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.

Sibyl James is a Seattle poet and teacher. She is also a poet and teacher of the world—she has had teaching residencies in Mexico, Cote d'Ivoire, Tunisia, and China, to name a few. A three-time recipient of Fulbright Senior Scholar Fellowships, the author of two memoirs, and numerous poetry collections, she reads here in this still, very new year, for her newest collection of poems, China Beats (Egress Studio Press). "Sibyl James ... becomes deeply steeped in China during her year teaching there. Its reality mixes with her Westerner's consciousness in unique ways. James moves between dragons and Buddhas, Chinese and English, between being teacher and student, listening for the underlying rhythm of all and rendering it in sensitive and elegant poems." - Judith Roche. "Of those American poets who have written movingly of China while traveling and/or teaching there—including Lois Baker, Willis Barnstone, Allen Ginsberg, Paul Hansen, and very early on, Eunice Tietjens—none have written finer lyrics than Sibyl James in her collection, China Beats. James' poems are ... poems that in their depth of feeling, tautly tuned music, and keenness of detail touch to the quick of Chinese culture." - Michael O'Connor.

Here from her Bellingham home is noted New York Times science writer Carol Yoon. Her book, Naming Nature: The Clash Between Instinct and Science (W.W. Norton), is an exuberant account of the perception and ordering of species, that has been much admired by scientists and lay readers alike. While documenting the development of scientific taxonomy, she became interested in umwelt, how animals (including humans) perceive the world in a way she describes as "idiosyncratic to each species, fueled by its particular sensory and cognitive powers and limited by its deficits." Praised everywhere from the prestigious journal, Nature, to O Magazine, Naming Nature was named one of the best books of 2009 by New Scientist. "Yoon has a gift for making nature beautiful and the scientists who study it both passionate and occasionally hilarious. A great read." – New Scientist.

Co-presented with the TOWN HALL CENTER FOR CIVIC LIFE. Co-presented with the TOWN HALL CENTER FOR CIVIC LIFE. Joe Sacco, world renowned cartoonist and pioneer of nonfiction, graphic narrative war reportage, makes a rare but welcome Seattle appearance tonight to talk about his striking new book, Footnotes in Gaza (Metropolitan). Set in Rafah, at the bottom of the Gaza strip, Footnotes in Gaza is both a portrayal of contemporary life in the community, and of competing versions of a 1956 incident that left 111 Palestinian soldiers dead. "Joe Sacco's brilliant, excruciating books of war reportage are potent territory ... He shows how much that is crucial to our lives a book can hold." - New York Times Book Review. "Sacco is Art Spiegelman's most talented descendant." - The Economist. Joe Sacco's previous books include Palestine (winner of an American Book Award) and the Eisner Award-winning Safe Area Gorazde: The War in Eastern Bosnia 1992 – 1995. $5 tickets are available at the door starting at 6:30 p.m., in advance via www.brownpapertickets.com (or 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.