Mark Rosenberg, "Eating My Feelings: Tales of Overeating, Underperforming, and Coping With My Crazy Family." 7 p.m. Sept. 17. Talk and signing. Free. Highland Inn Ballroom, 644 N. Highland Ave., Atlanta. 404-874-5756, Ext. 450; www.acappellabooks.com/upcoming-events. In this collection of essays, Rosenberg chronicles his childhood stint in fat camp and his crushes on the personal trainers he hires, among other tales.
Elizabeth Wein, "Rose Under Fire." 7 p.m. Sept. 17. Talk and signing. Free. Little Shop of Stories, 133A E. Court Square, Decatur. 404-373-6300, http://littleshopofstories.com/index.php. Wein ("Code Name Verity") is back with another young-adult World War II thriller. An American Air Transport Auxiliary pilot captured by the Nazis struggles to survive at the infamous Ravensbrück women's concentration camp.
Tal McThenia and Margaret Dunbar Cutright, "A Case for Solomon." 7 p.m. Sept. 18. Reading and signing. Free. Carter Presidential Library & Museum Theater, 441 Freedom Parkway, Atlanta. 404-865-7100, www.jimmycarterlibrary.gov/events. In one of the most celebrated kidnapping cases in American history, 4-year-old Bobby Dunbar, son of a Louisiana family, disappeared, only to turn up eight months later in rural Mississippi. But when a destitute woman from North Carolina claimed to be his real mother, the tabloids, the courts, and the citizenry of two states went wild.
Linda Spalding, "The Purchase." 7:15 p.m. Sept. 18. Talk and signing. Free. Decatur Library Auditorium, 215 Sycamore St., Decatur. 404-370-8450, Ext. 2225; www.georgiacenterforthebook.org/Events/show.php?id=609. In this winner of Canada's 2012 Governor General's Award for Fiction, an abolitionist Quaker family moves from Pennsylvania to the Virginia frontier in 1798, where their values and beliefs are sorely tested when they agree to purchase a young slave boy.
Fran Varian. 7:30 p.m. Sept. 19. Reading. $5 suggested donation. Charis Books & More, 1189 Euclid Ave N.E., Atlanta. 404-524-0304, www.charisbooksandmore.com/event. Karen G and Theresa Davis of the Art Amok Slam Team play host to Varien, a writer, performer and activist recently published in the Lambda-winning anthology "Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation."
John Searles, "Help for the Haunted." 7 p.m. Sept. 19. Talk and signing. Free. Decatur Library Auditorium, 215 Sycamore St., Decatur. 404-370-8450, Ext. 2225; www.georgiacenterforthebook.org/Events/show.php?id=610. In Searles' latest novel, a couple who help "haunted souls" find peace are brutally murdered one night after receiving a mysterious phone call. A year later, their daughter moves closer to the what occurred that night — and to the truth about her family's past. Author Chris Bohjalian will join Searles onstage.
Jasper Fforde, "The Song of the Quarkbeast: A Last Dragonslayer Novel." 7 p.m. Sept. 20. Talk and signing. Free. Jim Cherry Learning Resource Center, Georgia Perimeter College, 555 N. Indian Creek Drive, Clarkston. www.gpc.edu/calendar/?location=1114-clarkston. The 16-year-old head of an employment agency for sorcerers and soothsayers is the only thing standing between an evil king and his plans to take over the world through magic. www.georgiacenterforthebook.org/Events/show.php?id=611.
Advance notice: Paul Simon, "The Insomniac's Lullaby: Awake & Aware of the Time." Sept. 22-24. Lectures, discussion, musical performance. Ticketed events. Free, limited to two tickets per person per event. Emory University, Glenn Memorial Auditorium, 1652 N. Decatur Road, Atlanta. 404-727-5050, www.arts.emory.edu/events. Simon will deliver two lectures, participate in a public conversation with former U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins, and give a music performance. www.emory.edu/ellmann/schedule/index.html#ticketLottery.
