1475 41st Avenue Capitola, CA 95010
831-462-4415
Talking
has nothing to do with conversation.
GERTRUDE STEIN
Events
Wednesday, June 4th at 7:30 p.m.
James Weinstein
The Long Detour
(Westview)James Weinstein is the founding editor and publisher of In These Times magazine, and was the founder of the Socialist Review. In his new book, Weinstein examines an intellectually engaging overview of the history of socialism in the United States and its continuing relevance for today. Historian and journalist James Weinstein takes readers from the movement's early years of utopian communities, though the heyday of engagement with the makers of corporate America, and into the future of our de-industrializing era. He argues that socialism, as a political movement, lost its way when Communist domination of the American left stifled social thought and diverted it into disputes over the true nature of the Soviet Union. Socialism is not dead, according to Weinstein; indeed, it is a vital force that can contribute to the growth of a political movement in the United States based on humane social principles, one that can once again play a positive role in our democratic development.
Thursday, June 5th at 7:30 p.m.
Lauralee Summer
Learning Joy from Dogs without Collars
(Simon & Schuster)A story of a young woman's journey from homeless to Harvard, this powerful memoir follows Lauralee Summer as she moved twenty times before she was 12, drifting between the streets, welfare hotels, and shelters. Her eccentric mother infused joy into their hardships when she could, yet the constant turmoil of their vagabond existence took its toll on the young girl. First Lauralee tried petty crime to flaunt her growing resentment then chose escape altogether by diving into the world of books which held more structure for her than her own life. Learning Joy from Dogs without Collars is a unique first-hand look at growing up homeless in America, the remarkable story of one girl's triumph in the face of adversity, and the teacher who fanned the fire within her.
Monday, June 9th at 7:30 p.m.
Regina McBride
The Land of Women
(Touchstone)The author of The Nature of Water and Air, now a film being directed by Gabriel Byrne, has returned with a poetic and sensual novel about a mother's sins and her daughter's quest to forgive them. Driven out by her own mother from the lush hills of Ireland to the dust-swept streets of Santa Fe, young Fioan O'Faolain explores memory, exile, and the strange ways in which history connects the most disparate of geographies.
Tuesday, June 10th at 7:30 p.m.
Christopher Moore
Fluke
(Harper)Irreverent, witty, fascinating, and funny, this latest romp with the author of Lamb is everything Christopher Moore's fans, new and old, have come to expect. Fluke is a rollicking adventure involving warbling whales with an attitude, age-old conspiracies, top-level military secrets, a megalomaniac undersea ruler, and whale researcher who thinks he is losing his mind. (Did he see "Bite Me" scrawled across the tail of a whale?) As Carl Hiaasen says, "Christopher Moore is a very sick man, in the very best sense of the word."
Wednesday, June 11th at 7:30 p.m.
Kadiatou Diallo
My Heart Will Cross this Ocean
(Ballantine)Born in turbulent 1960's Guinea, Kadiatou Diallo, a descendent of West African kings and healers, was married at thirteen and soon bore her first son, Amadou. Despite the rigid structures of African-Islamic culture, she began her own business in Bangkok and soon encouraged her son to move to America with the immigrant's dream of a life of opportunity in New York. Amadou would be gunned down in the Bronx by four police officers who were later exonerated in the case. Nineteen bullets struck him, and 41 were fired in all. Kadiatou Diallo became a symbol of the struggle against police brutality and humanized the tragedy of racial profiling as she fought for justice and healing. Julia Alvarez writes, "She has given us the story of every man who comes to America to start over. But this is not the America lined with gold, but a nightmare pock-marked with bullet holes. To read this story is to awaken morally to the work left to do to make a humane family out of our human race."
Monday, June 16th at 7:30 p.m.
John Lindsay-Poland
Emperors in the Jungle: The Hidden History of the U.S. in Panama
(Duke)Emperors in the Jungle is an exposé of key episodes in the United States' military involvement in Panama. Investigative journalism at its best, this book reveals how U.S. ideas about taming tropical jungles and people, combined with commercial and defense objectives, shaped more than a century of intervention and environmental engineering in a small, strategically located nation. Whether uncovering the U.S. Army's decades-long program of chemical weapons tests in Panama or recounting the U.S. invasion in December, 1989, which was the U.S. military's twentieth intervention in Panama since 1856, John Lindsay-Poland vividly portrays the extent and costs of U.S. involvement. This is a timely look at what the U.S. can do in the name of its good neighbors.
Tuesday, June 17th at 7:30 p.m.
Lisa See
Dragon Bones
(Random House)"Mixing history, myths, and current events, Dragon Bones...reveals the emotional and economical entanglement of China with the West, and tells a story of violence, lust, greed, fear, and desperation. [It] is not only a page turner but timely," writes Ha Jin. Inspector Liu Hulan and her American attorney husband have been called to the Three Gorges Dam, the controversial project that will inundate 2,000 archaeological sites and displace over 2 million people. A murder and theft of artifacts spark this rich tale in which the bestselling author of Flower Net seamlessly combines religious fanaticism, ancient history, betrayal, and good old-fashioned mystery.
Wednesday, June 18th at 7:30 p.m.
Victoria Abbott Riccardi
Untangling My Chopsticks: A Culinary Sojourn in Kyoto
(Broadway)Two years out of college with a degree from Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, Victoria Abbott Riccardi moves to Kyoto, Japan, to study tea kaiseki, a ritualized form of cooking that accompanies the formal tea ceremony. Speaking only sushi bar Japanese, her early days in a culture "where even the nature of secrets is a well-kept secret" were rocky, but she will begin to live a life inaccessible to most foreigners and now shares her exotic, thoughtful culinary journey. Filled with an abundance of recipes, unusual Japanese customs, and a cast of locals and expatriates alike, Untangling My Chopsticks is a tantalizing memoir.
Thursday, June 19th 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
Friday, June 20th at 11:15 p.m. *
HARRY POTTER V Arrives!!!
At 11:15p.m on June 20th, we will reopen the Book Cafe for the arrival of Harry Potter V. At 12:01a.m. you can purchase your copy of Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix. We hope to have all devoted fans of Quidditch present to celebrate the beginning of a new Harry Potter adventure. We'll start the night off right with some live music by the Dumbledore Grandpas. Come dressed as your favorite character---there will be a costume parade and prizes. We'll also enjoy milk and cookies and a reading from Castle Cottage's own Billie Harris. Take an afternoon nap and join us for the fun!
Sunday, June 22nd at 7:30 p.m.
Michael Oren
Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East
(Ballantine)Ehud Barak, former Prime Minister of Israel writes, "The Six-Day war had, and still has, a great influence on Israel, its neighbors, and the current events in the Middle East. Michael B. Oren has presented a detailed and multi-perspective picture of the events and dynamics of that period. It is a significant step towards a better understanding of our national and regional history. Hopefully, such understanding may assist us in reaching peace in the Middle East." The Yom Kippur War, the war in Lebanon, the Camp David accords, the controversy over Jerusalem and the Jewish settlements, the Intifada and the rise of Palestinian terror: all were sparked by six days of intense Arab-Israeli fighting in the summer of 1967. Oren, once Director of Israel's Department of Inter-Religious Affairs under Yitzhak Rabin and Middle Eastern history scholar from Princeton, has written the most comprehensive and accessible account of this pivotal event that still greatly effects us all today.
Monday, June 23rd at 7:30 p.m.
Khaled Hosseini
The Kite Runner
(Riverhead)Born in Kabul, Afghanistan to a diplomat whose family was granted political asylum in the United States in 1980, Khaled Hosseini has authored the first Afghan novel written in English. The Kite Runner reveals the beauty and agony of a tormented nation as it tells the story of an improbable friendship between two boys from opposite ends of society. Set in Kabul in the 1970's shortly after the overthrow of the last Afghan king, the novel encompasses the communist coup d'etat, the Soviet invasion, the rise of the mujahadeen and the Taliban, and the Afghan community of exiles in America with unparalleled insight and deft wit.
Tuesday, June 24th at 7:30 p.m.
Will Ferguson
Happiness
(Harper)When an enormous self-help manuscript by Tupak Soiree arrives in the desk of overworked, underpaid editor Edwin de Valu, his cynicism and his filthy mood destines the doorstopper for the reject pile. During a high-pressured editorial meeting, however, the bosses demand the next great thing, and Edwin begins to extol the virtues of the inspirational tome; the excitement around the room is palatable and the unthinkable is discovered: the self-help book actually works. This searing and hilarious satire of the concept of self-help and contemporary America is a masterpiece of comic fiction.
Wednesday, June 25th at 7:30 p.m.
Elizabeth Berg
Say When
(Simon & Schuster)The author of Open House and Durable Goods has a unique gift for capturing the emotional truths of women's lives and telling their stories with honesty. For the first time, Berg presents a story from a man's perspective, exploring his experiences when blindsided by a wife he thought he knew and the affair she has just revealed. For a man who prizes comfort and familiarity, he is now terrified yet strengthen, and the talented Berg reveals his story with her signature perception and grace.
