Marriage and Mars, American conspiracies and near-world-shattering apocalypses. Language about language and books about books. These are the literary topics waiting for Colorado readers as the winter sun shines weakly down on Denver. Bundle up, brave the chill and enjoy these five best bookish pleasures in mid-January.

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Flatiron Books

JoAnn Chaney, As Long as We Both Shall Live
Tuesday, January 15, 6 p.m.
BookBar
4280 Tennyson Street
Free
Colorado author JoAnn Chaney brings her new domestic thriller, As Long as We Both Shall Live, to BookBar for a reading, signing…and maybe a word of warning for those whose marriages are on the rocks. After all, the book is publicized as a “masterful examination of what happens when you’re really, truly done making your marriage work.” Which means: murder. Yikes. Bring your spouse…it’ll be a reading to remember. And make sure to buy him or her some good wine and delicious apps, just in case.

LeonardDavid.com

Leonard David, Mars
Wednesday, January 16, 7 p.m.
Chautauqua Community House
900 Baseline Road, Boulder
$12 ($9 for members)
Space journalist Leonard David comes to Boulder’s Chautauqua Community House to report on the future of the global space exploration program and his book Mars: Our Future on the Red Planet. David will discuss what the coming decade might hold around the world for the final frontier — from low Earth orbit to Mars and the territories beyond. Tickets and more information available at the Chautauqua website.

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Flatiron Books

Brad Meltzer, The First Conspiracy
Wednesday, January 16, 7 p.m.
Tattered Cover
2526 East Colfax Avenue
$30
New York Times best-selling author Brad Meltzer comes to the Tattered Cover to discuss and sign his newest book, The First Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill George Washington. It’s a political thriller, but also non-fiction — a previously untold piece of early-American history that reveals important aspects of our first president’s character as well as the secret plot against him that led to America’s first counterintelligence movement. Tickets include a copy of the book and a place in the signing line.

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Ecco

Peter Brannen, The Ends of the World
Thursday, January 17, 7:30 p.m.
Boulder Bookstore
1107 Pearl Street, Boulder
$5
The Boulder Book Store welcomes award-winning science author Peter Brannen and his book The Ends of the World: Volcanic Apocalypses, Lethal Oceans, and Our Quest to Understand Earth’s Past Mass Extinctions. Dive deep into time and see how Earth has ended five times: broiled, frozen, gassed, smothered, and pummeled by asteroids. Each time, our planet has clawed its way back from its celestial grave — but given that many scientists see the climate shifts of the 21st century as analogous to elements of these five extinctions, it’s a book that may cast our future in a new light. Tickets are $5, and are good for $5 off any purchase the day of the event.

Black Rose Writing

Dan Scannell, The Fall of a Sparrow
Saturday, January 19, 2 p.m.
Tattered Cover
2526 East Colfax Avenue
Free
Join author Dan Scannell when he brings The Fall of a Sparrow to Tattered Cover for a reading, discussion and signing. It’s a historical novel that is itself about a book, an old and neglected journal from sixteenth-century Paris. The story within a story is all about language: the beauty of its texture, the force of its eloquence, the music of its cadences.

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