Events

When a young wife and mother named Zoe Kruller is found brutally murdered, the Sparta police target two primary suspects, her estranged husband, Delray Kruller, and her longtime lover, Eddy Diehl. In turn, the Krullers' son, Aaron, and Eddy Diehl's daughter, Krista, become obsessed with each other, each believing the other's father is guilty.

Told in halves in the very different voices of Krista and Aaron, Little Bird of Heaven is a classic Oates novel in which the lyricism of intense sexual love is intertwined with the anguish of loss, and tenderness is barely distinguishable from cruelty.

Joyce Carol Oates, Professor of Humanities and Creative Writing at Princeton University, has received numerous honors and awards for her work, which includes, fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and plays. She has been called one of the greatest writers of our time.

CLICK HERE FOR INFORMATION ON THE LOGISTICS OF THIS EVENT 

Barbarians: An Alternative Roman History by Alan Ereira*
A completely fresh approach to Roman history, this book not only offer readers the chance to see the Romans from a non-Roman perspective, it also reveals that most of those written off by the Romans as uncivilized, savage, and barbaric were in fact organized, motivated, and intelligent groups of people with no intentions of overthrowing Rome and plundering its Empire. This fascinating study does away with the propaganda and opens our eyes to who really established the civilized world. Delving deep into history, Terry Jones and Alan Ereira uncover the impressive cultural and technological achievements of the Celts, Goths, Persians, and Vandals.

Receive 10% off when your order your reading group book from The Book Works.
We request that all groups who meet at The Book Works purchase their book group books from us in exchange for our dazzling hospitality. Thanks.

* Author WILL NOT be present.

Receive 10% off when your order your reading group book from The Book Works.
We request that all groups who meet at The Book Works purchase their book group books from us in exchange for our dazzling hospitality. Thanks.

Author WILL NOT be present.

In this book, award-winning author Su-Mei Yu explains the age-old Thai philosophy of diet and health, and gives you information and recipes to help you prepare meals that will promote better physical, spiritual, and emotional health. She describes the personal characteristics related to the each of the four home elements, as well as the tastes, flavors, aromas, and natural ingredients best suited to them, and shows you how to identify your home element and eat foods that accommodate it through different times of the year and different times of the day.

Folk singer Bruce Betz will be playing from 8-10pm in Pannikin Coffee & Tea.

Acoustic fingerstyle guitarist Jim Earp will be playing from 8-10pm in Pannikin Coffee & Tea.

The Victorian Internet by Tom Standage*
The Victorian Internet tells the colorful story of the telegraph's creation and remarkable impact, and of the visionaries, oddballs, and eccentrics who pioneered it, from the eighteenth-century French scientist Jean-Antoine Nollet to Samuel F. B. Morse and Thomas Edison. The electric telegraph nullified distance and shrank the world quicker and further than ever before or since, and its story mirrors and predicts that of the Internet in numerous ways.

Receive 10% off when your order your reading group book from The Book Works.
We request that all groups who meet at The Book Works purchase their book group books from us in exchange for our dazzling hospitality. Thanks.

* Author WILL NOT be present.

The San Diego classic improvisational blues group Billy Watson and the International Silver String Submarine Band will be playing from 8-10pm in Pannikin Coffee & Tea.

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond*
In his million-copy bestseller Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond examined how and why Western civilizations developed the technologies and immunities that allowed them to dominate much of the world. Now in this brilliant companion volume, Diamond probes the other side of the equation: What caused some of the great civilizations of the past to collapse into ruin, and what can we learn from their fates?

Receive 10% off when your order your reading group book from The Book Works.
We request that all groups who meet at The Book Works purchase their book group books from us in exchange for our dazzling hospitality. Thanks.

* Author WILL NOT be present.

Mudbound by Hillary Jordan*

This prize-winning novel is storytelling at the height of its powers: the ache of wrongs not yet made right, the fierce attendance of history made real (Barbara Kingsolver), as men and women from two families become players in a tragedy on the grandest scale.

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.

Raymond Carver was the most beloved American short-story writer of
the late twentieth century. Two decades after his death, this
definitive biography tells the story of Carver's uncanny ambition,
legendary life, and enduring work.

Carol Sklenicka draws on hundreds of interviews with people who knew
Carver, prodigious research in libraries and private collections, and
all of Carver's poems and stories for Raymond Carver, which
took ten years to write. Her portrait is generous and wise without
swerving from discordant issues in Carver's private affairs. Above all
Sklenicka shows how Carver's quintessentially American life fostered
the stories that knowing readers have cherished from their first
publication until the present day.

The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway

The acclaimed and inspiring international bestseller that is a tribute to the human spirit.

In a city ravaged by war, a musician plays his cello for twenty-two
days at the site of a mortar attack, in memory of the fallen. Among the
strangers drawn into the orbit of his music are a young father in
search of water for his family, an older man in search of the humanity
he once knew, and a young woman, a sniper, who will decide the fate of
the cellist--and the kind of person she wants to 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 Joseph Angelastro Trio will be playing from 8-10pm in Pannikin Coffee & Tea.

http://www.myspace.com/josephangelastro

Women in Love by D.H. Lawrence*

One of the most versatile and influential figures in twentieth-century literature, D. H. Lawrence
was a master craftsman and profound thinker whose celebration of
sexuality in an over-intellectualized world opened the door to that
topic for countless writers after him.

Perhaps his finest novel, Women in Love (1920) continues the story of two sisters,Ursula and Gudrun Brangwen, who first appeared in Lawrence’s novel The Rainbow
(1915).   The story contrasts the passionate love affairs of Ursula and
Rupert Birkin, a character often seen as a self-portrait of Lawrence,
with that of Gudrun and Gerald Crich, an icily handsome mining
industrialist. Birkin, an introspective misanthrope, struggles to
reconcile his metaphysical drive for self-fulfillment with Ursula’s
practical view of sentimental passion. As they fight their way through
to a mutually satisfying relationship—and eventual marriage—Gudrun and
Crich’s sadomasochistic love affair careens toward a disastrous
conclusion.

A dark, disturbing, yet beautiful exploration of
love in an increasingly violent and destructive world, Women in Love
nevertheless holds out the hope of individual and collective rebirth
through human intensity and passion.

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We request that all groups who meet at The Book Works purchase their
book group books from us in exchange for our dazzling hospitality.
Thanks.

* Author WILL NOT be present.

Messenger of Truth, by Jacqueline Winspear*

NOTE: This is the correct book for January. The book mentioned in the January newsletter was the wrong one!

Maisie Dobbs investigates the mysterious death of a controversial artist -- and World War I veteran -- in the fourth entry in the bestselling series 

In Messenger of Truth, Maisie once again uncovers the perilous legacy of the Great War in a society struggling to recollect itself. But to solve the mystery of Nick’s death, Maisie will have to keep her head as the forces behind the artist’s fall come out of the shadows to silence her.

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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.

Sin in the Second City by Karen Abbott

As Abbott's first book, she probes the titillating milieu of the posh, world- famous Everleigh Club brothel that operated from 1900 to 1911 on Chicago's Near South Side. The madams, Ada and Minna Everleigh, were sisters whose shifting identities had them as traveling actors, Edgar Allan Poe's relatives, Kentucky debutantes fleeing violent husbands and daughters of a once-wealthy Virginia lawyer crushed by the Civil War. The Everleighs spoiled their whores with couture gowns, gourmet meals and extraordinary salaries. With colorful characters, this is an entertaining, well-researched slive of Windy City history.

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Thanks.

*Author WILL NOT be present.

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski*

The extraordinary debut novel that became a modern classic.

Born mute, speaking only in sign, Edgar Sawtelle leads an idyllic life with his parents on their farm in remote northern Wisconsin. For generations, the Sawtelles have raised and trained a fictional breed of dog whose remarkable gift for companionship is epitomized by Almondine, Edgar's lifelong friend and ally. Edgar seems poised to carry on his family's traditions, but when catastrophe strikes, he finds his once-peaceful home engulfed in turmoil.

Forced to flee into the vast wilderness lying beyond the Sawtelle farm, Edgar comes of age in the wild, fighting for his survival and that of the three yearling dogs who accompany him, until the day he is forced to choose between leaving forever or returning home to confront the mysteries he has left unsolved.

Filled with breathtaking scenes—the elemental north woods, the sweep of seasons, an iconic American barn, a fateful vision rendered in the falling rain—The Story of Edgar Sawtelle is a meditation on the limits of language and what lies beyond, a brilliantly inventive retelling of an ancient story, and an epic tale of devotion, betrayal, and courage in the American heartland.

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.

Start your garden off right in 2010 with Del Mar's favorite gardener - beginning with rose-planting in January and taking you an entire year of organic gardening. 

“Pat Welsh’s Southern California Organic Gardening, Month by Month”, takes local gardeners by the hand and helps them grow a beautiful pest-and-disease-free garden while living in harmony with nature, caring for the environment, and protecting people and pets as well. This book is packed with easy-to-follow practical advice on how to amend the soil, feed plants, and control pests using a multitude of organic techniques. Boxes and sidebars throughout highlight tips and hints and step-by-step methods for solving all your gardening problems without resorting to synthetic fertilizers or chemical pesticides. Instead, Pat suggests safe, proven, and effective—though often little-known—organic solutions. The best commercial organic products are recommended by brand name, but many cost-free substitutes and recipes for inexpensive homemade concoctions are also included. This new, all-organic book written specifically for our area is a compendium of useful ideas that can help you live green and save money as well.

"She walks in beauty, like the night/Of Cloudless climes and starry skies;/And all that's best of dark and bright/Meet in her aspect and her eyes"                                                                                                - Lord Byron

Join The Book Works for a night of love as we host the Solana Beach Art Associations' adult poetry reading. Cheese, wine and appetizers will be served as participants read their favorite love poems. If interested in reading, please contact Sharon Leib at srleib@roadrunner.com. Limited to first 25 people who sign up.

Justinian's Flea by William Rosen*
In 542 AD, the bubonic plague struck. In weeks, the glorious classical world of Justinian had been plunged into the medieval and modern Europe was born. At its height, five thousand people died every day in Constantinople. Cities were completely depopulated. It was the first pandemic the world had ever known and it left its indelible mark: when the plague finally ended, more than 25 million people were dead. Weaving together history, microbiology, ecology, jurisprudence, theology, and epidemiology, Justinian's Flea is a unique and sweeping account of the little known event that changed the course of a continent.

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 China Lover by Ian Buruma*

From Shanghai before and during the Second World War to U.S.-occupied Tokyo, and, finally, to the Middle East in the early 1970s, Ian Buruma's masterful new novel about the intoxicating power of collective fantasy follows three star-struck men driven to extraordinary acts by their devotion to the same legendary woman. A beautiful Japanese girl born in Manchuria, Yamaguchi Yoshiko is known as Ri Koran in Japan, Li Xianglan in China, and Shirley Yamaguchi in the U.S.-and her past is a closely guarded secret. In Buruma's reimagining of the life of Yamaguchi Yoshiko, a Japanese girl torn between patriotism for her parents' homeland, worldly ambition, and sympathy for the Chinese, she will reflect almost exactly the twists and turns in the history of modern Japan. The China Lover is both luminously written and imbued with the insights and erudition that have made Ian Buruma one of the most respected writers on modern Asia.

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.

In January, we read "Women in Love" by D.H. Lawrence, this event is a follow up to view the movie version of this book.  

The Book Works is sponsoring the Classics Book Group's follow up movie viewing of "Women in Love" on Thursday, February 11th at 6:30pm. 

$3 donation fee for technical support and to support this evening's event.  

Persuasion by Jane Austen* As Jane Austen's last completed novel, it deals with the social issues of the times and paints a fascinating portrait of Regency England, especially when dealing with the class system. Also being a poignant and passionate story of love, disappointment, redemption, and loss. Austen suggests the consequences of being persuaded from core values and beliefs.    

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 Places in Between by Rory Stewart

We never really find out why Stewart decided to walk across Afghanistanonly a few months after the Taliban were deposed, but what emerges fromthe last leg of his two-year journey across Asia is a lesson in goodtravel writing. Stewart's trekthrough Afghanistan in the footsteps of the 15th-century emperor Baburis edifying at every step. His prose is lean and unsentimental: whetherpushing through chest-high snow in the mountains of Hazarajat orthrough villages still under de facto Taliban control, his descriptionsoffer a cool assessment of a landscape and a people eviscerated by war,forgotten by time and isolated by geography. The writer's identity is discerned best byinference though sometimes we get the sense he cares more for preservinghistory than for the people who live in it. But remembering Geraldo Rivera'sgunslinging escapades, perhaps we could use less sap and more clarityabout this troubled and fascinating country.

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We request that all groups who meet at The Book Works purchase their selection from us. Thanks.

*Author WILL NOT be present.

Telex from Cuba by Rachel Kushner*

Rachel Kushner has written an astonishingly wise, ambitious, and riveting novel set in the American community in Cuba during the years leading up to Castro's revolution -- a place that was a paradise for a time and for a few. The first novel to tell the story of the Americans who were driven out in 1958, this is a masterful debut.

Young Everly Lederer and K. C. Stites come of age in Oriente Province, where the Americans tend their own fiefdom -- three hundred thousand acres of United Fruit Company sugarcane that surround their gated enclave. If the rural tropics are a child's dreamworld, Everly and K.C. nevertheless have keen eyes for the indulgences and betrayals of the grown-ups around them -- the mordant drinking and illicit loves, the race hierarchies and violence.

In Havana, a thousand kilometers and a world away from the American colony, a cabaret dancer meets a French agitator named Christian de La Mazière, whose seductive demeanor can't mask his shameful past. Together they become enmeshed in the brewing political underground. When Fidel and Raúl Castro lead a revolt from the mountains above the cane plantation, torching the sugar and kidnapping a boat full of "yanqui" revelers, K.C. and Everly begin to discover the brutality that keeps the colony humming. Though their parents remain blissfully untouched by the forces of history, the children hear the whispers of what is to come.

At the time, urgent news was conveyed by telex. Kushner's first novel is a tour de force, haunting and compelling, with the urgency of a telex from a forgotten time and place.

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.

Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith*

Set in the Soviet Union in 1953, it offers appealing characters, a strong plot and authentic period detail. When war hero Leo Stepanovich Demidov, a rising star in the MGB, the State Security force, is assigned to look into the death of a child, Leo is annoyed, first because this takes him away from a more important case, but, more importantly, because the parents insist the child was murdered. In Stalinist Russia, there's no such thing as murder; the only criminals are those who are enemies of the state. After attempting to curb the violent excesses of his second-in-command, Leo is forced to investigate his own wife, the beautiful Raisa, who's suspected of being an Anglo-American sympathizer. Demoted and exiled from Moscow, Leo stumbles onto more evidence of the child killer. The evocation of the deadly cloud-cuckoo-land of Russia during Stalin's final days will remind many of Gorky Park and Darkness at Noon, but the novel remains Smith's alone, completely original and absolutely satisfying.

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. 

A balanced, plain-English guide to this politically charged topic. This practical guide cuts away the hype and clearly presents the facts on stem cells. It explains what stem cells are and what they do, the legalities of harvesting them and using them in research, the latest research findings from the United States and abroad, and the prospects for medical stem cell therapies in the short and long term. It also discusses the ethical and moral considerations involved with the topic. But Goldstein presents us with the endless possibilities in using stem cells. Discover how stem cells are projected to make medical advances in the understanding and improved treatment of cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and more.

The Great Influenza by John M. Barry*

"In this sweeping history, Barry explores how the deadly confluence of biology (a swiftly mutating flu virus that can pass between animals and humans) and politics (President Wilson's all-out war effort in WWI) created conditions in which the influenza virus thrived, killing more than 50 million worldwide and perhaps as many as 100 million in just a year. Barry captures the sense of panic and despair that overwhelmed stricken communities and hits hard at those who failed to use their power to protect the public good. He also describes the work of the dedicated researchers who rushed to find the cause of the disease and create vaccines." 

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*Author WILL NOT be present. 

Jerusalem by Goncalo M. Tavares*

Taking place during one night in an unnamed city, the story—which
follows a doctor, his ex-wife, her lover, their son and a killer pimp,
among others—propels itself mainly through flashbacks relayed in short,
choppy chapters and subchapters. Mylia, the ex-wife for whom everything
was about herself, goes tumbling through the streets looking for a
church, but instead finds a series of odd and dangerous predicaments.
Most of what we learn about Mylia comes from memories of her stay at the
Georg Rosenberg Asylum, disturbing, even for healthy people or a luxury
hotel for the mentally ill, depending on whom you ask. Her ex-husband,
famed researcher Theodor Busbeck, is revealed via his institution and
reactions to Mylia; theirs is a frightening if realistic relationship,
though the other characters feel less than realized.

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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.

31 Hours by Masha Hamilton*

Hosted by San Diego's StyleSubstanceSoul.com at the Book Works.  

"Hamilton's novel tracks the 31 hours before Jonas, a sensitive young man raised by idealistic, now divorced parents, straps on a vest of explosives and enters the New York City subway system to martyr himself. The novel begins with Jonas's mother, Carol, knowing that something is wrong with her son. Thus begins an odyssey that takes her back to her ex-husband, Jake; to Jonas's girlfriend, Vic; and to the authorities. Hamilton touches on many perspectives of the characters who know Jonas. Through all of this, Jonas ritually prepares for this final act of his life, but without the single-minded fanaticism one expects. It's a very tense narrative, vividly imagined and eerily plausible. 

Masha Hamilton has worked as a foreign correspondent in the Middle East for The Associated Press, in Moscow, as a correspondent for the Los Angeles Times and NBC/Mutual Radio, and as a reporter in Afghanistan in 2004. She recently founded the Afghan Women's Writing Project, which helps young Afghan women learn about writing, find their voices, and share their work in a safe forum. Hamilton is the author of three previous novels: Staircase of a Thousand Steps; The Distance Between Us, and The Camel Bookmobile. She lives in Brooklyn. 

For more information from StyleSubstanceSoul.com, click here.