Your Week in Virtual Book Events, May 3rd to May 9th

Jhumpa Lahiri & Alessandro Giammei—Whereabouts
Monday, May 3, 6:00 pm EDT
From the Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Lowland and Interpreter of Maladies comes Lahiri’s first novel in nearly a decade and the first she has both written in Italian and translated into English. Tickets are $30 and include a signed copy of Whereabouts. Register here.

Lilly Dancyger: Negative Space with T Kira Madden
Monday, May 3, 7:00 pm EDT
Lilly Dancyger, author of Burn It Down, will be in conversation with T Kira Madden about her latest book, anger, grief, and artistic inheritance. Free, with registration.

Talking Back, Looking Forward: Native Women’s Resistance & Reimagination
Monday, May 3, 7:00 pm EDT
Elissa Washuta, author of White Magic in conversation with Heid Erdrich, Elissa Washuta, and Leanne Betsamosake Simpson, about indigeneity, resistance, and colonialism. Free, with registration.

Author Talk: Melissa Bernstein, LifeLines
Monday, May 3, 7:00 pm EDT
For Mental Health Awareness Month, Melissa (from the successful brand Melissa & Doug Toys) will share excerpts from her book LifeLines and discuss her lifelong struggle with anxiety and depression. Register here.

Joan Silber & Margot Livesey
Monday, May 3, 7:30 pm EDT
Greenlight is thrilled to host award-winning author Joan Silber for the launch of her latest novel, Secrets of Happiness, about Ethan, a young lawyer in New York, who learns that his father has long kept a second family. Free, with registration.

Interior Chinatown, Tinseltown, and Other Worlds Imagined: Charles Yu on Showbiz and Storytelling, with Lodge 49’s Jim Gavin
Monday, May 3, 10:00 pm EDT
Listen to Charles You, a National Book Award-winning author, talk about storytelling, television, and more. Tickets cost $15. Register here.

Laura Levitt – “The Objects That Remain” – Bevin Blaber, Tahel Goldsmith, and Leora Auslander
Tuesday, May 4, 1:00 pm EDT
Laura Levitt will discuss The Objects That Remain, a memoir about the legacy of sexual assault and trauma, with Bevin Blaber and Tahel Goldsmith, moderated by Leora Auslander. Free, with registration.

Meet the Author: Melissa Bernstein
Tuesday, May 4, 6:00 pm EDT
Pequot Library, a cultural beacon in Southport, CT, hosts Melissa Bernstein, Co-Founder of Melissa & Doug toys. Melissa will discuss her USA Today bestselling memoir, LifeLines, about her journey through anxiety and depression, with Trevor Crow, a certified Executive Coach, author, talk show host, Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist (LMFT), and ICEEFT Certified Emotionally Focused Therapist (EFT). Free, via Zoom.

Pittsburgh Arts and Lectures: Heather McGhee
Tuesday, May 4, 7:00 pm EDT
In conversation with William Generett Jr., board member for The Pittsburgh Foundation and Senior Vice President of Civic Engagement at Duquesne University, Heather McGhee’s discusses the politics of economics, student debt, racism, and collapsing public infrastructure. Tickets cost $10. Register here.

Christopher Beha in Conversation with Rand Richards Cooper
Tuesday, May 4, 7:00 pm EDT
Harper’s Magazine and The Mark Twain House & Museum are partnering to spotlight the best in smart new fiction! Harper’s Editor Christopher Beha sits down with The New York Times and Commonweal Magazine writer and novelist Rand Richards Cooper to discuss Beha’s acclaimed novel, The Index of Self-Destructive Acts. Free (though donations are welcome!), with registration.

Michelle Zauner in Conversation with Justin Barney
Tuesday, May 4, 8:00 pm EDT
88Nine RadioMilwaukee and Boswell Book Company present an evening with Michelle Zauner, also known as Japanese Breakfast, the author of Crying in H Mart, an unflinching, powerful memoir about growing up Korean American, losing her mother, and forging her own identity. Free, via Zoom.

Epicenter of Girlhood: Carol Edgarian and Vendela Vida on Coming of Age in San Francisco
Tuesday, May 4, 10:00 pm EDT
Carol Edgarian, author of Vera, and Vendela Vida, author of We Run the Tides, discuss publishing, Bildungsroman, and California. Free, with registration.

Town Hall Seattle: Elissa Washuta
Tuesday, May 4, 10:30 pm EDT
Elissa Washuta, author of White Magic, will be in conversation with Theresa Warburton, moderated by Kristen Kristen Millares Young. Tickets are $5. Register here.

Rain Taxi: Olivia Laing
Wednesday, May 5, 2:00 pm EDT
Rain Taxi is proud to present a unique stop on acclaimed British author Olivia Laing’s virtual North American tour: a reader-focused conversation on bodily autonomy and the history of human rights. This bundled event allows readers the opportunity to engage with the author directly in addition to receiving a copy of her new book Everybody (Norton), a special button, and the chance to win a gorgeous necklace! Tickets begin at $28. Register here.

Janet Skeslien Charles in Conversation with Anne Leplae and Daniel Goldin
Wednesday, May 5, 3:00 pm EDT
Alliance Française de Milwaukee and Boswell Book Company present and afternoon with New York Times bestselling author Janet Skeslien Charles, author of The Paris Library, which Fiona Davis praised as “a fresh take on WWII France that will appeal to bibliophiles everywhere.” Free, via Zoom.

Melissa Bernstein with Doug Bernstein
Wednesday, May 5, 7:00 pm EDT
Melissa Bernstein will be in conversation with Doug Bernstein, her husband and co-founder of Melissa & Doug. The two will discuss the book, how Melissa was able to triumph over her depression, and answer audience questions. Free, via Crowdcast.

Michelle Zauner – “Crying in H Mart: A Memoir” – Jia Tolentino
Wednesday, May 5, 8:00 pm EDT
Michelle Zauner will discuss her debut, Crying in H Mart: A Memoir, about family, food, grief, and endurance. She will be joined in conversation by Jia Tolentino. Free, with registration.

Novelists Ann Garvin and Amy E. Reichert in Conversation
Wednesday, May 5, 8:00 pm EDT
Mystery to Me Books Welcomes Bestselling Novelists Ann Garvin and Amy E. Reichert: Join Ann Garvin, author of I Thought You Said This Would Work, and Amy E. Reichert, author of The Kindred Spirits Supper Club, for a lively (and we’re betting hilarious) discussion regarding their latest work. Free, with registration.

Jonathan Ames in Conversation with Doug Gordon
Wednesday, May 5, 8:00 pm EDT
The Boswell Thrillwaukee series presents an evening with Jonathan Ames, author of I Pass Like Night, The Extra Man, and creator of the HBO series Bored to Death. His latest is A MAN NAMED DOLL, a deliciously noir novel about idiosyncratic private detective Happy Doll and his quest to help a dying friend in a sun-blinded Los Angeles. Free, via Zoom.

Green Rabbits Glowing at the End of the World: Annalee Newitz and Nathaniel Rich on What Happens When Civilizations Fail
Wednesday, May 5, 10:00 pm EDT
Annalee Newitz and Nathaniel Rich, both speculative fiction writers and journalists, will talk about world-making, the end times, and fiction writing. This conversation will be moderated by Bonnie Tsui. Tickets cost $15. Register here.

Squawkin Sports’ with David Roth and Patrick Sauer at Brooklyn’s Greenlight Bookstore
Thursday, May 6, 7:30 pm EDT
Created and hosted by writers Patrick Sauer and David J. Roth, Squawkin’ Sports is an ongoing series featuring book chats with grown-up authors writing about grown-ups playing kiddie games. For this installment, Sauer and Roth chat with bestselling author and award-winning journalist Larry Olmsted on his new book, Fans. Free, with registration.

Patrice Gopo in Conversation with Sally Bittner Bonn
Thursday, May 6, 7:30 pm EDT
Writers & Books, Rochester’s home for the literary arts, welcomes Patrice Gopo, author of All the Colors We Will See, for a virtual reading, followed by conversation with writer Sally Bittner Bonn, Writers & Books’ Director of Youth Education. Free, with registration.

Katherine Heiny in Conversation with Daniel Goldin and Lisa Baudoin
Thursday, May 6, 8:00 pm EDT
Books & Company and Boswell present their latest Readings from Oconomowaukee selection, Early Morning Riser. This second novel from Katherine Heiny is about love, disaster, and unconventional family. For this event, Heiny will be in conversation with Lisa Baudoin and Daniel Goldin. Free, via Zoom.

Powell’s Books Presents Larissa Pham in Conversation With Mary H.K. Choi
Thursday, May 6, 8:00 pm EDT
With Mary H.K Choi, Larissa Pham will discuss her latest book, Pop Song, and all the routes by which we might escape our own needs before finally finding a way home. Free, with registration.

Skylight Books: Elissa Washuta
Thursday, May 6, 9:30 pm EDT
Elissa Washuta, author of White Magic, about about land, heartbreak, and colonization, about life without the escape hatch of intoxication, in conversation with Randa Jarrar. Free, via Crowdcast.

Lager and Love Can’t Pay the Bills: 2020 Booker Prize Winner Douglas Stuart 
Thursday, May 6, 10:00 pm EDT
Douglas Stuart, the author of the highly acclaimed novel Shuggie Bain, will talk about poverty, addiction, and queerness with Casey Gerald. Tickets cost $15. Register here.

How to Dream the World You Want: Nnedi Okorafor and Jeff VanderMeer on Resistance and Transformation
Friday, May 7, 9:00 pm EDT
Jeff VanderMeer, the author of Hummingbird Salamander, and Nnedi Okorafor, the author of Remote Control, will be in conversation about the state and future of science fiction, the concept of normality, and climate fiction. Tickets cost $15. Register here.

There’s a Revolution Outside, My Love: Mourn, Heal, and Take to the Streets with Former U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith and Others
Saturday, May 8, 10:00 pm EDT
Pulitzer winner and former U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith and literary critic and author John Freeman invited some of America’s most socially engaged and beloved writers to pen letters, essays, and poems in response to the pandemic, in their latest anthology There’s a Revolution Outside, My Love. Tune in to hear Smith talk about the project with Reginald Dwayne Betts, Camille T. Dungy, and Ismail Muhammad. Tickets cost $30 (includes the book!). Register here.

Love, Loss, and Meaning in Life: World-Renowned Therapist Irvin Yalom with Joyce Carol Oates
Sunday, May 9, 4:00 pm EDT
Join Joyce Carol Oates and Irvin Yalom, MD on Mother’s Day, as they discuss human connection, mourning, and care work. Tickets cost $15. Register here.