TUESDAY: Unfortunately, the new book My Father’s Houses: Memoir of a Family is not Steve Roberts’ attempt to capitalize on all the buzz surrounding HBO’s new polygamy series Big Love by coming out with shocking revelations. Instead, Roberts recounts the story of his own life as a young man growing up in New Jersey, attending Harvard, and courting and marrying Cokie Boggs. Just when we though Steve Roberts might have actually written something interesting. At the Silver Spring Library, 8901 Colesville Road, at 8 p.m. Free.
WEDNESDAY: Any wannabe pundit in the District will want to hurry on down to the Women’s National Democratic Club to hear SAIS professor Francis Fukuyama discuss his book America at the Crossroads with his biggest fan, author James Mann. The Mann/Fukuyama lovefest that will doubtless ensue just might not prevent the two men from discussing the war in Iraq, the potential use of force against Iran, and whether Fukuyama, in attempting to shake off the “neoconservative” label, might accept just being called “Neo” and wearing wraparound sunglasses and kicking sinister computer programs’ asses. 1526 New Hampshire Ave. NW. 6:30 p.m. Free.
Those of you who think all this political talk will be too depressing might consider heading over to Olsson’s in Arlington to hear Christopher Moore read from his latest novel, A Dirty Job, about a widower whose day job consists of collecting expired souls and reselling them out of his secondhand store. 2111 Wilson Blvd., 7 p.m.
THURSDAY: Politics and Prose dishes out the double goodness starting at 7 p.m. with Cesar Millan, the host of National Geographic’s Dog Whisperer, who promises to help you finally understand that when Fido takes a giant dump on your pillow, he’s probably not trying to show you how delicious he thought his dinner was. You should note that Politics and Prose requests that you refrain from bringing your dog to this event. But we’re guessing good old Jane Fonda won’t mind if you bring a dog to her P&S-hosted event down the street at the Avalon Theater at 8:15 p.m. She’ll be in conversation with Jeffrey Brown in an attempt to sell a few more copies of last year’s memoir, My Life So Far. Make sure to ask Jane what she thinks finding dog poop on your pillow really means. That woman has seen it all. Avalon Theatre is at 5612 Connecticut Ave. NW; P&S is at 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW.
SATURDAY: As unpaid bloggers just hoping someone out there will notice us, we are all collectively uncomfortable with Canadian cultural critic Hal Niedzviecki’s thesis, Hello, I’m Special: How Individuality Became the New Conformity. So you can be damned sure we’ll be there to participate in The Most Special Person Ever Contest, to be held directly after his reading at Chapters, 445 11th St. NW, at 5 p.m. And we’re going to win. Who does this guy think he is anyway? Me must think he’s special or something.
