Best idea possible? Books. Here are five literary events this week that will be edifying on their own but also give you a chance to buy some great gifts.
Knopf
7 p.m., Tuesday, December 5
Tattered Cover
2526 East Colfax Avenue
Billed as “fearless cooking from a tiny kitchen in New York,” Deb Perelman’s Smitten Kitchen Every Day: Triumphant and Unfussy New Favorites is a celebration of yummy stuff without the pretentious foody-isms that characterize too much of today’s cuisine. Perelman will sign her book and shake your hand — and you can thank her for not depending on "truffle oil, $10-per-quarter-ounce Himalayan pink salt, or single-origin chocolate" in her various recipes. Way to keep it simple, Deb!
Holiday Book Fair
Ratio Beerworks
5 to 8 p.m., Thursday, December 7
2910 Larimer Street
For those of us who don’t much care for shopping, or the mall, or Bed, Bath and anything Beyond, Ratio Beerworks has a suggestion: Have a beer. Yes, everything is a little easier when you can also have a beer. Rough day at work? Have a beer. Watching the Broncos lose? Have a beer. Drinking too much beer? Have a beer. (That last one won’t help, but it’s the usual response, anyway.) Now you can add: Need to buy a present? Have a beer…at Ratio, this Thursday, when Mavis the Magical Bookmobile from BookBar will be on hand. Win-win-win.
Sixoneseven Books
6 p.m., Friday, December 8
Tattered Cover
2526 East Colfax Avenue
From long-lost Shakespearean couplets to raccoon bites to accountants falling for mythic Greek heroes, Douglas Trevor’s new book of short stories, The Book of Wonders, examines the many ways that the world can still surprise us. In this season of miracles and whatnot, there’s always room for wonder. It’s like Jell-O.
Seven Stories Press
7p.m. Friday, December 8
Tattered Cover LoDo
1628 16th Street
It's tough enough to write a single story, but Barry Gifford has written 64 of them for his new book from Seven Stories Press, The Cuban Club. These stories follow his long-penned character, Roy, through tales set in Chicago in the 1950s and ’60s, stories of small-time hoods and the world that spins around them.
John Fielder, A Colorado Winter
11 a.m. Saturday, December 9
Roxborough State Park
4751 Roxborough Drive, Littleton
John Fielder is perhaps Colorado’s most well-known photographer working today, and his photos adorn many a Denver office wall. Whether it’s in a framed print, on a calendar or inside one of his many fine coffee-table books, Fielder’s visions of the beauty of Colorado have come to define this state. If you have a Fielder lover in your family, head down to Roxborough to get a signed copy of his second edition of A Colorado Winter — and see some of those natural wonders with your own eyes.
