Jason Zinoman
Barnes and Noble; 7/21 at 6 p.m.; 97 Warren Street., at Greenwich St.; 212-587-5389
The New York Times reporter discusses his book Shock Value: How a Few Eccentric Outsiders Gave Us Nightmares, Conquered Hollywood and Invented Modern Horror about the more realistic “New Horror” era of movies beginning in the 1960s and 1970s.
Adam Ross
Strand Bookstore; 7/21 at 7 p.m.; 828 Broadway, at 12th St.; 212-473-1452
The author of Mr. Peanut reads from his new collection of stories, Ladies and Gentlemen.
Susan Gregory Thomas
BookCourt; 7/21 at 7 p.m.; 163 Court St., nr. Pacific St., Boerum Hill; 718-875-3677
The investigative journalist and former Glen-X Park Sloper reads from her new memoir, In Spite of Everything, about her parents’ divorce—and her own.
Bananagrams in the Basement
Word; 7/24 at 7 p.m.; 126 Franklin St., at Milton St., Greenpoint; 718-383-0096
Not so much a reading as an event to show off your literary prowess with a word game whose pieces come in a bag shaped like a banana. Which sounds like a grand old time to us.
Justin Martin in conversation with Tupper Thomas
McNally Jackson; 7/26 at 7 p.m.; 52 Prince St., nr. Mulberry St.; 212-274-1160
Biographer Justin Martin, author of Genius of Place: The Life of Frederick Law Olmsted , discusses his subject–a landscape architecture whiz whose work included New York’s Central Park–with Tupper Thomas, former President of the Prospect Park Alliance and Administrator of Prospect Park.
Bruce Duffy
Strand Bookstore; 7/26 at 7 p.m.; 828 Broadway, at 12th St.; 212-473-1452
The author of The World As I Found It discusses his new fictional biography Disaster Was My God: A Novel of the Outlaw Life of Arthur Rimbaud, where he reimagines the short life of the enfant terrible of French Letters, who declared himself done with literature just shy of his 20th birthday.
David Lipsky and Darin Strauss
Greenlight Bookstore; 7/27 at 7:30 p.m.; 686 Fulton St., at S. Portland St., Fort Greene; 718-246-0200
The author of Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip With David Foster Wallace joins Strauss to discuss his memoir Half a Life, now in paperback.
The Road that Teaches
Rubin Museum of Art; 7/27 at 7 p.m.; 150 W. 17th St., nr. Seventh Ave.; 212-620-5000
Eliza Griswold, poet and author of The Tenth Parallel, which examines the intersection of Christianity and Islam, joins Tibetan lama Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche for a conversation about faith, part of an ongoing discussion series on the nature of belief.