Events

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.

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.

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. 

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." 

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. 

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.

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. 

The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton*

"The work presents a picture of upper-class New York society in the late
19th century. The story is presented as a kind of anthropological study
of this society through references to the families and their activities
as tribal. In the story Newland Archer, though engaged to May Welland, a
beautiful and proper fellow member of elite society, is attracted to
Ellen Olenska, a former member of their circle who has been living in
Europe but who has left her husband under mysterious circumstances and
returned to her family's New York milieu. May prevails by subtly
adhering to the conventions of that world. The novel was awarded a
Pulitzer Prize."

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.

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.

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 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 Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald*

"The Great Gatsby, arguably Fitzgerald's finest work and
certainly the book for which he is best known. A portrait of the Jazz
Age in all of its decadence and excess, Gatsby captured the
spirit of the author's generation and earned itself a permanent place
in American mythology. Self-made, self-invented millionaire Jay Gatsby
embodies some of Fitzgerald's--and his country's--most abiding
obsessions: money, ambition, greed, and the promise of new beginnings."

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 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.  

Nonfiction book group, Moday April 26, 7:00 pm, Lost City of Z

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 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.

The
Book Works is teaming up with educators from Connected Parenting to offer a book club (with pizza!) that
fosters a love of reading and also helps to develop strong communication
skills.

The boys will read Masterpiece,
by Elise Broach.  

This workshop has two main features:

1.
Boys connect with a book -
they use their curiosity and imagination
to explore themes and character development. They are encouraged to
think deeply about how elements of the story
connect with their own thoughts and experiences. The boys read one book
across the 4-week program (tba).

2. Boys connect with each other- the literacy
discussion is used as a platform for building
confidence and enriching communication
skills: listening, asking questions, offering and soliciting opinions,
responding to and respecting the thoughts and ideas of others, and
sharing speaking time.

Dates:
Monday evenings in June from 5:30-6:45 pm: June 7, 14, 21, and 28. Each session will start with
pizza and soft drinks.
Participants:
Boys currently in 3rd or 4th grade. Minimum 10 participants.  
Instructors: Connected
Parenting Coaches Rebecca Lindsay and Kelly Parisa will guide
the book group. Rebecca is also a 3rd Grade teacher at The Children's
School, La Jolla. Kelly is also a behavior and learning specialist.
Fee: $100 per child for the
four-week program (20% discount for siblings). Includes a copy of the
book club book, and pizza and soft drinks at each session.
Registration:
Please reserve a place for your child by pre-paying at The Book Works
(by check please, to Connected Parenting).

Questions? Please contact Rebecca
Lindsay (rebeccalindsay@connectedparenting.com).

Connected Parenting is
a highly regarded professional organization founded by
Canadian social worker and therapist Jennifer Kolari. Connected
Parenting helps families develop and maintain strong bonds, and helps
children develop strategies for navigating through their
ever-complicated social networks. The team teaches parenting courses and
provides workshops to schools and organizations across the U.S. and
Canada.

Keep your eyes out for
notices about other upcoming children's activities -- we are putting
together additional children's book groups and are developing a fabulous
Summer Saturdays program. More soon!

JOIN
THE BOOK WORKS CHILDREN'S MAILING LIST

Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis*

This sense of exasperated, pointless yearning adds further
depth to the book's central theme by subtly introducing the element of
class. Though much more prevalent a matter in British society fifty
years ago, class and Jim never clash head-on. It is nonetheless a
struggle and the symptoms of the struggle are all the more dramatic for
it being unspoken. Beneath Jim's furious lack of faith in his own
attempts to resign himself to a life he's supposed to deserve lies his
genuine belief that there are some things beneath him and a whole bunch
more to which he must never aspire.

What I'm trying to get at is that, in Jim, Amis has built
something deeply true. Like all great art he has preserved a moment in
time, but here the external chronology (ie fifties Britain) is
overshadowed by the capture of the internal, which is to say the
Western male in his mid-twenties, angry, confused, inconvenienced with
intelligence. Both Amis' achievements affect the other, but it is the
latter which is the lasting glory.

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.

After reading "The Great Gatsby" last month, the Classics Book Group will now watch the 1974 rendition starring Robert Redford and Mia Farrow on Thursday, June 10th at 6:30pm.

$2.00 fee for electronic set-up. Popcorn welcome!

Older Boys and Girls Book Group (5th and 6th Grades)
10:00-10:45am

The Wednesday
Wars by Gary Schimdt

Gary D. Schmidt offers an unforgettable antihero in THE WEDNESDAY
WARS—a wonderfully witty and compelling novel about a teenage boy’s
mishaps and adventures over the course of the 1967–68 school year.

Meet Holling Hoodhood, a seventh-grader at Camillo Junior High, who
must spend Wednesday afternoons with his teacher, Mrs. Baker, while the
rest of the class has religious instruction. Mrs. Baker doesn’t like
Holling—he’s sure of it. Why else would she make him read the plays of
William Shakespeare outside class? But everyone has bigger things to
worry about, like Vietnam. His father wants Holling and his sister to be
on their best behavior: the success of his business depends on it. But
how can Holling stay out of trouble when he has so much to contend with?
A bully demanding cream puffs; angry rats; and a baseball hero signing
autographs the very same night Holling has to appear in a play in yellow
tights! As fate sneaks up on him again and again, Holling finds
Motivation—the Big M—in the most unexpected places and musters up the
courage to embrace his destiny, in spite of himself.

Younger Boys and Girls Book Group (3rd and 4th Grades)
11:00-11:45am

Comet in
Moominland: Can Moominland save his beloved valley? by Tove Jansson
and Elizabeth Portch

When Moomintroll learns that a comet will be passing by, he and his
friend Sniff travel to the Observatory on the Lonely Mountains to
consult the Professors. Along the way, they have many adventures, but
the greatest adventure of all awaits them when they learn that the comet
is headed straight for their beloved Moominvalley.