Asia Society: Pico Iyer

Pico Iyer has an enviable job: Magazines like The New Yorker, National Geographic and Timepay him to travel the world and write about distant places and fascinating people. As if that weren’t enough, it turns out that the British-born Iyer has had a close, decades-long relationship with none other than the Dalai Lama. Today, the Asia Society and Brazos Bookstore present a talk with the journalist and novelist, who will discuss The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, the 2008 book he wrote about his pal. The intimate account, in which Iyer remarked that it’s easy to see the Dalai Lama as “the plaything of movie stars and millionaires,” won Iyer raves for writing a far more complex portrait of his holiness than most of the media (read: non-buddies) had before. 7 p.m. Westin Galleria Hotel, 5060 West Alabama. For information, call 713-439-0265 or visit www.asiasociety.org. $20 to $30.
Wed., April 29, 7 p.m., 2009