By Samantha Ortiz
Hello everyone!! Hopefully you all are ready for a busy week. There is plenty going on in the Austin Book World this week. Make sure you head out and take advantage of the great events around the community. From stories for the little ones, cocktails with the friends, to birthday celebrations, this week is going to be great. Once again, friends, i’ll leave you with this: Go out and engage in the Austin book world and enjoy and take advantage of this beautiful community. Go out and support the writers in the community.
Thursday, December 11 at 7:15 p.m. Book-Woman is sad to announce that their original visitor, Joe Jimenez is unable to be with us today, but they are pleased to announce that for Second Thursday Open Mic will now be featuring David Meischen. The event will consist of Meischen reading a few poems and after, there will be an open mic. Everyone is encouraged to bring some poetry to share with everyone.
Friday, December 12 at 7 p.m. Book-Woman will be having a book talk with local authors, Dannielle Owens-Reid and Kristin 
Russo. The two will be having a reading, signing, and Q&A for their book, This is a Book For Parents of Gay Kids. Reid and Russo will be here to talk about the issues in the LBGTQ community and talk to parents who want advice about raising a child who identifies as Gay. Here to join Reid and Russo, all the way from Canada, is Canadian author, Vivek Shraya. He is the author of God Loves Hair, a book of stories about belonging.
Saturday, December 13 at 1:30 p.m. Malvern Books will be having their B&C book club. B&C book club was one of the first book clubs that Malvern Books started when they first opened their doors, so in honor of the weekend of their first anniversary, B&C will be getting together to discuss Macbeth. Also, today at 7 p.m. there will be An Evening with Peter J. Story and Joanne Fox Phillips. This will consist of a reading and then after there will be time for a discussion and Q&A.
Sunday, December 14 at 4 p.m. Book People is excited to announce that it’s that time again, every second Sunday of the month is Required Reading Revisited Book Club. A time to remember all the required books you had to read in high school. This months club will revisit Great Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe.
Monday, December 15 at 7 p.m. Book People will be having their third Monday of the month book club, Ludicrous Speed Book Club with Joel and Tommy. This week they will be getting together to discuss War of the Worlds by HG Wells. Are you into speculative fiction, deep space adventures, and alternate histories to epic fantasy realms? If you answered yes to any of those, then this is the book club for you.
Tuesday, December 16 at 10:30 a.m. Book People is happy to be having one of their oh so famous story times for the little ones. Armstrong Community School faculty member, Mr. Walter will be the guest story teller. He will engage with the children through music, dance, and he will also read.
Wednesday, December 17 at 7 p.m. Malvern Books is excited to be celebrating Albert Huffstickler. There will be a poetry reading and of course birthday cake. Come join Malvern books to celebrate a great poet that we all miss dearly. Albert Huffstickler Birthday Celebration is free and open to everyone. Huffstickler was a legendary local poet in the Austin community in his late years.
Thursday, December 18 at 5:30 p.m. Book People will be last Thursday of the month club, Happy Hour Book Club. This is a good chance to get together with a group of friends and head out to happy hour over at Opa. Join Mandy and Joel for a discussion over The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson. Go over and join the discussion over cocktails.