MONDAY:
It’s hard to think of a more appropriate person to have written On the Wealth of Nations, part of the new Grove Atlantic Great Books series where contemporary writers flesh out the work of humanity’s most important thinkers, than P.J. O’Rourke. Harder still to imagine a time when everyone agreed that P.J. O’Rourke had a sense of humor. At Politics and Prose at 7 p.m., also Tuesday at 6 p.m. at the Cato Institute, free.
Nobel Peace Prize winners Dr. Shirin Ebadi (Iran Awakening: A Memoir of Revolution and Hope) and Professor Jody Williams will be at the UC Washington Center Center tonight for a special public forum on “Rebuilding US-Iran Relations.” Free and open to the public, but space is limited and individuals interested in attending should e-mail the UCDC at Events@ucdc.edu or call Elizabeth Victoreen at (202) 974-6345. 6:30 to 8 p.m.
TUESDAY:
Michael Bednar will discuss and sign L’Enfant’s Legacy: Public Open Spaces in Washington at the D.C. National Building Museum, 401 F St. NW. at 6:30 p.m. Perfect for D.C. history geeks like us, but for some reason he’s charging $20 for the privilege, though we have to guess that includes walking away with a copy of the book. For reservations call (202) 272-2448.
WEDNESDAY:
Andy Rooney has finally written a book called Out of My Mind. This is one of those moments in a calendar-blogger’s life that you look back on with both awe and panic. The joke has to be pitch perfect, but not obvious. You’ve been waiting too long for a chance like this to blow it on a cheap shot. But instead, all you can think about is the last Andy Rooney 60 Minutes segment you happened to see, where he actually proclaims that he doesn’t believe this whole watching movies on DVD at home thing will ever really catch on (though can you believe the cost of a movie theater ticket these days?). And you sit with your mouth hanging open, pondering beauty and death and love and grief, and for the first time in your life, you pity Mr. Rooney more than yourself for having endured a lifetime of his inanity. And then you snap out of it and start yelling profanities about putting certifiably crazy people on television. At Politics and Prose, 7 p.m. Free.
THURSDAY:
Sara C. Mednick is pro-nap, and as such, totally alright in our book. We’ve long been agitating for a nap room in our office, so if attending this reading will get us one step closer to living the dream, so be it. Mednick will read from Take a Nap! Change Your Life. At Olsson’s Books & Records in Alexandria, 106 S. Union St., 7:30 p.m.
