Space is tight, so here's the breathless rundown of amazing literary names just sort of casually dropping into our area this week.

Michael Chabon The handsomest married father-of-four to win the Pulitzer in some good time reads from and discusses his parenting tome Manhood for Amateurs on Thursday, Nov. 5, at 6pm at Copperfield's Santa Rosa and again on Saturday, Nov. 7, at 7:30pm in Pt. Reyes.

Jonathan Safran Foer Everything Is Illuminated author returns with his newest, Eating Animals, his personal look at factory farming on Friday, Nov. 6, at 1pm at Book Passage.

John Irving (Above) Look for the missing body part, because with Irving, there's always one! He reads from his newest, Last Night in Twisted River, on Friday, Nov. 6, at 7pm at Book Passage.

Anne Lamott Marin's most spiritual recovering alcoholic and its wryest eye appears with Roger Housden and Nina Wise at a "Benefit to Bring Water to an African Village" on Sunday, Nov. 8, at 2pm at the 142 Throckmorton Theatre.

Al Gore You might have heard of him. His new book is titled Our Choice and the former vice president says that he remains optimistic that humankind won't really carbonize itself out of existence. He appears on Monday, Nov. 9, at 7pm at Dominican University. $40; includes a signed book.

Garth Stein Author of a legitimate New York Times bestseller, a literary novel, Art of Racing in the Rain, starring a dog (I know, right?), appears on Tuesday, Nov. 10, at 7pm at Copperfield's Santa Rosa.

Ken Auletta The New Yorker magazine's media critic's new book is Googled: The End of the World As We Know It. Auletta spent some two years on the Google campus trying to determine such simple facts as how many engineers they employ (upwards of 10,000) and how much they earn (ain't no one talking), posing the question: What will happen when—not if—Google goes bad? Catch him on Tuesday, Nov. 10, at 7pm at Book Passage.

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