MONDAY:
>> We’ve been hearing an awful lot about certain journalists who’ve spent superfluous time in jail for ideals they supposedly believe in — but, before you make any contributions to that gravy train, why not hear from Marie-Helene Carleton, who’ll be in town discussing the travails of her filmmaker partner Micah Garen, who was taken hostage in Iraq in 2003. Even if you’re an avid news junkie, there’s still a lot you don’t know about American Hostage: A Memoir of a Journalist Kidnapped in Iraq and the Remarkable Battle to Win His Release. Sponsored by Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, 1740 Massachusetts Ave. NW., 6:30 p.m.
TUESDAY:
>> Georgetown University features two important voices from the poetry world, Amiri Baraka and Rod Smith, at the Inter-Cultural Center this evening for a special seminar and poetry reading. Baraka is an important figure in the world of poetry and politics, with a career spanning back to the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s. Smith’s 2003 anthology Music Or Honesty, which blends a witty absurdism with a keen political eye, caught the attention of critics like Peter Gizzi, who has hailed him as a genius. The seminar begins at 5:30 p.m. at Georgetown University’s Inter-Cultural Center, to be followed by the reading at 8 p.m. in the ICC Auditorium.
WEDNESDAY:
>> From his early years as a teen sex symbol to his later appearances in cult offerings like Polyester, Tab Hunter has had a Hollywood career worth dishing about. So why not get it straight from the man himself? Hunter’s coming to Politics and Prose, and he’s not just bringing his new book, Tab Hunter Confidential. He’s also bringing guest speaker John Waters down from Charm City to join in the fun. 5015 Connecticut Avenue, NW, 7 p.m.
>> Also Wednesday, area cooking enthusiasts will get to meet Mark Bittman, who has compiled The Best Recipes in the World: More Than 1,000 International Dishes to Cook at Home. The first fifty are all various international takes on the grilled cheese sandwich, but they get much more complex after that. Best Cellars, 2855 Clarendon Blvd., Arlington. 5:30 p.m.
THURSDAY:
>> In October, most people get caught up in the World Series of Baseball or follow their favorite college or professional football teams. Those sports are great and all for a weekend diversion, sure, but do those sports explain the world? Hell no they don’t! Only soccer explains the world, and D.C. welcomes another one of those talented brothers Foer – in this case, Franklin Foer – to show How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization. Olsson’s Books & Records, 418 7th St. NW. 7 p.m.
>> Word to the wise: the woman speaking at Barnes and Noble on 12089 Rockville Pike tonight at 7:30pm is named Anna Prouse. That’s Anna Prouse. So, don’t come expecting to ask questions about Brokeback Mountain, okay? Ms. Prouse will not be able to help you out.
FRIDAY:
>> Dan Savage dives headfirst into his readers’ taboo territory every week in his syndicated column “Savage Love”, but in the Savage household, he’s all about commitment –- as in, The Commitment: Love, Sex, Marriage, and My Family. Savage sets his sights on the issue of gay-marriage, dispensing trademarked hilarity as he skewers the sacred cows on both sides of the issue and discovers that the culture war has opened a front is his own household. At Olsson’s in Penn Quarter, 418 7th Street, NW, 7 p.m.
SATURDAY:
>> Bring the kids out to meet Patrick McDonnell – best known for the warm and fuzzy syndicated comic Mutts – as he shares his first book for children, The Gift of Nothing, featuring his lovable comic characters. It’s co-sponsored by the Washington Animal Rescue League. Politics and Prose, 3 p.m.
SUNDAY:
>> Joan Biskupic, a career Supreme Court observer, trains her eye on the recently retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and her most important decisions, painting a portrait of a justice possessed of a keen and pragmatic mind and a bracing, sharp-tongued sense of humor. Biskupic comes to Politics and Prose to put the fascinating O’Connor in perspective, discussing and signing her new biography, Sandra Day O’Connor: How the First Woman on the Supreme Court Became Its Most Influential Justice. 1 p.m.
