Local author and blogger Smart Bitch Candy will be holding forth at Powell's Cedar Hills on her new book, Beyond Heaving Bosoms: The Smart Bitches Guide To Romance Novels.

From the creators of the beloved blog Smart Bitches, Trashy Books comes a guide to the most popular -- and maligned -- fiction genre: Romance! is Candy Tan and Sarah Wendell's hilariously sarcastic but always affectionate study of romance novels, perfect for hardcore fans and dabblers alike.

Come for the Dominican bitches, stay for the man titty.

Interested in user experience in all of its forms? Enjoy reading? Want to combine the two in a social setting with other smart, like-minded people, and maybe drink a beer?

Join us for Portland's first UX Book Club meeting on April 16. We'll meet at Pinpoint Logic's office -- feel free to bring snacks and/or drinks, for yourself or to share.

Get started now by reading "The Back of The Napkin" by Dan Roam: www.thebackofthenapkin.com

Feel free to bring snacks or drinks (alcohol is a-okay), for yourself or to share.

Reading is an inherently social experience: what we read and how we read it is shaped by who we know and the broader communities we belong to. With that in mind, Cathy Marshall from Microsoft Research will take a fresh look at the future of eBooks and how we get there from here. In particular, she will share some findings from a body of studies of reading-related activities (such as annotation and clipping) and will draw on her experiences with several generations of eBook products, including Microsoft Reader, ePeriodicals (a reader for magazines like The New Yorker and Esquire), and the Times News Reader (an RSS-based reader for The New York Times).

Registration begins 6:30 pm. Program followed by questions from 7 - 9 pm. CHIFOO members get in free. Non-members pay $5 to attend the meeting.

Interested in user experience in all of its forms? Enjoy reading? Want to combine the two in a social setting with other smart, like-minded people, and maybe drink a beer?

Join us for Portland's third UX Book Club meeting on Tuesday August 18. For this session, we're reading "The Design of Everyday Things" by Donald Norman: http://bit.ly/1aEa7D

Feel free to bring snacks or drinks (alcohol is a-okay), for yourself or to share. We'll be meeting at Tyesha's house--the address will be posted closer to the date.

Please RSVP here: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/3070658

This time around, we're reading Agile Experience Design: A Digital Designer's Guide to Agile, Lean, and Continuous. Want to read, learn, talk about UX and agile, and maybe drink some beer? You should come along!

Come and join us to discuss our book for June 2012: Situations Matter: Understanding How Context Transforms Your World http://www.amazon.com/Situations-Matter-Understanding-Context-Transforms/dp/1594488185/

Hold onto your hats, because we're reading Mike Monteiro's Design Is A Job (http://www.abookapart.com/products/design-is-a-job), a short, easy to read, essential guide for any designer, especially those who are, or thinking about, contracting.

Come along to meet other user experience designers and discuss Don Norman's Living With Complexity. There'll be good conversation and very probably beer. What's not to love about that?

Come along and join us to discuss the excellent Just Enough Research by Mule Design's Erika Hall. Erika, will be joining us via video at 6:30PM to answer any questions you have.

Just Enough Research is a short, really useful book on getting research done in your job. It's just the thing to read if you're looking to get started with research, or you know you need to do research but don't have much support to get it done. Visit our Google Group for a book discount code.

We're being hosted by the fine folks at Puppet Labs at their offices in The Pearl.

If you don't manage to finish the book on time, please still feel free to attend!

Join us to discuss George Lakoff's classic Metaphors We Live By.

This is a book that changed people's understanding of metaphor and its role in language and the mind. Metaphor, the authors explain, is a fundamental mechanism of mind, one that allows us to use what we know about our physical and social experience to provide understanding of countless other subjects.

Sound interesting? Then come along and talk! Also: there will be beer :)

If you haven't managed to finish the book before the event, please feel free to come along and join the discussion.

Come along and talk to Sam Ladner, the author of the super-useful and well-received new book, Practical Ethnography: A Guide to Doing Ethnography in the Private Sector.

Sam's book is aimed at two groups of people:

1. Social scientists who want to adapt their academic skills to the private sector, either to find a full-time job or to practice as an independent researcher; and
2. Designers and researchers already working in the private sector who may not have formal training in ethnography.

Sam is based in Seattle but is coming to Portland to talk to us. Don't miss this opportunity to talk about the research skills that are so critical in creating successful products.

Note: if you haven't finished the book, please still come along and join the conversation

We're following on from July's excellent discussion on Sam Ladner's Practical Ethnography: A Guide to Doing Ethnography in the Private Sector with a classic from sociologist Erving Goffman.

"Interaction Ritual - Essays on Face-to-Face Behavior" is one of several classic books by Goffman, and one that is studied by UX researchers. The book is a collection of six essays: "On Face-work", "Embarrassment and Social Organization", "The Nature of Deference and Demeanor", "Alienation from Interaction", "Mental Symptoms and Public Order", and "Where the Action Is". If you want to brush up on your understanding of people, this is one of the books for you.

If you haven't finished the book, but still want to come along and talk, the please do—we'd love to see you.

The Pacific Northwest is home to a Tardis-Full of Science Fiction and Fantasy writers, a fact celebrated every quarter with the Pacific Northwest Reading Series. These free quarterly events provide the Northwest Science Fiction and Fantasy community a chance to gather, network and enjoy readings from local and visiting authors in Portland and Seattle.

Each event features three authors who read from their latest work, interpreting and explaining their concepts and vision. In addition, space is provided for networking and conversation. The next Portland event will be held on Thursday, May 7th and will feature Cat Rambo, Janine Southard and Fonda Lee.

The Pacific Northwest is home to a Tardis-Full of Science Fiction and Fantasy writers, a fact celebrated every quarter with the Pacific Northwest Reading Series. These free quarterly events provide the Northwest Science Fiction and Fantasy community a chance to gather, network and enjoy readings from local and visiting authors in Portland and Seattle.

Each event features three authors who read from their latest work, interpreting and explaining their concepts and vision. In addition, space is provided for networking and conversation. Booksellers will be on hand with fresh copies of the authors’ books for you to buy and get autographed.

The Pacific Northwest is home to a Tardis-Full of Science Fiction and Fantasy writers, a fact celebrated every quarter with the Pacific Northwest Reading Series. These free quarterly events provide the Northwest Science Fiction and Fantasy community a chance to gather, network and enjoy readings from local and visiting authors in Portland and Seattle.

Each event features three authors who read from their latest work, interpreting and explaining their concepts and vision. In addition, space is provided for networking and conversation. Booksellers will be on hand with fresh copies of the authors’ books for you to buy and get autographed.

This May: authors Mishell Baker, Sonia Lyris and Camille Griep.

The Pacific Northwest is home to a Tardis-Full of Science Fiction and Fantasy writers, a fact celebrated every quarter with the Pacific Northwest Reading Series. These free quarterly events provide the Northwest Science Fiction and Fantasy community a chance to gather, network and enjoy readings from local and visiting authors in Portland and Seattle.

Each event features three authors who read from their latest work, interpreting and explaining their concepts and vision. In addition, space is provided for networking and conversation. Booksellers will be on hand with fresh copies of the authors’ books for you to buy and get autographed.

This November, come meet authors Rhiannon Held, Todd Lockwood, and Laura Ann Gilman.

Daryl Gregory, Leah Cutter, and Jennifer Brozek.

The Pacific Northwest is home to a Tardis-Full of Science Fiction and Fantasy writers, a fact celebrated every quarter with the Pacific Northwest Reading Series. These free quarterly events provide the Northwest Science Fiction and Fantasy community a chance to gather, network and enjoy readings from local and visiting authors in Portland and Seattle.

Each event features three authors who read from their latest work, interpreting and explaining their concepts and vision. In addition, space is provided for networking and conversation. Booksellers will be on hand with fresh copies of the authors’ books for you to buy and get autographed.

Join us for a beer (or beverage of your choice) and a snack at the Rogue Eastside Pub to discuss Patrick Lencioni's book "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team". If you work with teams and team success, this book may be an interesting addition to your library.

Lencioni tells the story of a troubled Silicon Valley firm and the new CEO faced with uniting and guiding a team of leaders with the aim of making the company a success. Through this business fable, Lencioni highlights the common dysfunctions that he claims can cripple any team: absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, and inattention to results. He offers ways to assess a team and provides actionable steps on how to overcome each of the 5 dysfunctions.

Food for thought:

• This book tells the tale of a CEO refashioning the dynamic of an executive committee. Do fables apply to everyone?
• Is Lencioni right? Does he name the most important dysfunctions that challenge the teams you work with?
• What can we learn from this representative tale about development teams? Where can we add our own wisdom to Lencioni's model?

We look forward to learning what Agile mindsets bring to the table! Tip: It's worth reading some online book reviews for critical perspectives.

Please visit our Meetup link to RSVP:

https://www.meetup.com/AgilePDX-User-Group-Portland-Metro/events/253824910/

RSVP: https://www.meetup.com/AgilePDX-User-Group-Portland-Metro/events/256215771/

Join us for a beer (or beverage of your choice) and a snack at the Rogue Eastside Pub to discuss "Flat Army" by Dan Pontefract. He says he has the strategy to solve the challenges of unhappy and uncommitted employees, and it's based on empowerment:

"Your people are your most valuable asset, and if you want them to excel (and your profits to soar), you'll need to abandon your traditional command-and-control management style and adopt a collaborative, open leadership approach―one that engages and empowers your people. While this isn't a particularly new idea, many leaders, while they may pay lip service to it, don't really understand what it means. And most of those who do get it lack the skills for putting it into practice. In Flat Army you'll find powerful leadership models and tools that help you challenge yourself and overcome your personal obstacles to change, while pushing the boundaries of organizational change to create a culture of collaboration."

Let's discuss the pros and cons of his approached and compare it to our real-world experiences and experiments.

We look forward to your creative insights!

Tip: It's worth reading some online book reviews for critical perspectives.