MONDAY:
Freelance journalist and award-winning author Kieran Doherty will be at Olsson’s in Old Town Alexandria to discuss her latest book, Sea Venture: Shipwreck, Survival, and the Salvation of the First English Colony in the New World, which chronicles the ship that went on to rescue Jamestown, even after most of the crew almost died in a hurricane. 7 p.m.

Chasing Che author Patrick Symmes decided to go chasing Fidel Castro’s former classmates when he wrote his newest book The Boys from Dolores. He’ll be at Politics and Prose to tell you why. 7 p.m.

TUESDAY:
Left-of-center sports writer Dave Zirin will be at Politics and Prose to discuss his book Welcome to the Terrordome, which tackles the topics of race, class, politics and identity and how they play in the mainstream media’s coverage of athletes. 7 p.m.

Coming from a name like Sunshine O’Donnell, you wouldn’t expect a book about professional mourners — women paid to attend the funerals of strangers. But then again, O’Donnell also teaches experiential workshops in creative writing, visual art and quantum physics to underserved children in poverty-stricken Pennsylvania schools. Quantum physics? O’Donnell will be at Olsson’s Books & Records in Dupont Circle to discuss Open Me and, if we’re lucky, string theory. 7 p.m.