Tuesday, September 5th at 7:30 p.m.
Sandy Tolan
The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and
the Heart of the Middle East
(Bloomsbury)
In 1967, not long after the Six-Day
War, a young Arab man ventured into what is now Jewish Israel to see
again his childhood home that his family was forced to abandon nearly
twenty years earlier when they were driven out of Palestine. He was
met at the door by a young Israeli woman who invited him in. This
act of faith in the face of many years of animosity is the starting
point of a remarkable relationship between two families, one Arab,
one Jewish. The Lemon Tree grew out of Tolan's award-winning documentary
produced for "Fresh Air" and follows these two families
as they are swept up in the fates of their people, a personal microcosm
of the last seventy years of Israeli-Palestinian history. Tolan directs
the Project on International Reporting at UC-Berkeley Graduate School
of Journalism and is the co-founder of Homeland productions.
Wednesday, September 6th at 7:30 p.m.
Lynn Peril
College Girls: Bluestockings, Sex Kittens,
and Co-Ed, Then and Now
(W.W. Norton)
Just in time for back to school,
Lynn Peril takes on popular culture's image of the college girl, in
its myriad transformations over the past century. Sex kitten or gawky
geek? A serious academic or just a husband hunter? Even now, when
the hard-earned boons of the feminist movement include a greater percentage
of women in higher education than ever before, stereotypes continue
to plague social conceptions of the female scholar. Join us for an
educational and entertaining evening with Lynn Peril, author of the
critically acclaimed Pink Think: Becoming A Woman in Many Uneasy
Lessons.
Thursday, September 7th at 7:30 p.m.
John Pugh & Kevin Bruce
The Murals of John Pugh: Beyond Trompe
l'Oeil
(Ten Speed)
Brick walls seem to crumble,
revealing the interiors of buildings. Tuscan alleyways appear beside
American supermarkets. Local artist John Pugh has revitalized the
French technique "trompe l'oeil," or "trick of the
eye," with his captivating, award-winning murals. Over 200 completed
masterpieces bring life to locations all over the world, demonstrating
the innovative style that has come to be known as Narrative Illusionism.
Photographer Kevin Bruce's full-color photographs capture the charm
of Pugh's work in this exciting collection of his most famous pieces.
A slideshow will accompany the lecture. For more enticement, check
out www.illusion-art.com.
Wednesday, September 13th at 7:30 p.m.
Lynne Cox
Grayson
(Knopf)
Cox awed readers everywhere with
Swimming to Antarctica, a chronicle of her epic open-ocean
swims. Now the Hall of Fame swimmer is back with the amazing true
story of an orphaned 18-foot baby gray whale that trailed her for
over a mile during an open water swim in the Pacific when she was
17. Almost to shore, Cox became determined to find the baby's mother
before it starved to death, a seemingly impossible feat. About this
book for all ages, Jane Goodall writes "Lynne Cox is a master
of storytelling: her prose captures the vast movements and deep mysteries
of the ocean and the creatures for whom it is home."
Thursday, September 14th at 7:30 p.m.
Brian Copeland
Not a Genuine Black Man: Or, How I Claimed
My Piece of Ground in the Lily-White Suburbs
(Hyperion)
Based on the longest-running
one-man show in San Francisco history (that then moved to Off Broadway),
Brian Copeland's memoir is a hilarious and disarming look at growing
up black in an all-white suburb. In 1972, when Brian was eight, his
family moved from Oakland to San Leandro, which at the time was 99
percent white. Once he became a successful comedian and radio talk
show host, racism reemerged as an issue-only in reverse-when he received
an anonymous letter: "As an African American, I am disgusted
every time I hear your voice because YOU are not a genuine Black man!"
That inspired Copeland to revisit his difficult childhood, resulting
in his hit show and surprising memoir.
"A beautiful mix of wry humor and heartbreak, indignation
and inspiration, a singular story of extreme isolation that speaks
to anyone who's ever felt out of place." -San Francisco Chronicle.
Monday, September 18th at 7:30 p.m.
Nikki Silva & Davia Nelson
Hidden Kitchens: Stories, Recipes and
More from NPR's The Kitchen Sisters
(Rodale)
Beloved across the nation and
especially in their hometowns of Santa Cruz and San Francisco, Nikki
Silva and Davia Nelson will be serving up their magical true tales
of resourceful off-beat chefs and food traditions-as well as hidden
kitchen treats for everyone at the event. Inspired by the popular,
award winning radio series on NPR's Morning Edition, Hidden Kitchens
explores the world of below-the-radar community cooking across America,
from a midnight cab yard kitchen on the streets of San Francisco to
the most unexpected hidden kitchen of the homeless-the George Foreman
grill. The Kitchen Sisters travel the nation in search of unsung kitchen
heros, legendary meals, and cooking rituals in this wild, poignant
chronicle of American life through food.
Wednesday, September 20th at 6:30 p.m. *
Book Club
American Pastoral by Phillip
Roth
(Vintage)
This month's selection is American
Pastoral by Philip Roth. As the American century draws to an uneasy
close, Philip Roth gives us a novel of unqualified greatness that
is an elegy for all our century's promises of prosperity, civic order,
and domestic bliss. Roth's protagonist is Swede Levov, a legendary
athlete at his Newark high school, who grows up in the booming postwar
years to marry a former Miss New Jersey, inherit his father's glove
factory, and move into a stone house in the idyllic hamlet of Old
Rimrock. And then one day in 1968, Swede's beautiful American luck
deserts him. For Swede's adored daughter, Merry, has grown from a
loving, quick-witted girl into a sullen, fanatical teenager—a
teenager capable of an outlandishly savage act of political terrorism.
And overnight Swede is wrenched out of the longer-for American pastoral
and into the indigenous American berserk.
Read the book and join the discussion.
* Please Note Time
Wednesday, September 20th at 7:30 p.m.
Amy Wilentz
I Feel Earthquakes More Than They Happen:
Coming to California in the Age of Schwarzenegger
(Simon & Schuster)
What happens when an East coast
native moves to the Left Coast during the embarrassing circus of the
recall election? Revelation, if she's prize-winning writer Amy Wilentz
(Martyr's Crossing, The Rainy Season). With the objectivity,
curiosity, and utter bewilderment only an outsider can provide, Wilentz
scours the streets for the essence of California. Bringing together
the best of memoir and political commentary, I Feel Earthquakes...
is a successful blend of genres and cultures from this respected contributor
to The Nation and The New Yorker.
"This is the way to travel through California-as
a passenger on Amy Wilentz's remarkable, funny, and vivid trip through
the Land of Schwarzenegger. She has a sharp eye, a cool wit, a lyrical
tone, a reporter's gumption, and a grasp of the place's strangeness
and allure that makes the book entirely unforgettable." -Susan
Orlean.
Thursday, September 21st at 7:00 p.m. *
World Affairs Book Club
Resurrecting Empire: Western Footprints
and America's Perilous Path in the Middle East by Rashid
Khalidi
(Beacon Press)
This month's selection is Rashid
Khalidi's Resurrecting Empire: Western Footprints and America's
Perilous Path in the Middle East. His powerful book examines the
record of Western involvement in the Middle East and analyzes the
likely outcome of our most recent incursions into the area. Drawing
on his encyclopedic knowledge of the political and cultural history
of the entire region, Khalidi paints a chilling scenario of our present
situation and yet offers a tangible alternative that can help us find
the path to peace rather than Empire. Additionally, Professor Khalidi
contributes a new introduction to this paperback edition, covering
recent developments in Iraq. Rashid Khalidi, author of Palestinian
Identity, is the Edward Said Chair in Arab Studies at Columbia
University.
* Please Note Time
Sunday, September 24th at 2:30 p.m. *
Laura Crum
Moonblind (Perseverance
Press)
and
Janet LaPierre
Family Business
(Perseverance Press)
Welcome two area authors, each
for their ninth mystery! Laura Crum, a fourth-generation Santa Cruz
County resident and veteran horse trainer, returns with another tale
starring equine veterinarian Gail McCarthy and the trouble that finds
her. Laurie R. King writes, "Moonblind opens a reader's
eyes-to relationships, to the complicated inner life of a woman in
transition, to the role of four-legged creatures in our lives."
Janet LaPierre hails from Berkley, is a true explorer of Mendocino,
Humboldt and Trinity counties, and her successful Port Silva series
weaves in the dramatic spirit of the north country. When peaceful
anti-war protests dissolve into a riot, many end up in jails and hospitals,
yet one goes missing altogether-a man with no past and possibly no
future. Publisher Weekly praises the book as "crisply
plotted" and "blending contemporary issues and family conflicts
with a solid mystery plot."
* Please Note Time
Monday, September 25th at 7:30 p.m.
John Stauber
The Best War Ever: Lies, Damned Lies,
and the Mess in Iraq
(Tarcher)
Now that even U.S. generals agree
that war critics were right in the first place, how does the Bush
administration continue to deceive itself? How were so many U.S. citizens
fooled? The Best War Ever is an important analysis of the complex
media infrastructures that enable the spread of such blatant propaganda.
Stauber is the founder and director of the Center for Media and Democracy;
his co-author Sheldon Rampton created sourcewatch.org. The book is
as informative as it is readable, but we would expect nothing less
from this dynamic duo (Toxic Sludge is Good For You, Weapons
of Mass Deception). The first authors to expose the blatant deceptions
that got us into the Iraq War now reveal how the same lies have led
us toward defeat.
Tuesday, September 26th at 7:30 p.m.
Jennifer Egan
The Keep
(Knopf)
From National Book Award finalist
Jennifer Egan (Look at Me, The Invisible Circus) comes
a spellbinding work of literary suspense-the perfect bewitching Autumn
read. Two cousins, irreversibly damaged by a childhood prank, reunite
twenty years later to renovate a medieval castle in Eastern Europe,
a castle steeped in blood lore and family pride where a reenactment
of the signal event of their youth will bring an even more catastrophic
result. Praised as an unclassifiable novelist, Egan has penned brilliantly
convincing and stunning tale that explores the undertow of history
and the fate of imagination in the cacophony of modern life. The critics
are talking. Come see why!
Thursday, September 28th at 7:30 p.m.
John Brady Kiesling
Diplomacy Lessons: Realism for an Unloved
Superpower
(Potomac Books)
With a letter widely published
and praised, twenty-year Foreign Service veteran Brady Kiesling publicly
resigned his position as political counselor of the U.S. Embassy in
Athens in February 2003 to protest the Bush administration's impending
invasion of Iraq. He believed that the security, economic, and moral
costs of this war, including the blackening of America's image abroad,
would far outweigh any benefit to the American people. Kiesling, who
has immediate family here in Santa Cruz, reminds readers that U.S.
power does not rest on military might alone and that anger at America
has real consequences for U.S. national interests. This book is, at
heart, an argument for how to best achieve America's goals abroad,
including restoring American influence and legitimacy.
COMING IN OCTOBER…
Thursday, October 5: Jan Burke, Kidnapped
Wednesday, October 11: Cathy Sultan, A Beirut Heart & Israeli
and Palestinian Voices
Monday, October 16: Joe Moe, Conservatize Me: How I Tried to Become
a Righty with the Help of Richard Nixon, Sean Hannity, Toby Keith,
and Beef Jerky
Tuesday, October 17: Hampton Sides, Blood and Thunder: An Epic
of the American West
Sunday, October 22: Kate Atkinson, One Good Turn
Tuesday, October 21: Sena Jeter Naslund, Abundance: A Novel of
Marie Antoinette
Wednesday, October 25: Marisa Acocella Marchetto, Cancer Vixen
Thursday, October 26: Simon Winchester, A Crack in the Edge of
the World
