The author of a book about how the draft affected a multitude of people during the Vietnam years will speak at two events this weekend in Minneapolis.

Tom Weiner will speak at the Prairie Star District Unitarian Universality conference on Saturday, and then will do a public reading at 4 p.m. Sunday at Magers & Quinn, 3038 Hennepin Av. S., in Minneapolis. His book, "Called to Serve: Stories of the Men and Women Confronted by the Vietnam War Draft," published by the Levellers Press, includes interviews with 30 people who faced the draft, and how their decisions--either to serve, or not to serve--affected their lives.

Weiner, a longtime teacher and civil rights advocate, said in an interview with his hometown paper, the Daily Hampshire Gazette, "It was a tremendous honor to receive this stories. For a lot of them, it was the first time they'd talked about their experiences in this kind of depth."