Since the big holidays, I’ve been going through my calendar, scouring event listings for art exhibitions to see and write about here. But as a lion’s share of St. Paul’s notable visual arts venues reside in the city’s colleges and universities, I’ll be sitting on my hands a couple of weeks more, it looks like, until the new semester’s offerings open.

The city’s literary scene, though — that’s booming right now, with a host of interesting readings and book discussions, sprinkled in bookstores and libraries, bars and community centers in every neighborhood. I couldn’t begin to list them all here, but one reading in particular this week, Myla Goldberg’s appearance at the St. Paul Jewish Community Center, caught my attention.

Ever since I stumbled across Goldberg’s debut novel, “Bee Season,” a decade ago, like legions of others, I have eagerly read everything she comes out with. No matter her chosen subject matter  — a children’s Man in the Moon fable, the Great Flu of 1918, the hidden byways and bookish corners of Prague — her voice and sensibility are instantly recognizable, marked by a sense of invention and funny-sad insight into family and love and loss that is hers and hers alone.

In her latest book, “The False Friend” published last year, Goldberg tackles mean girls and the vagaries of both childhood morality and memory; I found it to be a surprisingly harrowing but humanely told story and a wonderful read. Listen to an excerpt of “The False Friend,” read by the author on the publisher’s website, Goldberg will read from and discuss “The False Friend” at the Jewish Community Center of the Greater St. Paul Area on Thursday, Jan. 19 at 7 p.m. at 1375 St. Paul Avenue, St. Paul, Minn. General admission to the event is $9 ($6 for JCC members). Call (651) 698-0751, or visit the website for more information: http://www.stpauljcc.org/.