Arts Fuse critics select the best in film, theater, music, dance, visual arts, and author events for the coming week.

By The Arts Fuse Staff

Film

Boston Area Film Schedules — What is playing today, Where and When

Seven Samurai
July 27 at 7 p.m.
Coolidge Corner Theatre, Brookline, MA

This is one of the masterpieces of world cinema: desperate inhabitants of a sixteenth-century village hire seven samurai warriors to protect them from invading bandits. It is directed by Akira Kurosawa; one of 16 films he did with actor Toshiro Mifune. The film was a major influence on subsequent action films and deserves to be seen — at least once — on the big screen. Here is your chance! It was remade in 1960 by John Sturges as The Magnificent Seven in 1960. (Which is now being remade …) Nothing can top the original.

Climates
Jul 30 at 7 and 9:15 p.m.
Brattle Theatre, Cambridge, MA

This film kicks off a Thursday night series dedicated to the films of Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan. In Climates, Ceylan and his wife star as a couple whose marriage is falling apart. The plots in this acclaimed director’s films evolve slowly before reaching memorably emotional conclusions. Climates is a nuanced look at domestic behavior that ranges across a variety of feelings and landscapes. As in the work of Antonioni, the filmmaker’s careful pace and keen observations leave a powerful impression. The Guardian: “By showing ex-lovers’ embarrassing encounters in bookshops, and male confidences on the tennis court, Ceylan may even be offering a sly and very, very austere homage to Woody Allen. But this is not a movie with the feel good factor. Just as PG Wodehouse said it was an easy matter to distinguish between a ray of sunshine and a Scotsman with a grievance, so it is no challenge to differentiate between Climates and a barrel of laughs.” Other Thursday screenings include: Three Monkeys on 8/13; Once Upon A Time In Anatolia on 8/27; Winter Sleep on 9/3:

Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten: Cambodia’s Lost Rock and Roll
July 31 – August 3
Brattle Theatre, Cambridge, MA

Clips of Cambodian rock have been available for years on the Internet. In this documentary, director John Pirozzi brings the troubled history of the music to the screen in a way that offers “proof of the universality of rock ’n’ roll.” These musicians combined Western grooves with Eastern melodies, in the process reinventing rock and roll in an original and wacky way. Then, in 1975, the Khmer Rouge attempted to wipe out all manifestations of modern society.

Speedy
August 2 at 2 p.m.
Somerville Theatre in Somerville, MA

With Jeff Rapsis at the organ, the Somerville Theater presents a 35mm print of a rarely screened Harold Lloyd silent comedy. “Lloyd plays title character Harold “Speedy” Swift (Lloyd’s real-life nickname), a soda jerk who loses his job, then spends the day celebrating at Coney Island with his girl Jane (Ann Christy). Speedy’s next job as a taxi-cab driver ends disastrously, but not before he takes Babe Ruth (in a cameo appearance) on a wild ride to Yankee Stadium. Jane’s grandfather Pop runs the last remaining horse-drawn trolley franchise in New York. Shady developers wish to buy out Pop’s interest, but when he refuses their low offer, they steal his trolley, knowing the franchise will expire if the trolley does not run at least once every 24 hours. Harold recovers the stolen trolley, and in a wild cross-town chase, arrives in time to save the franchise, which Pop then sells for a hefty sum.” (Museum of the Moving Image)

— Tim Jackson

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Dance

Bittersweet
July 31 and August 1 at 8 p.m.
Calderwood Pavilion, Boston Center for the Arts
Boston, MA

This presentation marks the culmination of Carey McKinley’s dance residency at the BCA. The artist has collaborated with local visual artist Carolyn Lewenberg to create an interdisciplinary performance that incorporates the imagery of bittersweet vines.

It’s a Summer Cosplay Celebration
Saturday, August 1 at 6:30 p.m.
Center for Arts at the Armory
Somerville, MA

Come celebrate the spirit of anime, cosplay, and the world of gaming at this unique event, hosted by Penumbra:Exchange. The evening features local dance companies presenting new works inspired by video games.

ECHO Tour
August 1 at 8 p.m.; August 2 at 2 p.m.; August 3 & 4 at 7:30 p.m.
Multicultural Arts Center, Cambridge, MA

The Multicultural Arts Center and B. Dunn Movement Dance & Theatre Company bring four free performances of ECHO to Cambridge this weekend. The company uses dance, spoken text, video projection, and live music to create a multi-sensory look at the African Diaspora.

— Merli V. Guerra

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Visual Arts

Little Dreams in Glass and Metal: Enameling in America 1920 to the Present
August 2 – November 29
Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA

You may not have paid much attention to American enamel work before this, but Little Dreams in Glass and Metal could quickly fill that aesthetic lacuna for you. As used in this exhibition, “enameling” means fusing colored glass to metal, typically copper, in a high temperature kiln or with a blowtorch. The resulting work makes up for its often modest size with brilliant colors and a sense of glowing inner light, created by the reflective surface of the metal base shining through the translucent layers of glass.

Vitreous enameling goes back at least as far as the ancient Persian Empire, but it grew in popularity in the United States in the early 20th century. Little Dreams includes some 120 works, dating from 1930 to the present, ranging from small pieces of jewelry to large steel-based wall panels. The show, billed as the first of its kind in fifty years, was organized by the Los Angeles-based Enamel Arts Foundation and selected from tis collections. The 90 enamelists represented include pioneers Kenneth Bates, Doris Hall, and Jade Snow Wong and contemporaries Jamie Bennett, William Harper, Jessica Calderwood, and Sarah Perkins. The show coincides with a meeting of the Enamelist Society in Beverly, MA this August.

Island Time
Through September 6
Bristol Art Museum, Bristol, RI

The title of this exhibition suggests the archetypal experience of the summer island, where clocks and calendars seem to obey different laws than they do on the mainland. The works on view take in the fields of Nantucket, the rough shoreline of Block Island, and other spots off the New England coast that have inspired  generations of artists and writers. Photographer Michael Gaillard, watercolorist Peter Michael Dish, and painters Teri Malo and Elizabeth Zimmerman are among the artists whose work is on view.

— Peter Walsh

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Jazz

Cambridge Jazz Festival
July 26, 12-6 p.m.
MIT University Park, Cambridge, MA.

Cambridge-born singer-composer Nnenna Freelon headlines this second annual free event that also includes drummer Ron Savage with his trio, pianist JoAnne Brackeen, percussionist bandleader Eguie Castrillo with his Latin Jazz Connection, pianist Laszlo Gardony and his sextet, and the Tóth Brothers, drummer Anthony and bassist Andrew, and their band.

Mr. Ho’s Orchestrotica
July 30, 7:30 p.m.
Regattabar, Cambridge, MA.

Composer-arranger-percussionist-musical polymath Brian O’Neill enters the world of “exotica” with references to Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, Esquivel, Martin Denny, John Adams, and many others – tiki lounge music that’s more than the sum of its parts. He’s aided and abetted by multi-flutist Geni Skendo, bassist Brad Barrett, oud and misc. string player Tev Stevig, and percussionist Jeremy Smith.

Forro in the Dark
July 31, 7:30 p.m.
Regattabar, Cambridge, MA.

Forro is the folk-dance music of northeast Brazil, the band hails from New York’s Lower East Side, and this particular installment is called “Forro in the Dark Plays the Music of John Zorn.” If that doesn’t pique your interest, then I can’t help you.

Newport Jazz Festival
July 31-August 2
Newport, Rhode Island

The jazz festival that, arguably, was the daddy of them all (b. 1954) this year continues its glorious late rebirth as a nonprofit, with three full days of music, including Friday’s showcase for “emerging artists” (tip: the Newport debut of alto saxophonist/composer Matana Roberts); a glitzy Friday-night affair at the International Tennis Hall of Fame at the Newport Casino with Chris Botti and Jon Batiste & Stay Human; a Saturday line-up that includes maybe one of your only chances to hear Jack DeJohnette’s Made in Chicago (with Muhal Richard Abrams, Roscoe Mitchell, and Henry Threadgill); and a Sunday line-up that includes Dr. John, Arturo Sandoval, and Jamie Cullum along with the Fred Hersch Trio and Bill Frisell. But there will be many more, too numerous to mention here. The daytime events happen on multiple stages on the spectacular, but very exposed, peninsula of Fort Adams State Park — so dress for the weather, whatever it happens to be.

“Continuums”
August 4, 8 p.m.
Lily Pad, Cambridge, MA.

Here’s where the rubber meets the road (or, provide your favorite cliché here): Billed as “A Night of Pure Improvisation in Four Parts,” this event convenes the great alto saxophonist Jim Hobbs with esteemed cellist Daniel Levin for the first set, and then the band Leap of Faith, with PEK on clarinets and multiple reeds, Glynis Lomon on cello and voice, Steve Norton on clarinets and saxes, and Yuri Zbitnov on drums. The Hobbs/Levin segment is billed “Time,” the Leap of Faith act is “Space,” and a finale with both ensembles combined will be “Spacetime.” I’m guessing that the unbilled fourth segment will be the Event Horizon – I don’t doubt this aggregate of talent can take us there.

— Jon Garelick

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Roots and World Music

Puerto Rican Festival of Massachusetts
City Hall Plaza
July 31
Boston, MA

The city’s annual celebration of Puerto Rican culture and heritage will be spending its third year in a row downtown, with pageants, food, salsa, and reggaeton capped off by Sunday’s parade from the South End to Boston City Hall.

The Sadies
July 31
Cuisine en Locale, Somerville, MA

The closing of TT The Bear’s in Cambridge this week had me thinking of some of the great shows I’d seen there. One of the absolute best happened in 2009 when Canada’s Sadies backed X frontman John Doe. On that night they were mostly covering country classics, but the band led by brothers Dallas and Travis Good is equally adept covering garage, R&B, and pop territory.

Happy Together Tour
July 31
Lynn Auditorium, Lynn, MA

Flo and Eddie’s mix of zany humor and catchy Turtles hits lead this annual cavalcade of ’60s AM radio stars. This edition has some real and legit gems, including the Cowsills, the Association, and Paul Revere and the Raiders’ lead singer Mark Lindsay. However purists will cringe at the presence of the Buckinghams without their great original lead Dennis Tufano, and especially with this version of the Grass Roots, who at this point contain absolutely no one who played on the band’s recordings. The large roster means no one gets a long set, but it also means all hits and no padding. Also of note: past versions of the tour featured one of the better backing bands found on the oldies circuit.

— Noah Schaffer

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Classical Music

Pianist Aimi Kobayashi
July 26 at 7:30 p.m.
at Boswell Recital Hall, Walnut Hill School for the Arts, 12 Highland Street, Natick, MA

Kobayashi performs an All-Chopin program.

Violinist James Buswell and cellist Carol Ou
August 1
Boswell Recital Hall, Walnut Hill School for the Arts, 12 Highland Street, Natick, MA

The concert’s line-up includes Bohuslav Martinů’s Duo No. 2 For Violin And Cello; Gaspar Cassadó’s Suite for Solo Cello; Eugene Ysaye’s Sonata No 5 For Violin Solo; Fritz Kreisler’s Recitativo and Scherzo, Op. 6 for solo violin; Maurice Ravel’s Sonata for Violin and Cello.

Pianist Benjamin Grosvenor
August 1 @ 8 p.m.
At 37 Main Street, Rockport, MA

Rockport Music presents “one of the most sought-after young pianists in the world. His virtuosic command over the most strenuous technical complexities never compromises the formidable depth and intelligence of his interpretations.” On the program: Mendelssohn’s Preludes & Fugues Op. 35, No. 1 in E minor & No. 5 in F minor; Bach-Busoni’s Chaconne from Partita No. 2, BWV 1004; Franck’s Prelude, Chorale and Fugue, M. 21; Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin; Liszt’s Venezia e Napoli.

Borromeo String Quartet 25th Anniversary Series: Concert
August 2 at 1:30 p.m.
AT the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 25 Evans Way, Boston, MA

On the program: Schubert’s String Quartet No. 14 in D Minor “Death and the Maiden” and Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 13, Op. 130 with Grosse Fuge.

— Susan Miron

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Theater

Henry V by William Shakespeare. Directed by Jenna Ware. Staged by Shakespeare & Company in the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre, Lenox, MA, through August 23.

Those hungry for more history plays by the Bard after Henry VI, Part 2 have an opportunity to continue the adventure with the prequel: “Henry V is rare among Shakespeare’s works because it contains explicit references to true events in England’s history. Following the death of his father, Prince Hal takes on the crown, rallies his exhausted troops and sets forth to repair his post-civil war nation.” Is the text pro-war? Anti-war? A little of both? It depends on where director Ware puts the emphasis.

Saving Kitty by Marisa Smith. Directed by Lee Mikeska Gardner. Staged by the Nora Theatre Company at the Central Square Theater, Cambridge, MA, through August 2.

A political satire in which American ids and odds collide: “Kate and Huntley Hartley, atheist Manhattanites, anxiously await the arrival of their daughter, up-and-coming television news producer Kitty, and her new beau Paul, for dinner—and much, much more. When Paul turns out to be an Evangelical Christian educator—the liberal, cultured Kate’s worst nightmare—everything is turned upside down as Kate tries to scuttle the budding romance.” Jennifer Coolidge (American Pie, Best in Show, and TV’s 2 Broke Girls) makes her Boston debut as Kate.

Unknown Soldier, Book & Lyrics by Daniel Goldstein, Music & Lyrics by Michael Friedman. Directed by Trip Cullman. Staged by the Williamstown Theatre Festival in the Nikos Stage, July 30 through August 9.

The world premiere of a musical that examines the relationship between memory and family mythology: “Ellen Rabinowitz sets out to understand her past after she discovers an enigmatic photograph while cleaning out her deceased grandmother’s home. As she chases the truth about the soldier featured in the photo, Ellen is drawn into a tangle of historical facts and mysteries that lead her to surprising love stories and unexpected truths.”

Memory House by Kathleen Tolan. Directed by Sheila Siragusa. Staged by the Chester Theatre Company at Chester’s Historic Town Hall, 15 Middlefield Road, Chester, MA, July 29 through August 9.

Tolan’s play explores a mother/daughter relationship, “a moving story about the complex issues raised by international child adoption.” Stage, film, and television actress Debra Jo Rupp stars. Arts Fuse review

Thoroughly Muslim Millie by Ryan Landry. Performed by The Gold Dust Orphans. At the Provincetown Theater, 238 Bradford Street, Provincetown, MA, through September 6.

Leave it to Landry to take musical parody where most American theaters fear to tread. Seen many plays about the Middle East lately? With music? The satiric set-up: “A young girl from a Canadian convent! Thrust across the border into the Middle East and straight into the arms of the Prince of Persia! And what do Dick and Lynne Cheney have to do with all this?” WARNING: This is an ADULT parody! DO NOT BRING YOUR CHILDREN!

A Little More Alive, by Nick Blaemire. Directed by Sheryl Kaller. Staged in the St. Germain Stage by the Barrington Stage Company, Pittsfield, MA, through August 8.

The East Coast premiere of Blaemire’s songfest: “in this heartfelt and original folk-pop musical, two estranged brothers reunite at their childhood home after their mother’s funeral. An unexpected revelation distorts every memory they have as they uncover secrets that had been hiding in plain sight their whole lives. Brothers Nate and Jeremy find that no one is exempt from the grey area between right and wrong.”

Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin. Lyrics & Music by Irving Berlin. Book by Hershey Felder. Directed by Trevor Hay. Presented by Arts Emerson at the Emerson/Culter Majestic Theatre, Boston, MA, through August 2.

The latest in Felder’s series of dramatic explorations of the music and lives of famous composers. According to the Los Angeles Times review, his take on Irving Berlin is “richly entertaining and ultimately touching, though not without some issues. Repetitions in tone and text could stand a few trims, and Berlin’s output affords Felder less options for concert fireworks at the keyboard than previous excursions.”

King Lear by William Shakespeare. Directed by Steven Maler. Staged by Commonwealth Shakespeare on the Boston Common, through August 9.

The 20th season production of CSC’s Free Shakespeare on the Common is a special treat — the company’s first try at producing one of the Bard’s most challenging tragedies — King Lear. Will Lyman stars as the “aging king, faced with his own mortality and mental decline, who tries to secure the legacy of his kingdom by dividing it amongst his three daughters. Only through loss — of status, of love, of loyalty — does King Lear learn what is truly resonant at the end of a life.”

The Unexpected Man by Yasmina Reza. Translated by Christopher Hampton. Directed by Seth Gordon. Staged by Shakespeare & Company at the Tina Packer Playhouse, Lenox, MA, through September 6.

The production stars Corinna May and, making his S&Co. debut, John Woodson in a story that “follows a middle-aged man and woman who sit opposite each other in the detached intimacy of a train compartment on a journey from Paris to Frankfurt. He is a world famous author; she, one of his biggest fans, carries his latest novel in her handbag and ponders the dilemma of reading it in front of him.”

The New Electric Ballroom by Edna Walsh. Directed by Robert Walsh. Staged by the Gloucester Stage at 267 East Main Street, Gloucester, MA, July 23 through August 15.

A New England premiere: “A dark comedy about three sisters living in a small town on the coast of Ireland. The youngest, Ada, works at the local fish-packing plant, but Breda and Clara stay home and relive their teenage encounter with a 1950s rocker at the New Electric Ballroom. Their surreal routine is interrupted by Patsy, a fishmonger who ends up offering the sisters more than just the catch of the day.” The impressive cast includes Nancy E. Carroll, Adrianne Krstansky, and Marya Lowry. Arts Fuse review

Paradise Blue by Dominique Morisseau. Directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson. Staged by Williamstown Theatre Festival, Main Stage, Williamstown, MA, through August 2.

The world premiere of a script that revolves around the world of jazz: “Blue (played by Blair Underwood), a gifted trumpeter, contemplates selling his once-vibrant jazz club in Detroit’s Blackbottom neighborhood to shake free the demons of his past and better his life. But where does that leave his devoted Pumpkin, who has dreams of her own?” The cast also features Tony Award-nominee De’Adre Aziza, as “a mysterious woman with a walk that drives men mad.”

Northside Hollow written and directed Jonathan Fielding and Brenda Withers. Directed by At the Harbor Stage Company, 15 Kendrick Avenue on Wellfleet Harbor, Wellfleet, MA, through August 8.

The world premiere production of a play expressly written for the HSC: “Trapped underground after a deadly collapse, a miner finds his salvation in the arrival of a scrappy first responder. An intimate portrait of mortality, memory, and redemption.”

I Saw My Neighbor On the Train and I Didn’t Even Smile by Suzanne Heathcote. Directed by Jackson Gay. Music by Ryan Kattner. Staged by the Berkshire Theatre Group and the New Neighborhood at the Unicorn Theatre, Stockbridge, MA, through August 15.

A world premiere production about the “utter loneliness of human existence”: “This is Rebecca’s life: she wakes up, eats a sensible breakfast, wraps herself in three layers, drives to the train station, commutes to her bookkeeping job in the city, watches the clock, goes home, cooks dinner for her domineering mother, watches TV, and falls asleep grieving for her dead dog. Every day is the same as the next until Rebecca’s underachieving brother begs her to take care of her troubled niece—and she does what she always does—she lets it happen. In an unforgivingly bitter month, three generations of women with nothing in common, except a deeply buried ache, try to keep the cold away.” Perfect summer theater counter-programming. Arts Fuse review

— Bill Marx

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Rock

Bombino
July 27
The Sinclair, Cambridge, MA

Ever since the 2013 release of his Dan Auerbach-produced album Nomad, the Tuareg guitarist Bombino (who has been called “The Hendrix of the Desert”) has been a regular on the concert scene and visited Boston as recently as last September. This is fitting considering it was local filmmaker Ron Wyman who introduced Bombino to many with his film Agadez, the Music and the Rebellion.

X
July 30
The Sinclair, Cambridge, MA

X is very much an L.A. band (their 1980 debut was even titled Los Angeles) but they’re welcome in Boston anyway. While it’s been more than 20 years since they released an album of new material, the seminal punk group still tours with all its original members, Exene Cervenka, John Doe, Billy Zoom, and D. J. Bonebrake.

Veruca Salt
July 30
Paradise Rock Club, Boston, MA

Speaking of bands touring with their original lineups, Nina Gordon, Louise Post, Jim Shapiro, and Steve Lack of Veruca Salt reunited in 2013 and released Ghost Notes earlier this month. This is the first new music from the original group members since Gordon left the band in 1998.

(the) Thurston MoOre Baand
August 2
The Sinclair, Cambridge, MA

Best known for his role as co-leader of Sonic Youth, Thurston Moore has released four solo albums. His latest, 2014’s The Best Day, was his first to be released after the breakup of his marriage and his band. Since the release of the record, he’s been touring often and this show marks the second time he’s come to the Sinclair in the past 9 months.

Brandon Flowers
August 3
House of Blues, Boston, MA

The Killers frontman released his second solo album The Desired Effect in May of this year. It’s being received (mostly warmly) as a pop album, though that’s hardly a huge surprise. The Killers have always been poppy. If the group ever decides to call it a day, it’s clear Flowers will still have a long career ahead of him.

Upcoming and On Sale…

Jamie XX (8/9/2015, The Sinclair); Dick Dale (8/15/2015, Middle East-Downstairs); Willie Nelson & Family (8/21/2015, Blue Hills Bank Pavilion); AC/DC (8/22/2015, Gillette Stadium); Counting Crows (8/23/2015, Blue Hills Bank Pavilion); Social Distortion (8/23/2015, House of Blues); J. Geils Band (8/27/2015, Blue Hills Bank Pavilion); The Vaccines (8/30/2015, The Sinclair); Speedy Ortiz (8/30/2015, Rock and Blues Concert Cruise); Death Cab For Cutie (9/11/2015, Blue Hills Bank Pavilion); Rancid (9/15/2015, House of Blues); Robert Plant and the Sensational Space Shifters (9/20/2015, Blue Hills Bank Pavilion); Albert Hammond Jr. (9/20/2015, The Sinclair); Bob Mould (9/23/2015, The Sinclair); Frank Turner & the Sleeping Souls (9/25/2015, House of Blues); Boston Calling (featuring Avett Brothers, Alt-J, and Alabama Shakes) (9/25-27/2015, City Hall Plaza); Ghost (9/28/2015, House of Blues); The Jesus and Mary Chain (9/29/2015, House of Blues); Kurt Vile and the Violators (10/2/2015, Paradise Rock Club); Kraftwerk (10/3/2015, Wang Theatre); Ride (10/3/2015, Paradise Rock Club); Mark Knopfler (10/9/2015, Orpheum Theatre); Catfish and the Bottlemen (10/16/2015, Royale); Garbage (10/21/2015, Orpheum Theatre); Ringo Starr and His All Star Band (10/23/2015. Citi Performing Arts Center); The Who (10/29/2015, TD Garden); My Morning Jacket (11/20-21/2015, Orpheum Theatre)

— Adam Ellsworth

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Author Events

Phillip Hoose
The Boys Who Challenged Hitler: Knud Pedersen and the Churchill Club
July 28 at 7 p.m.
Porter Square Books, Cambridge MA
Free

Even though Denmark did not resist Nazi occupation, a group of high school classmates decided to do so. Calling themselves The Churchill Group, Knud Pedersen, his brother, and a small group of friends resisted the fascists by committing various courageous acts of sabotage, eventually galvanizing the nation into fighting against their occupiers.

Michael Blanding
The Map Thief
July 28 at 7 p.m.
Wilmington Memorial Library, Wilmington MA
Free

The map trade can be an obsessive, cutthroat business: in some cases wheeling and dealing beautifully illustrated cartography fetches millions of dollars among fanatical collectors. Nobody knew that E. Forbes Smiley III, an internationally recognized dealer in rare maps, was also one of the most infamous map thieves of all time. He made off with several million dollars worth of pictures until his arrest in 2005. This book was a New England Indie Bestseller.

Juliana Barbassa
In Conversation with Julio Ricardo Varela
Dancing with the Devil in the City of God: Rio de Janiero on the Brink
July 29 at 7 p.m.
Porter Square Books, Cambridge MA
Free

Rio has always aspired to the status of a major global capital, hosting the 2014 World Cup as well as being the future home of the 2016 Olympics. But what does the city look like under its fun-loving, beach-friendly facade? Barbassa, a Brazil-born journalist, discusses her new journalistic account of a city on the brink, where corruption, gang violence, the drug trade, economic inflation, and decaying neighborhoods are pushing the picturesque city to the brink of disaster.

Anthony M Amore
In Conversation with Michael Blanding
The Art of the Con: The Most Notorious Frauds, Fakes, and Forgeries in the Art World
July 30 at 7 p.m.
Brookline Booksmith, Coolidge Corner MA
Free

If you’ve ever seen Orson Welles’s 1973 film F for Fake (and if you haven’t, you should!) you know how intriguingly bizarre the world of art forgery can be. Art expert Anthony Amore comes to Brookline to discuss his latest work, chronicling the history of confidence games in the art world, from forgeries that fool the owners of galleries for decades to priceless art stolen and hidden for decades.

Reif Larson
In Conversation with Eugenia Williamson
I Am Radar: A Novel
July 30 at 7 p.m.
Harvard Book Store, Cambridge MA
Free

The bestselling author of The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet comes to Cambridge to read and discuss his latest novel with The Boston Globe‘s Eugenia Williamson. Larson’s novel is the story of a boy born at the moment when all the lights in the hospital go out, thereby turning his skin inexplicably pitch-black. The book presents a complex tale of surreal interconnections, including sub-plots about Norwegian schoolteachers and a Cambodian refugee.

Boston Comic Con
July 31 to August 2
Seaport World Trade Center, Boston MA
Tickets from $30/One day pass – $100/Three Day Pass

Boston celebrates the world of comics with an extensive, multi-day festival with something for everyone. Stan Lee and 30 Rock‘s Judah Freidlander will make appearances, there will be a promo night at Fenway Park, a harbor cruise, movie screenings, a costume contest, and an after-party hosted by Laugh Boston.

Martha’s Vineyard Book Festival
August 1 & 2
Edgartown and Chilmark, Martha’s Vineyard MA
Free

Hop on the ferry and head over to the annual Martha’s Vineyard Book Festival, where you can take in a weekend’s worth of author readings and events for free. There’s a diverse assortment of writers coming this year, featuring Atlantic Monthly editor and bestselling author Ta-Nehisi Coates, Laurie David, former Newton representative Barney Frank, Devil in White City author Erik Larson, Globe sports reporter Bob Ryan, and many more.

— Matt Hanson