David Kamp is obsessed with food. His popular 2006 book, 'The United States of Arugula,' is the culmination of this obsession, investigating "how food in America got better and how it hopped the fence from the ghettos of home economics and snobby gourmandism to the expansive realm of popular culture."  

David Kamp is obsessed with food. His popular 2006 book, The United States of Arugula, is the culmination of this obsession, investigating “how food in America got better, and how it hopped the fence from the ghettos of home economics and snobby gourmandism to the expansive realm of popular culture.” Kamp’s impressively researched, surprisingly irreverent narrative focuses on, among others, the three figures most responsible for this shift. Kamp speaks 7 p.m. Tuesday as part of the Home and Hearth series at The Mercantile Library  

The pillaging of horror movie vaults continues with this loose, surprisingly decent reboot of the 1980 original, which is best known now for the presence of a fresh-faced Kevin Bacon and for spawning   

Lauren Groff's Delicate, Edible Birds and Other Stories is a collection of short stories that investigate a number of topics, from the lonely life of a female high school swimmer to the travails of a World War II journalist captured by a Nazi sympathizer. Groff illuminates her work via a vivid, richly detailed prose style. She discusses and signs her book at 7 p.m. at Joseph-Beth.  

Scottish director Paul McGuigan has a way of making even the most clichéd genre excursions reasonably entertaining (see the slick noir 'Lucky Number Slevin' or the slick romantic thriller 'Wicker Park'). Add 'Push' to that list. McGuigan's latest centers in the sci-fi world of psychic espionage, a place where "paranormal operatives" have the ability to move objects with their mind, see the future and scream really loudly. Grade: C.   

Gustave Reininger's documentary, 'Corso: The Last Beat,' confirms the Gregory Corso's immense impact on his fellow Beat writers — the inner circle of which included William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac — and is an incisive, highly personal look at Corso's tireless search for truth. A Greater Cincinnati native best known as the creator of the acclaimed television drama 'Crime Story,' Reininger will be on hand Feb. 6 at an advance screening of his film.  

Temple Grandin’s latest book, Animals Make Us Human, is an exploration that identifies the core emotional needs of animals. Like most of her books, it has been informed by her own experience with autism and her insights as a distinguished animal scientist. Her unique perspective doesn’t always reveal what one would expect. She discusses and signs her book at Joseph-Beth at 7 p.m.  

The 25th Sundance Film Festival came to a close on Jan. 24, and for the first time in 15 years a CityBeat staffer wasn’t there to witness it. As was the case for many publications (as well as general film freaks and industry people), the shitty state of our economy forced us to skip Sundance’s unique mix of adventurous, independent moviemaking and hype-driven industry wheeling and dealing.   

The Over-the-Rhine-based nurturer of the written word hosts local poet Richard Hague’s dramatic reading of “Where Drunk Men Go,” a title sure to pique the interest of curious women across the Tristate. Hague’s reading will be accompanied by the Bluegrass and Gospel stylings of Michael Henson, himself a fine poet. 7:30 p.m. Friday at InkTank’s headquarters.  

Cliched and perceptive in equal measure, writer/director Jonathan Levine's entertaining, occasionally affecting coming-of-age drama waxes nostalgic for ... the summer of 1994?