The University of Iowa Writing University website will carry live streams of a reading by Saul Kaplan at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, May 16, and a new installment of Paul’s Book Club at 7 p.m. on Thursday, May 17. The streams will originate from free events at Prairie Lights Books, 15 S. Dubuque St. in downtown Iowa City.

Kaplan will talk and answer questions about his new book, The Business Model Innovation Factory. Business models don’t last as long as they used to. So, how can you stay relevant when the world is changing at such breathtaking pace and the ever-changing stresses of today's global environment are everywhere you turn?

Kaplan, founder and chief catalyst of the Business Innovation Factory, suggests that companies, in order to remain competitive, must be capable of designing, prototyping, and experimenting with new business models all the time.

He shares his innovation musings on Twitter ( @skap5) and his blog ( It's Saul Connected), and as regular contributor to the Harvard Business Review, Fortune, and Bloomberg Businessweek.

Prairie Lights' Paul Ingram and his audience will discuss Jim Crace’s The Gift of Stones on May 17. The second novel by the British author is set in a Stone Age village, seemingly distant from our own time and yet so like it as to be almost frightening.

It is a world confronting change brought on by the advent of bronze, a technological development not unlike the coming of the computer. The villagers, once secure and flourishing, suddenly find their craft—and themselves—obsolete. Crace looks into the role of the artist in society—here, a storyteller—considering both the impact and limits of imagination in guiding us toward new horizons.

For more information or special accommodations to attend this reading, call Jan Weissmiller at Prairie Lights, 319-337-2681.