Pretend you’re the most well-adjusted person in the room with these two book talks at Sixth & I Historic Synagogue this week:

Wednesday, June 3rd at 7 p.m.: Washington Post columnist Alexandra Petri is basically the Gen. David Petraeus of awkward situations: she goes all in. That’s how she ended up being rejected for America’s Got Talent and America’s Next Top Model, struggling on Jeopardy!, and owning an international pun competition.

These adventures are chronicled in Petri’s new book of essays, A Field Guide to Awkward Silences (NAL, $26). But Petri is also well-acquainted with the uncomfortable growing pains felt by all twenty-somethings, so wedding party and dating epiphanies have their own places in the book. One big takeaway? Embracing awkwardness can open up your world in some wonderful ways.

At this event, Petri will discuss her book with fellow Post columnist Alyssa Rosenberg, and a signing will follow. Doors open at 6 p.m. Tickets can be purchased here for $12 each, or get two free tickets with a book purchase of $25.

Thursday, June 4th at 7 p.m.: Many millennial women know Judy Blume as the only person who understood them while reading coming-of-age novels Summer Sisters, and Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, as teens. Now, Blume comes to speak about her latest book, In the Unlikely Event (Knopf, $28), with NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour host Linda Holmes.

In the Unlikely Event, written for adults, supplies all the storytelling and nostalgia that Blume’s young adult books are known for. Set in 1987, Miri Ammerman returns to her hometown of Elizabeth, New Jersey for the 30-year commemoration of a local tragedy that took place when she was fifteen. Those affected — and unaffected — intermingle as they cope with what happened during Miri’s homecoming.

Blume incorporates her own experience growing up in the same town in the 1950s, complete with the burgeoning phenomenon of airplane travel, Nat King Cole and Elizabeth Taylor, McCarthyism, and of course, the bittersweet salad days of adolescence. Sigh.

Blume has won more than 90 awards for her books, which have sold more than 75 million copies. She lives on islands along the East Coast with her husband.

A signing will follow the conversation between Blume and Holmes. Doors open at 6 p.m. Tickets can be purchased here, along with a book, for $30, or two tickets and a book are $45.