UCI’s Bender to Sign First Novel

Two years ago, Aimee Bender received rave reviews for “The Girl in the Flammable Skirt,” her best-selling collection of quirky short stories that, according to Publishers Weekly, “take place at the intersection of fairy tale and everyday life, of hilarity and heartbreak.”

Now Bender, who sold her story collection two weeks before finishing UC Irvine’s graduate program in writing, is back with an equally quirky first novel that is earning her more critical hosannas.

“An Invisible Sign of Her Own” (Doubleday; $22.95) is the story of an emotionally disconnected 20-year-old heroine, Mona Gray, who deliberately retreated from the world of happiness and achievement 10 years earlier after her adored father came down with a mysterious illness that left him a joyless hypochondriac.

Mona’s only remaining source of happiness--”the one thing I loved but never quit”--is the orderly world of mathematics, which she teaches to second-graders in a slightly warped universe in which “the math classroom had no windows and was the width of a hallway. Also it smelled like concrete. ART and SPELLING were squarer, and windowed, and scented with sunshine, so I figured math gets the shaft in classroom selection because the math teacher is the dentist of the school curriculum.”

Publishers Weekly says Bender “writes like an angel, with images that strike resonant chords, and her sly humor pervades every page.”

The Boston Globe says “An Invisible Sign of Her Own” is “full of power and whimsy and other-worldly flight.”

And, says the Washington Post: “This novel is light as a zephyr and unique as a snowflake.”

The West Hollywood author, just back from a national book tour, will sign copies of her novel at Latitude 33 Bookshop, 311 Ocean Ave., Laguna Beach. 2 p.m. Saturday. (949) 494-5403.

Also Coming Up:

* Rob Wagner discusses and signs “Red Ink, White Lies: The Rise and Fall of Los Angeles’ Newspapers 1920-1962” at Borders Books and Music in South Coast Plaza, 3333 Bear St., Costa Mesa. 2 p.m. today. (714) 432-7854.

* Perri O’Shaughnessy will discuss and sign “Move to Strike” at Coffee, Tea & Mystery, 11931 Valley View St., Garden Grove. 2 p.m. Tuesday. She’ll also sign at Book Carnival, 348 S. Tustin Ave., Orange. 6 p.m. Tuesday. (714) 538-3210.

* Beth Caswell, the self-described “mystery maven,” will interview Joyce Spizer, a working private investigator and mystery author who was the inspiration for Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Malhone, at a fireside tea talk at The Best of Times, 812 Electric Ave., Seal Beach. 6:30 p.m. Thursday. $16. Reservations are required. (562) 856-3770.

* Robert McDaniel will discuss and sign “Essentially Soap” at Barnes & Noble in the Huntington Beach Mall, 7777 Edinger Ave., Huntington Beach. 7 p.m. Thursday. (714) 897-8781.

* Barbara DeMarco Barrett’s “Writers on Writing,” a show prerecorded live at Borders Books and Music in Costa Mesa with mystery writers Carroll Lachnit, Gary Phillips and Maxine O’Callaghan, will air on KUCI (88.9 FM) in Irvine. 5 p.m. Thursday.

* David LaMont Lee will sign “Merchant Marine Days: My Life in World War II” at Barnes & Noble in the Irvine Spectrum, 31 Fortune Drive, Irvine. 2 p.m. Friday. (949) 453-1037.

* L.M. Lawson will sign “Green Flash” at Barnes & Noble in Fashion Island, 953 Newport Center Drive, Newport Beach. 7 p.m. Friday. (949) 759-9119. Lawson also will discuss and sign her book at Barnes & Noble in the Huntington Beach Mall, 7777 Edinger Ave., Huntington Beach. 2 p.m. Saturday. (714) 897-8781.

* Barbara Venezia will discuss and sign “At Home on the Range: The Cookbook for the Deranged” at Barnes & Noble in the Huntington Beach Mall, 7777 Edinger Ave., Huntington Beach. 2 p.m. Saturday. (714) 897-8781.

* Barbara Cole will sign “Gifts of Sobriety: When the Promises of Recovery Become True” at Barnes & Noble in Fashion Island, 953 Newport Center Drive, Newport Beach. 2 p.m. Saturday. (949) 759-9119.

* Martine Gaudissart will read and sign her children’s book “Kanyon and the Rainbow Stone” at Barnes & Noble in The Market Place, 13712 Jamboree Road, Irvine. Noon Saturday. (714) 508-9707.

* Paul Paolicelli will discuss and sign “Dances With Luigi: A Grandson’s Determined Quest to Comprehend Italy and the Italians” at Borders Books and Music, 1890 Newport Blvd., Costa Mesa. 3 p.m. Saturday. (949) 631-8661.

* Sandra Ross will discuss and sign “Pitching In: When Your Elderly Parent Needs Help” at Borders Books and Music in South Coast Plaza, 3333 Bear St., Costa Mesa. 2 p.m. Saturday. (714) 432-7854.

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Send information about book-related events at least 10 days before event to: Dennis McLellan, O.C. Books & Authors, The Times’ Orange County edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626. Or e-mail to dennis.mclellan@latimes.com.