Events

"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.

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.

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. 

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.  

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."