The Beth of Times

We love Beth Lisick, and not just because her name is so close to "Lipstick." She is one of our best local delicacies, like clam chowder in a sourdough bowl. Although she is also a singer, a comedian, and a co-host of Porchlight, the storytelling hour for grown-ups, as an author, she also makes a good export: Her last book, a memoir called Everybody Into the Pool, was a New York Times bestseller.

In her new book, Helping Me Help Myself, she makes fun of the self-help industry, but characteristically, she's pretty sweet about it. In the chapter called "A Place for Everything (Is Not the Basement)," she learns to "Containerize: This exciting new verb means that you get to spend a lot of money on plastic bins with lids." Later, the self-helpful organization agency asks for photographs of her house, and she starts in her son's room, where "The top of his chest of drawers is not even visible because it is so loaded up with cars, drawings, rocks, coins, toilet paper rolls, plastic animals, and rubber bands. Some of these are 'containerized' in drinking glasses or shoes." See? Municipal treasure!
Tue., Jan. 22, 7 p.m., 2008