Herewith are a few hump day happenings for your perusal before the wild weekend starts.---

Start your Wednesday eve at The King's English Bookshop, where author Naomi Benaron will be reading from, and signing copies of, her debut novel, Running the Rift. The novel has been awarded Barbara Kingsolver's 2010 Bellwether Prize for Fiction, presented to a first-time novelist working in the tradition of socially engaged literature. Benaron is also involved with the Afghan Women's Writing Project, so she's sure to have some fascinating things to talk about at the event, starting at 7 p.m.

If chamber music is your thing, the Chamber Music Society is presenting a show Wednesday at Libby Gardner Hall by the Pacifica Quartet, starting at 7:30 p.m.

And consider this a hearty recommend to check out Find and Sign at the Simmons Pioneer Memorial Theatre. The contemporary take on Shakespeare's Othello is far edgier than most of the productions at Pioneer, and its tale of a hip-hop record exec wooing both a Bronx high school teacher and one of her musically gifted students (wooing in different ways) is one of the best plays I've seen in a long time, thanks to the witty repartee delivered by Wendy MacLeod's script. You might know her as the playwright behind The House of Yes, which was eventually turned into a Sundance award-winning film starring Parker Posey. Great stuff, and it starts at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.