Giunta event a first for author, book club

Salvatore Giunta, a graduate of Cedar Rapids Kennedy High School and the first living Medal of Honor recipient from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, will be in Cedar Rapids on Thursday to read from his new book, “Living with Honor: A Memoir.”

The reading and book-signing is the first event for The Gazette Book Club.

Giunta — now 27, a civilian, married, a father, and living in Fort Collins, Colo. — wrote the book with the assistance of Joe Layden.

“I told stories, and he wrote them up,” Giunta said in a recent interview with The Gazette.

Copies of the memoir (Threshold Editions, 304 pages, $26) will be available for purchase Thursday night, four days before its official release on Dec. 4. This is Giunta’s first appearance on a national book tour.

People are invited to read the book and join The Gazette Book Club discussion of the memoir in January. To join the book club, go to TheGazette.com/bookclub.

IF YOU GO: Sal Giunta, 7 p.m. Thursday, Barnes & Noble Bookseller, 333 Collins Rd. NE, Cedar Rapids. Reading and book-signing.

TUESDAY

Maximiliano Barrientos, 7 p.m., Prairie Lights, 15 S. Dubuque St., Iowa City. The Bolivian writer, living in Iowa City, will read in Spanish from his two new novels, “Hoteles” and “Fotos Tuyas Cuando Emlezas a Envejecer.” The reading is co-sponsored by the University of Iowa’s Spanish Creative Writing Program. His short story collection, “Diario,” won the Santa Cruz National Literature Prize in 2009.

WEDNESDAY

Dylan Nice, 7 p.m. at Prairie Lights, 15 S. Dubuque St., Iowa City. Nice will read from his short story collection, “Other Kinds.” Nice’s stories and essays have appeared in numerous reviews and magazines. A graduate of the University of Iowa’s Nonfiction Writing program, he lives in Iowa.

FRIDAY

Charles Rowan Beye, 7 p.m., Prairie Lights, 15 S. Dubuque St., Iowa City. Beye, a retired professor of Ancient Greek and the father of four, grew up in Iowa City. He will read from his memoir, “My Husband and My Wives: A Gay Man’s Odyssey.” See review to the left.

Find more book-related events at TheGazette.com/calendar. Events can be submitted there using the Literary category.