My friend Ioan Grillo is a British journalist who has lived in Mexico for ten years. As a reporter he has obsessively covered the drug-related violence here, and just published a book about the failure of the so-called drug wars, called El Narco: Inside Mexico's Criminal Insurgency. The book has received excellent advance notices from Publisher's Weekly, Kirkus Reviews and Library Journal. I have only just begun to read it -- so far it's a real page-turner. Obviously, I tend to wait until I have finished a book to write about it here, but as Ioan starts a tour today, I wanted to post his dates in case he will be appearing in a bookstore or other venue near you.

Today, October 23, he is in Austin at the Texas Book Festival at noon at the C Span tent on Congress Avenue between 9th and 10th.

Tomorrow, October 24, he is at Brazos Bookstore in Houston, 2421 Bissonette, at noon.

On the 25th he is at Vroman's in Pasadena, California, 695 East Colorado, at 7 pm.

On the 26th, he is in San Francisco at the World Affairs Council, 312 Sutter Street, 6 pm.

New Yorkers: you have to wait until November 28, when he will be at the Half King, 505 West 23rd Street, at 7 pm.