Monday, June 3 at 7:30 p.m.
Jeffrey Lent
Lost Nation (Grove / Atlantic)

The best-selling author of In the Fall has been compared with American greats William Faulkner and Cormac McCarthy. Here he delves into the wild high country of nineteenth century New Hampshire and the tensions between individualism and nationhood. A trader known only as Blood and a sixteen-year-old girl whom he won from a brothel in a card game move into the ungoverned Indian Stream - a land where the luckless and outlawed start fresh. Their roles as servant and master are threatened as community violence escalates, forcing Blood to confront a deadly past and taking the reader on a powerful literary journey.

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Tuesday, June 4 at 7:30 p.m.
Elizabeth Gilbert
The Last American Man (Viking)

Acclaimed journalist and fiction writer Elizabeth Gilbert offers a fresh cultural examination of contemporary American male identity and the uniquely American desire to return to the wilderness. Exploring what pushed men to settle the frontier West and the later utopian communities, Gilbert focuses on the fascinating true story of Eustace Conway, who left his comfortable suburban home at 17 to move to the Appalachian Mountains, where for the last twenty years he has lived off the land. Conway's romantic character is a symbol of much that we feel our men should be, but what they rarely are. Women, men, readers of history, and lovers of nature and the wild will welcome this unique discussion.

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Wednesday, June 5 at 7:30 p.m.
Susan Parker
Tumbling After (Crown)

An award-winning freelance author, who contributes to the San Francisco Chronicle and NPR, Susan Parker had an enviable life with a successful career, a passionate marriage, and an intense love of the outdoors and athletics. Her traditional joys were shattered when a freak biking accident left her husband a C-4 quadriplegic. With unflinching honesty and surprising humor, Parker shares her transformation into a full-time caregiver and her reliance on an oddball family of neighbors who become her lifeline. An inspiring, compelling memoir.

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Thursday, June 6 at 7:30 p.m.
Morton Marcus
Moments Without Names: New and Selected Prose Poems (White Pines Press)

It's time to welcome back one of our favorite wordsmiths, Morton Marcus. He is author of seven books of poetry and a past Santa Cruz County Artist of the Year recipient. You routinely see him reviewing movies at the Nickelodeon, having recently retired from teaching film and literature at Cabrillo College. He joins us to share from his new collection of prose poems, a stunning achievement.

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Sunday, June 9 at 7:30 p.m.
James Lee Burke
Jolie Blon's Bounce (Simon)

Burke is back with his popular Louisiana police detective Dave Robicheaux in a novel rich in atmosphere, ripe in menace, and filled with the crackling dialogue that has made him the "Faulkner of crime fiction." This rare winner of two Edgar Awards and author of Purple Cane Road, Cimmarron Rose, and 19 other greats now dazzles us with a case where the killer isn't who he must be and the detective has his own demons to fight.

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Monday, June 10 at 7:30 p.m.
Hyla Cass
Natural Highs: Supplements, Nutrition, and Mind/Body Techniques to Help You Feel Good All the Time (Penguin)

Whether it's to relax, get a boost, or just feel good, it is clear we are dependent on chemical stimulants from French roast to pharmaceuticals. In their groundbreaking new book, UCLA psychiatrist Hyla Cass and medical expert Patrick Holford from The Institute of Optimum Nutrition in London offer a healthy program based on supplements, herbs, and mind/body techniques that helps energize, de-stress, and sharpen our mental focus without wreaking havoc on our minds and bodies.

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Tuesday, June 11 at 7:30 p.m.
Molly J. Baier
The Fire Escape is Locked for Your Safety (Lost Coast Press)

Richly painted with local color, this is a journey across two continents - from the beaches of the Black Sea to the rusty Baltic and Artic ports, through the arid plains of Volga, and across the frigid Siberian steppes. American lawyer and student of Russia, Molly J. Baier also takes us through a sometimes hilarious, sometimes bloodcurdling tour of the hearts and minds of the Ukrainians, Estonians, Lithuanians and other natives who scratch out meager livings and share thoughts on their turbulent futures.

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Wednesday, June 12 at 7:30 p.m.
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
Outlaw Woman: A Memoir of the War Years, 1960--1975 (City Lights)

A founder of the early women's liberation movement and dedicated anti-war activist, Dunbar-Ortiz was a fiery, indefatigable public speaker in issues of patriarchy, capitalism, imperialism, and racism. She formed associations with revolutionaries across the spectrum of radical and underground politics including the African National Congress, SDS, and the Weather Underground. Unlike the majority of the New Left, however, Dunbar-Ortiz grew up poor, female, and part Indian in rural Oklahoma, a past that put her at odds with the ruling class as well as those she was fighting alongside. A powerful memoir.

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Sunday, June 16 at 7:30 p.m.
John McEnroe
You Cannot Be Serious (Putnam)

John McEnroe was an unheralded eighteen-year-old amateur from Queens when he electrified the tennis world by making it to the Wimbledon semifinals in 1977. He turned pro the following year; three years later he was ranked number one in the world. In his 15 years with the men's tennis tour, he won an unprecedented 154 single and doubles titles, more than any pro ever to play the game. But as famous as he was for his success, McEnroe was equally known for his intensely volatile on-court behavior. For McEnroe, there have been many demons to fight, and with this absorbing memoir, he takes them all on. This event will include a 10-minute talk and then an extended book signing. To enter the signing line, you must purchase the book at the Book Cafe. Save your receipt!

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Monday, June 17 at 7:30 p.m.
Shierry Nicholsen
The Love of Nature and the End of the World (MIT Press)

Drawing on diverse materials - including human ecology, environmental philosophy, psychoanalysis, Buddhism, poetry, and aesthetics - Nicholsen explores why it is so easy to turn away from the devastation of the natural world. This powerful book evokes our emotional attachment to nature and examines the emotional impact we feel regarding environmental deterioration.

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Tuesday, June 18 at 7:30p.m.
Laura Fraser
An Italian Affair (Vintage)

"Both a grand travelogue and a thoughtful look at reclaiming independence," writes the Conde Nast Traveller. When left by her husband for his high school sweetheart, Fraser fled her emotional pain and physical uncertainty by adventuring to Italy. On the island of Ischia she met an aesthetics professor from Paris with an oversized love of life, and what they both thought was a vacation tryst turned into a passionate affair with life that leads them across the world. Each encounter is a delirious immersion into place and into each other. Written with an observant eye and quick humor, An Italian Affair has the irresistible honesty of a tale told from and about the heart.

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Wednesday, June 19 at 7:30 p.m.
Darin Strauss
The Real McCoy (Dutton)

With his previous work Chang and Eng praised by The New Yorker as "lyrical as it is daring," Darin Strauss has returned with another unforgettable novel about identity, illusion, and accomplishment of lifelong love. Loosely based on the real life of the turn-of-the-century icon and charlatan, The Real McCoy dazzles us with the life of underachieving Virgil Selby who becomes "Kid" McCoy - a championship boxer, jewel thief, scam artist, and the most married man in America. Living in the tumultuous times of Roosevelt and Twain, McCoy becomes a legend and a symbol of all that is true in America.

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Thursday, June 20 from 6:30 - 8:00 p.m.
Writing Group

Every third Thursday of the month, join Book Café's Wendy Mayer as she leads our writer's group. Due to the limited amount of time, the group will focus on short exercises rather than group critique.

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Thursday, June 20 at 7:00 p.m.
World Affairs Book Club
Conflict Unending: India-Pakistan Relations since 1947 by Sumit Ganguly

In March the Book Cafe began a new book club focusing on global current history with Graham Parsons facilitating the discussion. As always, we welcome people of all backgrounds and affiliations to come participate. This month's book selection is Conflict Unending by Sumit Ganguly. Call Jenn Ramage at 831-462-6297 or email Graham Parsons at parsons402@yahoo.com for details. For June only, the book club will meet in the front of the store in the event area.

Order this

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Monday, June 24 at 7:30p.m.
Russell Rowland
In Open Spaces (Harper)

In the tradition of Cormac McCarthy and Norman McLean, Russell Rowland masterfully weaves a powerful tale of the unforgiving landscapes of eastern Montana and the psychological wars that can rip a struggling family apart. When the Arbuckle family learns their son and rising baseball star George Arbuckle is found drowned in a river, the devastation threatens to ruin the family and their livelihood on the ranch. Told through the shrewdly observant voice of George's brother Blake, the story unfolds around choices he is forced to make between loyalty and betrayal when suspicions boil and family tension sharpen.

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Tuesday, June 25 at 7:30 p.m.
Elizabeth Berg
True to Form (Pocket)

Again Elizabeth Berg illustrates her unique gift for capturing emotional truths of women's lives and telling their stories straight from the heart. True To Form revisits Katie Nash, first seen in Durable Goods and Joy School, the thoughtful and spunky aspiring poet who watches the world with the eyes of a writer and who now is on the verge of adolescence and the worst summer of her life, 1961. Faced with forced participation in Girl Scouts and unsuitable babysitting jobs, Nash is surprised when the summer becomes a time of growth, love, and betrayal. In honor of the early sixties theme, join us in your favorite timely outfit for a night of good reading and Girl Scout cookies!

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Wednesday, June 26 at 7:30p.m.
Mike Daisey
21 Dog Years (Free Press)

In 1998, when Amazon.com went to temp agencies to recruit people, they gave them a simple directive: send us your freaks. Mike Daisey - slacker, onetime aesthetics major, dilettante - seemed a fit and his ascension from customer service to business development over 21 dog years had the makings of dreams and nightmares. With lunatic precision, Daisey describes lightless cube farms, fourteen-hour days, Amazon employee #5 who spends six hours everyday battling video goblins, and hysterically honest letters to CEO Jeff Bezos. An epic story of greed and self-deception, this is a wickedly funny anthem to an era of bounteous stock options and boundless insanity.