FRIDAY APRIL 30
Kristie Helms will read selections from her book, “Dish It Up, Baby,” which traces a twenty-something heroine through childhood in rural Kentucky to her first job in Manhattan, and finally to Boston as she searches for true love, a cubicle near the window and the perfect shade of lipstick. The novel explodes stereotypes about Appalachia, and coming out and offers a hilarious look at the work-a-day world of the Northeast through the eyes of its plucky heroine. 7 p.m. at Bluestockings Bookstore.
TUESDAY MAY 4
Do you love classic American poetry? If so, please join the Pat Parker/Vito Russo Library book discussion group discusses “Leaves of Grass” by Walt Whitman. Free at the LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13 St. 8 p.m.
Join author John Sullivan in a reading and book signing of his new book, “Blood Horses: Notes of a Sportswriters Son.” John Jeremiah Sullivan didn’t know that the track had always been a place his father disappeared to once a year on business, a source of souvenir glasses and of inscrutable passions in his Kentucky relatives. So Sullivan decided to educate himself. He spent two years following horses across the country. He alternates a history of the South, particularly of Lexington, Kentucky, where he spent time as a child and where much of the American horse-racing industry is concentrated, with a larger cultural and historical examination. 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble, Astor Place.
In celebration of Labor History Month, labor educator and working women’s historian Connie Kopelov will speak and invite discussion. Did you know that the first U.S. women’s union was organized in 1825? What if everyone knew that women’s trade unionism is as American as apple pie? Would the labor movement be stronger today? Would more women hold leadership positions? Would women have more economic power? Connie Kopelov, a founding officer of the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW), a Fullbright scholar, and a Susan B. Anthony Award honoree, was associate director of education for the Amalgamated Clothing Workers and education director for Hospital Workers Union 1199. 7pm at Bluestockings Bookstore.
WEDNESDAY MAY 5
David Amsden and Nathaniel Bellows read from their books. “Important Things That Don’t Matter” is the story of a five- year old more deeply affected by his parent’s divorce than it would appear. “On This Day” follows a pair of orphans through a few painful months of grief, following the death of their parents. 5:30 p.m. at Borders Wall St.
Author Rebecca Sonlit will discuss and sign copies of her new book, “Hope in the Dark.” When the worldwide movement against the war in Iraq failed to persuade the Bush administration against military action, many activists felt that their actions had been futile, their voices ignored. This book arises out of this moment, arguing millions marching against war did not constitute a failure, but a step toward success. Rebecca Solnit proposes a new vision of how change happens. She counts historic victories that we have forgotten, from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the Zapatista uprising to Seattle in 1999 to Cancun in September 2003. 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble, Greenwich Village.
Venues
The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., 212 620 7310.
Bluestockings Bookstore, 172 Allen St., 212 777 6028.
Barnes and Noble Greenwich Village, 396 6th Ave., 212 674 8780.
Borders Wall St. 100 Broadway, 212 964 1988.
Barnes and Noble Astor Place, 4 Astor Place, 212 420 1322.
KGB Bar, 85 E. 4th St., 212 505 3360.
Brooklyn College, Student Union Building, Campus Road and E. 27th St., 718 951 5211.
Creative Visions Book Store, 548 Hudson St., 212 645 7573
Housing Works Used Book Café, 126 Crosby St. 212 334 3324
The Poetry Project 131 E. 10th St., 212 674 0910
