Books

WASHINGTON — Isabel Allende has a cold. Bronchitis, actually.

She’s normally a hugger. Not today.

“Don’t touch me,” she warns, thrusting her arms up to avoid the slightest possibility of skin-to-skin contact. “I’m all germs.”

It’s Wednesday and the Chilean novelist is in a plush, sun-streamed sitting room in the Madison Hotel in downtown Washington, one of 15 cities she’s visiting on a nearly monthlong book tour for “Maya’s Notebook.”

Allende “despises” book tours.

The airports, the lines. “Traveling is just really for young people.”

She loves The People.

“The people who show up at readings love your books. They’re not going to throw tomatoes at you.”

Utah authors from the Eden Writers Group will discuss and sign copies of their book “Tales From Two-Bit Street And Beyond” (DMT Publishing, $10.99) 3-5 p.m. Saturday at Hastings, 340 E. 535 North, Harrisville. This is a free event.

Hastings Children’s Summer Reading Club will be held at 1 p.m. June 8 and 22, July 13 and 27, Aug. 10 and 24 and Sept 7. The program includes prizes, treats and books at Hastings, 340 E. 535 North, Harrisville. These are free events.

The Mountains and Plains Indie Bestseller List, provided by IndieBound and MPIBA, for the week ended Sunday, May 5. Based on reporting from the independent booksellers of the MPIBA and IndieBound.

-- War veteran and Utah author Gordon “Gordy” Ewell, who was injured during the Iraq war, discusses and signs his book “Dung In My Foxhole” (Trafford Publishing, $10) 1 p.m. Saturday at Barnes and Noble, 1780 Woodland Park Drive, Layton. Visit www.dunginmyfoxhole.com for more information. Free.

A new Edgar Allan Poe book is giving me the warm fuzzies. Oddly, the reason why involves Sherlock Holmes.

Millions of years ago — well, it was the mid-1980s — the young captain rode his dinosaur into a bookstore and expended what was then an uncomfortable amount of money for Amarinth Press’ “The Celebrated Cases of Sherlock Holmes,” collecting all of the stories of the great detective by his creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It’s a beautiful book: hardback with padded covers; gilt edges; period illustrations; faux-aged pages.

Author events this week at the King’s English Bookshop include:

• Journalist Jeff Chu discusses his book “Does Jesus Really Love Me? A Gay Christian’s Pilgrimage in Search of God in America” at 7 p.m. Monday.

• Utah author Sara Zarr reads from and signs “The Lucy Variations” at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

WASHINGTON — Don DeLillo, the celebrated novelist who once complained that as a young writer he “lacked ambition,” has been named the first recipient of the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction. The new lifetime achievement award, announced Thursday by Librarian of Congress James Billington, will be presented at the 13th annual National Book Festival in September.

For his many fans, this presents a rare opportunity. DeLillo, who usually avoids such public events and hasn’t done a book tour in years, has agreed to speak at the festival, which last year drew more than 200,000 people to the National Mall in Washington.