Heather Lauer, author of “Bacon: A Love Story” and blogger of BaconUnwrapped.com, will discuss her love of bacon at 7 tonight at Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe.

Lauer, a Valley public affairs consultant, describes her blog, which she started in 2005, as a “love poem to bacon.”

Her book, published earlier this year, includes tours of bacon makers, profiles of chefs who love bacon and, naturally, recipes featuring bacon.

Wildflower Bread Company, located next to Changing Hands, will provide bacon treats for tonight’s event, which is free.

Changing Hands sells “Bacon: A Love Story” for $17.99.

Skeptics say there will never be a lasting peace in the Middle East. Former President Jimmy Carter has spent the past three decades trying to prove them wrong.

Carter’s latest effort is “We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land: A Plan That Will Work,” which he will promote Friday during a booksigning at Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe.

As president, Carter brokered the historic Camp David Accords, signed by Egypt’s Anwar El Sadat and Israel’s Menachem Begin after 12 days of secret negotiations at Camp David in 1978.

Since leaving the White House, Carter has remained active in international diplomacy, negotiating for the United States in Korea, Africa, Latin America and South America, as well as the Middle East.

In 2002, Carter became only the third U.S. president to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, following in the footsteps of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson.

To receive a signed copy of “We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land,” people must purchase a $29.19 voucher at Changing Hands. At Friday’s signing, the voucher can be exchanged for a signed book.

There is a limit of four vouchers per person. Up to four people can attend the signing with a single voucher.

Jimmy Carter booksigning
When: 6 p.m. Friday
Where: Changing Hands Bookstore, 6428 S. McClintock Drive, Tempe
How much: $29.19 for a signed copy of Carter’s “We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land: A Plan That Will Work.”
Info: (480) 730-0205 or changinghands.com.

What exactly is — or isn’t — chili?

Millions of purists insist the dish should never have beans. Others, never tomatoes. Some Cajuns insist gumbo is chili. A few Bostoners even claim clam chowder is.

Jane Butel, author of 18 Southwest cookbooks and founder of the Jane Butel Cooking School in Albuquerque, welcomes them all.

“I think there’s traditional and non-traditional,’’ she says. “The traditional chili was more of a Texas chili, the chili con carne type that got so popular with the cattle drives and the chili parlors. That originally was with hand-cut beef with red chiles, onion, garlic and cumin. There’s no beans in it.

“Then the newer kinds of chili are anything that has a good-sized amount of red or green chiles in it. It can have various vegetables or seafood or whatever.”

Butel is an expert. Credited with starting the Tex-Mex food craze in the 1960s, she wrote the book on chili — literally. Her 1980 cookbook, “Chili Madness,” led to a surge in chili cookoffs across the country and even the formation of chili societies.

Butel will be at Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe on Monday to kick off a 19-city tour for an updated edition of “Chili Madness,” which she has expanded from 35 recipes to more than 160.

Besides recipes, the book details the history of chili and includes Butel’s tips for making better chili. Asked what the biggest mistake amateur chili cooks typically make, she points to sub-par ingredients.

“I don’t think the average person realizes that commercial chili powders, like McCormick, have 40 percent salt on average, which is an awful lot of salt,” she says. “I’m a big proponent of using pure ground chiles and other separate ingredients so you get the clear flavors.”

Butel is disappointed that chili — which she touts as convenient, economical and healthy — isn’t offered at more restaurants.

“It’s mostly the little dives, and I think that’s too bad,” she says. “When I had a restaurant in New York City, one of the most popular items on the menu was a bowl of red with fixins’ and mixins’ and blue corn bread.”

Perhaps it’s because so few people can agree on what chili is.

“Chili is one of the most controversial of all foods,” Butel admits. “Everyone has an opinion on what’s a good chili.”

In fact, Butel says, there’s only one food that people are more passionate about.

“I wrote a book on barbecue and I was shocked at how people were adamant that there was just one way (to make it) and it was their way.”

Jane Butel booksigning
What: Jane Butel discusses and signs her cookbook, “Chili Madness.”
When: 7 p.m. Monday.
Where: Changing Hands Bookstore, 6428 S. McClintock Drive, Tempe.
How much: Free; book sells for $12.95
Info: (480) 730-0205 or changinghands.com.