1. Timothy Egan, local writer and author of the new book The Big Burn , is reading at Third Place Books this evening. Egan stirred up some controversy with an editorial for the New York Times last month eviscerating Mike Huckabee for pardoning Maurice Clemmons—but really, Egan’s better known for his reflections on Northwest life (he’s the NYT ’s official Pacific Northwest correspondent) and his American history books, which mine underrepresented or totally forgotten 20th century stories.

Egan’s previous book, The Worst Hard Time— the story of farmers living in Oklahoma's Dust Bowl in the 1930s—is, to a certain extent, an indictment of the Depression-era federal government. The Big Burn is about a wildfire that tore through Idaho and Montana in 1910, and served as a catalyst for the formation of the national parks department.

Tonight at 7 pm. Third Place Books, 17171 Bothell Way NE. Free.

2. The Northwest Film Forum is concluding its Divided Cinema series tonight and tomorrow with a couple of documentaries on Berlin. I’m recommending Look at this City (1962) because it’s a total historical document—a propaganda film made by the West German government that was meant to make the case for the building of the Berlin Wall, and the closing of the border between East and West Berlin. The NWFF calls it a “"provocative and informative time capsule from the Cold War."

Tonight and tomorrow night at 9 pm, at the Northwest Film Forum. Tickets are $9.

3. There's a protest at the Chase Bank downtown this evening, to demand that banks lower executive bonuses to "help Washington recover," although I'm not quite sure what that would entail.

The protest is presumably being held today to coincide with President Obama's White House meeting with financial executives today—including JP Morgan Chase's Jamie Dimon—to talk about executive salaries and encourage the banks to lend more to get money flowing through the economy.

The SEIU's message is a little more blunt—a "Fat Cat" will "greet customers and seek his year-end bonus." Then "carolers will serenade the Fat Cat and sing 'new favorites' including 'God Rest Ye Merry Bankers.'"

Tonight at 5 pm, at Chase Bank on 2nd Ave, downtown.

4. Despite the fact that his book Three Cups of Tea was pretty hot shit around my college campus a couple of years ago, I don’t know much about Greg Mortenson—besides the fact that he’s a widely-read and well-traveled advocate for the building of schools in Afghanistan, and that he’s had some pretty crazy adventures, including being arrested by the Taliban for eight days and interviewing warlords and local governors like he was a CB-strapped foreign correspondent. That enough, I’d say, is worth the trip to SPU to hear Mortenson speak on his new book, Stones to Schools.

Tomorrow night, at Seattle Pacific University, at 6:30 pm. Free.