Wed. Jan. 24

Of course, you know who Susan Cheever is. Daughter of acclaimed suburban chronicler/drinker John and quite an author (and one-time drinker) in her own right. Cheever has a new book that looks way back to the 1800s, to Concord, to a bevy of writers whose names you may also know: Emerson, Alcott, Fuller, Hawthorne and Thoreau. Cheever's book is called "American Bloomsbury" - then it lists a bunch of authors - and concludes with "Their Lives, Their Loves, Their Works." Now, if this doesn't stir the restive poet or novelist inside you what would? An acclaimed novelist who's speaking Wednesday January 24 at Harvard Book Store (6:30 p.m.) about some of Massachusetts and the nation's finest. Doesn't this seem like a lovely escape from the Jackass world we live in today? Let's hear it for the past! And celebrate it - at least for a time - with Cheever. It's free. Oh, and the promotional blurb promises Cheever's talk will explore national history and cultural identify, but also be "subversive."

1256 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, 617-661-1424 harvard.com/events