Thursday, May 2 at 7:30 p.m.
Steve Almond
My Life in Heavy Metal (Grove / Atlantic)

My Life in Heavy Metal presents passion-fueled stories that take a clear-eyed view of relationships between young men and women who have come of age in an era without innocence - the eighties and nineties. A professor of creative writing at Boston and Emerson Colleges and author of numerous fiction pieces that appeared in Zoetrope, Playboy, and Ploughshares, Almond makes a dazzling debut that sizzles in desire, smolders in pain, and is uncannily full of wisdom.

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Friday, May 3 at 7:30 p.m.
T. Louise Freeman-Toole
Standing Up to the Rock (University of Nebraska Press)

Driven from Santa Cruz by urban sprawl, sixth-generation Californian Freeman-Toole and her husband moved to the agricultural region of Snake Valley Idaho. A cattle ranching tutorial, colorful character analysis of eccentric locals, and memoir of homestead survival all rolled into one, Standing Up to the Rock is a call to live honestly with ourselves and with respect for the land that brings us life and joy.

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Monday, May 6 at 7:30 p.m.
Al Franken
Oh, The Things I Know! (Dutton)

First known for his Emmy award-winning writing, producing, and performing for Saturday Night Live, Al Franken is one of the country's premier humorists, a recipient of an honorary doctorate for his contributions to American culture, and best-selling author of Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot. Back with his unmatchable and unmistakable wit, Franken has authored a book of advice for everyone, especially those soon to graduate (or at least had planned to). With wicked funny chapters, Franken embraces mistakes made and makes you laugh at yourself all the while.

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Tuesday, May 7 at 7:30 p.m.
David Grand
The Disappearing Body
and
Nicola Griffith
Stay
and
Todd and Linda Shimoda
The Fourth Treasure (Nan Talese / Doubleday)

Join us as we celebrate three of editor Sean McDonald's success stories. Together these writers offer the best in edgy fiction --whether your setting is the dark sexually charged landscape of Ms. Griffith's latest, the post-modern noir setting of Mr. Grand's depression era thriller, or the sensual blending of East and West in Mr. Shimoda's ode to Japan and the art of calligraphy. Nan Talese's protegee Sean McDonald will also be joining us to talk about the editor's role in good fiction. This will be quite a celebration!

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Wednesday, May 8 at 7:30 p.m.
Richard Dry
Leaving (St. Martin's)

"With Leaving, Richard Dry has actually accomplished what many authors have unsuccessfully attempted: he has captured the African-American story from slavery time to the present, both in its panoramic scope and in its immediate and human detail," writes Madison Smartt Bell. Leaving describes the lives of an African-American family who journey from South Carolina to a new life in Oakland during the 1960's. The prose is lyrical then gritty, the images powerful and lasting, and the novel is a striking success at illustrating an American family's struggle.

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Thursday, May 9 at 7:30 p.m.
Paul Linde
Of Spirits and Madness: An American Psychiatrist in Africa (McGraw-Hill)

In this thought-provoking scientific memoir about the nature of madness and one man's foray in the Zimbabwean culture, Dr. Linde recalls a year faced with curing hundreds of native peoples suffering from mental illness. Linde's learning curve was sharp in the face of a poverty stricken medical system, a society suffering from AIDS, unemployment, violence, and misogyny, and a culture saturated with belief of spirits, witchcraft, and animism. Practicing in a culture where seeing a psychiatrist was a last option, Linde balances the fine line between diagnosing through Western eyes and seeing the spirits that wreaked havoc on the minds and bodies of his patients.

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Monday, May 13 at 8:00 p.m.*
Tamim Ansary
West of Kabul, East of New York: An Afghan American Reflects on Islam and the West (FSG)

The day after the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks, Tamim Ansary sent an anguished email to twenty friends, discussing the attack from his perspective as an Afghan American. That message, spreading via the Internet, reading millions of people around the world. Now Ansary gives us a moving account of a life lived in two very different cultures, Islamic Afghanistan and the secular West. His memoir captures the confrontation between Islam and the West as a passionate and personal story---as one man's effort to reconcile two great civilizations.
* Note Time

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Tuesday, May 14 at 7:30 p.m.
Sarah Stone
True Sources of the Nile (Doubleday)

"Sarah Stone writes in a supple, lyrical style about matters of life and death in this novel, and at its heart the book is about people who will not tell -- will not admit -- what they know to be true. At once a passionate love story and an accounting of political warfare in Africa, The True Sources of the Nile manages to show how closely allied terror and love can sometimes be. Few Americans have witnessed the terrible and beautiful lives of Africans as closely as this narrator has, and as a result this book is hard to put down and impossible to forget." - Charles Baxter, author of The Feast of Love

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Wednesday, May 15 at 5:30 p.m. *
Tim Winton
Dirt Music (Scribner)

A literary icon in his homeland of Australia and author of Booker Prize finalist The Riders, Winton returns with his first novel in seven years, a stunning work of great resonance and suspense. A woman's tentative hold on a conventional life is severed when she falls into a relationship with the local poacher, an outcast who lives in danger. Set in the wilderness of Western Australia, Dirt Music is a powerful journey across literal and internal landscapes and a love story about people stifled by grief and regret.
*Note Time

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Wednesday, May 15 at 7:30 p.m.
Ngyuyen Cao Ky
Buddha's Child: My Fight to Save Vietnam (St. Martin's)

The history of the Vietnam War has rarely been told from the Vietnamese perspective---and never by a leader of South Vietnam, a nation that ceased to exist in 1975. In this remarkable story, Ngyuyen Cao Ky reveals the striking story of his tenure as premier of South Vietnam, and offers unprecedented insight into the war's beginning, escalation, and troubling conclusion.

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Wednesday, May 15 at 6:30 pm
Book Club Meeting
A House for Mr. Biswas (Vintage Books)

On the middle Wednesday of every month, Capitola Book Cafe's Richard Lange hosts a book club meeting. Please join us this month for a discussion of V. S. Naipaul's A House for Mr. Biswas. In the novel Mr. Mohun Biswas in his forty-six short years has been fighting against destiny to achieve some semblance of independence, only to face a lifetime of calamity. Shuttled from one residence to another after the drowning death of his father, for which he is inadvertently responsible, Mr. Biswas yearns for a place he can call home. But when he marries into the domineering Tulsi family on whom he indignantly becomes dependent, Mr. Biswas embarks on an arduous-and endless-struggle to weaken their hold over him and purchase a house of his own. A heartrendering, dark comedy of manners, A House for Mr. Biswas masterfully evokes a man's quest for autonomy against an emblematic post-colonial canvas.

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Thursday, May 16 at 7:30 p.m.
Dominique Browning
Around the House and In the Garden (Scribner)

For six years, House & Garden editor-in-chief Dominique Browning has written a monthly column that elegantly weaves together personal tips about home decorating, gardening, and raising children with the universal themes of domestic life. With her grace, humor, and knowledge, she has expanded her popular writings into an insightful and moving narrative about the solace and sense of self that can be found through tending one's home. This book is filled with practical ideas for the house, but it is also a book for anyone who has ever felt the need to reinvent oneself or ever fallen in love with the idea of a home to call one's own.

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Thursday, May 16 6:30 p.m. - 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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Sunday, May 19 at 7:30 p.m.
Steven Saylor
A Mist of Prophecies (St Martin's)

Some of the most deftly written historical mystery fiction in the market today, Saylor's Sub Roma Rosa series marches onward with another tumultuous, brilliant portrait of a chaotic time. During the Roman Civil War, as the forces of Pompey and Julius Caesar fight for control of the Republic, Rome itself is a hotbed of intrigue, suspense, and murder.

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Monday, May 20 at 7:30 p.m.
Marlene Winell, Ph.D.
Leaving the Fold (New Harbinger)

A licensed psychologist, Marlene Winell has worked in the human services field for twenty years. Her lucid, remarkably informed guidebook offers advice for former fundamentalists and others leaving their religion. She helps readers through the anxiety, anger, grief and depression that many people feel after leaving their religion. Join us for a provocative discussion.

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Tuesday, May 21 at 7:30 p.m.
Terry Brejla
Senator's Son (Writer's Club Press)

A junior US Senator chairing hearings on the tangled and deadly ties between the Mob and the U. S. gambling industry stumbles into the heart of what the Mob does best - protecting its own and destroying their enemies. A page-turner with smarts, Senator's Son is a fast paced thriller.

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Wednesday, May 22 at 7:30 p.m.
"The Kids are All Right"

We're pleased to host four esteemed writers and survivors of counterculture childhood's; people whose upbringing shaped who they are and what they believe. Their stories form a picture of an era and we are treated to their stories. Join us as we celebrate Lisa Michaels' Split: A Counter Culture Childhood, UCSC Professor Micah Perks' new memoir Pagan Time, Chronicle book reviewer Joelle Fraser, and Iante Brautigan's You Can't Catch Death, a book about the quintessential '60s author Richard Brautigan's suicide and his daughter's coping.

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Thursday, May 23 at 7:00 pm
World Affairs Book Club

Last month the Book Cafe's Graham Parsons began a new book club focusing on global current history. As always, we welcome people of all backgrounds and affiliations to come participate. This month we will be discussing A History of Iraq by Charles Tripp. Please call Jenn Ramage at 831-462-6297 or email Graham Parsons at parsons402@yahoo.com for details.

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Thursday, May 23 at 7:30 p.m.
Stephanie Mills
Epicurean Simplicity (Island Press)

"Epicurean Simplicity," writes Terry Tempest Williams, "is a smart, soulful, evocative discussion on how we might live lives of greater intention." Mills eloquently offers a poignant, thoughtful plea for a simpler lifestyle, one that reaches deep into classical sources of pleasure: good food, good health, good friends, and particularly, the endless delight of the natural world. An outspoken ecological advocate and proponent of preservation and basic, pleasurable living, Mills was named one of the world's most visionary leaders by Utne Reader.

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Tuesday, May 28 at 7:30 p.m.
Nanci Kincaid
Verbena (Algonquin)

The acclaimed author of Balls, Kincaid has yet again shown herself to be "a master at re-creating the speech and spirit of ebullient Southern women" (Publisher's Weekly). Left to raise five kids on her own, Bena is a strong woman who faces bewildering challenges head-on, and after every collision, she plugs on until the next one. Verbena is original, full of heartbreak and its messiness, and a story of grit and wit.

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Wednesday, May 29 at 7:30 p.m.
Barbara Ehrenreich
Nickel and Dimed (Holt)

This remarkable book was one of our favorites last year. Co-owner Marcia Rider says, "Here Barbara Ehrenreich tells the story of her attempt to live on minimum wage. Starting off as a waitress in Key West living in a trailer, she moves to Portland Maine, to jobs as a maid and a rest home food server and life in a cheap motel. She finishes her stint in Minneapolis working in Wal-Mart in ladies wear. Lucky for her she could go back to her former life, comfortable house, well-paying job, and nice car because she admits she could not have sustained a long-term life on the minimum wage. No surprise here, but she tells the plight of the lowest wage earners with sympathy and respect -- and a bit of outrage."

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Thursday, May 30 at 7:30 p.m.
Gail Tsukiyama
Dreaming Waters (St Martin's)

With her evocative, best-selling novels Women of Silk, The Samurai's Garden, and The Language of Threads, Tsukiyama mined her rich Asian heritage with vibrant success. She now turns to America and a story of a daughter suffering from Werner's Syndrome (a disease that accelerates the aging process), her mother, and a family friend who face each other's fears with dignity and strength, remembering the importance of small moments.