Wednesday, August 3rd at 7:30 p.m.
Susie Bright, ed. and Greta Christina, contributor
Three Kinds of Asking for It
(Touchstone)
"Who needs a beach for this
summer treat? Bright's imprimatur guarantees heat sufficient to melt
an ice floe. As her editorial picks generally do, these novellas deliver
not just heat but laughter, poignancy and even the occasional deep thought."
(Publisher's Weekly) Join our hometown literary sex goddess and
nationally arousing lecturer on sexuality and feminism, Susie Bright,
and a contributor to her latest collection of scandalous tales, Greta
Christina, the talented, sultry author of "Bending." Sure
to be an evening of hushed tones and raucous laughter, as well a chance
to get a stimulating education on anything from women's sexual rights
to, well, stimulation. Susie Bright, the most trusted name in erotica.
Thursday, August 4th at 7:30 p.m.
Pamela Holm
The Night Garden
(MacAdam Cage)
and
David Francis
The Great Inland Sea
(MacAdam Cage)
The author of the acclaimed memoir
The Toaster Broke So We're Getting Married, Pamela Holm now brings
us a poignant and very funny story about monogamy, motherhood, and pest
control set against the changing seasons of San Francisco. Suddenly
on their own, Dawn, artist and exterminator, and her quirky, pet-rat-loving
nine-year-old daughter struggle to start a new life in the shadow of
the old one. An artist herself, Holm has hit a few occupational milestones
(or hazards) including painting needlepoint patterns, enlarging photos
from weapons tests sites, decorating sets for rap videos and sewing
hats for the Pillsbury Doughboy. She currently teaches creative writing
in San Francisco.
The Great Inland Sea by David Franicis, an Australian lawyer
now living in L.A., was published with great acclaim in his home country
and is finally available in the US. Twelve-year old Day witnesses the
death of his mother at the hands of his father near Maude, New South
Wales. When he rode up Muddy Gates Lane, away from there, he didn't
know that he was leaving, but he was sure he wasn't coming back. Day's
journey took him to America, traveling as groom for a horse called Unusual,
where he meets Callie, who wants to be the world's first woman jockey.
He is stranded by a love for Callie that takes him back to the harshness
of his childhood in Australia, to the dark secrets of his family. An
exquisitely crafted and poignant story that reveals David Francis as
a writer with an extraordinary gift for language.
Monday, August 8th at 7:30 p.m.
Jody Gehrman
Tart
(Red Dress Ink)
She studied playwriting and Japanese
at UCSC. She's been the contributing editor to The San Francisco
Chronicle Review of Books, a singer-song writer, actor, and awarding-winning
playwright. She's had all the jobs such an author just has to have--waitress,
massage therapist, publicist, creative writing professor. And now she
brazenly takes on "the zany, ultra-liberal beach town of Santa
Cruz", in a tale of family secrets, forbidden fruit, and all things
Tart. Protagonist Claudia Bloom is having one of those years.
First she steals her ex's VW bus and drives it from Austin to Santa
Cruz, where it promptly explodes. Next she lets herself be rescued by
Clay, a charming DJ on a motorcycle, then meets his somehow-never-mentioned
estranged wife while searching frantically for her panties. Could it
get any worse? You betcha. Her new boss at the UCSC theater department
is DJ's mom and her new coworker is his wife. Celebrate a smart and
tangy romp through our hometown with a local talent made good.
Tuesday, August 9th at 7:30 p.m.
A Celebration of Local California History with Arcadia Publishing Authors
Dennis Copeland and Jeanne McCombs for
A Monterey Album: Life by the Bay
;
Kim Coventry for Monterey Peninsula:
The Golden Age ; and
Shelia O'Hare & Irene Berry for
Santa Cruz
These works in the Images of America
Series all celebrate the history of our beloved coastal haunts. Each
are filled with professional and candid photographs beginning at the
turn of the 20th century that have been painstakingly compiled and documented
by the authors. These historians and curators join us from their positions
within UCSC McHenry Library, Monterey Public Library, and the curatorial
consulting firm Conventry Group in Chicago.
Wednesday, August 10th at 7:30 p.m.
Vinnie Hansen
Tang is Not Juice
(Mainly Murder)
Local mystery writer Hansen unveils
her latest tale of Baker Sleuth Carol Sabala, and she'll be treating
her readers to delectable (not deadly) recipes from her books! Growing
old is murder. Gladys Mills ends up dead in her nursing home, and Carol
is hired to investigate her will--and discovers more than the will is
suspicious. From Nisene Marks to Charlie Hong Kong and the Homeless
Garden, Santa Cruz's Vinnie Hansen dishes out humor, suspense, and--for
Book Café customers only--some tasty treats as well.
Wednesday, August 17th at 7:30 p.m.
Maria Mudd Ruth
Rare Bird
(Rodale)
Maria Mudd Ruth, a veteran nature
writer, was perfectly happy to be a generalist before getting swept
up in the strange story of the marbled murrelet. This curiosity of nature
flies like a little brown bullet at up to 100 miles an hour and lives
most of its life offshore. It is seen around land only during breeding
season, when the female lays a single egg high on a mossy tree limb
in the ancient coastal forests of the Pacific Northwest. The locations
of these nests took two centuries to discover. From adventurous observations
in coastal meadows and on the sea to interviews with the major players
in the tense drama of conservation and industry, Ruth has penned a passionate
tale that is part naturalist detective story, part environmental inquiry,
and all bird obsession.
Thursday, August 18th at 7:30 p.m.
Maryann Schacht for
The Caregiver's Challenge
(Feterson Press)
and
Betty Auchard for Dancing in My Nightgown
(Stephens Press)
An evening for caregivers to be
inspired by women who have navigated the demanding work and grief of
tending to and losing a loved one.
Psychotherapist, social worker, and caregiver to her husband, Maryann
Schacht uses her personal and professional experience to help guide
caregivers through the most difficult and emotionally rocky job they
will ever have. The inspirational and practical A Caregiver's Challenge
offers support and information from the initial diagnosis and dealing
with health insurance to finding emotional support.
Betty Auchard went straight from her parents' home to her husband's
bed. When she loses Denny to cancer after almost 49 years of marriage,
widowhood forces Betty to find out just what she can do on her own,
from flirting again to navigating the greatest loss she has ever known.
These short, inspiring stories of bittersweet widowhood reveal how this
spunky septuagenarian keeps moving forward with her humor and grace
intact. Dancing in My Nightgown was a finalist for the 2005 Independent
Publisher Book Awards.
Monday, August 22nd at 7:30 p.m.
Sara Halprin
Seema's Show: A Life on
the Left (University of New Mexico)
Joined by Seema Weatherwax
At seventeen Seema Aissen got
her first job in a photo lab in Boston and joined the Young Communist
League; at thirty-three she was hired by Ansel Adams to run his darkroom
in Yosemite; at thirty-seven she married Jack Weatherwax and devoted
herself to supporting his work; at ninety-five she had her first photographic
exhibit. Her life long work has been for racial justice, and she formed
enduring friendships with artists and political activists including
Edward Weston, Imogen Cunningham, and Woody Guthrie. In 1984 Seema moved
to Santa Cruz, where she became a central figure in progressive culture
and began, in 2000, to show her own work. Sara Halprin began recording
interviews with Seema in 1986, and this candid biography is a celebration
of the fascinating life of a cultural and political icon.
Thursday, August 25th at 7:00 p.m. *
World Affairs Book Club
The New American Militarism: How Americans
Are Seduced By War by Andrew Bacevich
(Oxford University Press)
This month's selection is The
New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced By War by Andrew
Bacevich. In this provocative new book, Andrew Bacevich warns of a dangerous
dual obsession that has taken hold of Americans, conservatives and liberals
alike. It is a marriage of militarism and utopian ideology--of unprecedented
military might wed to a blind faith in the universality of American
values. This perilous union, Bacevich argues, commits Americans to a
futile enterprise, turning the US into a crusader state with a self-proclaimed
mission of driving history to its final destination: the world-wide
embrace of the American way of life. This mindset invites endless war
and the ever-deepening militarization of US policy. It promises not
to perfect but to pervert American ideals and to accelerate the hollowing
out of American democracy.
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
Coming in Fall 2005
Tuesday, September 6 at 7:30pm
John Simpson, Dam!: Water, Power, Politics, and Preservation
in Hetch Hetchy and Yosemite National Park (Pantheon)
Thursday, September 8 at 7:30pm
Chris Mooney, The Republican War on Science (Basic Books)
Saturday, September 10 at 2:30pm
Bret Easton Ellis, Lunar Park (Knopf)
Sunday, September 18 at 2:30pm
Terry Pratchett, Thud! (Discworld Novels) (Harper Collins)
Monday, September 19 at 7:30pm
Charles C. Mann, 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before
Columbus (Knopf)
Wednesday, September 28 at 7:30pm
Maureen Corrigan, Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading: Finding and
Losing Myself in Books (Random House)
Sunday, October 23 at 2:30pm
Mary Roach, Spook (Norton)
Monday, October 24 at 7:30pm
Chris Elliott, The Shroud of the Thwacker (Miramax)
