2006_03_arts_krissabooks.jpgThis week kicks off tonight with Non-fiction night at KGB Bar (85 E. 4th St.) with Harry Brunius reading from Better for All the World : The Secret History of Forced Sterilization and America's Quest for Racial Purity and Cynthia Carr reading from Our Town: Heartland Lynching, a Haunted Town, and the Hidden History of White America. It starts at 7PM and is free.

On Thursday night (3/23), 7PM at Barnes and Noble (Broadway at 82nd St.), Erica Jong reads from her newest memoir, Seducing the Demon: Writing for my Life. Also on Thursday night, Adam Haslett reads from his short story collection, You Are Not a Stranger Here (which was much-praised by Jonathan Franzen) at Pete's Candy Store (709 Lorimer St. in Williamsburg). That starts at 7:30PM, and both are free.

On Friday night (3/24), Cooper Union's Great Hall (7 East 7th St. at 3rd Ave.) is host to a lecture and dramatic reading of Voices of a People's History of the United States, which is an updated companion to the 1980 classic. Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove will be speaking. The event starts at 6:30PM and is free.

And finally, on Monday (3/27), be sure to check out John Weir reading from his new novel, What I Did Wrong, at The Half King (23rd St. and 10th Ave.) at 7PM, as well as Scott Spencer (A Ship Made of Paper) speaking at the New School's Fiction Forum (66 W. 12th St.), starting at 6:30, $5 admission.