Sunday, December 3rd at 2:30pm *
Jill Wolfson
Home and Other Big Fat Lies
(Henry Holt)
&
Ann Jaramillo
La Linea
(Roaring Book Press)
With two talented middle reader/young adult novelists, we celebrate many families, their struggles and their joys. Jill Wolfson, the Santa Cruz author of What I Call Life, introduces us to an irrepressible foster child in a deeply divided small town. Whitney has been in so many foster homes that she knows all the parent types, but she doesn’t know much about trees—and that is all there is here in her latest home in far northern California. Will the middle of nowhere be any more welcoming? Ann Jaramillo teaches English as a Second Language to Mexican-American junior high students in Salinas. In La Linea, fifteen-year-old Miguel leaves his rancho deep in Mexico to migrate to California across la linea, the border. When his younger sister secretly follows him, the hardships and danger of the journey are even further heightened. Thanks to CASA for their support of this event.
* Please Note Time
Monday, December 4th at 7:30pm
Susan Brady
The World Is a Kitchen: True Stories of Cooking Your Way Through Culture
&
Jen Leo
What Color Is Your Jockstrap: Funny Men and Women Write from the Road
(Traveler's Tales)
Tastes and tales from around the globe! Susan Brady inspires us to experience food in a new way, exploring new lands, cultures, and cuisines. She presents culinary flavored travel tales from cooking schools, B&Bs, and home kitchens around the world. Included are the recipes that lure the hungry tourist: Senegalese mafe, Russian pelmeni, and Mexican mole verde. Jen Leo (Sand in My Bra) valiantly continues to collect travel tales of another type, the wacky and embarrassing ones that prove again that a sense of humor is the one tool no traveler should be without.
Wednesday, December 6th at 7:30pm
Robin Chotzinoff
Holy Unexpected: My New Life As a Jew
(Public Affairs)
Born into a non-observant Jewish home, Chotzinoff (People With Dirty Hands) had no interest in religion—until she turned forty. Holy Unexpected is a study of what she believed in before God (junk food, music, psychopharmacology), and her surprising return to Judaism (fueled somewhat by her discovery that Judaism embraces acts over beliefs, arguing with God, and hot sex). Her journey includes wrestling with the meaning of Torah, discovering how to keep the Sabbath and still go to Walmart for duct tape, and learning to pray while snowboarding. But her real education in the meaning of Judaism occurs as she rides the ups and downs of day-to-day life and prepares both for her bat mitzvah and for her father's death. "Chotzinoff's fearless humility shines through everything she writes, making her someone we can listen to and talk with."--Los Angeles Times.
Thursday, December 7th at 7:30pm
Winter Poetry Night with...
David Swanger, Wayne's College of Beauty (BkMk Press)
Gary Young, Pleasure (Heyday)
Joseph Stroud, Country of Light (Copper Canyon)
Join us for a lively winter poetry reading. The all-star line up includes three award-winning and beloved poets: UCSC Professor Emeritus and prolific author David Swanger; master letterpress printer, teacher and much collected visual artist Gary Young; and veteran Cabrillo College teacher and 2006 winner of Witter Bynner Fellowship in poetry from the Library of Congress Joseph Stroud.
Sunday, December 10th at 2:30pm *
Sasha Su-Ling Welland
A Thousand Miles of Dreams: The Journeys of Two Chinese Sisters
From a 2006 UCSC PhD graduate comes an evocative and intimate biography of two Chinese sisters who took very different paths in their quest to be independent women. Ling Shuhao arrived in Cleveland in 1925 to study medicine in the middle of a U.S. crackdown on Chinese immigrant communities, and her effort to assimilate began. She became an American named Amy, while her sister Ling Shuhua burst onto the Beijing literary scene as a writer of short fiction. They were both Chinese modern girls who sought to forge their own way in an era of social revolution and followed trajectories unimaginable to their parents' generation. “Welland is an anthropologist with a novelist s eye for the art of both making lives and making books. She weaves biography, memoir, genealogy, social history, literary criticism, and theoretical reflection coherently, accessibly, and, indeed, beautifully.”—Booklist (starred review). *Please Note Time.
Monday, December 11th at 7:30pm
Rocky Snyder
Fit to Ski and Snowboard
(McGraw Hill)
"The Best Personal Trainer of Santa Cruz County” for four straight years, Rocky Snyder turns his fitness focus to the slopes. The author of Fit to Paddle and Fit to Surf, he now motivates and instructs the Tahoe winter weekend warriors and the champion powder hounds. Improving balance, strengthening back and core muscles, gaining quicker reactions, and increasing flexibility—all will help you increase your fun and your endurance. With this all-in-one fitness handbook, you're sure to be in peak condition next time you challenge the peaks. Please leave skies and snowboards outside!
Tuesday, December 12th at 7:30pm
Betsy McNair
Mexicocina: The Spirit and Style of the Mexican Kitchen
(Chronicle)
In the tradition of Mexicolor and Mexicasa, Mexicocina showcases over forty kitchens throughout Mexico that blend native tradition, Old World ornamentation, and contemporary innovation. Chefs, designers, travelers and lovers of food will be tantalized by the gorgeous photos of bold colors and bold designs, as well as the charming and informative text and delicious recipes like chile-scented chocolate truffles. Santa Cruz author Betsy McNair is a caterer, writer, and tour guide with a culinary emphasis that spans thirty years, two coasts of the US, and many years in Mexico, where she managed a four-star bed and breakfast, La Casa de Espíritus Alegres. She now runs My Mexico Tours, offering small and specialized culinary and cultural tours of Mexico (www.mymexicotours.com). Great conversation and treats for all!
Thursday, December 14th at 7:30pm
Peter Sussman with Marge Frantz and Billie Harris
Decca: The Letters of Jessica Mitford
(Knopf)
"Decca” Mitford lived a larger-than-life life: born into the British aristocracy—one of the famous (and sometimes infamous) Mitford sisters—she ran away to Spain during the Spanish Civil War with her cousin Esmond Romilly, Winston Churchill’s nephew, then came to America, became a tireless political activist and a member of the Communist Party, and embarked on a brilliant career as a memoirist and muckraking journalist (her funeral-industry exposé, The American Way of Death, became an instant classic). She was a celebrated wit, a charmer, and a prolific writer of letters—letters that crackle with a humor and insight into human behavior (and misbehavior) that attests to her generous experience in politics, the arts, journalism, publishing, and high and low society. Editor Peter Sussman will be joined by local luminary Marge Franz, a close friend of Jessica Mitford and the Literary Executor of her letters. The voice of actress Billie Harris will animate Jessica’s words with a fresh liveliness.
2006 HOLIDAY SALES
Monday, November 20 – Sunday, November 26
20% OFF All Cards, Wrap & Gift Items
Monday, November 27 – Sunday, December 3
20% OFF All Hardcover Children’s Books
Monday, December 4 – Sunday, December 10
20% OFF All Hardcover Nonfiction Books
Monday, December 11– Sunday, December 17
20% OFF All Hardcover Fiction and Poetry Books
Monday, December 18 – Saturday, December 31
20% OFF All 2007 Calendars
