The Northern Center for Lifelong Learning will host a reading and discussion with Preparing the Ghost author Matthew Frank. The event will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 5, in the Shiras Room at Peter White Public Library.

Frank is an English professor at Northern Michigan University. His latest book, Preparing the Ghost, is a 282-page meditation on the giant squid and its first photographer, Moses Harvey. The book also addresses monomaniacal obsession, death by chocolate ice cream, a fatal Chicago heat wave, a grandfather’s saxophone legacy and an insectarium.

The cost is $3 for NCLL members and $8 for non-members. Register by Tuesday, Jan. 27, by calling 227-2979.