July Events 2004

July 2004 Author Events

Please let us know at least 7 days in advance if you would like an autographed copy. This will allow us sufficient time to have enough copies of the book in stock. Thank You.

Monday, July 5th at 7:30 p.m.
Laura Crum
Forged
(St. Martin's)

For more than 20 years, Santa Cruz resident Laura Crum has raised, cared for, and ridden horses - all while crafting delightful equine mysteries (Hay Burner) starring horse veterinarian Gail McCarthy. Forged now places Gail at the scene of a possible crime: a horse with only three new shoes and the easily dislikable horseshoer dying from a gunshot wound yards away on the barn floor, claiming to a bewildered Gail that it was an accident. Questions from police swirl around our heroine and our favorite animal-loving sleuth fears for her own life as the pieces of yet another horse ranch mystery entertain and enthrall us.

CANCELLED

Tuesday, July 6th at 7:30 p.m.
Emily Yellin
Our Mother's War
(Free Press)

The enduring images we have of women during World War II are most often those of war brides left at home and "Rosie the Riveters" working in munitions factories. Yet, as award-winning journalist Emily Yellin unveils in Our Mother's War, women's experiences at that time were surprisingly diverse. They were also spies, nurses, prostitutes, entertainers, baseball players, politicians, prisoners of war and much more. Their stories come alive in this unprecedented portrait of what women from all walks of life were thinking, feeling, saying, and doing during World War II, and what was being thought, felt, said, and done about them.

Monday, July 12th at 7:30 p.m.
Muffy Mead-Ferro
Confessions of a Slacker Mom
(Da Capo)

The supermom next door is turning her kids into star athletes and concert violinists and you're not sure how she does it -- and not even sure if you want to know. Deep down you believe in an alternative approach, where kids learn things for themselves, where it's perfectly all right to do less, to have less, to spend less. Where parents can cut themselves some slack and dare to have a life of their own. Prepare to be validated with Muffy Mead-Ferro's defiant "no" to parenting that undermine parents' and children's ability to think and look back with her at her childhood growing up on Wyoming cattle ranch where parenting - by necessity - was hands off. What a slacker. We should all be so sane.

Wednesday, July 14 at 6:30 p.m. *
Book Club
Far From the Madding Crowd
by Thomas Harding

Pursued by three devoted suitors, Bathsheba Everdine, a beautiful farm owner, allows her passions to run wild. She chooses Seargeant Troy, a dashing and unscrupulous lout, and pays dearly for it. She drives poor Farmer Boldwood to the brink of insanity and beyond. And all along, patient and steady Gabriel Oak tends her sheep and manages her estate, scarcely dreaming that in the end, his friendship and loyalty will be amply rewarded.

* Please Note Time

Wednesday, July 14th at 7:30 p.m.
Kenneth Cain, Heidi Postlewait, and Andrew Thomson
Emergency Sex and Other Measures : A True Story from Hell on Earth
(Miramax)

In the early nineties, three young people from wildly different backgrounds were drawn to serve in UN Peacekeeping missions around the world. Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures is their riveting story. Working to restore human rights in the poorest, most war-torn places by day isn't easy. Partying by night helps. Three distinct voices, that of a social worker, lawyer, and doctor, combine seamlessly to offer an unflinching look behind the headlines. This real-life, modern-day MASH takes us into the hearts and minds of the people struggling every day to make the world a better place.

Thursday, July 15th at 7:30 p.m.
Geneen Roth
The Craggy Hole in My Heart and the Cat Who Filled It
(Crown)

Anne Lamott writes, "Geneen Roth walks boldly, bravely into the excruciating truth of love's losses, and the healing gift of an open heart. She renders each moment of this tale with illumination and flair, astonishing psychological and spiritual insight, and gorgeous writing. I was utterly blown away." The bestselling author of When Food is Love and Feeding the Hungry Heart takes us deep into the story of a remarkable 20 pound cat and Geneen's beloved father and the ways in which each taught her to love without reservations and to become willing to lose those whom she thought she could not live without. With her humor and honesty, Geneen Roth shows how to break free from fears, understanding that these are the demons that can inhibit our ability to freely and fully embrace life.

Tuesday, July 20th at 7:30 p.m.
Adriana Trigiani
The Queen of the Big Time
(Random House)

Widely known and loved for her funny and moving Big Stone Gap trilogy and the New York Times bestseller, Lucia, Lucia, Adriana Trigiani returns to the Book Café for her latest work, The Queen of the Big Time. This larger than life love story chronicles the migration of an entire Italian village from the shores of the Adriatic to the farmland of Pennsylvania, the remarkable life of the Castelluca family over the course of three generations, and the determination of one passionate woman who, through decades of change, cannot forget her first love.

Wednesday, July 21st at 7:30 p.m.
Susan McCarthy
Becoming a Tiger
(Harper Collins)

Susan McCarthy brilliantly explored the emotions of animals in When Elephants Weep, her New York Times bestselling book co-authored with Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson. Now she examines the development of baby animals, showing us how they learn, while under the protection of their parents, to find food, dodge enemies, and raise their own children. Through fascinating and funny stories, along with scientific research and the experience of wildlife rehabilitators, she examines the spectrum of behavior between 'nature' and 'nurture,' showing us how learning finishes the job evolution started, by letting young animals adapt to an ever-changing world.

Thursday, July 22nd at 7:00 p.m.
World Affairs Book Club
Uses of Haiti by Paul Farmer
(Common Courage Press)

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. This month's selection is The Uses of Haiti by Dr. Paul Farmer. Publisher's Weekly calls this newly revised edition, "an impassioned synthesis of history and report, by Harvard-based Farmer, who alternates research with medical practice in rural Haiti, offers an indictment of American policy. "
As always, we welcome people from all backgrounds and affiliations to participate. For more information you may email Graham Parsons at parsons402@yahoo.com or call the store at 462-4415.

*Please Note Time

Tuesday, July 27th at 7:30 p.m.
Poetry Santa Cruz
Catherine Barnett and Ryan Masters
Into Perfect Spheres Such Holes Are Pierced
(Consortium)

Catherine Barnett and Ryan Masters Catherine Barnett's first book has just been published by Alice James Books and is titled: Into Perfect Spheres Such Holes Are Pierced. The book has been highly praised by Robert Creeley, Dennis Nurkse, and Jean Valentine, among others. Barnett is the 2003 winner of the GSU Review Poetry Prize. Her poems have appeared in many periodicals, including: Pleiades, GSU Review, and The Iowa Review. A native of the San Francisco Bay area, Catherine Barnett now lives in New York City, with her son. She will be joined by local Ryan Masters. Ryan Masters has been published in a wide range of literary journals including The Iowa Review, The Pedestal Magazine, and The Absinthe Literary Review. His work has been included in So Luminous the Wildflowers: An Anthology of California Poetry (Tebot Bach, 2003) and a chapbook, below the low-water mark, is available from Pudding House Publications (2003). He is the editor of The Bathyspheric Review, the founder and coordinator of The Monterey Bay Poetry Festival, and senior arts writer at The Monterey County Weekly.