Author events, Oct. 25-31

Dan Jones, "Magna Carta: The Making and Legacy of the Great Charter." 7 p.m. Oct. 26. Talk, signing. Free. Carter Presidential Library & Museum Theater, 441 Freedom Parkway, Atlanta. 404-865-7100, acappellabooks.com/event. Jones ("The Plantagenets") recounts the signing in 1215 of the document that limited an English king's powers and protected the rights of his subjects.

Jay Winik, "1944: FDR and the Year That Changed History." 8 p.m. Oct. 26. Talk, signing. $10. Atlanta History Center, 130 W. Paces Ferry Road N.W., Atlanta. 404-814-4150, atlantahistorycenter.com/tags/lectures. Winik ("April 1865") highlights the turning-point year in World War II, including D-Day, the liberation of Paris, the Battle of the Bulge and the conferences that shaped the coming peace.

Leonard Pitts Jr., "Grant Park." 7 p.m. Oct. 27. Signing. Free. Carter Presidential Library & Museum Theater, 441 Freedom Parkway, Atlanta. 404-865-7100, acappellabooks.com/event. Pitts ("Freeman") alternates his fictional exploration of race relations in America between 1968 — with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s final days — and the eve of the 2008 election, weaving a story of two former activists, a white supremacist plot and the collision of past and present.

Joseph Skibell, "My Father's Guitar and Other Imaginary Things." 7 p.m. Oct 27. Talk, signing. $10. Margaret Mitchell House, 979 Crescent Ave. N.E., Atlanta. 404-249-7015, atlantahistorycenter.com/tags/lectures. In his first nonfiction book, Skibell writes about things that are supposed to happen or make sense, but don't always work out that way.

Ari Berman, "Give Us the Ballot." 7 p.m. Oct. 28. Reading, signing. Free. Carter Presidential Library & Museum Theater, 441 Freedom Parkway, Atlanta. 404-865-7100, jimmycarterlibrary.gov/events. Berman tells the story of the Voting Rights Act and the turbulent forces it unleashed 50 years ago.

Phyllis Lawson, "Quilt of Souls." 6 p.m. Oct. 28. Talk, signing. Free. Atlanta-Fulton County Library Peachtree Branch, 1315 Peachtree St., N.E., Atlanta. 404-885-7830, afpls.org/peachtree-branch6. A child from Detroit whose parents can't afford to keep her is shipped off to live with her grandmother on an Alabama farm, where she finds strength and healing in the art of quilt-making.

Libby Ware, "Lum." 7:30 p.m. Oct. 28. Talk, signing. Suggested donation: $5. Charis Books & More, 1189 Euclid Ave. N.E., Atlanta. 404-524-0304, charisbooksandmore.com/event. Local author Ware's debut novel, set in the Great Depression, concerns a woman diagnosed with an intersex condition who finds unexpected opportunities when the building of the Blue Ridge Parkway threatens her rural community.