Woodstock organizer Michael Lang will be at the Newseum on Sunday.

DCist’s guide to lectures and discussions in the D.C. area

Monday:
>> Catch Senator Barbara Boxer at Politics and Prose at 7 p.m. for a reading from her second novel, Blind Trust, which “centers on second-term Democratic senator Ellen Fisher, who is caught in an increasingly nasty struggle with the aggressive Vice President as she prepares to chair potentially explosive hearings on national security issues.” If ever a book needs an all persons fictitious disclaimer, it’s this one.

Tuesday:
>> The 14th Street Busboys hosts an author event with Marjorie Cohn at 6:30 p.m. She’ll discuss and sign Rules of Disengagement: The Politics and Honor of Military Dissent, which “takes readers into the courtroom where sailors, soldiers, and Marines have argued that [the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq] are illegal under international law and unconstitutional under U.S. law.”

Wednesday:
>> The Shirlington Busboys hosts their monthly sustainable living series, G.R.a.S.P., tonight at 7 p.m. This evening’s forum focuses on biodiversity and climate change, and features author Susan Jewell, of Gators, Gourdheads, and Pufflings: A Biologist Slogs, Climbs, And Wings Her Way To Save Wildlife.

>> WaPo journalists Dan Balz and Haynes Johnson are out and about this week, with two events promoting and discussing their new book The Battle For America 2008, which analyzes the 2008 presidential campaign and its “undercurrents of race, gender, and class.” Either catch them tonight at 7 p.m. at Politics and Prose for free, or hold off until Saturday for their 2:30 p.m. Inside Media discussion at the Newseum, which requires paying a museum entrance fee.

>> Or, from 6 to 7:15 pm. tonight, catch A Commemoration and Discussion of the 1989 U.S. Invasion of Panama at the Rasmuson Theater of the American Indian Museum. NPR’s Juan Williams, La Prensa de Panamá’s Betty Brannan Jaén, professor John Dinges, and former Panamanian ambassador Juan Sosa discuss the invasion and its ramifications.

Thursday:
>> Visit with Smithsonian Orchid Collection Specialist Tom Mirenda tonight at an illustrated lecture which will focus on orchid conservation and how plant and animal conservationists must collaborate. Get there at 6:30 p.m. to meet and mingle (and grab a drink at the cash bar), then stay for the lecture at 7:30 p.m, both at the National Zoo’s visitor center auditorium. Free, but reservation is required.