Stephen Davis, “What the Yankees Did to Us, Sherman’s Bombardment and Wrecking of Atlanta”
3 p.m., Sunday, July 13. Talk and signing. Free. Atlanta Preservation Center, 327 St. Paul Ave. SE, 404-688-3353, http://www.atlantapreservationcenter.com/index
July 22 marks the 150th anniversary of the Civil War Battle of Atlanta. In commemoration, neighborhoods in Atlanta's 5th Council District have teamed up to organize B*ATL. Stop by for a gala dinner, a 5K run, tours, re-creations and re-enactments, a Civil War to Civil Rights tent, historic music concerts, dramatic performances, and more. For ticket prices and locations of events, and to find more author talks and signings at B*ATL, see http://www.batlevent.org/main.html
Chris Colfer, “A Grimm Warning”
7 p.m., Sunday, July 13. Signing. $19.26. Ticketed event. Ticket includes admission to signing line and copy of book. Little Shop of Stories, 133A East Court Square, Decatur, 404-373-6300, http://littleshopofstories.com/events.php
Former Glee star Colfer’s series follows twins Alex and Conner Bailey as they travel through a book of stories to a land where they encounter the fairy-tale characters they grew up reading about.
Laura Lane McNeal, “Dollbaby”
7 p.m. Monday, July 14. Signing. Free. A Cappella Books, 208 Haralson Ave. NE, Atlanta, 404-681-5128, http://www.acappellabooks.com/event/laura-lane-mcneal-book-signing
In McNeal’s debut novel, set in 1964, an orphaned girl sent to New Orleans to live with her eccentric grandmother takes refuge in the care of the African-American cook and learns how family can be found in the least-expected places.
Amanda Lindhout, “A House in the Sky: A Memoir”
8 p.m., Monday, July 14. Talk and signing. $10. McElreath Hall, Woodruff Auditorium, Atlanta History Center, 130 West Paces Ferry Road NW, Atlanta, 404-814-4150, http://www.atlantahistorycenter.com/visit/event/494?calendar=month
As a child, Lindhout read about exotic places in the National Geographic. As an adult, she backpacked through them. In 2008, during a trip to Somalia, she was abducted and held hostage for 460 days. Her memoir describes her survival, escape and search for compassion in the midst of inconceivable hardship.
Pearl McHaney, “A Tyrannous Eye: Eudora Welty’s Nonfiction and Photographs”
7:15 p.m., Monday, July 14. Decatur Library Auditorium, 215 Sycamore St., Decatur, 404-370-8450, Ext. 2225, http://www.georgiacenterforthebook.org/Events/show.php?id=712
In the first book-length study of Eudora Welty’s full range of achievements in nonfiction and photography, pre-eminent Welty scholar McHaney offers clear-eyed and complex assessments of Welty’s journalism, book reviews, letters, essays, autobiography and photographs.
The Horizon Leans Forward: a Maya Angelou Tribute
7:15 p.m., Tuesday, July 15. Readings. Free. Decatur Library Auditorium, 215 Sycamore St., Decatur, 404-370-8450, Ext. 2225, http://www.georgiacenterforthebook.org/Events/show.php?id=711
For this special tribute, hosted by Collin Kelley, poems and passages from the legendary Maya Angelou’s work will be read by local poets and writers, including Opal Moore, Alice Lovelace, Theresa Davis, Teri Elam, Karen Head, Malkia M’Buzi Moore, Megan Volpert, Rupert Fike, Amena Brown Owen, Christopher Martin, Lita Hooper, Karen Paul Holmes and Cherryl T. Cooley, who appeared with Dr. Angelou on the Oprah Winfrey Show.
Jo Baker, “Longbourn”
7 p.m., Thursday, July 17. Talk and signing. $10. Reservations recommended. Margaret Mitchell House & Museum, 990 Peachtree St. NE, Atlanta, 404-814-4150, http://www.atlantahistorycenter.com/visit/event/423?calendar=month
In this below-stairs answer to Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice,” the Bennet’s orphaned housemaid finds that the arrival of a new footman threatens to upend the world she has known all her life.
Suzanne Palmieri, “The Witch of Belladonna Bay”
1 p.m., Saturday, July 19. Reading and signing. Free. FoxTale Book Shoppe, 105 E. Main St., Woodstock, 770-516-9989, http://www.foxtalebookshoppe.com/events/
In Palmieri’s follow-up to “The Witch of Little Italy,” a woman who fled Alabama for New York after her mother’s death returns home after 14 years to exonerate her brother from a murder charge — the murder of her childhood best friend.
Jamillah Karim, “American Muslim Women: Negotiating Race, Class, and Gender in the Ummah”
11 a.m., Saturday, July 19. Talk and signing. Free. 951 N. Indian Creek Drive, Clarkston, 404-508-7175, http://www.dekalblibrary.org/component/option,com_events/Itemid,133/agid,24378/day,19/month,07/task,view_detail/year,2014/
Drawing on interviews with a diverse group of women from the African-American and South Asian immigrant Muslim communities in Chicago and Atlanta, Dr. Karim’s ethnographic study explores how Islamic ideals of racial harmony and equality create hopeful possibilities in an American society that remains challenged by race and class inequalities.
