Every once in a while, I find myself engrossed in a book that suddenly delivers my ignorance to me on a silver platter.

Local author Anne Jobe and editor Christine Reed will host a special reading at 3 p.m. Saturday, June 22, at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva. 

If Monica Wood’s “How to Read a Book” were a painting rather than a novel, it would be a triptych, one of those three-paneled works of art often hinged together so that it can be closed or displayed open.

There are always seasons in life when you feel the need to get away from your day-to-day, and I have found myself in just such a season.

Local author Jim Costa will present his new book, “Darwin and the Art of Botany: Observations on the Curious World of Plants,” at 3 p.m. Saturday, June 8, at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva. 

Two novels, one a classic Western set in 1885 Nevada, the other centered on Barcelona and the aftermath of the Spanish Civil war, snagged my attention this past week. I was busy, but every time I caught a break, I was on the front porch, enjoying the May weather and turning the pages.  

Benjamin Cutler will launch his new book of poetry, “Wild Silence,” at 6 p.m. Friday, May 31, at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva. 

Having just recently written a review for these pages of an anthology made up of multiple writers published in 2023 with a similar title that was edited by Ervin Laszlo, I am taking the liberty to review the much more singular and shorter primer that Laszlo wrote in 2022 prior to putting together his large anthology.

Poets Jane Hicks and Thomas Alan Holmes will present their latest book of poems, “The Safety of Small Things” and “In the Backhoe’s Shadow,” at 3 p.m. Saturday, May 18, at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva. 

Legendary Western North Carolina storyteller Gary Carden is at it again, this time, with a new memoir due out from UNC press later this year.