ReShonda Tate Billingsley, “What’s Done in the Dark”
3 p.m., Sunday, July 20. Talk and signing. Free. Decatur Library Auditorium, 215 Sycamore St., Decatur, 404-370-8450, Ext. 2225, http://www.georgiacenterforthebook.org/Events/show.php?id=706
Billingsley (“Let the Church Say Amen”) tells the story of a married woman whose one night of infidelity leaves her with only one choice: come clean, or save her marriage by keeping the most treacherous of secrets.
Deborah Harkness, “The Book of Life”
7:15 p.m., Monday, July 21. Talk and signing. Free. Decatur Library Auditorium, 215 Sycamore St., Decatur, 404-370-8450, Ext. 2225, http://www.georgiacenterforthebook.org/Events/show.php?id=707
Harkness returns with the grand finale to her All Souls trilogy. After traveling through time in “Shadow of Night,” historian and witch Diana Bishop and vampire scientist Matthew Clairmont are reunited with the cast of characters from “A Discovery of Witches.”
John D. Cressler, “Shadows in the Shining City”
7 p.m., Tuesday, July 22. Book launch, discussion, reading, and signing. Refreshments. Free. Technology Square Research Building at Georgia Tech, 85 5th St. NW, Atlanta, 404-872-7155, http://www.calendar.gatech.edu/event/299531
The second book in the Georgia Tech professor’s Anthems of al-Andalus Series, set in 10th-century Moorish Spain, is a love story that takes place during a unique period when Muslims, Jews and Christians lived together in relative harmony and peace.
Lori Rush, “House Proud: A Social History of Atlanta’s Interiors, 1880-1919”
7:15 p.m., Wednesday, July 23. Talk and signing. Free. Decatur Library Auditorium, 215 Sycamore St., Decatur, 404-370-8450, Ext. 2225, http://www.georgiacenterforthebook.org/Events/show.php?id=713
From middle-class cottages to Gilded Age mansions, Rush presents a view of Atlanta, reflected through the city’s most highly prized resource, its homes. Richly illustrated with archival photographs and annotated with historical commentary.
Clay P. Risen, “The Bill of the Century: The Epic Battle for the Civil Rights Act”
8 p.m., Wednesday, July 23. Talk and signing. $10. Atlanta History Center, 130 West Paces Ferry Road NW, Atlanta, 404-814-4150, http://www.atlantahistorycenter.com/visit/event/495?calendar=month
New York Times editor and author (“American Whiskey, Bourbon & Rye”) tells the full story of this critical turning point in American history: the battle to obtain the most important piece of legislation passed by Congress in American history, the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Passing the act was an epic struggle that encompassed a larger-than-life cast of characters, grass-roots politicking, backroom deal making and face-to-face legislative fighting.
Juanita McCarter Bryan, “Vanessa-Fei: The Girl Who Could Touch the Sky”
12:30 p.m., Wednesday, July 23. Talk and signing. Free. Southwest Library, 3665 Cascade Road, Atlanta, 404-699-6363, http://www.socialweb.net/Clients/AFPL/southwest.lasso?id=170963
In Bryan’s YA book, a 12-year-old girl who lives in a village where all the men can fly discovers that she has an extraordinary ability that will teach her lessons in courage, determination and making dreams come true.
Tenille Brow, “Can’t Get Enough! Erotica for Women”
7:30 p.m., Thursday, July 24. Reading and signing. Free. Suggested donation $5. Charis Books & More, 1189 Euclid Ave. N.E., Atlanta, 404-524-0304, http://www.charisbooksandmore.com/event/cant-get-enough-erotic-evening-tenille-brown
Veteran erotica author and first-time editor Brown has collected stories for an anthology that highlights the essence of insatiable desire. Participating authors include Rachel Kramer Bussel, Jacqueline Applebee, Giselle Renarde and Shoshanna Evers.
Marja Mills, “The Mockingbird Next Door”
7 p.m., Friday, July 25. Talk and signing. Free. First Baptist Church of Decatur, 308 Clairmont Ave., Decatur, 404-373-1653, http://www.charisbooksandmore.com/event/mockingbird-next-door-life-harper-lee-first-baptist-church-decatur
In 2004, Chicago Tribune reporter Mills moved next door to Harper Lee, the renowned and beloved author of “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Mills’ memoir details the next 18 months of life with Harper Lee — sharing coffee at McDonalds, feeding the ducks, going out for catfish supper, and exploring Alabama with Lee’s inner circle of friends.
Laurel-Ann Dooley, “Wicked Atlanta: The Sordid Side of Peach City History”
1 p.m., Saturday, July 26. Signing. Free. Barnes & Noble Buckhead, 2900 Peachtree Road NE, Atlanta, 404-261-7747, http://store-locator.barnesandnoble.com/event/4709350
The “City Too Busy to Hate” wasn’t always so civilized. Dooley navigates the fertile underworld of Atlanta’s past, filled with billionaire bootleggers, murderous rich boys, kidnapping, bribery, hit men and all manner of criminal debauchery.
About the Author
