Talking has nothing to do with conversation.
GERTRUDE STEIN

 

Events

 

 

 

Sunday, July 13th at 7:30 p.m.
Alice Hoffman
The Probable Future
(Doubleday)

The author of Blue Diary, Green Angel, and The Drowning Season now brings three generations of unusual, magical women together in a chilling and enchanting mystery. Elinor can detect falsehood, Jenny can see the dreams of the sleeping, and young Stella knows the future. Together they confront a haunting past - and a very current murder - against the evocative backdrop of New England. This unsettling and arresting tale showcases the lavish literary gifts that have made Alice Hoffman one of America's most treasured writers.

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Monday, July 14th at 7:30 p.m.
John Maclean
Fire and Ashes: On the Front Lines of American Wildfire
(Holt)

Retired Chicago Tribune editor and award winning author of Fire on the Mountain, John Maclean returns to the front lines, where wildland fires keep getting hotter, bigger, and more dangerous to the men and women who fight them. Beginning with the worst case of arson in wildfire history, the 1953 Rattlesnake Fire in Mendocino, and following through to the seven million acres burned in 2002, this penetrating view of the inevitable conflict between people, property, and nature focuses on fire fighting techniques, courageous smoke jumpers, and the charred legacy a fire leaves behind.

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Tuesday, July 22nd at 7:30 p.m.
Garrett Soden
Falling: How Our Greatest Fear Became Our Greatest Thrill
(Norton)

Does standing on the very edge of a cliff inspire terror or a fleeting impulse to leap forward into absolute freedom? Garrett Soden untangles our complex relationship with gravity to reveal why the act of plummeting, which should spell only disaster, can seem so exciting. A decade-long obsession with the thrill industry took him from historical archives to the X-Games, from the science library to the lip of a 170-foot bungee tower, and from his own roller coaster rides to the superstars of extreme sports themselves. Soden explores why "the kids don't want to be baseball or football stars anymore, they want to be famous BMX bike riders, snowboarders, or skateboarders. They want to fly off vert ramps. They don't want to be Derek Jeter - they want to be Tony Hawk."

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Thursday, July 24th at 7:30 p.m.
Ron Kauk
Spirit of the Rock
(Gibbs Smith)

At age sixteen, Ron Kauk went rock climbing in the Sierra for the summer and found his life's work. Nature became his teacher, and now a thirty-year veteran of the school of granite and sky, he has committed himself to helping new generations recognize the values of respect and responsibility to the natural world. Thrilling photographs, inspirational quotes, and lessons learned from two decades of legendary first ascents throughout Yosemite bring a stunning vibrancy to The Spirit of the Rock.

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Thursday, July 24th at 7:00 p.m.*
World Affairs Book Club

To date, this monthly book discussion group has read books on Afghanistan, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the border dispute between India and Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, Latin America, Africa, China and North Korea. As always, we welcome people of all backgrounds and affiliations to come and participate. For more information you may email Graham Parsons at parsons402@yahoo.com or call the store at 462-4415. * Please Note Time

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Tuesday, July 29th at 7:30 p.m.
Poetry Santa Cruz

Poetry Santa Cruz presents poetry readings and workshops in the Santa Cruz area. This month PSC continues a bi-monthly series of readings at Capitola Book Cafe. This is a must see event for poetry lovers. Arrive early to secure a seat.

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Thursday, July 31st at 7:30 p.m.
Jennifer Leo
Sand in My Bra
(Traveler's Tales)

Travel isn't always what we dream it will be, but oh, the stories that follow. Share in the hilarious, bizarre, and unforgettable misadventures of 29 women whose trips went comically awry. From Australia to Zambia, up Nepal's mountains and along Mexico's beaches, the true stories in this collection will make you laugh, groan, and sympathize with these travelers who took a trip on the lighter side. Editor Jennifer Leo is part of the Wild Writing Women collective who brought us much laughter with their collection of traveler's tales last year.

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Wednesday, August 13th at 7:30 p.m.
Lauren Kessler
Clever Girl: Elizabeth Bentley and the Dawn of the McCarthy Era
(Harper Collins)

Lauren Kessler, author of The Happy Bottom Riding Club, now brings us the definitive, dramatic biography of the Soviet spy turned FBI informant who ushered in the McCarthy era and became one of the most controversial figures in the history of espionage in America.Her code name was "Clever Girl," but to the New York City tabloids in the late 1940s, she was the "Red Spy Queen." She ferried secret documents from covert Communists in the federal government to her Russian lover, a KGB operative. She recruited informants and debriefed agents. During the "golden age" of Soviet espionage, Elizabeth Turrill Bentley, the well-bred, Vassar-educated descendant of Puritan clergy, ran two of the most productive spy rings in America. And then, one day in 1945, she "turned"-- and started naming names. When she finished, she had exposed scores of Communist agents in the government, pinpointed spies in top administrative positions, and started the Rosenbergs on their way to execution. Her disclosures and accusations-the repercussions of which historians have debated for decades-put a halt to Russian spying for years and helped set the tone of American political life for nearly a decade.

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Wednesday, August 20th at 7:30 p.m.
David Corbett
Done for a Dime
(Ballantine)

David Corbett's first book, The Devil's Redhead, was hailed by critics as a searing work of suspense. Now, one of the hottest new names in modern crime fiction is back with a riveting and soulful new noir. Back in the day, Raymond "Strong" Carlisle made his mark as an ace sideman blowing baritone sax alongside all the biggest names in R&B. Now he lies in the grass outside his home, shot dead from behind and pelted by the heedless rain that mingles with his own blood. He is the first official casualty of a dirty war being lethally waged for control of Rio Mirada: a low-rent, "city in transition" of clashing subcultures at the northern tip of the San Francisco Bay, beset by drug dealers, arsonists, squatters . . . and now murder.