Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the caldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder’s fork and blind-worm’s sting,
Lizard’s leg and howlet’s wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and caldron bubble.
Cool it with a baboon’s blood,
Then the charm is firm and good.
—Song of the Witches: “Double, double toil and trouble” from “Macbeth” by William Shakespeare
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This month’s poem is the ultimate Halloween classic. While many of us can’t remember where we first heard it, the sound of its first line still brings to mind the festivities of the season—carving pumpkins, dressing in costumes, trick-or-treating as children, maybe even watching your favorite scary movie featuring witches, ghouls, and ghosts (likely based on a book, of course). If your favorite way to celebrate the season is a good scare, October is a great time to turn to literature for the spookier things in life. From Stephen King and Shirley Jackson to Mary Shelley and Edgar Allen Poe, there’s no denying that books are capable of delivering a fright.
When it comes to books with dark undertones, Chuck Palahniuk doesn’t disappoint. At 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 8, the author best-known for Fight Club will be at Powell’s City of Books to discuss his newest novel, Shock Induction. This dark, satirical story about disappearing high school students, crooked billionaires, and making hard choices tackles difficult topics such as suicide, state surveillance, performance pressure, and desperation. By holding a mirror to the times, Palahniuk delivers a thought-provoking and harrowing narrative filled with subtle and poignant warnings.
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If you’re looking for a child-friendly Halloween event, authors Emmeline Duncan and Ellie Alexander will be in conversation with Tina Connolly at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 4, at Powell’s Books at Cedar Hill Crossing. They will read from their Halloween-themed children’s books Chaos at the Lazy Bones Bookshop, inspired by the Pacific Northwest’s Halloweenton, and Sticks and Stones, a kid-friendly Shakespeare-related whodunnit.
For more festive fun, Rose City Book Pub has a slew of Halloween-adjacent events, including an open mic night called Amy Bleu’s Spooky Showcase, the monthly Hermetic Order of Clandestine Urban Scribes (HOCUS) reading, a recitation of John Milton’s Paradise Lost Book 8 by Sophia Lechner, and the Notes and Moted Poetry and Jazz event on Oct. 31.
Week 1: October 1-7
NW Authors Series: Josephine Woolington
- Presented by Cannon Beach Library
- 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 5
- Cannon Beach Library
- 131 N. Hemlock, Cannon Beach
- Free
Author, musician, educator, and Indigenous Journalists Association member Josephine Woolington will be at Cannon Beach Library to play music and discuss her new book Where We Call Home: Lands, Seas, and Skies of the Pacific Northwest. In her book of essays, she will chronicle the flora and fauna of the Pacific Northwest, explore the challenges they face, and remark on their importance.
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Author Reading and Book Release: Mose Mosley
- Presented by Tsunami Books
- 5 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 6
- Tsunami Books
- 2585 Willamette St., Eugene
- Free
Mose Mosley will read from his newest release, A Journey with Orvis, a story about traveling the world with an imaginary dog named Orvis. Discovered in late 2022 in an antique shop in Fossil, Oregon, the imaginary dog becomes a dear travel mate for the author, teaching lessons of humor, discovery, and self-sacrifice as they travel from Mexico City to Istanbul, Zagreb to Paris, London to Dublin—learning about the beauty of travel and acceptance.
Week 2: October 7-14
- Presented by Annie Bloom’s Books
- 7 p.m. Monday, October 7
- Annie Bloom’s Books
- 7834 SW Capitol Hwy., Portland
- Free
Diane Dugaw, musician, writer, and scholar, will read from California Medieval, a hybrid memoir-poetry-song book. The wryly humorous new release takes a look at a Franciscan convent during San Francisco’s 1960s flower child era through the eyes of a novitiate nun. Having come to the Bay Area from Washington state, she must learn about her new life, sexuality, and title while navigating the confusion of early adulthood in a time of cultural chage.
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Daneen Bergland and Irene Cooper
- Presented by Broadway Books
- 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 8
- Broadway Books
- 1714 N.E. Broadway, Portland
- Free
Daneed Bergland will appear at Broadway Books to read from The Goodbye Kit, a new book of poetry exploring themes of transgression, longing, girlhood, marriage, age, parenting, and nature. Her book will consider the “ecologies of intimacy made tangible through both experience and witness.” Bergland will be joined by Irene Cooper, Oregon poet and Stafford/Hall award finalist, reading from even my dreams, which are over the constant state of anxiety. This collection looks at dark times while finding humor in the surreal and unsettling.
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Author Reading: Katie Gee Salisbury
- Presented by Broadway Books
- 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 10
- Broadway Books
- 1714 N.E. Broadway, Portland
- Free
Brooklyn-based author Katie Gee Salisbury will read from her book Not Your China Doll, the story of Anna May Wong. As the first Asian American movie star in the Los Angeles “gin-soaked Jazz Age,” Wong paved the way for many actresses, refusing stereotyped casting roles and reshaping Asian American representation in film, both in the United States and Europe. In Salisbury’s new release, she incorporates details of Wong’s private life, her many talents, and her bright spirit to paint a portrait of an often-forgotten superstar.
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Keiko Lane in Conversation with Lidia Yuknavitch
- Presented by Powell’s Books
- 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 13
- Powell’s City of Books
- 1005 W. Burnside St., Portland
- Free
Keiko Lane will be at Powell’s Books to read from Blood Loss, a book about the love and afterlives of the queer resistance. Detailing a landscape of survival amid the Rodney King rebellion, the movement for queer rights, and the censorship of queer artists and sexualities, Lane employs experiences in the Los Angeles chapters of Queer Nation and ACT UP to question the “social construction of power against and in queer communities of color and the recovery of sexual agency.” Lane will be joined in conversation by Lidia Yuknavitch, author of Thrust.
Week 3: October 15-21
An Evening with Ellen Waterston and Joe Wilkins
- Presented by Roundabout Books
- 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 17
- Roundabout Books & Cafe
- 900 N.W. Mt. Washington Dr. Suite #110, Bend
- $5 general admission
Ellen Waterston, Oregon’s newest poet laureate and author of Where the Crooked River Rises and Walking the High Desert, will be in Bend to read excerpts from her forthcoming release. She will be joined by Joe Wilkins, Pushcart Prize winner, PEN/USA Award finalist, and author of Fall Back Down When I Die, reading from his newest novel, The Entire Sky, a portrait of a rancher, young boy, and life on the plains.
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Judith Barrington Reading and Conversation with Jules Ohman
- Presented by OSU Press
- 4 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 20
- Up Up Books
- 1211 S.E. Stark St., Portland
- Free
Judith Barrington will read from her new memoir essay collection, Virginia’s Apple. The release from OSU Press draws from the author’s life and relocation from England to the United States, and includes stand-alone pieces about love, youth, self-invention, grief, joy, sexuality, and resilience that connect with recurring characters and motifs. Barrington will be joined in conversation by Jules Ohman, Free Verse cofounder and coordinator of Literary Arts’ Writers in the Schools program.
Week 4: October 22-31
- Presented by Annie Bloom’s Books
- 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 24
- Annie Bloom’s Books
- 7834 SW Capitol Hwy., Portland
- Free
Beat-adjacent poet Larry Beckett will be at Annie Bloom’s Books to read from the first publishing of Song to the Siren, a collection of lyric poems of the past fifty years. Including “every kind of lyric” including ode, cycle, carol, hymn, ballad, serenade, erotica, blason, aria, blues, lullaby, and elegy, Song to the Siren was written along with Tim Buckley in the ’60s and features pieces recorded by This Mortal Coil, Robert Plant, Bryan Ferry, George Michael, Sinéad O’Connor, Kitty Macfarlane, and other musicians.
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André Aciman in Conversation with Pauls Toutonghi
- Presented by Powell’s Books
- 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 28
- Powell’s City of Books
- 1005 W. Burnside St., Portland
- Free
André Aciman, author of Call Me by Your Name, will be at Powell’s City of Books to read from Roman Year. His new book, based on his experiences, tells the story of moving to Rome from Egypt at a young age. At first coping through isolation and diving into novels, Acimen eventually warmed to the city and expertly depicts its smells, sights, tastes, and culture in a prose coming-of-age adventure tale. Aciman will be joined in conversation by Pauls Toutonghi, author of The Refugee Ocean.
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- Presented by Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education
- 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 30
- Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education
- 724 N.W. Davis St., Portland
- $13 general admission, $8 members
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The 2024 Oregon Jewish Voices reading will take place at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education for its annual presentation. The event, started in 1999 by Portland poet Willa Schneberg, will feature a range of published Jewish authors in varying genres. This year’s featured readers include Schneberg, poet Daniel Axelrod, novelist Jan Baross, scholar and editor Marat Grinberg, and professor and memoir writer Jodi Varon.
