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Unless you're an independent bookseller, an author, a publishing power broker of some stripe, or someone really into weekendlong slumber parties with said independent booksellers, authors, and publishing power brokers, then the Mid-South Independent Booksellers Association trade show at the Renaissance Hotel Arboretum this weekend is probably notable only for the local economic boost it will bring to the likes of Saks Fifth Avenue and Williams-Sonoma out there in Northwest Austin. It should be mentioned, however, that the great Larry Brown will be in town as one of the MSIBA's attending authors, and that his fine new novel, The Rabbit Factory (Free Press, $25), is the reason why. Others assembling will be Jim Hightower, who'll also be reading from and signing his new Thieves in High Places (Viking, $24.95) a week later on Sept. 12, 7pm, at BookPeople; Clyde Edgerton; and April Reynolds. For more information and potential access methods, visit www.msiba.org/trade_show.htm... One writer who won't be at the MSIBA but who'd probably like to meet Hightower if he hasn't already is Al Franken, newly anointed savior of the left and book sections across the country alike. Franken's Austin appearance at Barnes and Noble Arboretum, originally scheduled for October, has been pushed up to Sept. 13, 7pm. Just in case Bill O'Reilly has boxed your ears and struck you deaf while blinding you with the weird science of a bullying, blabbering madman (or has simply killed you and hid your body), Franken's Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right (Dutton, $24.95) is on sale and doing quite well for itself... Rick Klaw is doing well for himself, too: His new book, Geek Confidential: Echoes From the 21st Century, is out from MonkeyBrain, and Opal Divine's Freehouse is hosting its release party on Sunday, Sept. 7, at 5pm. Check out Marc Savlov's review of Geek Confidential, see austinchronicle.com/books... Two days later, on Tuesday, Sept. 9, 7pm at BookPeople, the Utter reading series resumes with Laurie Lynn Drummond (HarperCollins will publish her short story collection, Anything You Say Can and Will Be Used Against You, in February), poet Marcela Sulak, and translator-poet-fictioner-journalist Liliana Valenzuela... And don't forget the National Book Award-winning Tim O'Brien at the Katherine Anne Porter House in Kyle on Sept. 12, 7:30pm, as part of Texas State University's reading series. For more information, call 512/268-6637 or e-mail oatesmatt@hotmail.com... There is so much more I'd like to tell you, but I can't find the words for it right now.