troubled parents, a weakness for deceitful men, and a stubborn streak that gets her fired from the University of Tehran for refusing to wear a veil. There is history, too, but Nafisi combines national and personal narratives. Today a professor at Johns Hopkins University, she reminds us how her fellow expatriates still love their broken, distant home. LAURA ONSTOT

Seattle Central Library, 1000 Fourth Ave., 386-4636, www.spl.org. Free. 7 p.m.

"The God that he's praying to is not the God that I know." That's what Gene Robinson recently told The New York Times about Rick Warren. But the latter, via his suburban California megachurch, preaches to a much larger flock. And Robinson, an Episcopal bishop in tiny, free-thinking New Hampshire, might make that flock uncomfortable, being gay and all. Keeping the pulpit exclusively hetero is coming to define many congregations; and the Anglican church is now undergoing such a schism. Yet as Robinson explores in his new book, In the Eye of the Storm: Swept to the Center by God (Seabury, $25), divisiveness is a service to no one. (Wasn't Obama supposed to bring us together?) Moreover, Robinson's own life story is surely as bumpy, imperfect, and American as any parishioner at Saddleback. He's the divorced father of two, a recovering alcoholic who--gay marriage not being an option--recently entered a civil union with his partner of the last 20 years. That was in the granite state, of course, where a year ago Robinson endorsed a little-known Illinois senator in his long-shot quest for the presidency.

But, this late-breaking news just in: Robinson has now been invited to speak on Inauguration Day. Maybe not standing next to Warren, but in the same town at the same time for the same new president. So maybe Obama really will bring us together.

Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave., 652-4255, www.townhallseattle.org. $10-$15. 7:30 p.m.

The Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association has announced its 2008 honors, to be bestowed down in Portland in late March. (PNBA basically includes Washington State, Oregon, Idaho, plus sometimes Alaska and Montana.) And the envelope, please:

Guernica by Dave Boling A novel about the Spanish Civil War, by a journalist from The Tacoma News Tribune. (Good time to be transitioning out of that field.)

Wild Beauty: Photographs of the Columbia River Gorge 1867-1957 by John Laursen and Terry Toedtemeier A photo-history book about the mighty (dammed) river.

American Buffalo by Steven Rinella A part-time Alaska resident, he drew local attention previously with his food book The Scavenger's Guide to Haute Cuisine (our review). He'll be in Seattle on March 26 to promote American Buffalo at a Words & Wine event.

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein We've written all about the Seattle writer, whose latest novel got the full Starbucks endorsement push and earned a slot on The New York Times bestseller list.

Selected Poems 1970-2005 by Floyd Skloot The Portland poet often comes up to Seattle for readings.

Alexandra Day: Lifetime Achievement Award Real name Sandra Louise Woodward, the Seattle resident has illustrated many children's books including the Good Dog Carl series.

It doesn't matter if you live in Ballard, Bothell, or Bellingham, former SW editor-in-chief Skip Berger will soon be coming to a bookstore near you to discuss his new book, Pugetopolis, which as Brian Miller notes in this week's issue, features content from his days as the Weekly's standout front-of-the-book columnist. Skip's first appearance will be this Sunday at Eagle Harbor Book Co. on Bainbridge Island at 3 p.m., followed by these scheduled in-stores.

If you're not already trapped at home, the next weather front may strand you there without anything to do but eat and watch TV. (Or, worse yet, talk to family members.) Don't succumb to such brainless cabin fever! Instead, since not all UPS trucks can deliver your Amazon.com orders, remember that you can--depending on your neighborhood--walk to local bookstores and branch libraries. (See the SPL Web site to verify which are open.) Now's the perfect time to hole up with a good book, and many of the titles below also offer helpful survival tips for Seattle's current Snowpocalypse™©®.

Into Thin Air Jon Krakauer's Everest survival account always makes you glad to live at sea-level, instead of up in the Death Zone. And if you're thinking about walking up Queen Anne or Capitol Hill to see a movie, hold fast to your turnaround time.

The Worst Journey in the World Apsley Cherry-Garrard's chronicle of the ill-fated 1911 Robert Scott expedition to Antarctica reminds us that 32 degrees and slushy is not, strictly speaking, life-threatening. Also: Many penguins and sled dogs are edible.

The Endurance Caroline Palmer's bestseller relates another Antarctic tale, this time with the happier outcome provided by heroic Ernest Henry Shackleton. The takeaway: always leave home with a compass, know how to navigate by the stars, and don't go sailing on Lake Washington in mid-winter. You never know when it might freeze solid.

Alive Remember those plucky Uruguayan rugby players whose plane crashed high in the Andes? Another reason not to try and make your flight out of Sea-Tac to see your parents in Peoria. And if you forgot to go to the grocrey store last week, hope that your roommates are vegan. Because it's you or them.

Title: ART
Author: Various
Price: $50
Publisher: DK Publishing
Released: October 20, 2008

As far as coffee table books go, I've always felt the best ones tend to be books of art or photography. Usually, you're not reading a coffee table book cover to cover, so it's ideal when you can flip to any page and find some interesting photo or snippet of information to while away a few minutes. Which is why I like Art, which is basically an Art History 101 course packed into 612 pages. This glossy hardcover is laid out so that you can flip to a page and learn about an unfamiliar artist. Compiled by a panel of art historians (with foreword by NYT's Ross King), this tome is laid out in chronological order, from cave paintings to contemporary art, with a little lesson on art criticism, media and technique for the completely clueless. And while it's somewhat Euro-centric, the book at least attempts to be comprehensive and succeeds in nodding at, if not giving equal space to, art from other parts of the world (let's call that a goal for next time). It's something you might consider getting for your parents this holiday season; then you can use it to distract yourself when Great Uncle Dick starts talking to your mother about his colonoscopy and you're sandwiched between them on the couch.


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Over the past year, I've been moonlighting as a first-time author, researching and writing a book about local dive bars, which will be released in April. Turns out the great Skagit County novelist Tom Robbins is putting the finishing touches on a book about beer as well. His book comes out in April too. I wonder which one will sell more copies?

Anyway, a couple weeks ago, I was finishing (close to it, anyway) my book at a friend's cabin in Lake Cavanaugh, which sits in a remote thicket of forest in Skagit County. On my way home, I stopped at the Conway Tavern -- also in Skagit County -- for a celebratory BLT and beer. The Conway Tavern (it's official WSLCB-mandated name is the Conway Pub & Eatery, but nobody calls it that) always reminds me of Robbins, for a couple reasons: (1) It's the sort of warm, scruffy place he would (and probably occasionally does) appreciate, and (2) it's not all that far from his home in LaConner.

Upon returning from this mini-sabbatical, in my mail slot here on Western Ave. was a book which, of all things, happened to be about Skagit County. A product of the Skagit Land Trust, Natural Skagit makes for a gorgeous coffee table book, what with its first-rate photography and compelling historic tales of Puget Sound's most well-preserved county and the river that runs through it. But it's more than that. For one, its epilogue is penned by a Pulitzer Prize winner, former Seattle Times scribe Bill Dietrich. And the book's foreword is nothing short of naturalistic poetry. Its author: Tom Robbins, to whom the Magic Skagit obviously means the world.

More books, more holiday shopping options! Today's featured title is, brace yourself, Toilet Paper Origami: Delight Your Guests With Fancy Folds and Simple Surface Embellishments (Lindaloo Ent., $14.95) by Linda Wright. According to a press release, the book "includes step-by-step directions for folding a variety of elegant or quirky toilet paper styles that take hospitality to a new level." What can you make by following the author's instructions? "Creations include flowers, fans, bunnies, a sailboat, butterfly, and crown."

So, given that it's a recession and all, maybe the book can teach you how to make really cheap gifts for your friends. Just don't be surprised if it's gone the next time you visit.

I adore fashion. I hate fashion writing. I especially hate magazines like Vogue and Harper's Bazaar that hail celebrities like the Olsen twins "fashion forward" with their weird head scarves and caked on makeup. See above photo. Seriously. Any woman in her right mind knows that dark lips AND dark eyes are a no-no. You pick one or the other.

The problem with these magazines (besides the fact that they're always wrong) are that they take fashion way too seriously. It's rare to find a writer who makes their living writing about fashion while being entirely aware what a trivial matter it really is.

That's why I'm totally loving Kate Hahn's Forgotten Fashion: An Illustrated Faux History of Outrageous Trends and Their Ultimate Demise (TOW Books, $12.99). The book, which contains illustrations by Project Runway's Andrae Gonzalo, provides a historical timeline of fashion trends--alongside bullshit context that mock the pretentiousness so many fashion books contain.

Below are two of my favorite bits:

1943: The fidelity cardigan. Hahn claims that women whose boyfriends were away at war began to wear drab, poorly fitted sweaters to hide their figures and thus, make it easier to remain faithful. If a woman strayed regardless, she would mail one of her cardigan buttons to her soldier sweetheart. These buttons were dubbed "heartbreak bullets" and loaded into the soldiers' guns to shoot enemies.

1998: Emotionally distressed jeans. Apparently, we have a study by a group of UPenn psychology grad students to thank for this fashion craze. Said psych majors instructed students sent to mental health counseling to take out their anxiety on denim instead of themselves for a week. Those students came back at the week's end reporting that they felt better about themselves. Their ripped creations were sold for $5,000 a pair and psychology department split the profits.

...If only there was a chapter on the evolution of Mary Kate's "boho chic" look. Regardless, it's a pretty entertaining read and your fashionista friends should get a kick out of it. Unless, you know, they're the Anna Wintour type.

But we kid our esteemed former colleague Katie Millbauer, who wrote up plenty of dining and drinking establishments during her tenure at Seattle Weekly, and we never once saw her drunk or less than charming. So it's appropriate for the now Portland-based writer, who now goes by her slightly amended married name, Kate Simon, that her debut book is about drinking graciously and in style. Hence Tiny Bubbles: Fizzy Cocktails for Every Occasion, Using Champagne, Prosecco, and Other Sparkling Wines (Chronicle, $14.95).

Congratulations, Katie! Er..I mean Kate. She's now editor-at-large for Imbibe magazine, too. And we hope there's an author tour that brings her back to Seattle. (In fact, those readings should be held in bars!) And let's hope this now successful author is the one buying us the fizzy cocktails when she visits.