Recently one of my friends said that I’m “always” going to book signings and hanging out with authors and stuff.  That’s not exactly true, but I do try to keep an eye out.  Sometimes I fail spectacularly, like when I missed Michelle Obama signing her garden cookbook a block away from my job.  Other times, my dreams come true.  Anyway, in New York it’s pretty easy to find out the haps in the literary world.  Just ask the love of my life, New York Magazine; however, I live in DC now, and I’m starting to think the key to hanging out with a fiction writer here is Politics & Prose.  Some pretty cool people role through there.  Below are some upcoming events in DC (in order of date, not importance).  I’m hoping to report back on 2 of the 3.  Let me know if you want to join me!

1. Kurt Andersen signing True Believers at Politics and Prose tomorrow @ 7pm.  I honestly know nothing about ole Kurt except to say that his book True Believers was reviewed by the New York Times and the Washington Post, so he must be important.

2. UZO IWEALA signing “Our Kind of People: A Continent’s Challenge, a Country’s Hope” at Politics and Prose Thursday @ 7pm.  Uzo takes this book writing thing way more seriously than I do, which he tells me is a gift as well as a curse.  We went to college together back in the day, when he turned his senior thesis Beasts of No Nation (about child soldiers in Africa) into a published novel (which I think is on some of Harvard’s syllabi now…?).  Anyway, what I’m saying is that this is his second book and he wrote it WHILE IN MED SCHOOL.  I’m expecting to get some thought provoking wisdom on writing and writing + doing something completely unrelated and incredibly demanding from him Thurs.  Can’t wait!

3. Emily Giffin signing “Where We Belong” at Urban Chic Georgetown July 30 @ 12pm and at B&N Bethesda July 30 @ 7pm.  My girl Emily Giffin, the queen of chick lit, creator of “Something Borrowed,” which as you may know became a movie with Kate Hudson and the dude from The Office.  I think she safely falls into that category, although her debut novel did have a lawyer protagonist (as opposed to a magazine writer or bake shop owner).  Before publishing a bunch of novels she was a lawyer at a big law firm! Love this one!

What is else is going on this month??