UPDATE: This event has sold out.

Best-selling author Michael Pollan is coming to Durham next month to promote his new book, “Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation.”

Pollan, who previously wrote “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” will be speaking at 7:30 p.m. April 27 at Motorco Music Hall in Durham. The event costs $30 and include a copy of the book and two passes to the book reading. Pollan will sign books after the event and additional copies of the book will be available to purchase at the event. The event is being organized by The Regulator Bookshop in Durham.

Joining Pollan on stage for a conversation will be chefs Billy Cotter of Toast in Durham and James Beard winner Andrea Reusing of Lantern in Chapel Hill. Pollan’s new book is about his “efforts to master a single basic recipe using one of four classical elements: fire, water, air, and earth.” North Carolina barbecue pitmaster Ed Mitchell gives Pollan a lesson on cooking over fire.

The event also will include food trucks outside serving dinner and beer and wine for purchase inside Motorco.

Tickets to the event can be bought online: motorcomusic.com/michael-pollan. Tickets also can be purchased at The Regulator and Motorco during business hours.

In 1984, Jennifer Thompson was raped in her apartment near Elon University. During the ordeal, she memorized everything she could about her rapist. At the police station later, she helped a sketch artist come up with a likeness. Faced with a picture lineup, she picked out a photo of Ronald Cotton. The police officer told her she had done well. During a physical lineup, she again picked out Ronald Cotton.

She was 100 percent sure Ronald Cotton was her rapist. She had not one doubt.

Only she was wrong.

Eleven years after being convicted of raping Thompson, Cotton walked out of prison when DNA proved another man had done the crime. Thompson feared he’d find her and kill her for her mistake, but all Ronald Cotton wanted was an apology.

The two met at a church so that Thompson could offer what she could. They’ve been friends ever since. Together with a writer, they produced the book “Picking Cotton” (http://www.pickingcottonbook.com/). They travel the country, often together, and talk about their experience and the need for judicial reform. They want police to change how they do lineups. They want people to realize why eyewitnesses can be wrong. They want an end to the death penalty.

And Thompson wants people to know how Ronald Cotton taught her about the power of forgiveness.

Thompson recently spoke to an honors law and justice class at Broughton High School. It was one of the most gripping presentations I have ever seen.

Here are my notes about her talk. They are NOT verbatim.

If you're on the hunt for great gift ideas, here's one that's a good deal for the giver and the receiver.

The ZONE, which is the N&O's subscriber rewards program, sells coupon books for half price. Shipping is free.

Regularly $20 to $25, the 2013 Attractions Dining and Value Guide is 50 percent off for home subscribers.

And that includes Sunday-only subscribers.

There are coupons for restaurants of all price range, as well as coupons for local and national retail stores and entertainment venues. My favorite is the coupon for $5 off a $20 purchase at CVS.

Six different versions of the book are available through the N&O:

The News & Observer's  coupon database has been updated with all of the new coupons.

This Sunday's home-delivered Final Edition of The News & Observer contains three inserts -- two Smart Source and one Red Plum  -- for a total of 128 coupons with a face value of more than $165.

Also be on the look out for three coupons in Sunday's Parade magazine.

Not familiar with the coupon database? You can access it on the right-hand side of the blog. There's a button at the bottom right to view it as a full-size page.

Or, you can download it as an Excel spreadsheet by clicking on the attachment at the bottom of this post.

It's a handy tool, giving you the most timely and detailed list of coupons in the Triangle.

For a detailed how-to post on the database, read my Coupons 101 post HERE.

Documents:

Thanks to everyone who entered to win an Attractions coupon book over the long Labor day weekend.

I picked two winners using random.org.

And they are:

Registration for my Saturday, June 16, coupon workshop, which was previously limited to N&O subsribers, is now open to everyone.

Not only will you learn how to save 50 percent or more on your grocery bill, but you'll also leave with a reusable shopping tote filled with freebies, including a 2012 Attractions coupon book for each class member.

After class, you'll have the option of meeting at Bruegger's to swap coupons with me and other class members.

Here are all the details:

With the end of the school year just days away, it's time to start scoping out ways to keep the kids busy without spending a lot of money.

Triangle movie theaters, bookstores and bowling alleys are all offering special programs over the next three months -- many of them completely free.

So parents, before you panic, peruse this list of free and ultra cheap summer activities. I'll add more as I find them. And if you know of a "summer on the cheap" activity, please post it in the comments section.

The James Beard Foundation's book awards committee released a list of 14 Great Reads for Food Lovers for the 14 weeks between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

Full disclosure: I'm on the book awards committee and this list was a lot of fun to produce. What is great is that there are books on here that I've never read and now can dig into this summer. Happy reading!

1. "The Art of Eating" by M. F. K. Fisher (John Wiley & Sons)
2. "Between Meals: An Appetite for Paris" by A.J. Liebling (North Point Press)
3. "Blood, Bones & Butter" by Gabrielle Hamilton (Random House)
4. "Day of Honey: A Memoir of Food, Love, and War" by Annia Ciezadlo (Free Press)
5. "A Debt to Pleasure" by John Lanchester (Picador)
6. "An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace" by Tamar Adler (Scribner)
7. "The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food" by Jennifer 8. Lee (Twelve)
8. "Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany" by Bill Buford (Vintage)
9. "Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen" by Laurie Colwin (Vintage)
10. "The Man Who Ate Everything" by Jeffrey Steingarten (Vintage)
11. "Oranges" by John McPhee (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
12. "The Oysters of Locmariaquer" by Eleanor Clark (Ecco Press)
13. "Simple Cooking" by John Thorne (North Point Press)
14. "The Tummy Trilogy" by Calvin Trillin (Farrar, Straus, & Giroux)

Giveaway time!

This time it's an unabridged audiobook of Dan Rather's new memoir, "Rather Outspoken."

Rather was the anchor of the "CBS Evening News" for 24 years.  In the memoir, he tells the story of his final months at CBS, including his removal from the anchor chair in the wake of the controversy surrounding his story on George Bush and the Texas Air National Guard. 

Rather, who reported from wars in Vietnam and Afghanistan and covered every U.S. president since Dwight Eisenhower, looks over his entire career and his upbringing in Houston, Texas.

The audiobook is read by Rather and a PDF of photos is included on one CD.

If you're interested, send me an email by midnight Friday (include your mailing address, please) and someone will be selected randomly.

Update: Saturday's class is full. Watch the blog for an announcement on the date of my next class.