Carrie Doyle-Karasyov & Jill Kargman
Mon., May 3, 5:30 p.m.
Carrie Doyle-Karasyov and Jill Kargman talk about The Right Address. The story sears through the upper crust of New York’s glittering Park Avenue scene to dish the dirt on the ladies who lunch, the gents who club, and the desperate climbers who will stop at nothing to join the back-stabbing, champagne-sipping, socialite-eat-socialite stratosphere. Karasyov and Jill Kargman wrote and produced the film Intern. They claim that The Right Address is inspired by “…the insane socialites we’ve eavesdropped on our entire lives.”

P.J. Lambrecht & Tracy Lambrecht
Mon., May 10, 12:30 p.m.
Mother-daughter writing team P.J. Lambert and Tracy Lambrecht talk about their new thriller Live Bait. The duo writes under the name P.J. Tracy. Can cold, case-solving software find the missing link between all the elderly victims being murdered? Their new book brings back their Minneapolis detectives Leo Magozzi and Gino Rolseth to investigate the murders. Their first highly praised mystery was Monkeewrench.

Kathi Goldmark Tues., May 11, 5:30 p.m.
Live Music from Train Wreck
Kathi Goldmark reads from her well-received novel And My Shoes Keep Walking Back to You, now available in softcover. This is a light-hearted novel of musicians, love, family, sex, and success. Follow Sarah Jean Pixlie as she catapults from struggling backup singer to blazing star on the country music scene. Along the way she pours out her savvy soul in humorous lyrics from more than two dozen original songs. Goldmark is a founding member of the Rock Bottom Remainders, the publishing industry’s hottest—and only—band.

Rebecca Solnit Wed., May 12, 5:30 p.m.
Rebecca Solnit discusses Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities and River of Shadows: Edward Muybridge and the Technological Wild West. In an age of gathering political, environmental, and cultural gloom, Solnit, the 2004 NBCC award winner for criticism, offers a crucial and timely exploration of optimism in her new book Hope in the Dark. In Rivers of Shadows, Solnit looks at what it was about California after the Civil War that enabled it to become such a center of cultural and technological innovation. Solnit is an environmental activist and former art critic. She writes about place, environment, politics, and culture.

Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez Thurs., May 13, 5:30 p.m.
Join Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez when she talks about her absorbing novel The Dirty Girls Social Club. She portrays the lives of six upwardly mobile Latina women in their late 20s. Friends since their days at Boston University, they form the Dirty Girls Social Club—and meet to dish, dine, and help each over the bumpy course of life and love. The story is filled with humor, drama, and the redemptive power of friendship. Valdes-Rodriguez has been a reporter and music critic at the L.A. Times andThe Boston Globe.

Peter Greenberg Fri., May 14, 5:00 p.m.
Learn the insider knowledge that can make every hotel stay as comfortable (and sometimes more cost-efficient than home) with Peter Greenberg, author of Hotel Secrets from the Travel Detective. Greenberg, the travel editor of NBC’s Today Show, shares secrets from people who know hotels—managers, maids, reservation clerks, chefs, and police. Greenberg is also the author of The Travel Detective and The Travel Detective Flight Crew Confidential.

Julia Spencer-Fleming & Denise Hamilton
Tues., May 18, 5:00 p.m.
Join two award-winning mystery authors when they discuss and read from their newest books. Julia Spencer-Fleming talks about Out of the Deep I Cry. This is her third book in a mystery series featuring Episcopal priest (and retired Army chopper pilot) Clare Fergusson and Police Chief Russ van Alstyne in the quiet town of Millers Kill, NY. Denise Hamilton discusses Last Lullaby, the latest in her series featuring Eve Diamond, an enterprising L.A. Times reporter (as her creator used to be). Her previous books include Sugar Skull and The Jasmine Trade.

Carl Honoré Sat., May 29, 2:00 p.m.
Carl Honoré discusses the concept behind In Praise of Slowness: How a Worldwide Movement is Challenging the Cult of Speed. Honoré investigates our increasingly breathless relationship with time and the consequences and conundrum of living in the accelerated culture of our own creation. From the advent of the clock to the Industrial Revolution to technological devices that impede our ability to leave work at the office, Honoré offers up a history of acceleration in our culture, the current state of global Slow efforts, and a prescription for how to decelerate in the information age. It is a modern approach to improving life in our hectic world by striking a balance between fast and slow. This book is the first comprehensive look at a worldwide Slow movement, including the Slow Food Movement, which is active in the Bay Area, started by culinary writer Carlo Petrini. Honoré is a Canadian journalist based in London and a rehabilitated speedaholic. He has written for a number of publications, including the Economist, Houston Chronicle, and the Miami Herald.

Barbara Seranella Sat., June 5, 1:00 p.m.
Best-selling author Barbara Seranella reads from Unwilling Accomplice, a Munch Mancini crime novel. Mancini is pitted against a puzzling organized crime ring involving exploited children, burglary, and murder in the seventh installment in this series. Seranella’s other novels include Unfinished Business, No Man Standing, and Unpaid Dues.

Marie Simmons Sat., June 12, 2:00 p.m.
Marie Simmons discusses Fig Heaven: 70 Recipes for the World’s Most Luscious Fruit. Dried figs, conveniently packaged and available all year long, are a staple in kitchens nationwide. Fig Heaven offers up recipes for these sweet dried gems plus the bounty of fresh figs now seasonally available in markets. It explains the differences among more than a dozen varieties of fresh figs, as well as creating appetizers, salad, main courses, and desserts using them. Full-color photographs highlight the culinary versatility of figs. Simmons is an award-winning cookbook author, food writer, cooking teacher, spokesperson, and food consultant. She is the author of The Amazing World of Rice, 365 Ways to Cook Pasta, and the James Beard Award Winner The Good Egg. Simmons is a columnist for Bon Appétit and the L.A. Times syndicate.

Laurie Notaro Thurs., June 17, 5:30 p.m.
Laurie Notaro talks about I Love Everybody (and Other Atrocious Lies). Just as her The Idiot Girls’ Action-Adventure Club explored Notaro’s debauched ride through her twenties, and Autobiography of a Fat Bride looked at her shaky transition to married life, I Love Everybody stares down the mid-thirties. This is the age that Notaro’s mother takes an almost sadistic pleasure in calling “way past middle age, you know, unless you’re Methuselah, a demon, or a Styrofoam cup.” In her very funny essays, Notaro shares her life at “totally not middle age, honest and truly,” except in her mother’s eyes.