Friday, September 19
Author Lesley Kagan
Whistling in the Dark & Land of A Hundred Wonders
6:00pm

From the national bestselling author of "Whistling in the Dark" comes another funny, poignant, unforgettable story. The summer Gibby McGraw catches her big break, the cicadas are humming, and it's so warm even the frogs are sweating. Brain damaged after a tragic car accident that took both her parents, Gibby is now NQR (Not Quite Right), a real challenge for a fledgling newspaper reporter. Especially when she stumbles upon the dead body of the next governor of Kentucky, Buster Malloy.

Saturday, September 20
Vino in the Village
11:00am to 2:00pm

Enjoy a FREE wine tasting through the historic East Village. Stroll through 10 different shops including: Aimee, Kitchen Collage, Sticks, The Velvet Coat, and many more; alongside store owners and guest vitners and enjoy a variety of tastes!

Tuesday, September 30
StageWest's Scriptease
Defiance by John Patrick
7:00pm

From the playwright of the Pulitzer Prize and Tony-winning Doubt: A Parable, which thrilled Des Moines audiences in its Civic Center touring production featuring Tony winner Cherry Jones as Sister Aloysius, comes the second play in a planned trilogy. Defiance is a drama set on a United States Marine Corps base in North Carolina in 1971. Two officers, one black and one white, are on a collision course over race, women and the high cost of doing the right thing. This riveting, surprising new work is about power, love and responsibility—who has it, who wants it and who deserves it.

StageWest's Scriptease series of monthly free staged readings is reborn at East Village Books. Scriptease is a live performance of a new script each month, performed by the actors with script in hand, but with no set or staging. It's a unique and fun new way to experience a play and to enjoy the actors and dialogue up close! Mark your calendars for the last Tuesday of each month.

Friday, October 3
Friday Family Fun Night
Governor's Traffic Safety Bureau
6:30pm

Friday Family Fun Night is the first Friday each month and is a free event for kids and their parents. It's a different event each month, so check back on this calendar to see who's coming next!

Saturday, October 4
Author Julie Kramer
Stalking Susan
1:00pm

Veteran TV producer Julie Kramer will visit to read from and sign her first book, the murder-mystery Stalking Susan. USA Today calls Stalking Susan a "snappily paced debut thriller... Truly scary, no matter what your name is."

In a parallel to her own life, Kramer's character Riley Spartz is a television reporter, and this first adventure finds her investigating two cold cases she is convinced are connected. Both cases involve women named Susan who were murdered the same day, one year apart. With the anniversary date looming, Riley is determined to track down the serial killer before another Susan is found dead.

Julie Kramer was born in Osage, Iowa, the fourth generation of Iowa-Minnesota state line farmers, and began her award-winning investigative career at WCCO-TV in Minneapolis. Now Kramer is a freelance television producer for NBC news, where she covers stories for the Today Show, Nightly News, and Dateline.

Friday, October 10
Artist of the Month Reception
Sarah Kargol
5:30pm to 7:30

East Village Books will host a reception for award-winning artist Sarah Kargol on Friday, Oct. 10, at 5:30 p.m. Monsters and machines dominate Kargol's paintings, but they are filled with humor rather than being threatening: poking fun at beauty, destruction, fear and especially "serious" art. Superheros are told to pick up their clothes, classic nursery rhymes feature monsters -- even The Birth of Venus and the Mona Lisa aren't safe from Kargol's hilarious, imaginative makeovers.

Recycled images, buttons and fabric bring a sense of nostalgia to Kargol's work. By manipulating these recycled materials, she gives them a new and unexpected life, a life more exciting and interesting than was originally intended.

Sarah Kargol recieved her bachelor's degree in studio art from the University of Northern Iowa in 2000. She now lives in South Dakota with her sculptor husband, Matt, and their four children.

Sunday, October 12
Author Leslie Little & Photographer James P. Scholz
Paris: Icons
2:00pm

East Village Books gets in the World Food Festival spirit with a reception for the authors of Paris: Icons, a beautiful coffee-table book celebrating the international flavor of the City of Light. The reception is Sunday, Oct. 12 at 2 p.m. and refreshments will be served. East Village Books is accepting pre-orders of Paris:Icons.

Paris: Icons combines timeless Parisian photographs with the insights of poets, composers, and writers who chronicled the history of Paris through the centuries. This marriage of literary genius and magnificent images creates a visual tour de force simultaneously touching the heart and mind. Anyone who loves Paris will instantly place Paris:Icons among their most treasured possessions.

Author Leslie Little conceived Paris:Icons when she was recovering from a life-threatening illness, and created Icon Images to make Icons a series, and capture the beauty and essence of the world's great cities and regions. Photographer James P. Scholz is Little's partner at Icon Images, and responsible for the incredible shots in the large-format book.

Thursday, October 16
Thriller at Terrace Hill
Blood Read Poe
6:00pm

On a bleak October night, when Halloween creeps closer in the shadows of the calendar, Terrace Hill transforms itself into a Gothic silhouette against the pale moonlight. The Terrace Hill Foundation and Repertory Theater of Iowa invite you to attend a night of thrilling dramatic readings from the twisted mind of Edgar Allan Poe. Poe’s classic tales of terror and his hauntingly romantic poetry are among the world’s most recognized works of literature. They will make your spine tingle the evenings of October 16, 17, 18, 24, and 25.

The premiere performance on October 16 will be preceded by a private reception at East Village Books. This reception will include a brief introduction to the life and works of Edgar Allan Poe, presented by actor, literary scholar and Terrace Hill Society member John Zickefoose.

Friday, October 17
Author William Kent Krueger
The Red Knife
6:00pm

Bestselling author William Kent Krueger will talk about the latest book in his Cork O'Connor series, Red Knife. Krueger's mystery series takes place in the north woods of Minnesota. His protagonist is Cork O'Connor, the former sheriff of Tamarack County and a man of mixed heritage—part Irish and part Ojibwe. In this eighth installment, O'Connor is caught in a battle between a gang of Ojibwe youths called the Red Boyz and angry whites led by a man bent on revenge. Fighting desperately to restore peace to Tamarack County, O'Connor is drawn into committing the darkest of deeds himself.

Krueger's work received a number of awards including the Minnesota Book Award, the Loft-McKnight Fiction Award, the Anthony Award, the Barry Award, and the Friends of American Writers Prize. He does all his creative writing in a little St. Paul coffee shop whose identity he prefers to keep secret.

Saturday, October 25
Author / Presidential Historian Barry Landau
The President's Table
12:00 noon

Lauded presidential historian Barry H. Landau will visit East Village Books on Saturday, Oct. 25, at noon to discuss his new book The President's Table.

With more than 300 never before seen illustrations, The President's Table provides an insightful and entertaining look at our dining habits as the nation grew through social and economic change. Interweaving stories of dining and diplomacy, he creates a spellbinding narrative from the early days of provincial entertaining in the capital, through the golden era of sumptuous state banquets, to the modern White House dinners of today. The President's Table will fascinate anyone with an interest in American history and Presidential politics.

The Washington Post wrote of The President's Table, Landau's "connections bridge the world of politics, entertainment and theatre…with a network of the powerful and famous, creating a niche as a liaison between the world of politics and entertainment". Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger called the book, "a social history that is great fun to read."

Tuesday, October 28
StageWest's Scriptease
5:30pm to 7:30pm

StageWest's Scriptease series of monthly free staged readings is reborn at East Village Books. Scriptease is a live performance of a new script each month, performed by the actors with script in hand, but with no set or staging. It's a unique and fun new way to experience a play and to enjoy the actors and dialogue up close! Mark your calendars for the last Tuesday of each month.