MONDAY, FEB. 23, 2015 >>>

1. Hazel lives with her brother, Ben, in the strange town of Fairfold where humans and fae exist side by side. The faeries' seemingly harmless magic attracts tourists, but Hazel knows how dangerous they can be, and she knows how to stop them. Or she did, once. At the center of it all, there is a glass coffin in the woods. It rests right on the ground and in it sleeps a boy with horns on his head and ears as pointed as knives. Hazel and Ben were both in love with him as children. The boy has slept there for generations, never waking. Until one day, he does. ... This is how author Holly Black thinks. She discusses her new fantasy novel The Darkest Part of the Forest at 7 p.m. in the University Place Pierce County Library.

2. The Evergreen State College Tacoma will offer a four-session life enrichment course called "Intro to Urban Gardening," Monday evenings, Feb. 23-March 16, from 6 to 8 p.m.  The class costs $100, which includes materials and a home consultation with course instructor Dean Jackson, who is executive director of Hilltop Urban Gardens, a food sovereignty and social justice organization in Tacoma. Jackson has been growing food in urban settings for 10 years and is a master gardener in Pierce County. Course topics will include site selection, building a raised bed, starting a planting calendar and creating proper soil for plant health. During the first session, students will start seeds indoors that will be available as transplants at the end of the class. This non-credit course is geared toward the general public and beginning gardeners with an interest in growing their own food.

3. Get out your dancing shoes and join in the whimsy of a country western shuffle dance, hosted by the Evergreen Country Dancers. The shuffle is sometimes called double two-step or traveling swing, for it also uses components of two-step and the popular East Coast swing. The hoedown begins at 6:30 p.m. in the Olympia Elks Lodge.

4. Throughout the Makedonians' rollicking, energetic set of traditional Balkan music at 8 p.m. in Rhythm and Rye, you will be treated to lessons in Greek musical geography, five-tone scale harmony (most "western" music uses the seven) and how to count some of the more unusual time signatures, ranging from 5 to 25 beats in a measure.

5. Blues trio Audio Elixir performs at 8 p.m. in The Swiss Restaurant and Pub.