The coming week brings big-name authors to two bookstores in the Triangle. Joseph O’Neill, who won the PEN/Faulkner Award (and a boost from President Obama) for his novel Netherland, will appear on Tuesday, June 23, at 7 p.m. at the Regulator Bookshop in Durham. (Check out the Washington Post‘s review of the book here.) And Quail Ridge Books hosts two hugely popular writers: David Sedaris, with his most recent book, When You Are Engulfed in Flames, on Wednesday, June 24, at 4 p.m., and Mary Kay Andrews, with her latest, The Fixer-Upper, on Thursday, June 25, at 7:30 p.m.; please note that both those events are “signing line ticket events.”
But while these events may be dominating the literary scene (along with the big crowds anticipated for each of them), let me also recommend a couple of potentially more intimate and more interesting events. First up, fans of science fiction should definitely come out for a Tuesday, June 23, panel discussion featuring David Drake, James Maxey, Lisa Shearin, and Mark L. Van Name; that event takes place at the Barnes and Noble in Cary, beginning at 7 p.m. And Nina de Gramont, author of the highly praised Gossip of the Starlings, visits The Country Bookshop in Southern Pines on Thursday afternoon, June 25.
The MetroBooks Calendar at right has been recently updated with upcoming events in the Triangle and Eastern North Carolina through July, and be sure to check here on Monday for an interview with the always entertaining Emyl Jenkins in advance of her signings in the area later next week.