March 2003

Wednesday, March 5th at 7:30 p.m.
Dao Strom
Grass Roof, Tin Roof
(Mariner Books)

In this stunning novel about a Vietnamese family resettling in California gold country, Dao Strom investigates the myth of westward progress and the consequences of cultural displacement. Of Strom'sdebut, Robert Olen Butler says, "A brilliant exploration of exile, loss, and identity. It also innovatively explores the novel itself as an art form. Strom is an important new writer."

---

Thursday, March 6th at 7:30 p.m.
Laurie R. King
Keeping Watch
(Bantam)
and
Laura Crum
Hayburner
(St. Martin's Press)

Join us for a night of mystery and wonder with two of the finest mystery writers working today. And lucky us, they're local. Award-winning author Laurie R. King returns to Folly Island to deliver a harrowing novel that explores the very essence of good and evil and a crime that will leave her readers breathless. For years, Allen Carmichael has lived on the fringes of the law, utilizing skills he learned as a solider. Some consider him nothing but a kidnapper for hire. Others consider him a hero. His specialty is saving children from abusive parents. But after twenty-five years, he is ready to take on his final case---a case that could destroy him. Hayburner is the seventh book in Laura Crum's mystery series featuring equine veterinarian Gail McCarthy. Like the other books in the series Hayburner is set in Santa Cruz County; the story revolves around arson, passion and horses. A lively upbeat read, Hayburner is a must for fans of horses and whodunits.

---

Monday, March 10th at 7:30 p.m.
Earl Emerson
Into the Inferno: A Novel of Suspense
(Ballantine)

Seattle Fire Department lieutenant and the poet laureate of fire fighters, Earl Emerson blazed a name for himself with his first fiery thriller, Vertical Burn, an awarding-winning novel that the New York Times Book Review declared, "singes the pages with its descriptive heat." This latest jolting, race-against-time mystery, Into the Inferno, offers a dynamic insiders view of a metropolitan fire-fighting unit with the white-hot twist of active firefighters suddenly succumbing to unexplained ailments and accidents after a routine call.

---

Tuesday, March 11th at 7:30 p.m.
Yang Erchie Namu and Christine Mathieu
Leaving Mother Lake
(Little, Brown)

Yang Erche Namu comes from the Chinese Moso country, or "the Country of Daughters," home to a matrilineal society in which daughters are favored children, there is no word for father, and marriage is considered a backward practice. Namu is a strong-willed child whose mother tried three times to give away, and when Chinese officials come looking for talented singers, this young woman breaks the taboo that holds her unique culture together she leaves her mother's house. Namu - singing star, model, and author - has lived a stunning life in a part of the world most of us never knew existed. Christine Mathieu, a doctor of Moso culture and history, joined Namu in the telling of her exotic yet universal tale of mothers and daughters.

---

Thursday, March 13th at 7:30 p.m.
Joyce Maynard
The Usual Rules
(St. Martin's Press)

The best-selling author of To Die For and Where Love Goes, Joyce Maynard has crafted a praised work of fiction that comes directly out of the horrific events of September 11 and fearlessly explores the experience of personal loss, in the face of global tragedy, as seen through the eyes of a young person. Thirteen-year-old Wendy sees her mother leave for work at the World Trade Center and never sees her again. Following Wendy from the emotionally volatile impact through her attempts to cope by leaving New York to live with her unknown father in California, The Usual Rules is a wrenching yet uplifting exploration of the nature of families and those who manage to find each other again.

---

Monday, March 17th at 7:30 p.m.
Kathy Ellison
New Economy of Nature
(Island Press)

Earth's ecosystems are among humanity's most precious assets, offering such vital services as climate control and water purification. So why are they being rapidly destroyed? A major reason is that protecting them has been seen as largely a charitable venture, and philanthropy isn't up to the job. In this lively, provocative book, world respected ecologist Gretchen Daily, and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Katherine Ellison give us an informative look at a new "new economy" that recognizes the full value of natural systems and the potential profits in protecting them.

---

Tuesday, March 18th at 7:30 p.m.
Carlos Eire
Waiting for Snow in Havana
(Free Press)

In 1962, at the age of eleven, Carlos Eire was one of 14,000 children airlifted out of Cuba, his parents left behind. His life until that moment is the subject of this wry, intoxicatingly beautiful memoir of growing up in a privileged Havana household----and of being exiled from his own childhood by the Cuban revolution. He was never to see his father again. Come hear a first-hand account of a paradise lost, one full of turquoise and tangerine, one bathed in sunlight and hope.

---

Wednesday, March 19th at 7:30 p.m.
Charmaine Craig
The Good Men
(Riverhead)

As a student of medieval history at Harvard, Charmaine Craig encountered the startling testimony of Grazida Lizier, a young woman tried by the Inquisition of 1320. Brilliantly spun from this heart-wrenching, shocking moment in history comes The Good Men, Craig's gripping, epic story of what happened when religious persecution turned Christian against Christian and neighbor against neighbor in Montaillou, a small village in south-west France. Historically accurate and intense, this darkly memorable work dramatizes how barely comprehensible differences in faith serve as the impetus behind enormous tragedy, and, reminiscent of Victor Hugo's Les Miserables, Craig skillfully exposes human nature in all its baseness and beauty.

---

 

Thursday, March 20th at 7:00 p.m.
World Affairs Book Club

This month marks the first anniversary of the World Affairs Book Club. To date, the group has read books on Afghanistan, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the border dispute between India and Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, Latin America and Africa. As always, we welcome people of all backgrounds and affiliations to come participate. For more information you may email Graham Parsons at parsons402@yahoo.com or call Jenn Ramage at 462-6297.

---

CANCELLED

Thursday, March 20th at 7:30 p.m.
Giles Milton
Samurai William: The Englishman who Opened Japan
(FSG)

From the brilliant author of Nathaniel's Nutmeg comes the amazing tale of how a 17th-century Englishman could infiltrate the Japanese court and become one of the Shogun's most trusted advisors in a time foreigners had been denied access to the riches of the East for centuries. The true story behind James Clavell's best-selling Shogun, Samurai William is the rollicking and eye-opening story of the resourcefulness of one man in a foreign land, the clash of two cultures, and the enormous impact one Westerner had on the opening of the East.

---

Monday, March 24th at 7:30 p.m.
Marc Herman
Searching for El Dorado
(Doubleday)

The search for the lost City of Gold in the amazon basin has inspired adventurers since the days of the Spanish conquistadors. Intrigued by the cultural, economic and environmental fallout of a five-hundred-year gold rush, journalist Marc Herman traveled to the rainforests of Guyana, where he joined up with a rowdy crew of local gold miners as they pursued their dreams of riches. In this amazing journey into the South American rainforest, Marc Herman finds not only the independent prospectors who wear all their earnings on their fingers but also the international corporations that fail to alleviate the area's poverty despite their tremendous technological and political power. It is a startling expose by a frequent contributor Mother Jone's, Spin and Harper's.

---

Tuesday, March 25th 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.

---

Thursday, March 27th at 7:30 p.m.
Eleanor Holmes Norton and Joan Lester
Fire in My Soul
(Atria Books)

This is the remarkable story of U.S. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton impassioned civil rights crusader, hard-driving legislator and one of the most powerful women in American history. Norton led the agency that was the first to enforce laws against racial and sexual discrimination and harassment. Joan Steinau Lester's book captures all the struggles and triumphs, both public and private, that have marked Holmes's life as a political pioneer across four decades of American history.

---

Saturday, March 29 at 7:30 p.m.
Paul Theroux
Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Cape Town
(Houghton Mifflin)

A rich and insightful travel book in the tradition that made Paul Theroux's reputation, Dark Star Safari takes us the length of Africa by rattletrap bus, forgotten train, and rusting steamer. Theroux confronts delay, discomfort, bullets and bad food while encountering a remarkable mix of places and people. Beginning in Cairo and ending in Cape Town, he goes on the ultimate safari to the true heart of Africa, not the lavish game parks with overfed guests but the small villages of the bush and the filthy chaotic cities that define this forgotten continent. Come enjoy one of our finest American writers whose dozens of books include Mosquito Coast and Sir Vidia's Shadow.

---

Monday, March 31st at 7:30 p.m.
Jesse Shepard
Jubilee King
(Picador)

Caretaker of a ranch in Northern California and son of playwright and novelist Sam Shepard, Jesse Shepard writes of his own experiences, and the result is a raw, unspoiled, and remarkably honest look at the rugged landscape and characters of the West. Two men dig for the bones of a long-dead mare in the hopes of salvaging a last hope for prosperity; a pair of brothers drive along the Pacific coast in search of danger and escape; a caretaker balances precariously on his roof to free a bird tapped inside his chimney. Striking in their originality and tempered with dry humor, the stories within Jubilee King are moments of subdued desperation, told simply and candidly. A striking new voice in American literature.