Events

Jazz pianist Chase Morrin will be playing from 8-10pm in Pannikin Coffee & Tea.

www.chasemorrin.com

Tamar: A Novel of Espionage, Passion, and Betrayal by Mal Peet*

"Intense and riveting, it is a mystery, a tale of passion, and a drama
about resistance fighters in the Netherlands during World War II. The
story unfolds in parallel narratives, most told by an omniscient
narrator describing the resistance struggle, and fewer chapters as a
narrative told by 15-year-old Tamar, the granddaughter of one of the
resistance fighters. The locale and time shift between Holland in 1944
and '45 and England in 1995. The constant dangers faced by the
resistance fighters as well as their determination to succeed in
liberating their country from German occupation come vividly to life.
Dart, Tamar, and Marijke are the main characters in this part of the
book. Their loyalty to one another and the movement is palpable though
love and jealousy gradually enter the story and painfully change the
dynamics. Other characters jeopardize the safety of the group and
intensify the life-threatening hazards they face. Peet deftly handles
the developing intrigue that totally focuses readers. After her beloved
grandfather commits suicide, modern-day Tamar is determined to
undercover the mystery contained in a box of seemingly unrelated objects
that he has left for her."

Receive 10%
off
your reading group book from The Book Works. We request that all groups
who meet at The Book Works purchase their selection from us. Thanks.

*Author WILL NOT be present.

The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa

"Ogawa weaves a poignant tale of beauty, heart and sorrow in this exquisite novel. Narrated by the Housekeeper, the characters are known only as the Professor and Root, the Housekeepers 10-year-old son, nicknamed by the Professor because the shape of his hair and head that remind the Professor of the square root symbol. A brilliant mathematician, the Professor was seriously injured in a car accident and his short-term memory only lasts for 80 minutes. He can remember his theorems and favorite baseball players, but the Housekeeper must reintroduce herself every morning, sometimes several times a day. The Professor, who adores Root, is able to connect with the child through baseball, and the Housekeeper learns how to work with him through the memory lapses until they can come together on common ground, at least for 80 minutes. In this gorgeous tale, Ogawa lifts the window shade to allow readers to observe the characters for a short while, then closes the shade.

Receive 10% off your reading group book fromThe Book Works. We request that all groups who meet at The Book Workspurchase their selection from us.Thanks.

*Author WILL NOT be present. 

Jazz and Blues musician Billy Watson will be playing from 8:00 to 10:00 pm in Pannikin Coffee and Tea.

www.billywatson.com 

Join us for a Community Book Discussion of "Outcasts United", on Monday, March 22nd at 7:00pm.*

KPBS and the San Diego Public Library have joined together for One Book, One San Diego, a community-wide initiative to encourage all San Diegans to read the same book at the same time.

The 2010 One Book, One San Diego is Outcasts United: A Refugee Team, An American Town by Warren St. John!

The touching story of a woman and her impact on a refugee soccer team having difficulties coping with the estranged land and memories of a brutal and tragic past.

*The author will not be in attendance.

Outcasts United: An American Town, a Refugee Team, and One Woman's Quest to Make a Difference by Warren St. John

St. John builds on his 2007 New York Timesarticle about the Fugees, a soccer program for boys from families ofrefugees from war-torn nations who have been resettled in the town, 13 miles east of Atlanta. Led by the founder and coachLuma Mufleh, a strong-willed, Jordanian woman who turned her back on aprivileged past to stay in America, thethree youth teams are a conglomeration of players from Africa, theBalkans and the Middle East. The challenges they face include an ongoing fight against city hall for a field on which toplay, and getting by with subpar equipment. Their biggest challenge,however, is the difficulty immigrants face in learning the ways of astrange land and living with the memories of tragedy. In spite of it all, theFugees compete admirably with mostly white, better-funded suburbanteams. St. John begins with an inspiring description of a beautifullyplayed game and then delves into the team's formation.

Receive 10% off your reading group book fromThe Book Works. We request that all groups who meet at The Book Workspurchase their selection from us.Thanks.

*Author WILL NOT be present.

Netherland by Joseph O'Neill*

"The image of one's understanding of the world being blown up is
poignant—this is Hans's fate after 9/11. He and wife Rachel abandon
their downtown loft, and, soon, Rachel leaves him behind at their
temporary residence, the Chelsea Hotel, taking their son, Jake, back to
London. Hans, an equities analyst, is at loose ends without Rachel, and
in the two years he remains Rachel-less in New York City, he gets swept
up by Chuck, a Trinidadian expatriate Hans meets at a cricket match.
Chuck's dream is to build a cricket stadium in Brooklyn; in the
meantime, he operates as a factotum for a Russian gangster. The unlikely friendship rises and falls in
tandem with Hans's marriage, which falls and then, gradually, rises
again"

Receive 10%
off
your reading group book from The Book Works. We request that all groups
who meet at The Book Works purchase their selection from us. Thanks.

*Author WILL NOT be present.

Jazz Guitarist Tony Taravella will be playing from 8:00 to 10:00 pm in Pannikin Coffee and Tea. Come join us!

http://tonytaravella.com/

11 Birthdays by Wendy Mass*

"Amanda and Leo, born on the same day, have celebrated their birthdays
together for 10 years. Still feeling hurt from an unkind remark Leo made
at last year’s party, Amanda spends her eleventh birthday without her
now-estranged friend to share the fun. In the days that follow, both
Amanda and Leo discover that they are caught in a time loop, waking up
each morning to find themselves repeating their eleventh birthdays."

Please email Tammy Black at tamara@post.harvard.edu for further
information.

Fee: $10
per month and $5 for each additional child in a family.  

Ruby Lu, Brave and True by Lenore Look*

"Ruby Lu makes her debut in this funny and charming chapter book. Full of
joie de vivre, the eight-year-old loves her family, particularly her
baby brother, Oscar; wearing reflective tape; and performing in her own
backyard magic show. Plot development is episodic but steady as Ruby
musters up her courage to attend Chinese school; she confronts mean
Christina from California; and she decides to drive herself to school.
(Her parents are frantic when their children and car are missing, but
Ruby thinks that her biggest mistake was parking in the principal's
spot.) Looming large is the fact that her cousin, Flying Duck, is
emigrating from China and Ruby will have to share her bedroom."

Please email Tammy Black at tamara@post.harvard.edu for further
information.

Fee: $10
per month and $5 for each additional child in a family.  

INTERMEDIATE WRITING WORKSHOP WITH LISA FUGARD

This workshop is designed to give intermediate writers of both fiction and nonfiction the intensive review and analysis they need to make theirstories and essays  richer and sharper. Writing exercises will  be assigned for those students not engaged in works in progress and we will spend some time each session examining  How Fiction Works by James Wood.  A prerequisite for enrollment is  completion of  the six week session ‘The Basics’ or a prior workshop with Lisa Fugard. Enrollment is limited to 8 writers.

Dates and Time: Biweekly April  8 - June 10,  6 -8.30 p.m 
Venue: The Book Works, Flower Hill Mall, Del Mar
Fee: $230 (Includes a copy of How Fiction Works)

To register or for more information please email  lisa@lisafugard.com  or call 760-213-5580

Lisa Fugard is the author of Skinner's Drift, a NY Times Notable Book of 2006, a finalist for the LA Times First Fiction Award and the runner up for the 2007 Dayton Literary Peace Prize.  Her short stories have been
anthologies and featured on Selected Shorts on NPR. She has written numerous travel articles and book reviews for the NY Times, and is therecipient of a 2009 fellowship to the Bread Loaf Writers Conference. 

Lattin is a
former reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, and The
Harvard Psychedelic Club is the true story of Timothy Leary,
Richard Alpert (Ram Dass), Andrew Weil, and Huston Smith at Harvard in the
early 1960s. Leary, Alpert, and Smith sought spiritual enlightenment
through a controversial series of experiments with psychedelic drugs, but
Weil was excluded due to his undergrad status, so he secretly plotted to get
Alpert and Leary fired from the university. Providing us with an expansive study of the four figures that helped shape the 1960's, Lattin will show us how the visionaries changed American culture.  

Guitarist George Svoboda will be playing in Pannikin Coffee and Tea from 8:00 to 10:00 pm.

http://www.georgesvoboda.com/George_Svoboda/Welcome.html

April 1865 by Jay Winik*

April 1865 analyzes the Civil War showing that there was nothing inevitable about the end of the Civil War, from the fall of Richmond to the surrender at Appomattox to the murder of Lincoln. Winik's vivid imagery makes the reader feel as if they were there, witnessing the events occurring. 

Receive 10% off your reading group book from The Book Works. We request that all groups who meet at The Book Works purchase their selection from us. Thanks.

*Author WILL NOT be present. 

Ordinary Wolves by Seth Kantner*

"A beautiful account of a boy's attempt to reconcile his Alaskan wilderness
experience with modern society. Abe Hawcly came to Alaska in search of
his bush-pilot father, became enraptured with the wilderness, then moved
there with his wife to live in a sod igloo and subsist on his hunting
skills while he pursued his painting. Soon disenchanted with isolation
and hardship, his wife abandoned him, leaving him to rear and educate
their three children. Abe's youngest child, known by his Iñupiaq name,
Cutuk, grows to manhood and learns to hunt, gaining an intimate
knowledge of the frozen tundra. Eventually, Cutuk's brother, Jerry,
escapes to Fairbanks, and his sister, Iris, attends college and becomes a
teacher. Meanwhile, torn between two cultures, Cutuk chafes under
discrimination as a white in the midst of Native Americans; he is
deprived of both rights and respect by the locals. He also develops a
profound curiosity about the city, but once he makes it to Anchorage, he
is bewildered and confused by urban slang and modern mores. His
attempts to reconcile himself to his own race fail dismally as he is
drawn back to the north and the values inherent in the wildernes."

Receive 10%
off
your reading group book from The Book Works. We request that all groups
who meet at The Book Works purchase their selection from us. Thanks.

*Author WILL NOT be present.

Night Glitter by Jill Shure*

"In Night Glitter, Jill Shure's long-awaited sequel to her Ben Franklin
Award-winning novel, Night Jazz, the story of Jeri Devlin continues. It's
1932. The Great Depression has left Jeri and Lex bankrupt and Lex
fighting for his life against a deadly illness. While Lex convalesces,
Jeri becomes embroiled in a murderous game of cat-and-mouse with two
mobsters hell-bent on revenge. Alone and desperate, Jeri is forced to
flee New York and travel west to the dazzling world of Hollywood. Jeri
soon discovers that Hollywood's glamour cloaks a soul-stealing darkness
hidden just below its glossy surface. There, Jeri comes face to face
with her ancestors, finds sanctuary in a brothel, and is forced into
servitude with a movie star diva intent on hiding ruinous secrets of her
own. Alone and conflicted, Jeri must find a way back into the arms of
the man she loves"

Receive 10%
off
your reading group book from The Book Works. We request that all groups
who meet at The Book Works purchase their selection from us. Thanks.

*Author WILL NOT be present.

The Radiance of the King by Camara Laye*

"Clarence, a white man, has been shipwrecked and stranded on the coast of Africa. Brimful of self-importance, he demands to see the king, but the king has just left for the south of his realm. Traveling through an increasingly phantasmagoric landscape in the company of a beggar and two roguish boys, Clarence is slowly stripped of his pretensions, until he is sold as a slave to the royal harem. But in the end Clarence’s bewildering journey is the occasion of a revelation, as he discovers the image, both shameful and beautiful, of his own strange humanity in the alien figure of the king."

Receive 10% off your reading group book fromThe Book Works. We request that all groups who meet at The Book Workspurchase their selection from us.Thanks.

*Author WILL NOT be present. 

The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli*

"The cinematic opening chapter shows Helen Adams, an experienced photojournalist, at the center of the chaotic, violent, desperate streets of Saigon in 1975, on the cusp of the communist takeover, as Vietnamese and Americans race to escape. The narrative then flashes back to a decade earlier, when Helen arrives in bustling Saigon as a young, naïve photographer so anxious not to “miss out” on the war that she has dropped out of college to travel there. She is taken in by Darrow, a photographer who is obsessed with the war and the power his camera gives him to capture. They enter into a tumultuous, passionate love affair as the war worsens. In tandem with the two Americans but undeniably distinct from them, Linh, Darrrow’s enigmatic Vietnamese assistant, steadfastly walks the difficult line between patriot and traitor, and the three form a friendship out of their harrowing situation. When tragedy strikes, Linh and Helen are thrown together and eventually find their friendship developing into love. This is a visceral story about the powerful and complex bonds that war creates. It raises profound questions about professional and personal lives that are based on, and often dependent on, a nation’s horrific strife. Graphic but never gratuitous, the gripping, haunting narrative explores the complexity of violence, foreignness, even betrayal."

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly*

"A charming and inventive story of a child struggling to find her identity at the turn of the 20th Century. As the only girl in an uppercrust Texas family of seven children, Calpurnia, 11, is expected to enter young womanhood with all it's trappings of tight corsets, cooking, and handiwork. Unlike other girls her age, Callie is most content when observing and collecting scientific specimens with her grandfather.Callie's mother, believing that a diet of Darwin, Dickens, and her grandfather's influence will make Callie dissatisfied with life, set her on a path of cooking lessons, handiwork improvement, and an eventual debut into society. Callie's confusion and despair over her changing life will resonate with girls who feel different or are outsiders in their own society."

Please email Tammy Black at tamara@post.harvard.edu for further
information.

Fee: $10
per month and $5 for each additional child in a family.  

Nana Cracks the Case! by Kathleen Lane*

"Nana is not your ordinary grandma. She never wears cloppy shoes, drinks prune juice, or worries about slippery surfaces. Nana would much rather join the circus, work as a backhoe operator, or maybe become a detective. Which is exactly what happens in this very funny chapter book. When Nana answers an ad in the local newspaper for a detective, she arrives at the police department just in time to investigate the theft of one entire case of delicious Yumdums candy. Can one little old lady find a way to save the day and stop the candy theif from striking again?"

Please email Tammy Black at tamara@post.harvard.edu for further
information.

Fee: $10
per month and $5 for each additional child in a family.  

An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness by Kay Redfield Jamison*

"In this book she turns that mirror on herself. With breathtaking
honesty she tells of her own manic depression, the bitter costs of her
illness, and its paradoxical benefits. This is one of the best scientific autobiographies ever written, a
combination of clarity, truth, and insight into human character. Jamison's ability to live fully within
her limitations is an inspiration to her fellow mortals, whatever our
particular burdens may be."

Receive 10%
off
your reading group book from The Book Works. We request that all groups
who meet at The Book Works purchase their selection from us. Thanks.

*Author WILL NOT be present.

THE BASICS:  A SIX WEEK WORKSHOP WITH LISA FUGARD

An aptly chosen word in a well made sentence in a lively paragraph that effortlessly leads the reader deeper into the narrative - this is one of our goals as writers, but the ‘how to do it’ often feels challenging.

This six-week workshop demystifies the ‘magic’ and offers writers of both fiction and nonfiction a solid grounding in the basics of the craft. We will use Francine Prose’s marvelous Reading Like a Writer as our workbook and classes will include exercises on narration, dialogue and details, as well as short discussions of selected texts.

Ideas for stories and personal essays will inevitably arise and participants will also have the opportunity, if they desire, to workshop a longer piece in an environment that is both supportive and constructive. Enrollment is limited to 10 participants.

Dates and Time:   Wednesdays April 28 - June 2   6 -8.30 p.m
Venue: The Book Works, 2670 Via De La Valle, Del Mar.
Fee: $220 (The fee includes a copy of Reading Like A Writer by Francine Prose.)

To register or for more information please email  lisa@lisafugard.com 
or call 760-213-5580

Lisa Fugard is the author of Skinner's Drift, a NY Times Notable Book of 2006, a finalist for the LA Times First Fiction Award and the runner up for the 2007 Dayton Literary Peace Prize.  Her short stories have been
anthologies and featured on Selected Shorts on NPR. She has written numerous travel articles and book reviews for the NY Times, and is therecipient of a 2009 fellowship to the Bread Loaf Writers Conference.

The Ascent of Money by Niall Ferguson*

Niall Ferguson makes a strong, compelling case for the development of money and banking as a catalyst for the advancement of civilization. The Ascent of Money demonstrates how our current fiscal meltdown fits into the bigger historical picture and laments humanity's perennial inability to learn from this history. 

Receive 10% off your reading group book from The Book Works. We request that all groups who meet at The Book Works purchase their selection from us. Thanks.

*Author WILL NOT be present. 

The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa*

"Narrated by the Housekeeper, the characters are known only as the
Professor and Root, the Housekeepers 10-year-old son, nicknamed by the
Professor because the shape of his hair and head remind the Professor of
the square root symbol. A brilliant mathematician, the Professor was
seriously injured in a car accident and his short-term memory only lasts
for 80 minutes. He can remember his theorems and favorite baseball
players, but the Housekeeper must reintroduce herself every morning,
sometimes several times a day. The Professor, who adores Root, is able
to connect with the child through baseball, and the Housekeeper learns
how to work with him through the memory lapses until they can come
together on common ground, at least for 80 minutes. In this gorgeous
tale, Ogawa lifts the window shade to allow readers to observe the
characters for a short while, then closes the shade. Snyder—who also
translated Pool—brings a delicate and precise hand to the
translation."

Receive 10%
off
your reading group book from The Book Works. We request that all groups
who meet at The Book Works purchase their selection from us. Thanks.

*Author WILL NOT be present.

Arthur and George by Julian Barnes*

"Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, physician, sportsman, gentleman par excellence and the inventor of Sherlock Holmes; George Edalji, also a real, if less well-known person, whose path crossed not quite fatefully with the famous author's. Edalji was the son of a Parsi father (who was a Shropshire vicar), and a Scots mother. In 1903, George, a solicitor, was accused of writing obscene, threatening letters to his own family and of mutilating cattle in his farm community. He was convicted of criminal behavior in a blatant miscarriage of justice based on racial prejudice. Eventually, Sir Arthur heard about George's case and began to advocate on his behalf. In this combination psychological novel, detective story and literary thriller, Barnes elegantly dissects early 20th-century English society as he spins this true-life story with subtle and restrained irony."

Receive 10% off your reading group book fromThe Book Works. We request that all groups who meet at The Book Workspurchase their selection from us.Thanks.

*Author WILL NOT be present. 

By A Slow River by Philippe Claudel*

"On a frigid morning in December 1917, the body of a 10-year-old girl is
discovered, strangled, on the banks of the "slow" river that slices
through a small, unnamed French village. The townsfolk are stunned by
the murder, though they're curiously oblivious to the seemingly endless
slaughter taking place on the nearby Western front. Told by Dadais, a
former policeman with a sharp memory and a shadowy history of his own, the story is a re-creation of his dogged
pursuit of the killer. Was it the town's haughty prosecutor, Pierre-Ange
Destinat? Was it the Breton deserter who confesses under duress? Could
it possibly have been Dadais himself? The answer, like everything else
in the story, is far from tidy.
Psychologically complex, elegantly written and tightly plotted, this is
far from your average fiction novel."

Receive 10%
off
your reading group book from The Book Works. We request that all groups
who meet at The Book Works purchase their selection from us. Thanks.

*Author WILL NOT be present.

Kuraj by Silvia di Natale*

"Based on a true story, Di Natale's expansive debut chronicles the
journey of Naja, a Mongol girl taken from the Central Asian steppes to
Cologne, Germany, during WWII. This absorbing novel encompasses the far-flung war story that precedes the young
heroine's relocation, the details of her alienation in Europe and the
cultural history of her nomadic people. When her birth father, Ul'an, a
Tunshan khan, joins the Germans in protest of Stalin's collectivization,
he meets Lt. Günther Berger, with whom he lays siege to Stalingrad as
part of the Turkestan battalion. After the Russians capture and imprison
the two men, they escape and return to the steppes, only for Ul'an to
die. At Ul'an's behest, Günther adopts the 10-year-old Naja, and with
his wife, Siglinde, raises her in his bourgeois German postwar
household. The plot line is original and the writing lyrical, but the
number of shifts involved in Naja's journey back to her own identity
will leave less diligent readers behind."

Receive 10% off your reading group
book fromThe Book Works. We request that all groups who meet at The Book
Workspurchase their selection from us.Thanks.

*Author WILL
NOT be present.

Seven Year Switch by Claire Cook*

Kick off the summer with Claire Cook's new perfect beach read novel!

Jill Murray, has to begin molding her future together after her husband leaves her. In the healing process, Jill learns and endures in order to heal her heart and soul. Winding through love and loss, and creatively humorous, Cook shows us how to re-invent ourselves after loss.

A Case of Exploding Mangoes by Mohammed Hanif*

"Pakistan's ongoing political turmoil adds a piquant edge to this
fact-based farce spun from the mysterious 1988 plane crash that killed
General Zia, the dictator who toppled Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, father of
recently assassinated Benazir Bhutto. Two parallel assassination plots
converge in Hanif's darkly comic debut: Air Force Junior Under Officer
Ali Shigri, sure that his renowned military father's alleged suicide was
actually a murder, hopes to kill Zia, who he holds responsible.
Meanwhile, disgruntled Zia underlings scheme to release poison gas into
the ventilation system of the general's plane. Supporting characters
include Bannon, a hash-smoking CIA officer posing as an American drill
instructor; Obaid, Shigri's Rilke-reading, perfume-wearing barracks pal,
whose friendship sometimes segues into sex; and, in a foreboding cameo,
a lanky man with a flowing beard, identified as OBL, who is among the
guests at a Felliniesque party at the American ambassador's residence."

Receive 10%
off
your reading group book from The Book Works. We request that all groups
who meet at The Book Works purchase their selection from us. Thanks.

*Author WILL NOT be present.

Little Money Street by Fernanda Eberstadt*

"After moving outside the French town of Perpignan--home to the largest
Gypsy population in Western Europe--Eberstadt, a fan of Gypsy music,
undertook a quest to interview members of the renowned Gypsy band
Tekameli. After 18 months of rebuffs, she finally managed to wangle an
invitation to visit with Tekameli's lead singer, Moise Espinas, inside
his home. Personally introduced to the elusive Gypsy culture, she does
readers a tremendous service by providing them with an intimate glimpse
into the vibrant social life, customs, and music of one of the world's
most reviled, misunderstood, and richly textured societies."

Receive 10% off your reading group
book fromThe Book Works. We request that all groups who meet at The Book
Workspurchase their selection from us.Thanks.

*Author WILL
NOT be present.