Wednesday, July 5th at 7:30 p.m.
Reyna Grande
Across a Hundred Mountains
(Atria)
""Reyna Grande knows
the heartbreaking worlds on either side of the border, where men are
desperate, women are prey, and children want what they always want:
the presence of love."—Susan Straight (Highwire Moon).
While Mexican immigration to the United States is often
discussed in terms of the political and economic implications, Grande,
with this brilliant debut novel and her own profound insider's perspective,
puts a human face on the subject. Who are the men, women, and children
who risk life and limb crossing the border in pursuit of a better
life? By a UCSC graduate, Across a Hundred Mountains is a stunning
and poignant story of migration, loss, and discovery as two women—one
born in Mexico, one in the United States—offer each other, in
a time of desperation, much needed material and spiritual support,
and ultimately become linked forever in the most unexpected way.
Thursday, July 6th at 7:30 p.m.
A Celebration of Local Food & Farmers!
In honor of the vibrant summer
season, Book Café proudly joins some of our area's dedicated
local farmers—and writers—for a night of delicious education.
Santa Cruz's Jenny Kurzweil discusses her book, Fields That
Dream: A Journey To the Roots of Our Food (Fulcrum
Publishing), which profiles successful small-scale sustainable
farmers while weaving in the cultural and social history of farming
in the US. Soquel's Tana Butler, blogger ("Small Farms:
A Blog from the Heart"), photographer, and steadfast supporter
of local farmers will share her art and her knowledge. And real live
farmers Jasmine Roohani (Everett Family Farm) and Thom Broz
(Live Earth Farm) join the discussion, while Gabriella Café
presents the audience with tasty reminders of why we really love to
support local growers!
Tuesday, July 11th at 7:30 p.m.
Shelby Steele
White Guilt
(Harper Collins)
In 1955 the murderers of Emmett
Till, a black Mississippi youth, were acquitted of their crime, undoubtedly
because they were white. Forty years later, O. J. Simpson went free
after his attorney portrayed him as a victim of racism. How has this
sea change happened? Distinguished race-relations scholar Shelby Steele
(The Content of Our Character, A Dream Deferred) argues
that the age of white supremacy has given way to an age of white guilt—and
neither has been good for African Americans. Steele calls for white
leaders to stop using minorities as a means to establish their moral
authority and for black leaders to stop indulging them. This event
has been rescheduled from its original May 2006 date.
Wenesday, July 12th at 7:30 p.m.
Judy Yung
Chinese American Voices—From the
Gold Rush to Present
(University of California Press)
Described by others as quaint
and exotic, or as depraved and threatening, and, more recently, as
successful and exemplary, the Chinese in America have rarely been
asked to describe themselves. This superb anthology, a diverse and
illuminating collection of primary documents and stories by Chinese
Americans, provides an intimate and textured history of the Chinese
in America from their arrival during the California Gold Rush to the
present. Letters, oral histories, memoirs, and folksongs bring to
life the diverse voices of immigrant and American-born laborers, professionals,
students, housewives and activists. This panoramic perspective on
the Chinese American experience is co-edited by Judy Yung, author
of Unbound Feet and a professor of American Studies at UCSC.
Thursday, July 13th at 7:30 p.m.
Steve Kotler
West of Jesus: Surfing, Science, and
the Origins of Belief
(Bloomsbury)
Once debilitated by Lyme disease,
Kotler found in surfing, little by little, physical and spiritual
rejuvenation that seemed to go beyond the simple adrenaline rush.
"At a time when everything else was gone, when nothing made sense
and nothing worked, when suicide seemed a damn viable option, surfing
saved my life-and I wanted to know why." Additionally, when Mother
Nature almost wiped him out forever—twice and on two different
continents—both times he was consoled by the strange tale of
a "Conductor" who could control the weather with the wave
of a baton made of bone. Kotler wanted to know how such a legend could
take hold amongst irreligious surfers, and thus he set out to discover
the story's greater implications—do we take on risk to commune
with the gods? From California to Bali, in conversations with surfers,
tribesmen, and neuroscientists, Kotler presents an energetic account
of the international surfing community and unravels a mysterious legend
that may help reveal the hidden connections between biology and belief.
***
CANCELED ***
Monday, July 17th at 7:30 p.m.
Lori Lansens
The Girls
(Little Brown)
"I have never looked into
my sister's eyes," writes Rose Darlen, beginning this novel of
an incomparable life journey. Rose and Ruby are sisters, best friends,
confidantes, and, now nearing their 30th birthday, they are history's
oldest craniopagus twins, joined at the head by a spot the size of
a bread plate conjoined twins. As bookish Rose begins her autobiography,
it inevitably becomes the story of Rose, the beautiful one, as well.
Thus both contribute chapters, and from their awkward first steps—with
Ruby's arm curled around Rose's neck and her foreshortened legs wrapped
around Rose's hips—"the girls" write of their contradictory
independence and nonnegotiable togetherness.
Wednesday, July 19th at 6:30 p.m. *
Book Club
The Glass Castle by Jeannette
Walls
(Scribner)
This month's selection is The
Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. The
Glass Castle is a remarkable memoir of resilience and redemption,
and a revelatory look into a family at once deeply dysfunctional and
uniquely vibrant. When sober, Jeannette's brilliant and charismatic
father captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics,
geology, and how to embrace life fearlessly. But when he drank, he
was dishonest and destructive. Her mother was a free spirit who abhorred
the idea of domesticity and didn't want the responsibility of raising
a family. So the Walls children fed, clothed, and protected one another,
and eventually found their way to New York. Their parents followed
them, choosing to be homeless even as their children prospered. The
Glass Castle is a truly astonishing memoir permeated by the intense
love of a peculiar, but loyal, family. Now gossip columnist for MSNBC.com,
Jeannette Walls has a story to tell, and tells it brilliantly, without
an ounce of self-pity. Read the book and join the discussion.
* Please Note Time
Wednesday, July 19th at 7:30 p.m.
Elizabeth Buchan
Wives Behaving Badly
(Viking)
Revenge of the Middle-Aged
Woman was an international bestseller, and now, with this delicious
and irresistible sequel, Buchan answers the intriguing question: What
happens when the mistress becomes the wife? Though Minty Lloyd has
finally achieved the stability she once craved, family life with Nathan
has brought her more disappointment than she can admit. Meanwhile
Nathan's first wife, Rose, has become a glamorous travel writer and
her hold on Nathan is both disquieting and deep. The dark and destructive
notes of jealousy and bitterness reverberate until a dramatic event
forces both women to negotiate new areas of love, grief, and renewal
in unexpected ways. A resident of London and a former Fiction Editor
at Random House, Buchan again displays her signature gift for capturing
women's daily joys and struggles with humor and candor.
Thursday, July 20th at 7:00 p.m. *
World Affairs Book Club
Hugo Chavez: The Bolivarian Revolution
in Venezuela by Richard Gott
(Verso)
This month's selection is Hugo
Chavez: The Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela by Richard Gott.
The only first-hand report on contemporary Venezuela by a veteran
Latin American correspondent for the Guardian, Hugo Chávez
places the country's controversial and charismatic president in historical
perspective, and examines his plans and programs. This new edition
has a chapter on the attempted and failed military coup, Venezuela's
recent recall election, and discusses US covert intervention against
him.
This group meets every month to discuss a book relevant
to current event(s) around the world. To date, we have examined books
focusing on a variety of events in Asia, the Middle East, Africa,
Latin America and Europe. As always, we welcome people from all backgrounds
and affiliations to participate.For more information you may email
Jenn Ramage at jenn_ramage@yahoo.com or call the store at 462-4415.
* Please Note Time
Thursday, July 20th at 7:30 p.m.
Kenneth Walton
Fake: Forgery, Lies & eBay
(Simon Spotlight Entertainment)
Insightful and darkly humorous,
Fake is better than most thrillers, and more thrilling than
any memoir I've read in years."—Dylan Schaffer (I Right
the Wrongs).
Fake describes Walton's innocent beginnings as
an online art-trading hobbyist and details the downward spiral of
greed that ultimately led to his federal felony conviction. What started
out as a satisfying exercise in reselling thrift-store paintings for
a profit in order to pay back student loans soon became a fierce addiction
to the subtle deception of luring unsuspecting bidders into overpaying
for paintings of questionable origins. Walton breaks his silence for
the first time and details the international scandal that forever
changed the way eBay does business.
Monday, July 24th at 7:30 p.m.
Lewis Buzbee
The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop
(Graywolf Press)
A former bookseller and sales
representative celebrates his passion for books and the unique experience
of the bookstore—the smell and touch of books, getting lost in
the deep canyons of shelves, and the silent community of readers.
Interwoven throughout is a fascinating historical account of the bookseller's
trade—from the great Alexandria library with one million papyrus
scrolls to Sylvia Beach's famous Paris bookstore, Shakespeare and
Company, which led to the extraordinary effort to publish and sell
James Joyce's Ulysses during the 1920s.
"Lewis Buzbee's heartwarming book—an ode to
the raptures of browsing, and a tribute to the ingenuities of vending—rekindles
and rationalizes my love for bookstores, those sometimes ramshackle
dream palaces. A graceful amalgam of memoir and history, The Yellow-Lighted
Bookshop celebrates bibliophilic pleasures that I hope will never
go out of style." —Wayne Koestenbaum
Thursday, July 27th at 7:30 p.m.
Diana Lu
Daughter of the Yellow River
(Image Global Impact)
When Diana Lu was three years
old, her family was forced to leave their comfortable middle-class
life in the city to live in an impoverished coal-mining village at
the edge of the Gobi Desert for China's Culture Revolution "re-education."
From this time when life was a constant struggle against hunger and
fear, Diana would learn the passion, determination, and self-possession
that led her to shatter all the limiting cultural expectations to
become—by age 34—a medical student, university professor,
pioneer in the field of fiber optics, and now, in the US, the founder
of her own international enterprise that melds the Western & Chinese
business cultures to work with clients globally.
"Daughter of the Yellow River is an inspiring
story of a remarkable woman. From the deprivation of the Chinese Cultural
Revolution to success in the Western world, it depicts the victory
of determination and pluck over personal and business adversity."
— James Pammenter, KPMG Management Consulting.
Saturday, July 29th at 7:30 p.m.
John W. Dean
Conservatives Without Conscience
(Viking)
Formerly Richard Nixon's White
House counsel and the man who warned the super-secretive leader there
was a cancer on his presidency, John Dean offered an insider's perspective
on Bush's presidency in Worse Than Watergate. Once again, Dean
examines the conservative movement's inner circle of radical Republican
leaders. In Conservatives Without Conscience, Dean probes the
conservative mind-set to explain their current unbridled viciousness
toward those daring to disagree with them and their religion-based
piety politics which conceal an indifference to the founding principles
of liberty, equality, and the separation of government powers. Certainly
no alarmist, Dean paints a vivid picture of a noble political party
corrupted by its current leaders, and he is concerned that the US's
own version of fascism is on the rise.
