Mary Kay Andrews, "Christmas Bliss." 7 p.m. Oct. 13. Launch party. $25 includes signed copy of book, dessert and drinks. Decatur Library Auditorium, 215 Sycamore St., Decatur. 404-370-8450, Ext. 2225; www.georgiacenterforthebook.org. Tickets available at www.foxtalebookshoppe.com/events. Andrews' new novella celebrates the holidays with a story about a Savannah antiques dealer about to marry her longtime love.
John D. Cressler, "Emeralds of the Alhambra." 7 p.m Oct. 13. Talk, reading and signing. Free. Congregation Gesher L'Torah, 4320 Kimball Bridge Road, Alpharetta. 770-777-4009, www.gltorah.org. Georgia Tech professor Cressler presents an interfaith love story about a Christian knight and a Sufi Muslim princess set in Granada, Spain, during the 14th-century Castilian Civil War.
40th anniversary celebration: Erica Jong, "Fear of Flying." 7 p.m. Oct. 14. Talk and signing. Free. Decatur Library Auditorium, 215 Sycamore St., Decatur, 404-370-8450, Ext. 2225, www.georgiacenterforthebook.org. The 1973 book blew conventional thinking about women, marriage and sexuality out of the water, sold 27 million copies, and has been translated into 40 languages.
Heather Means, "My Special Force: The Warrior Who Taught Me the Meaning of Life and Love." 7 p.m. Oct. 15. Talk and signing. Free. Barnes & Noble Buckhead, 2900 Peachtree Road N.E., Atlanta. 404-261-7747, http://store-locator.barnesandnoble.com/store/1907. Also appearing: 7:15 p.m. Oct. 21. Decatur Library Auditorium, 215 Sycamore St., Decatur. 404-370-8450, Ext. 2225; www.georgiacenterforthebook.org. Means weaves her own story together with the letters she and her husband wrote to each other while he was stationed in Iraq.
Stuart Woods, "Doing Hard Time." 7 p.m. Oct. 16. Reading and signing. Free. Norcross Cultural Arts & Community Center, 10 College St., Norcross. 770-978-5154, www.gwinnettpl.org/adult_calendar.
Reza Aslan, "Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth." 8 p.m. Oct. 17. Lecture and signing. $5-$10. Atlanta History Center, 130 W. Paces Ferry Road N.W., Atlanta. 404-814-4150, www.atlantahistorycenter.com/cms/Lectures+/494.html. Aslan ("No God But God") examines Jesus through the lens of his era: first-century Palestine, an age of fervent nationalism that made resistance to Roman occupation a sacred duty incumbent on all Jews.
Georgia State presents: Lydia Davis. 7 p.m. Oct. 17. Reading. Ticketed event, reservations suggested. Free. Kopleff Recital Hall, Arts & Humanities Building, Georgia State University, 10 Peachtree Center Ave., Atlanta. 404-413-5901, http://workshop.gsu.edu/events.php. For tickets go to www.arts.gsu.edu/16155.html. Davis received the Man Booker International Prize in 2013 and the French-American Foundation Translation Prize for her translation of Flaubert's "Madame Bovary" as well as Proust's "Swann's Way." In 2009, "The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis" brought together seven volumes of her award-winning short fiction published between 1976 and 2007.
David Samuel Levinson, "Antonia Lively Breaks the Silence." 7 p.m. Oct. 17. Talk and signing. Free. Eagle Eye Book Shop, 2076 N. Decatur Road, Decatur. 404-486-0307, http://eagleeyebooks.com/calendar.html. In a book that asks whether fiction is ever really fictional, a widow, whose husband died mysteriously, attracts the interest of a young literary sensation, whose debut novel was based on a terrible crime.
True Story: Ira Sukrungruang, Laura Shields, Gina Rickicki. 8 p.m. Oct. 18. Storytelling. Free. Kavarna Bar & Coffeeshop, 707 East Lake Drive, Decatur. 404-371-1113, http://truestoryga.com. Sukrungruang is the author of "Talk Thai: The Adventures of Buddhist Boy," and the poetry collection "In Thailand It Is Night." Shields is at work on a book based on an article she wrote for Salon.com, "My Year of Modesty." Rickicki, an Atlanta-based actor-writer-singer, runs the monthly crowd-sourced circus literati writing show "Naked City."
