MONDAY:
New York Times journalist Jennifer 8 Lee, fresh off an appearance on The Colbert Report and a turn irritating us, will appear at the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue to talk about her book The Fortune Cookie Chronicles. Lee went around the U.S. and investigated American "Chinese food." $6. 7 p.m.

TUESDAY:
The Library of Congress continues its Poetry at Noon series at the Mary Pickford Theater with the theme "Fathers and Daughters," featuring poets Jody Bolz, Dan Logan and Preston Pulliam.

Parag Khanna will be at Politics and Prose to talk about his book The Second World — a look at the new global order and the roles the United States will and will not play in the future. 7 p.m.

WEDNESDAY:
Poet Edward Hirsch will hold a reading at American University's Abramson Family Recital Hall, Cyrus and Myrtle Katzen Arts Center, co-sponsored by the CAS Bishop C. C. McCabe Lecture Series. 8 p.m.

Political commentator Keli Goff will be at the Penn Quarter Olsson's to tell us why more and more black voters are becoming America's newest swing voter — the topic of Goff's book Party Crashing: How the Hip-Hop Generation Declared Political Independence. 7 p.m.

Eric Alterman, controversial media columnist for The Nation, will appear at Politics and Prose to discuss the post-Bush White House and how Democrats will be involved — the topic of his book Why We're Liberals. 7 p.m.

THURSDAY:
Adopted at birth in Washington, D.C., by British parents, author Alison Larkin knows a little about "culture clash." In her debut novel The English American, the main character Pippa Dunn, raised by British parents, discovers her birth parents are from the South, and we're not talking the south of England. Larkin will be at the Penn Quarter Olsson's to talk about the book, which was inspired by her one-woman show. 7 p.m.

In Common Wealth, The End of Poverty author and Columbia University Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs describes a new scenario for our increasingly crowded planet Earth. No, it doesn't involve gun-toting apes or sentient machines laying waste to the population. That's just weird. Sachs is talking about economics or something. Politics and Prose. 7 p.m.

FRIDAY:
Busboys and Poets in D.C. is sponsoring the Split This Rock Poetry Festival, which calls poets to a greater role in public life and fosters a national network of activist poets. The festival, which runs through Sunday, will feature readings, workshops, panels, contests, walking tours, film, parties and activism. For more information, check out their site.

Jonathan Steele, an acclaimed reporter for the Guardian, will be at Politics and Prose to talk about how Iraq has been an unwinnable war from day one — the argument in his book Defeat . 7 p.m.

SATURDAY:
Journalist, playwright, humorist and novelist Roger Rosenblatt will be at Politics and Prose to talk about his book Beet, the story of a fictional college under siege by political correctness, trendy courses and faculty infighting. 6 p.m.