We'll participate in one of the year's last events, if not the final one, honoring the 2009 Centenary of the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, or AYPE, today, with the authors of three major recent books concerned with this 'first Seattle World's Fair' speak about the AYPE's enduring legacy. Joan Hockaday's Greenscapes: Olmsted's Pacific Northwest (Washington State University Press) is the first full-length treatment of the work of John Charles Olmsted in this region. His many projects include the design of the AYPE site on the University of Washington campus. UW Visual Collections curator Nicole Bromberg's book, Picturing the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition: The Photographs of Frank H. Nowell (University of Washington Press), features the work of the Fair's official photographer, who documented its construction, workers, landscaping, and visitors. History Link staff historians Alan J. Stein and Paula Becker's Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition: Washington's First World's Fair: A Timeline History (HistoryLink/UW Press) provides a detailed, fully illustrated history of the fair and fairgoers, and of many political issues (women's suffrage) in the air at the time. A lively program, much sharing of the visuals—this should be fun.

Best-selling thriller author Douglas Preston gets things in the New Year off to an edgy start with this appearance for his newest, Impact (Forge). Wyman Ford, a former monk who became a CIA operative, and figured in 2005's Tyrannosaur Canyon and 2008's Blasphemy, returns to take on a secret expedition to Cambodia, ostensibly the source of mysterious gemstones that don't appear to be made of the natural world. That's where things begin ... "Douglas Preston's wildly creative novels expertly blend real science and heart-stopping thrills. He is, quite simply, the new and improved Michael Crichton." - Tess Gerritsen. "Brilliant ... full of huge ideas, but intensely human, too, and intensely suspenseful." -Lee Child.

Co-presented with the TOWN HALL CENTER FOR CIVIC LIFE, in association with the BACKBONE CAMPAIGN. Astute blogger, activist, and organizer David Swanson, cofounder of AfterDowningStreet.org and creator of ProsecuteBushCheney.org, visits with his new book, Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union (Seven Stories). "Daybreak is an eye-opener about how our nation was hijacked by the Bush administration and how much repair work we, as citizens, must do. David Swanson, who has been a one-man wonder leading the charge for accountability, writes a compelling narrative that inspires not just outrage, but ACTION." - Medea Benjamin. "David Swanson will be remembered and well recognized as the citizen who held up a lamp in the darkness and cried, as did good Tom Paine, 'We have it in our power to begin the world all over again.'" - John Nichols, from the Foreword. $5 ticket are available at the door starting at 6:30 p.m. or in advance via www.brownpapertickets.com (also 1-800-838-3006). Town Hall Seattle is at 1119 Eighth Avenue (at Seneca). Preferred seating for Town Hall members. For more information, please call Elliott Bay at (206) 624-6600, Town Hall at (206) 652-4255, or see www.townhallseattle.org.