Reading Room

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 1

Phat Family Records returns to “Word/Life Lounge: Emcees and Poets in the Life,” with another dose of underground hip-hop and spoken word. Featuring poetry by Shante Smalls and Maurice Jamal, live performances by JenRO, B.Q.E. and other special guests, plus Dutchboy mixing up a rainbow of flavas from Phat Family’s groundbreaking LGBT hip-hop compilations. 8 p.m. at Bluestockings Bookstore

MONDAY NOVEMBER 3

“Judy Garland: A Portrait in Art & Anecdote” spans the entertainer’s five decade career – from vaudeville to television and everything in between. Historian John Fricke signs copies. 7 p.m. at Barnes and Noble Chelsea

TUESDAY NOVEMBER 4

Chilean author Alberto Fuguet—one of the leaders of the new literary movement that is abandoning magical realism to depict the grittier Americanized reality of Latin America – discusses and signs copies of his book “The Movies of My Life.” 7 p.m. at Barnes and Noble Chelsea

Jim Fusilli discusses and reads from his thriller, “Tribeca Blues,” a stunning crime drama of obsession, violence and betrayal set in New York City. 12:30 p.m. at Borders Wall Street

Melvin Konner discusses “Unsettled: An Anthropology of the Jews,” taking the reader from the pastoral tribes of the Bronze Age to enslavement in the Roman Empire, from the darkness of the Holocaust to the creation of Israel 6:30 p.m. at Borders Park Avenue

WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 5

Elana Dykewomon will appear in New York to celebrate the new edition of her award-winning novel “Beyond the Pale Set” about Russian immigrant women and their lives of work, activism and love in New York City. 5:30 p.m. at Ruby Fruit Bar and Grill, $15.

New York Magazine’s award-winning and notorious columnist, Michael Wolff, discusses his timely look at the media business, “Autumn of the Moguls,” a devastating and comic portrait of the media industry. 6:30 p.m. at Borders Park Avenue

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 8

Harlyn Aizley reads from “Buying Dad:  One Women’s Search for the Perfect Sperm Donor,” an edgy tale of a year in the life of a woman engaged in a very alternative family-planning experience. 5 p.m. Creative Visions

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 9

Jim Gladstone reads from “Big Book of Misunderstanding” where Joshua Royalton, the irresistibly eccentric 22-year-old narrator leads readers on a funny jaunt through the collective adolescence of his whole family. 5 p.m. Creative Visions

VENUES: