MONDAY:
Cullen Murphy, the Atlantic’s managing editor, will be at Politics and Prose to talk about his new book Are We Rome? Murphy is of course referring to spreading corruption in Washington, our imperialist tendencies and the outsourcing of government work to private contractors. Personally, we’d rather read a book comparing our government with a different empire, but we won’t hold our breath on that one. 7 p.m.

TUESDAY:
Dancer and award-winning actress Victoria Rowell talks about her experience as a ward of the state in Maine, the topic of her memoir The Women Who Raised Me. Olsson’s Penn Quarter, 7 p.m.

Cinderella Man author Jeremy Schapp will discuss his book Triumph: The Untold Story of Jesse Owens And Hitler’s Olympics, which looks at the African-American athlete’s courageous performance at the 1936 Olympics. Busboys and Poets, 6 p.m.

WEDNESDAY:
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay author Michael Chabon will be at the 6th & I Historic Synagogue to promote his new book The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, which imagines an alternate history in which European Jews are resettled in Alaska after World War II. What we really want to know is: does Jonathan Franzen really fight like Anne Rice? We bet he’s sick of being asked that question. 7 p.m. $12

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