From Pulp Addict, where I chronicle the stuff that flows in and out of my bookstore. This week: Augusten Burroughs, Steve Martin, Jennifer Weiner, and Robert B. Parker.

Stranger In Paradise, Robert B. Parker (Putnam 2008) Mr. Parker is a heavyweight in the crowded world of crime thillers, having written over fifty books in the genre, but after plowing my way through this in two days, I’m not sure why. All the staples are there; tough, masculine detectives, quick with the solemn one-liners and burdened with the requisite drinking problem/ex-wife (in this case, both), oversexed female deputies who end up in bed with with a tough dude from the wrong side of the law, and of course, psychotic Hispanic gang members. Mr. Parker likes to include a lot of nodding in his prose, as in “Jesse nodded his head.” and “Jesse nodded, slowly.” and “Crow nodded.” and “Crow nodded at them both.” and my personal favorite, “Both men sat motionless, then nodded at each other.” Did I mention this all happens in the first chapter? It’s as if Mr. Parker doesn’t quite know how to convey, literarily, that someone is listening to someone else, and hears them correctly. Then again, this guy is a fucking millionaire and I’m writing a stupid blog. All told, it’s a pretty fun read and I think I answered my own question about why people love Robert Parker; because once he gets all the nodding out of the way he’s dependable and delivers the revenge killing in a timely and efficient manner.

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Good thing we have all those guns out there to protect us: “ In the last two hours of Wednesday, two 17-year-old boys and a young woman were killed in shootings in Pawtucket, Providence and Woonsocket.” ( Projo)

  Pawtucket gets some credit for steping up its game, landing the number 9 slot in this month’s Art Calendar magazine:

Hall said she was aware of Pawtucket’s reputation as an “artist-friendly” place, as well as being one of nine cities in Rhode Island that offer tax incentives to working artists. “There are only a few areas of the country that are doing things like that,” she said. Hall called Pawtucket “a model city” for other municipalities that want to reinvent themselves as “art towns.”

“They have a great program and it is very established,” she said. “I would say it is one of the most solid places for an artist to live.”

Arts guru Herb Weiss* is stoked: “This article in Art Calendar is a reflection of the buzz and sizzle that is occurring nationwide about Pawtucket being a great city for working artists. It’s a concrete example that what we’re doing here is working.”

*Arts guru Herb Weiss is also on the ballot on Tuesday, as an uncommitted delegate to the Dem convention.

The Rhode Island State Council on the Arts invites you to attend the RISCA Fellowship Exhibition Writers Night on Friday, Feb 15, from 6:30-8:00pm at Machines With Magnets Gallery in Pawtucket.

The evening will include readings by Poetry Fellowship Award Winner Nehassiaiu DeGannes, Fiction Fellowship Award Winner Brian Sousa, Fiction Fellowship Merit Award Winner Bruce Reilly. This year the Writers Night will also feature music by Folk Arts Fellowship Merit Award Winner Jose Fernandes.

Coffee & Cookies generously donated by Kafe Lila. Come for the readings and enjoy the artwork of the RISCA Fellowship Exhibition!

Free and open to the public.

Milk And Cookies is a new gallery/shop in the Grant building downtown in Pawtucket, and tonight they’re having an art n’ music blowout party with artists Senan O’Connor, EXCHILDSTAR, Monster Decay, and Jaime Re and music by Philly’s Plastic Little, and our own Triangle Forest, DJ Morgan Louis and DJ Sterby Rock (from 90.3 wriu) Things get started at 9pm, looks like there’s no cover. Word.

• Saturday the 19th can only mean the 31st Annual Pawtucket Red Sox Hot Stove League Party. 11am-2 pm at McCoy Stadium. Whoop whoop!
• The George Wiley Center is screening the Cynthia McKinney poli-doc American Blackout tonight at 630 at the Bell Street Chapel, and Sunday, Jan. 20th at 2pm at the Mediator Fellowship hall at 55 Rounds Ave. More info here.
• Renowned Liz Lerman Dance Exchange Residency comes to Provi this week. Schedule here.
• Obama Happy Hour(s) at CAV on Wednesday the 23rd, from 5-730pm.
• The Rhode Island Federation of Republican Women is screening HBO doc Hacking Democracy at the Columbus Theater at 7pm on the 24th.
• RI Young Demz and the Dose co-host a State of the Union Party at McFaddens on the 28th. Get prepped.

Full Moon Emporium presents Santa Claus at The Grant Building, 250 Main Street, Pawtucket, RI, Saturdays from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm in December. Join us as he takes requests from the kids. Bring them for a special holiday celebration on December 15th with presents, live music, the models of Hydrogen2Foxygen, and storytelling. Grab a hot cocoa at Kafe Lila and get your holiday shopping done at the many shops at The Grant Building.

The Grant at a glance: 7 offices, 3 retail stores, an art gallery, a cafe, a recording studio and a large silkscreen studio, all in an historic circa 1906 department store. A place for designers and creative people to work together, share ideas and resources, and for the general public to do a little shopping, grab a coffee, and check their email on our WiFi. (more…)