Adam Shepard

Adam Shepardis outrageously good--looking, fabulously young and scratching his way toward fame in that hunky-writer way, with his controversial new memoir Scratch Beginnings. In the narrative, Shepard chronicles his months after college, when he decided to strike out on his own in America with nothing, as he says, but “one 8’x10’ tarp, a sleeping bag, an empty gym bag, $25 and the clothes on my back.” He was attempting to prove that the American Dream is still alive and well for anyone willing to give it the good, ahem, college try. His goal was to end the year with a car, an apartment and $2,500 in cash. In the book’s intro, published online, he says he wants to rebut Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed, a book about the working poor in America who can’t catch a break. By the end of ten months he achieves all his goals and more, and he does indeed show us that anyone who’s healthy, young, childless, gorgeous and college-educated can indeed go from “rags to fancier-rags” in a year. 7 p.m. Blue Willow Bookshop, 14532 Memorial Drive. For information, call 281-497-8675 or visit www.bluewillowbookshop.com. Free.

Tue., Jan. 27, 7 p.m., 2009