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Book Talk

LOCAL AUTHORS ... Pearl Karrer of Palo Alto and Lynore Banchoff of Menlo Park are among the contributors to the anthology "Child of My Child," featuring literary poetry and prose about grandparenting. The book was named a finalist in the 2011 Next Generation Indie Book Awards. "Drop by Drop," a new thriller by Palo Alto writer Keith Raffel is available as an ebook from Amazon or Smashwords. Raffel, author of "Smasher" and "Dot Dead," has been a judge in the Palo Alto Weekly's annual Short Story Contest.

AUTHOR TALKS ... Upcoming Kepler's author events, at 1010 El Camino Real, Menlo Park, include Melissa Marr, "Graveminder" (June 3, 7 p.m.); Patrick Schwerdtfeger, "Marketing Shortcuts for the Self-Employed: Leverage Resources, Establish Online Credibility and Crush Your Competition" (June 6, 5:30 p.m.); Michael David Lukas, "The Oracle of Stamboul," and Ann Packer, "Swim Back to Me," presented by Zonta Club of Silicon Valley (June 7, 6:30 p.m.); Patricia Albers, "Joan Mitchell: Lady Painter, A Life" (June 9, 7 p.m.); Ron Hansen, "A Wild Surge of Guilty Passion" (June 13, 7 p.m.); Lauren Kate, "Passion" (June 14, 7 p.m.); Ann Patchett, "State of Wonder" (June 15, 7 p.m.); Daniel Orozco, "Orientation and Other Stories" (June 21, 7 p.m.); Alice LaPlante, "Turn of Mind" (July 6, 7 p.m.) and Ellen Sussman, "French Lessons: A Novel" (July 12, 7 p.m.). Information: www.keplers.com.

MORE TALKS ... Upcoming authors at Books Inc. at Town & Country Village in Palo Alto include Matt Richtel, "The Devil's Plaything" (June 21, 7 p.m.) and Meg Waite Clayton, "The Language of Light" (June 28, 7 p.m.). Information: www.booksinc.net.

Items for Book Talk may be sent to Associate Editor Carol Blitzer, Palo Alto Weekly, P.O Box 1610, Palo Alto, CA 93202 or emailed to cblitzer@paweekly.com by the last Friday of the month.