October 2002

Tuesday, October 1 at 7:30 p.m.
Rick Bragg
Ava's Man (Vintage)

With the same emotional generosity and effortlessly compelling storytelling that made All Over But the Shoutin' a national bestseller, Rick Bragg continues his personal history of the Deep South. A masterly family chronicle focusing on his grandfather who kept food on the table during the worst of the Great Depression, this human portrait is so vivid you can smell the cornbread and whiskey. Ava's Man is unforgettable.

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Wednesday, October 2 at 7:30 p.m.
Thomas Steinbeck
Down to a Soundless Sea: Stories (Ballantine)

A noble addition to the Steinbeck legacy, Thomas Steinbeck, son of John, draws on folklore, historical research, and tales heard during childhood in his collection of stories celebrating the early lore of Monterey County, CA. Set in the dusky past of horse trails, grizzly bears, and small fishing villages and ranging forward to the early 1930s, they portray humble people living in a beautiful but often unforgiving environment.

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Thursday, October 3 at 7:30 p.m.
Chip Kidd
The Cheese Monkeys (Harper)

The graphic designer of numerous sensational Random House book covers and graphic novel Batman, Chip Kid is an artist to reckon with in the publishing world. His hysterical and irresistible national bestseller that "channels Holden Caulfield via David Sedaris" (Publisher's Weekly) proves his talents are manifold. According to The Onion, "part irreverent, academic comedy, part autobiographical statement of purpose, The Cheese Monkeys is a triumph of design as substance."

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Friday, October 4 at 7:30 p.m.
Alice Sebold
The Lovely Bones (Little, Brown)
and
Glen David Gold
Carter Beats the Devil (Hyperion)

Join us for a conversation with two of the hottest novelists around. Alice Sebold's first novel tells the story of a 14 year-old girl, Susie Salmon, who is brutally murdered but not quite ready to surrender to a quiet afterlife. Susie narrates from her perch in heaven and keeps watch over her grieving family and friends, as well as her brazen killer and the sad detective working on her case. Alice Sebold will be joined by her husband Glen David Gold. His book centers on Charles Carter -- a.k.a. Carter the Great -- a young master performer whose skills as an illusionist exceed those of the great Houdini. Filled with historical references that evoke the excesses and enthusiasm of postwar, pre-Depression America, Carter Beats the Devil is the complex and illuminating story of one man's journey through a magical -- and sometimes dangerous -- world, where illusion is everything, and everything is illusory.

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Monday, October 7 at 7:30 p.m.
Sebastian Junger
Fire (Harper)

In the fall of 2001, Junger's expert reporting in Afghanistan led him back to that country. His new experiences are documented in Into the Forbidden Zone, a National Geographic film, and in the new paperback edition of the bestseller, Fire. In addition to an added essay on Kabul and an Afterword, Fire covers the diamond traders' deadly civil wars in Africa, award-winning coverage of Kosovo and Sierra Leone, and the fearless smoke jumpers who fight wild fires across America. Come meet the esteemed journalist and author of The Perfect Storm.

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Tuesday, October 8 at 7:30 p.m.
Patrice Vecchione
Whisper and Shout (Cricket Books)

Join poet Patrice Vecchione in celebration her new book, Whisper & Shout: Poems to Memorize. Dust off the poems you learned by heart long ago, pull them out from the closet where they've been hidden, or learn a poem by heart today, and come recite your treasures. Be a part of welcoming the art of memorization back. With a poem in your heart, you'll never be lonely again!

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Wednesday, October 9 at 7:30 p.m.
Tony Horwitz
Blue Latitudes (Holt)

In an exhilarating tale of historic adventure, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Confederates in the Attic retraces the voyages of Captain James Cook, the Yorkshire farm boy who drew the map of the modern world. By turns harrowing and hilarious, Blue Latitudes brings to life a man whose voyages created the global village we know today.

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Monday, October 14 at 7:30 p.m.
Paniel Pinchbeck
Breaking Open the Head (Doubleday)

A heady blend of cultural criticism, personal travelogue, and classic spiritual quest, this journey into the heart of modern shamanism examines why psychedelics are reviled in the West and revered in non-Western societies. Paul Theroux writes Pinchbeck's work is "an authentic quest for enlightenment in jungles, in deserts, and hardest of all to access, the human mind and heart via one of the oldest thoroughfares on earth, mind-expanding drugs."

 

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Tuesday, October 15 at 7:30 p.m.
Joseph Collins
How to Live Your Dream of Volunteering Overseas (Viking)

More than 100,000 people contact the Peace Corps every year, but only 3,000 are placed overseas. To help more Americans find volunteer opportunities abroad Joseph Collins, along with two other respected writers, has written a guide that provides all the necessary information on volunteering in Latin America, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe. Presented in a user-friendly format that includes case studies, worksheets, and quotes from international volunteers, How to Live Your Dream of Volunteering Overseas provides vital information on fundraising and financing the trip, what to do before you go abroad and how to decide if volunteering overseas is for you.

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Thursday, October 17 at 7:30 p.m.
Lalo Fiorelli
Wild Splendors of California (Splendors Publishin)

Enjoy a breathtaking look at the natural beauty of the Golden State through the lens of Santa Cruz photographer Lalo Fiorelli. The new book showcases our state's breathtaking biological and geographical diversity. The evening will include a slide show and discussion.

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Monday, October 21 at 7:30 p.m.
Ruben Martinez
Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail (Picador)

The U.S.-Mexican border is one of the most permeable boundaries in the world. Even as the U.S. deploys billions of dollars to "hold the line," the border is breached daily by Mexicans in search of work. Thousands die crossing the border, and those who reach "the other side" are branded illegals, undocumented and unprotected. In Crossing Over, the award-winning journalist Rubén Martínez puts a human face on the phenomenon. He charts the Chávez clan's exodus from their small south-Mexican town of Cherán through the harrowing underground railroad to the tomato farms of Missouri, the strawberry fields of California, and the slaughterhouses of Wisconsin. He reveals the effects of emigration on the family members left behind and creates a powerful portrait of migrant culture, one that illustrates the conjoining of once separate lands and cultures.

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Tuesday, October 22 at 7:30 p.m.
Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher
African Ceremonies: Concise Edition (Abrams)

Photographers Beckwith and Fisher's previously released two-volume opus won the United Nations Award for Excellence "for vision and understanding of the role of cultural traditions in the pursuit of peace in the world", and now a new edition of African Ceremonies underscores the need to respect the beliefs of different cultures, while making glimpses into the vanishing rituals of the continent more accessible to all. Complete with a musical CD, over 400 photos, and compelling text on the treatment of women to harvest blessings and baby namings, this is a masterpiece of African culture.

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Thursday, October 24 at 7:30 p.m.
Daniel Mason
The Piano Tuner (Knopf)

In the fall of 1886, a piano tuner receives a strange request from the British War Office: he must leave quiet London and travel to the jungles of Burma, where a rare Erard piano needs repair, the owner being an eccentric Surgeon-Major who has brought a tentative peace to the volatile region. Poised to become an international bestseller, "rich, atmospheric, and evocative of the sights, smells, and textures of 19th century Burma" (Arthur Golden), this hypnotic novel was penned by Mason while studying malaria on the Thai-Myanmar border.

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Thursday, October 24 at 7:30 p.m.
World Affairs Book Club

Last March, the Book Cafe began a new book club focusing on global current history with Graham Parsons facilitating the discussion. To date, the group has read books on Afghanistan, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the border dispute between India and Pakistan, Iraq, Iran and Latin America. This month's selection is A History of Argentina in the Twentieth Century by Luis Alberto Romero.

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Friday, October 25 at 7:30 p.m.
Frances Mayes
Swan (Doubleday)

The best-selling author of Under The Tuscan Sun and Bella Tuscany, Frances Mayes now turns from Italy towards her southern roots and creates a intimate first novel that evokes the rhythms of the Deep South. A dreadful event brings Ginger Mason home from Italy to the small Georgia town of Swan where she and her estranged brother must newly confront their feelings and fresh evidence concerning their mother's suicide 19 years earlier and the family secrets that slowly surface.

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Saturday, October 26 at 2:30 p.m.*
Sandra Cisneros
Caramelo (Knopf)

The celebrated author of The House on Mango Street gives us an extraordinary new novel following the story of a Mexican-American family. Lala Reyes' grandmother is descended from a family of renowned rebozo, or shawl, makers. The striped caramelo rebozo is the most beautiful of all, and the one that makes its way, like the family history it has come to represent, into Lala's possession. The novel opens with the Reyes' annual car trip from Chicago to "the other side". It is there, each year, that Lala hears her family's stories that have ricocheted from one generation to the next. We travel from the Mexico City that was the "Paris of the New World" to the music-filled streets of Chicago at the dawn of the Roaring Twenties-and, finally, to Lala's own difficult adolescence in the not-quite-promised land of San Antonio, Texas. Caramelo is a stunning romantic tale of homelands, sometimes real, sometimes imagined, always enjoyed.
* PLEASE NOTE TIME *

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Saturday, October 26 at 7:30 p.m.
Sara Moulton
Sara Moulton Cooks at Home (Broadway Books)

We're delighted to welcome Gourmet Magazine's executive food chef and host of Food Network's Cooking Live and Sara's Secrets to Santa Cruz County. With the release of her first book, Sara Moulton shares all she has learned about making cooking easy and enjoyable. The cookbook is not only a testament to Sara's own culinary creativity, but also a treasury of Sara's family favorites. She shares her favorite recipes, family stories, tips and "cheats," time-saving ways to put together great meals with minimal fuss. The book includes mainly weekday meals, along with child-friendly recipes and adaptations. In addition Michael Green, Gourmet Magazine's Wine Consultant, offers a chapter on food and wine pairing as well as provides tips throughout the book, to make matching wine with any dish in the book a snap. Bon Appetit!

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Wednesday, October 30 at 7:30 p.m.
Victoria Nelson
The Secret Life of Puppets (Harvard)

The Secret Life of Puppets describes the curious reversal in the roles of art and religion: where the arts once took their content from religion, we now come increasingly to seek religion through art and entertainment. Of this remarkable volume, Publisher's Weekly says, " Unlike many similar, wide-ranging culture studies, Nelson's book arrives with no agenda, blaming no one; instead, she offers a learned, exciting ride through a phantasmagoric landscape filled with dark mysteries."