Events

Set amid the Armenian community in newly occupied Paris, Nancy Kricorian's All the Light There Was ($24.00) is a lyrical, finely wrought story about family loyalty, secret love, the many faces of oppression—and the many faces of resistance.

Nancy Kricorian, author of the novels Zabelle and Dreams of Bread and Fire, is a widely published poet, essayist, and activist. After graduating from Dartmouth, Nancy studied and worked in Paris before earning an MFA in writing at Columbia University. 

The ticket price of $55 includes lunch and a signed book
Call (415) 927-0960 ext. 1 to inquire about availability

Ruth Ozeki shares A Tale for the Time Being. Full of Ozeki’s signature humor and deeply engaged with the relationship between writer and reader, past and present, fact and fiction, quantum physics, history, and myth, A Tale for the Time Being is a brilliantly inventive, beguiling story of our shared humanity and the search for home. 

Ruth Ozeki, author of My Year of Meats and All Over Creation, is an award-winning writer and filmmaker. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Shambhala Sun, and More, among other publications. In June 2010 she was ordained as a Zen Buddhist priest and is affiliated with the Brooklyn Zen Center and the Everyday Zen Foundation. She lives in British Columbia and New York City.   

Joins us for a fast-paced and irreverent evening, showcasing new work from the students of the San Francisco Writer's Grotto writing classes. On this Friday evening, both fiction and nonfiction writers will read their work — but only for 3 minutes each! Their instructors (Grotto authors) will enforce the time limit. Join us for wine, fun, and fresh new writing.

Sat., Mar. 23 • 10:00 - 1:00 pm • $45
Bring your laptop!

Join Pam Belluck (Island Practice: Cobblestone Rash, Underground Tom, and Other Adventures of a Nantucket Doctor) and Daniel J. Levitin (This is Your Brain on Music and The World in Six Songs) for an evening of live jazz and lively discussion ranging from health and science to writing, music and the interconnections of these varied disciplines. 

Pam Belluck has been a staff writer for the New York Times for more than fifteen years. She is currently a health and medical writer for the Times. Belluck has won several awards, a Knight Fellowship, and a Fulbright Scholarship, and is also an accomplished jazz flutist. 

Daniel J. Levitin runs the Levitin Laboratory for Musical Perception, Cognition, and Expertise at McGill University, where he holds the Bell Chair in the Psychology of Electronic Communications. Before becoming a neuroscientist, he was a record producer with gold records to his credit and professional musician. He has published extensively in scientific journals and music trade magazines such as Grammy and Billboard. 

This very special event will be held upstairs from the Book Passage store in the San Francisco Ferry Building's Port Commission Hearing Room. 

Moment in the Moment House, Claire Blotter's third poetry chapbook, dives below the surface of a rapidly changing technological world, examines the roots of violence- and calls for a compassionate witnessing and response, moment to moment.  

Claire Blotter holds a B.A. in English Literature from the University of California at Berkeley and a Special Master's Degree in Creative Writing, Women Studies and Speech Communications from San Francisco State University. She is the author of Trying to Sing in the War Zone and Face. She has received two Marin Arts Council Artists Grants in Poetry and grants from the Marin Community Foundation and the Nathan Cummings Foundation.

Six Fridays: Mar. 29-May 3 • 10:00-12:00 pm • $150

A fresh look at the Eternal City from 753 BCE through the 17th century. The class discusses the great monuments of the Caesars, the catacombs, and mosaics in early Christian Churches. We then move to the Renaissance Popes, including St. Peters and the Vatican. Finally, we allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by the Baroque masterpieces of the Counter-Reformation. Highlights include a lecture on the art and life of Caravaggio and a virtual tour of the Villa Borghese.

Eight Mondays: Apr. 1-May 20 • 10:00-12:00 pm • $235

This class will review all grammar, tenses and vocabulary at an advanced level. The class will discuss current issues in France.

Text: Connexions 3 Methode & Cahier

Josette Charbit Schwartz has taught French in Marin at the Lycée Français, The Branson School and French American International in San Francisco. Born in Paris, Josette has lived in Marin County for 30 years and has a degree in Bilingual Education from France.

Seven Mondays: Apr. 1-May 13 • 12:40-2:20 pm • $205

Eight Mondays: Apr. 1-May 20 • 1:00-3:00 pm • $235

Widens the ability to communicate for travel or conversation with new vocabulary, expressions and grammar.

Text: Communication Progressive du Francais, niveau debutant

Josette Charbit Schwartz has taught French in Marin at the Lycée Français, The Branson School and French American International in San Francisco. Born in Paris, Josette has lived in Marin County for 30 years and has a degree in Bilingual Education from France.

Seven Tuesdays:Apr. 2-May 14 • 8:30-10:15 am • $205

Emphasis is on conversation and the mastery of some of the more complex structures of the language.

Text: Ultimate Italian

Wendy Walsh has a Ph.D. in Italian Literature from UCB. She has been teaching Italian language, literature, and cooking since 1979. She leads a yearly Language Study Tour Program to Italy.

4 Tuesdays: April 2 - 30 (no class April 9) • 6:30-8:30 pm • $160

Are you ready to commit to completing your book? Use the support and camaraderie of fellow writers, as well as helpful, well-timed feedback, to move through resistance and finish your work. Leslie provides incisive feedback as well as structural and publishing advice as needed.

Limited to 10—Restricted registration; call (415) 927-0960 for information

Seven Wednesdays: Apr. 3-May 15 • 9:00-10:45 am • $205

Emphasis is on mastery of the language through conversation, vocabulary work and reading.

Wendy Walsh has a Ph.D. in Italian Literature from UCB. She has been teaching Italian language, literature, and cooking since 1979. She leads a yearly Language Study Tour Program to Italy.

Eight Wednesdays: Apr. 3-May 22 • 10:00-12:00 pm • $235

Josette Charbit Schwartz has taught French in Marin at the Lycée Français, The Branson School and French American International in San Francisco. Born in Paris, Josette has lived in Marin County for 30 years and has a degree in Bilingual Education from France.

Seven Wednesdays: Apr. 3-May 15 • 11:00-12:45 pm • $205

Emphasis is on conversation and mastery of il passato prossimo, l’imperfetto, il trapassato prossimo e il condizionale.

Text: Italian Second & Third Year by Joseph Tursi

Wendy Walsh has a Ph.D. in Italian Literature from UCB. She has been teaching Italian language, literature, and cooking since 1979. She leads a yearly Language Study Tour Program to Italy.

Eight Wednesdays: Apr. 3-May 22 • 1:00-3:00 pm • $235

Introduction to grammar and vocabulary. The focus will be on French for travel.

Texts: Barron’s and Grammaire Progressive du Francais, niveau debutant

Josette Charbit Schwartz has taught French in Marin at the Lycée Français, The Branson School and French American International in San Francisco. Born in Paris, Josette has lived in Marin County for 30 years and has a degree in Bilingual Education from France.

Four Wednesdays: Apr. 3-24 • 4:30-5:30 pm • $100

This fun class for middle schoolers opens the door to a bilingual education. A reading and conversational knowledge of German is valuable in business, science, and international law.

Hamid Emami has a Masters from the University of Hamburg, and he is fluent in German, English, French, Spanish & Farsi. He has taught German for many years.

Seven Thursdays: Apr. 4-May 16 • 9:00-10:45 am • $205

Emphasis is on conversation, through review.

Wendy Walsh has a Ph.D. in Italian Literature from UCB. She has been teaching Italian language, literature, and cooking since 1979. She leads a yearly Language Study Tour Program to Italy.

Eight Mondays: Apr. 1-May 20 • 1:00-3:00 pm • $235 or

Widens the ability to communicate for travel or conversation with new vocabulary, expressions and grammar.

Text: Communication Progressive du Francais, niveau debutant

Josette Charbit Schwartz has taught French in Marin at the Lycée Français, The Branson School and French American International in San Francisco. Born in Paris, Josette has lived in Marin County for 30 years and has a degree in Bilingual Education from France.

Eight Thursdays: Apr. 4-May 30 • 2:00-4:00 pm (no class May 23) • $235

3 Thursdays: April 4 - 25 (no class on April 11) • 6:30-8:30 • $120

Make space for your writing. Making commitments and setting goals is one way to find the consistency needed to get in the
regular writing habit. The habit of writing is what helps us access our creativity. Use this supportive community of writers to
get you going. Leslie provides guidance and techniques to keep moving forward.

Limited to 10 - Restricted registration; call (415) 927-0960 for information  

Photographer and conservationist Bryant Austin's breathtaking photographic project Beautiful Whale ($50.00) is the first of its kind: tt chronicles his fearless attempts to reach out to whales as fellow sentient beings. Featuring Austin's intimate images--some as detailed as a single haunting eye--that result from encounters based on mutual trust, this work captures the grace and intelligence of these magnificent creatures. Austin spent days at a time submerged, motionless, in the waters of remote spawning grounds waiting for humpback, sperm, and minke whales to seek him out.

As oceanographer Sylvia A. Earle says in her foreword to the book, "As an ambassador from the ocean--and to the ocean--Bryant Austin is not only a source of inspiration. He is cause for hope."

Eight Fridays: Apr. 5-May 24 • 9:00-11:00 am • $235

Seven Wednesdays: Apr. 3-May 15 • 11:00-12:45 pm • $205

Emphasis is on conversation and mastery of il passato prossimo, l’imperfetto, il trapassato prossimo e il condizionale.

Text: Advanced Grammar by Marcel Danesi

Wendy Walsh has a Ph.D. in Italian Literature from UCB. She has been teaching Italian language, literature, and cooking since 1979. She leads a yearly Language Study Tour Program to Italy.

In this collection of more than 100 recipes that combine smart nutrition and superb flavor, culinary nutrition pioneer Rebecca Katz highlights sixteen foods proven to fight the most common chronic conditions. The Longevity Kitchen ($29.99) features wholefoods recipes showcasing antioxidant-rich power foods.

Two authors from 16 Rivers Press share their latest work:

Barbara Swift Brauer’s At Ease in the Borrowed World is a collection of poems that are unflinchingly candid and yet graceful. Quiet in tone, her poetry rises to a level that captivates a reader by its clarity.

In The Choreographer, Gerald Fleming travels across continents and time with an eye that sees beyond the visible and an ear that hears music both real and imagined. In piece after piece, the ordinary world opens to reveal the marvelous in all its dimensions and variety.

Sixteen Rivers Press was founded in 1999 by seven San Francisco Bay Area writers with a goal to create a sustainable, shared-work publishing collective run by and for Bay Area poets. The original model was Alice James Books, which in the 1970s created a regional collective press in the Boston area. 

This is an opportunity to meet one of the most remarkable women of our time. Mary Robinson was the first woman president of Ireland, and after that she was appointed the U.N. Commissioner for Human Rights. In Everybody
Matters: My Life Giving Voice ($26.00), she talks about her struggles on behalf of woman’s rights, the separation of church and state, and world peace. In recent years she has served as the honorary president of Oxfam and as one of the “Elders,” a group led by Nelson Mandela dedicated to bringing peace and justice.

President Robinson will be introduced by Judith Kell, president of the United Irish Cultural Center of San Francisco.  

Mary Robinson served as the seventh, and first female, president of Ireland from 1990-1997, and as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from 1997-2002. Robinson has been honorary president of Oxfam International since 2002, and has chaired numerous bodies, including the GAVI Alliance, vaccinating children worldwide, and the Council of Women World Leaders (of which she was a cofounder).

Left Coast Writers Event!
Join Left Coast Writers and the Southern Sampler Artists Colony as they evoke the dreamy, sometimes steamy world of Charleston and beyond in an exciting sampler of poetry, short fiction, non-fiction, and other treats in this celebration of all things Southern.

In writing Our Last Dance: A Memoir, Madeleine Zeldin sets out to honor her beloved husband, Gerald's, desire to have his story told, so that others may be helped. Zeldin shows her husband not just as a cancer patient, but as a person: an internationally renowned artist, professor, mentor and husband and father. 

Professionally, Madeleine Zeldin has been engaged as a nurse and a teacher. She has successfully advocated for changes in the medical field, along with pioneering efforts in homebirth and Midwifery.
  

Eight Thursdays: Apr. 4-May 30 (no class May 23) • 2:00-4:00 pm • $235

Eight Tuesdays: Apr. 9-June 4 (no class on May 28th) • 1:00-3:00 pm • $235

They’ve been called trophy kids, entitled, narcissistic, and even the dumbest generation. But in Fast Future ($25.95), David Burstein aruges that the millennial generation’s unique blend of civic idealism and savvy pragmatism will enable us to overcome the deep divides of a nation facing economic and environmental calamities.

In Whitney Houston: The Voice, the Music, the Inspiration ($24.95), Narada Michael Walden's intimate stories of their unforgettable times together, both inside and outside the recording studio, draw a portrait of a smart, funny, compassionate woman whose striking physical beauty was matched by her inner strength and justifiable self-confidence.

Rebecah Freeling is a master storyteller, experienced early childhood educator, and parent coach.  New to California, she recently joined the faculty of Marin Mountain School Early Childhood Center in Corte Madera. For thirteen years she was owner, Director and Lead Teacher of Briar Rose Children's Center in her home state of Ohio. Her magical stories, both original and drawn from the folk and fairy tale traditions, are enhanced by handmade table puppets and simple marionettes.  One often observes the children hearing her stories to be sitting on the edge of their seats, eyes wide and mouths open in anticipation!

Thomas McNamee talks about The Man Who Changed the Way We Eat: Craig Claiborne and the American Food Renaissance ($16.00). Claiborne was was determined to better American eating habits, and in the course of his career he influenced all of today’s good critics. McNamee is the author of Alice Waters and Chez Panisse. His writing has been published in the New Yorker, Life, the New York Times, and the Washington Post. He lives in San Francisco.

Sat., Apr. 13• 2:00-5:00 pm • $65

The search for meaning and purpose can be overrated and distorted in a driven and future- oriented culture like ours. Using poetry as our prompts, participants will use writing exercises to orient themselves towards deeper values and aspirations — those that place us as an active participant in the great web of belonging.

Housden is the author of twenty books on poetry, art, and travel,including the bestselling Ten Poems series which started in 2001 with Ten Poems to Change Your Life. His next book, due to be published by Sounds True in March 2014, is called Keeping the Faith Without a Religion.  

Click here to listen to an audio clip of Roger Housden!

Zero Waste Home ($16.00) is Bea Johnson’s practical, step-by-step guide that gives readers the tools and tips to improve their overall health, save money and time, and achieve a brighter future for their families—and the planet. Johnson’s home has been widely featured, including a spot on the Today show and in People magazine.

Left Coast Writers Book Launch

Sugar and carb addicts, get help to free yourself from your potentially deadly habits with The Sugar Liberator, Connie Bennett, author of the international bestseller Beyond Sugar Shock: The 6-Week Plan to Break Free of Your Sugar Addiction & Get Slimmer, Sexier & Sweeter ($15.95).

In this Book Passage program, Connie will give her insights and simple starter secrets to:

•    Activate the positive power of one of your worst habits—procrastinating.
•    Dodge the #1 mistake nearly everyone makes when quitting or reducing sweets.
•    Decode and even welcome your nagging sugar cravings.
•    Pick yourself up after you’ve “slipped” and fallen off your sugar-free or no-sugar plan. 
•    Dissolve your desire for dangerous sweets, while still enjoying your cherished chocolate. (You’ll even get healthy recipes for tasty treats.)
•    Stop being duped by innocent-looking foods that are actually sugar traps.

Connie’s sour-to-sweet journey began in 1998, when she was pummeled by 44 ailments, including crushing fatigue, brain fog, horrible headaches, rollercoaster mood swings, and severe PMS. When Connie’s new doctor blamed every single symptom on her excessive sugar habit and ordered her to quit consuming her cherished sweets, Connie reluctantly complied. She succeeded, because while shedding her dangerous habit, Connie created cool tools to ease her dreaded and difficult transition and turn it into a positive, fun-filled, life-changing adventure. Much to her surprise, all her ailments vanished, and Connie became energetic, focused, and free. Since 2001, Connie has been coaching, guiding, and inspiring thousands of people worldwide on how to easily triumph over beat their carb addiction.

Please note: the correct time for this event is 7:00pm 

Patrice Vecchione’s new book of poems, The Knot Untied ($15.00) shines a light on friendship, and on the mother-daughter relationship, the aging process, falling in love, the natural world, the small, often unnoticed moments, and how within these experiences there is something ineffable which can’t be explained.

A story of love, war, and life as a Jewish immigrant in the squalid factories and lively dance halls of New York’s Garment District in the 1930s, My Mother’s Wars ($25.95) is the memoir Lillian Faderman’s mother was never able to write. The daughter delves into her mother’s past to tell the story of a Latvian girl who left her village for America with dreams of a life on the stage and encountered the realities of her new world: the battles she was forced to fight as a woman, an immigrant worker, and a Jew with family left behind in Hitler’s deadly path.

Lillian Faderman is an internationally known scholar of ethnic history, and of lesbian history and an acclaimed memoirist. She is the author of many books, including To Believe in Women, Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers, Surpassing the Love of Men, and I Begin My Life All Over. Among her many honors are Yale University’s James Brudner Award for exemplary scholarship in lesbian and gay studies, the Monette-Horwitz Award, and the American Association of University Women’s National Distinguished Scholar Award.

West Marin Review ($17.95) is a collaborative effort of the local, independent Point Reyes Books and friends and neighbors from the rural West Marin community. Featuring readings from Donald Bacon, Susan Trott, Frances Lefkowitz, Gina Cloud, William Masters, and Jody Farrell, with MC Doris Ober.

2nd Sunday of Every Month, 5:00 - 8:00pm
$40 per session

Critique Circle for Developing and Revising your Children's Book is a monthly workshop led by Andrea Alban for children's writers to deepen the craft of fiction, from initial concept through finished manuscript. Included is plotting a page-turning story structure, developing quintessential characters, creating vivid story worlds, and practicing the art of revision. Writers learn how to give and receive feedback in the spirit of generosity. The mission of this university-level workshop is to guide writers to publish their work. Included is research into publishing houses and literary agencies, and the art of writing cover/query letters, synopses and sample chapters that stand out from the crowd.

Testimonials:

What I most appreciate about Andrea is her optimism and support--a self-described "cheerleader." She has been like a college professor giving me valuable lessons in picture book creation. Her honesty and writing exercises helped me find my voice. It's been an incredible journey with Andrea as my story midwife!

Andrea Alban is the author of nine books, including the YA novel, Anya's War, (shortlisted for China's 2012 Panda Awards and an ALA honor book), and the bestseller, The Happiness Tree. She is a dynamic speaker at schools, writing conferences, and literary festivals. Andrea edits manuscripts and coaches writers in manuscript development and revision as well as how to prepare submissions to editors and agents. 

Third Monday of Every Month • 6:30-8:30 pm
$200 per year/$40 Drop-in fee ($150 for Left Coast Writers® members)

Register for annual membership
(Left Coast Writers Salon Rate):

Register for annual membership
(For Non-Salon Members):

Register for one session:

Finally, the writing group everyone has been asking for! Get in on the latest Left Coast Writers® literary adventure: The Left Coast Writers® Monthly Writers' Workshop. Bring your work and your imagination as well as humor, honesty, and attention to an evening of sharing recent writings, discussion on craft, and fabulous literary prompts. Either author/instructors Linda Watanabe McFerrin or Joanna Biggar will be on hand to contribute editorial direction and orchestrate sessions. This is a chance to get feedback on your work and hone your skills in a stimulating, supportive, and highly professional environment.

Led by Linda Watanabe McFerrin & Joanna Biggar

Bestselling author Lisa Scottoline returns with Don’t Go ($27.99), the story of a soldier who discovers what it means to be a man, a father, and ultimately, a hero. Gripping, thrilling, and profoundly emotional, Scottoline’s newest novel may be her finest yet. Scottoline is the recipient of an Edgar Award for her novel Final Appeal.

St. Andrew Church
Tickets: $25 (includes signed book)

Please note this event is now at 8:00pm. Tickets available at the door.

In Some Assembly Required, Anne Lamott enters a new and unexpected chapter of her own life: grandmotherhood. Stunned to learn that her son, Sam, is about to become a father at nineteen, Lamott begins a journal about the first year of her grandson Jax’s life. Anne Lamott is the author of many acclaimed books, including Help, Thanks, Wow; Grace (Eventually); Plan B; Traveling Mercies; and Operating Instructions.

Join us for the culminating event for One Book One Marin 2013. Marin County residents started reading and discussing the 2013 selection, Mary Roach’s Packing for Mars in January.

In Conversation with KQED's Michael Krasny  

From getting tattoos to bungee jumping to eating maggoty cheese, humans undoubtedly do some strange things. But none of these activities comes close to the sheer weirdness of voluntarily - eagerly, in fact - confining oneself to a tiny room without a proper shower or toilet within a wasteland that lacks water, gravity, or oxygen for a month or even a year. Welcome to space. In Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void ($15.95), Mary Roach enters the final frontier - not the grand triumphs and tragedies that you see on TV but all the stuff in between - the small comedies, the odd experiments, and the everyday victories.  

Mary Roach is the author of Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife, and Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex.

Author Pam Houston discusses her trio of recent releases with writer Joshua Mohr. The wanderlust memoir A Little More About Me ($14.95) follows Houston across five continents, from the Alaskan outback to the mountains of Bhutan. In the novel Contents May Have Shifted ($14.95), a woman stuck in a dead-end relationship leaves her metaphorical baggage behind and finds comfort a whirlwind trip around the globe. Eleven linked short stories featuring a photographer named Lucy O'Rourke make-up Houston's collection Waltzing the Cat ($14.95).    

Pam Houston's previous works include Cowboys Are My Weakness. Her stories have been anthologized in the Best American Short Stories, Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards and The Best American Short Stories of the Century. She is also the recipient of a Pushcart Prize. She has been a contributing editor to Elle and Ski and writes regularly for Condé Nast Sports for Women.

Joshua Mohr is the author of the San Francisco Chronicle bestseller, Some Things That Meant the World to Me, and Termite Parade, a New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice. 

Please note: due to unforseen circumstances, this event has been postponed. To be notified when this event is rescheduled, please write alison@bookpassage.com.

The American legal system changed dramatically in 1994, when the O. J. Simpson trial became a television-ratings bonanza. Now it’s all crime, all the time, on TV, from tabloid news to police procedurals on every network. Americans know more about the criminal justice system than ever before. Or do they? In Mistrial: An Inside Look at How the Criminal Justice System Works...and Sometimes Doesn't ($27.00), Mark Geragos and Pat Harris argue precisely the opposite: In pursuit of sensationalism, the media shows the public only a small, distorted sample of what really happens in our courtrooms. So, ironically, the more the public thinks it knows, the less informed it really is. Geragos and Harris debunk the myth of impartial American justice and draw the curtain on its ugly realities—from stealth jurors who secretly swing for a conviction to cops who regularly lie on the witness stand  to defense attorneys terrified  of going to trial. Ultimately, the authors question whether a justice system  model drawn up two centuries before blogs, television, and O. J. Simpson is still viable today.

Mark Geragos is the head of Geragos & Geragos, a Los Angeles-based law firm that focuses on both criminal and civil trial work. He lives in Los Angeles, California, with his wife and two children.

Pat Harris is a leading criminal defense attorney and a partner at Geragos & Geragos. He is the coauthor of Susan McDougal’s New York Times bestselling memoir, The Woman Who Wouldn’t Talk. He and his wife live in Studio City, California.

Sponsored by Book Passage and WildNature Calendars and Cards

Just added: Tom Killion!

Author Elisabeth Ptak will be joined by Mountain Play Association Executive Director Sara Pearson to celebrate the release of Marin's Mountain Play: One Hundred Years of Theatre on Mount Tamalpais.

This year's musical is Sound of Music, so the afternoon will also feature a Sound of Music singalong with Mountain Play performers plus a variety of cookies from West Marin's own Bovine Bakery!
 

"Awakening is a living transmission of silence and freedom," writes Eli Jaxon-Bear, "granting final liberation to everyone." A teacher in the self-realization movements of Sri Ramana Maharshi, Sri Poonjaji, and Gangaji, Jaxon-Bear presents a unique map of egoic identification as a vehicle for self-inquiry and a final realization of freedom. 

Sudden Awakening: Into Direct Realization puts spiritual awakening in a larger context: that it is humankind's next evolutionary leap. Based on ancient Indian teachings and years of contemplation, this book offers the key to the possibility of ending world destruction. The book is written in clear, beautiful prose, and readers can peruse each chapter as a meditation, or as a gateway into awakening the highest self-attainable. It offers insight into the nature of the true spiritual quest and shows the traps as well as the signs of confirmation along the journey.

Meet and Greet!
Home Made and Home Made Winter blew readers away with their delicious recipes, and hand-drawn artwork. Now, in Home Made Summer ($35.00), Yvette van Boven takes the same signature approach and presents her absolute favorite recipes for spring and summer.

Please join us for soft drinks, wine, cheese, and refreshments, as we prepare for another wonderful World Book Night event. All local givers are invited in to meet other givers as we share in the good feeling of something shared and important.

RSVP Sam Barry at sbarry@bookpassage.com.

About World Book Night
Each year, 30 books are chosen by an independent panel of librarians and booksellers. The authors of the books waive their royalties and the publishers agree to pay the costs of producing the specially-printed World Book Night U.S. editions. Book Passage has signed up to be community host locations for the volunteer book givers.

After the book titles are announced, members of the public apply to personally hand out copies of a particular title in their community. On World Book Night—April 23rd—we join together to give books to those who don’t regularly read and/or people who don’t normally have access to printed books, for reasons of means or access.  

Learning to ride a bike is one of the most important milestones of childhood, and no one captures the emotional ups and downs of the experience better than Chris Raschka, who won the 2012 Caldecott Medal for A Ball for Daisy. In Everyone Can Learn to Ride a Bicycle ($16.99), a simple yet emotionally rich work, a father takes his daughter through all the steps in the process — from choosing the perfect bicycle to that triumphant first successful ride. Using very few words and lots of expressive pictures, here is a picture book that not only shows kids how to learn to ride, but captures what it feels like to fall . . . get up . . . fall again . . . and finally "by luck, grace, and determination" ride a bicycle.

Chris Raschka, the 2012 Caldecott Medalist, is an avid bike rider and wrote a 2010 New York Times op-ed piece, "Braking Away," about the importance of obeying the rules of the road while on a bicycle. He has written and/or illustrated over 30 books for children, including the 2012 Caldecott Medal winner A Ball for Daisy, which was also a New York Times Best Illustrated Book and described byThe Horn Book in a starred review as "noteworthy for both its artistry and its child appeal." His other books include the 2006 Caldecott Medal winner, The Hello, Goodbye Window by Norton Juster; the Caldecott Honor Book Yo? Yes!, and the ALA-ALSC Notable Children's Book Good Sports.

Please join us for another wonderful World Book Night event. Book givers will meet at Book Passage and will go to select locations such as Homeward Bound to distribute both English and Spanish language books.

About World Book Night
Each year, 30 books are chosen by an independent panel of librarians and booksellers. The authors of the books waive their royalties and the publishers agree to pay the costs of producing the specially-printed World Book Night U.S. editions. Book Passage has signed up to be community host locations for the volunteer book givers.

On World Book Night—April 23rd—we join together to give books to those who don’t regularly read and/or people who don’t normally have access to printed books, for reasons of means or access. 

As the saying goes, it’s not what happens to us but how we react to it. While some suffer and seem unable to move on, others grieve and heal. Bouncing Back ($15.95), by clinical therapist Linda Graham, offers clear exercises and examples that allow readers to rebuild their clarity, connection, competence, calm, and courage.

An unforgettable story of belief and redemption, Amity & Sorrow ($25.99) is about the influence of community and learning to stand on your own. Peggy Riley’s debut novel is centered around two sisters who escape their father’s polygamous compound only to realize they know nothing of the world beyond it.

Why have we failed in our efforts to combat America’s drug problem, our nation’s single greatest problem which impacts almost every other issue you can name?  Why are we so inept at preventing drug use and early use from progressing to addiction?  Why can’t we treat most of those who become addicted?  Why has the War on Drugs worsened the problem it was meant to solve? In Clean: Overcoming Addiction and Ending America’s Greatest Tragedy ($25.00), David Sheff, the best-selling author of Beautiful Boy, addresses the crisis of these questions and offers a myth-shattering look at drug abuse and treatment, based on the latest scientific evidence and his own hard-won expertise as an investigative journalist who worked for over a decade to save his own son from addiction.

David Sheff is the author of the #1 New York Times best-selling memoir Beautiful Boy. Sheff's ongoing research and reporting on the science of addiction earned him a place on Time's list of the world’s most influential people. 

Rebecah Freeling is a master storyteller, experienced early childhood educator, and parent coach.  New to California, she recently joined the faculty of Marin Mountain School Early Childhood Center in Corte Madera. For thirteen years she was owner, Director and Lead Teacher of Briar Rose Children's Center in her home state of Ohio. Her magical stories, both original and drawn from the folk and fairy tale traditions, are enhanced by handmade table puppets and simple marionettes.  One often observes the children hearing her stories to be sitting on the edge of their seats, eyes wide and mouths open in anticipation!

Every love story has its time, place, and narrator—someone who puts together all the pieces and recounts the sequence of events. Charles Dubow’s Indiscretion ($25.99) starts during an idyllic summer in the Hamptons where the parties are abuzz with an endless supply of flowing spirits, intellectual conversation, and warm hospitality, as only the glow of society could provide. It’s at one such party that the young, vibrant Claire is introduced to the hosts Harry and Madeleine Winslow—an intoxicatingly glamorous couple who quickly welcome Claire into their inner circle. Harry and Madeleine’s oldest friend Walter Gervais remembers the day Claire walked into all three of their lives, but could never have predicted all that was about to unfold. Dubow's debut novel is a deeply layered, addictive novel that explores the consequences of decisions made and promises broken.

Charles Dubow was born in New York City and spent his summers at his family’s house on Georgica Pond in East Hampton. He was educated at Wesleyan University and New York University. He has worked as a roustabout, a lumberjack, a sheepherder in New Zealand, and a congressional aide, and was a founding editor of Forbes.com and later an editor at Businessweek.com. He lives in New York City with his wife, and two children.

Never. Say. Die.: The San Francisco Giants - 2012 World Series Champions ($29.95) features over 125 awe-inspiring photographs, providing a rare view of one team’s championship season as seen through the lens of photographer Brad Mangin, with words by KNBR’s Brian Murphy.

Listen to KNBR's Marty Lurie interview Brad Mangin and Brian Murphy here:

http://www.stationcaster.com/player_skinned.php?s=851&c=4871&f=1244921

In The Golem and the Jinni ($26.99), a chance meeting between mythical beings takes readers on a dazzling journey through cultures in turn-of-the-century New York. Chava is a golem, a creature made of clay, brought to life to by a disgraced rabbi. Helene Wecker’s debut novel is a fresh combination of vivid historical fiction and magical fable.

Point of View defines the choices available to the writer: omniscient versus character viewpoints (first person, the rarely used second person, third person, shifting viewpoints). Presenters will provide examples illustrating each type of viewpoint; discussion of the advantages of each viewpoint, the disadvantages, and what a writer must consider before making a choice. Q & A to follow.

Patricia Bracewell is a writer of historical fiction set in 11th century England. Her debut novel, Shadow on the Crown, is the first book in a trilogy about Emma of Normandy, whose marriage in A.D. 1002 to an English king set in motion a series of events that would lead, eventually, to the Norman Conquest of A.D. 1066.

Gillian Bagwell's novels include The Darling Strumpet, based on the life of Nell Gwynn, and The September Queen, the first fictional account of the perilous and romantic odyssey of Jane Lane, an ordinary English girl who risked her life to help the young Charles II escape after the disastrous Battle of Worcester in 1651 by disguising him as her servant.

The Marin branch of the California Writers Club meets monthly at Book Passage, except July, August and December, on the 4th Sunday of the month, unless a holiday. 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Meeting may feature a guest speaker, a workshop or a panel discussion along with networking, encouragement and writing news. All are welcome. www.cwcmarinwriters.com.
 

From legendary Hollywood director Chris Columbus (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets) and bestselling author Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story) comes House of Secrets ($17.99), the first book in an epic new fantasy series. Brendan, Eleanor, and Cordelia Walker once had everything: two loving parents, a beautiful house in San Francisco, and all the portable electronic devices they could want. But everything changed when Dr. Walker lost his job in the wake of a mysterious incident. Now in dire straits, the family must relocate to an old Victorian house that used to be the home of occult novelist Denver Kristoff—a house that feels simultaneously creepy and too good to be true. By the time the Walkers realize that one of their neighbors has sinister plans for them, they're banished to a primeval forest way off the grid. Their parents? Gone. Their friends? A world away. And they aren't alone. Bloodthirsty medieval warriors patrol the woods around them, supernatural pirates roam the neighboring seas, and a power-hungry queen rules the land. To survive, the siblings will have to be braver than they ever thought possible—and fight against their darkest impulses.

“A breakneck, jam-packed roller coaster of an adventure about the secret power of books, House of Secrets comes complete with three resourceful sibling heroes, a seriously creepy villainess, and barrel loads of fantasy and fear.”
-J.K. Rowling

Chris Columbus has written, directed, and produced some of the most successful box-office hits in Hollywood history. He first made his name by writing several original scripts produced by Steven Spielberg, including the back-to-back hits Gremlins and The Goonies. As a director, Columbus has been at the helm of such iconic projects as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Home Alone, Stepmom, and Mrs. Doubtfire. As a producer, Columbus was also behind the hit films Night at the Museum and The Help. Chris lives in California with his family.

Praised by bestselling authors such as Dan Pink, Tony Hsieh, Dan Ariely, Susan Cain, Dan Gilbert, Gretchen Rubin, Bob Sutton, David Allen, Robert Cialdini, and Seth Godin - as well as senior leaders from Google, McKinsey, Merck, Estee Lauder, Nike, and NASA - Give and Take ($27.95) highlights what effective networking, collaboration, influence, negotiation, and leadership skills have in common. Adam Grant's landmark book opens up an approach to success that has the power to transform not just individuals and groups, but entire organizations and communities.

Adam Grant is the youngest tenured professor and single highest-rated teacher at The Wharton School. An award-winning researcher and teacher, his consulting and speaking clients include Google, the NFL, IBM, Citigroup, Merck, the World Economic Forum, the United Nations, and the U.S. Army, Navy, and Air Force. He has been honored as one of BusinessWeek’s favorite professors and one of the world’s top 40 business professors under 40. A leading expert in work and success, he has published more than fifty articles during the last five years in prominent psychology and management journals, including Harvard Business Review, and his studies have been highlighted in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, and USA Today. He holds a Ph.D. in organizational psychology from the University of Michigan and a B.A. from Harvard University. He is a former record-setting advertising director, junior Olympic springboard diver, and professional magician.

Co-sponsored by CUESA and Institute at the Golden Gate
Ferry Building • Commission Board Room
$5 donation requested

Click here to RSVP

Physician and author of The Jungle Effect, Daphne Miller had long suspected that farming and medicine were intimately linked. The product of her research is Farmacology: What Innovative Family Farming Can Teach Us About Health and Healing ($27.99).

The Dark ($16.99) is a book for kids (and for big, big kids) who appreciate the wicked wit of Lemony Snicket and the artistry of Jon Klassen. The dark lives in the same house as Laszlo. Mostly, though, the dark stays in the basement
and doesn’t come into Lazslo’s room. But one night, it does. ... Lemony Snicket (who sometimes answers to the name of Daniel Handler) is the author of the phenomenally successful A Series of Unfortunate Events. Jon Klassen just won the 2013 Caldecott Medal for his illustrations.

In the spirit of Dr. Strangelove and The Atomic Café, A Short History of Nuclear Folly ($26.00) is a blackly sardonic people’s history of atomic blunders and near-misses revealing the hushed-up and forgotten episodes in which the great powers gambled with catastrophe. Rudolph Herzog, the acclaimed author of Dead Funny, presents a devastating account of history’s most irresponsible uses of nuclear technology. From the rarely discussed nightmare of “Broken Arrows” (40 nuclear weapons lost during the Cold War) to “Operation Plowshare” (a proposal to use nuclear bombs for large engineering projects, such as the construction of a second Panama Canal using 300 H-Bombs), Herzog focuses in on long-forgotten nuclear projects that nearly led to disaster.

Rudolph Herzog is the author of Dead Funny: Humor in Hitler’s Germany. His documentary on humor in the Third Reich, Laughing With Hitler, scored top audience ratings on German Channel 1 and was also broadcast on the BBC. He is the son of the celebrated filmmaker Werner Herzog.

Seven Thurs.: May 2 - June 13 • 1:15-3:15 pm • $205

Gisella Petrone has a Masters degree from the University of Calabria. She has taught English, Italian, Latin, Roman History, and Italian cooking.

In Conversation with Susanne Pari
Special book signing and food tasting!
Tickets: $38 per person, $45 per couple (both options include one signed book)

This luscious and contemporary take on the alluring cuisine of Iran from cookbook author Louisa Shafia features 75 recipes for both traditional Persian dishes and modern reinterpretations using Middle Eastern ingredients. Louisa Shafia, author of the award-winning Lucid Food, explores her heritage while bringing a healthy and vibrant perspective to Persian recipes that might otherwise rely too heavily on white sugar and heavy oils for flavor.  The New Persian Kitchen ($24.99) demystifies unfamiliar ingredients like rosewater, dried limes, and sumac; provides a comprehensive resources section; and offers helpful substitutions. The recipes–such as Jeweled Rice, Pomegranate Soup, and Saffron Ice Cream–range from starters to sweets and employ simple techniques and preparations, making this exotic, beautiful, and ancient cuisine accessible to the home cook.

Louisa Shafia’s unique style of fresh, Silk Road-inspired cooking has been featured in Yoga Journal, New York magazine, Whole Living, Every Day with Rachael Ray, the Washington Post, and Saveur. Her first cookbook, Lucid Food, was nominated for an IACP award. Look for Louisa on the Cooking Channel's Taste in Translation series, making Persian kebabs. Louisa lives in Brooklyn.

A moving tale of one young woman’s life spinning out of the typical and into the extraordinary during one of the most politically and racially charged eras in America, Virgin Soul ($26.95) will resonate with readers of Monica Ali and Ntozake Shange. From lauded poet and playwright Judy Juanita comes this novel of a young woman's life with the Black Panthers in 1960s San Francisco.

Judy Juanita’s poetry and fiction have been published widely, and her plays have been produced in the Bay Area and New York City. She has taught writing at Laney College in Oakland since 1993. This is her first novel. She lives in Oakland.

Five Thursdays: May 2 - May 30 • 6:30-8:30 • $200

Make space for your writing. Making commitments and setting goals is one way to find the consistency needed to get in the regular writing habit. The habit of writing is what helps us access our creativity. Use this supportive community of writers to get you going. Leslie provides guidance and techniques to keep moving forward.

Limited to ten participants

Fabio Viviani shares the best of Italian home cooking while telling the story of his hardscrabble childhood, his success as a chef in the United States, and the women in his family who inspired him. In more than 150 delicious recipes, Viviani takes us from his family home, where his great-grandmother taught him to make staples like Italian Apple Cake and Homemade Ricotta, to the kitchen of a local trattoria, where he honed his craft cooking restaurant favorites like Gnocchi and the Perfect Tiramisu, and then across Italy where he studied each region’s finest recipes, from Piedmont’s Braised Ossobuco to Emilia Romagna’s Perfect Meat Sauce. A gorgeously illustrated cookbook, Fabio’s Italian Kitchen ($24.99) is a celebration of food and family that brings all the joy, fun, and flair that Fabio Viviani embodies to your kitchen.

Fabio Viviani was born in Florence, Italy, and became a sous chef at Il Pallaio, a trattoria in Firenze, at the age of sixteen. He now works as the owner and executive chef of Cafe Firenze, a renowned Italian restaurant in Ventura County, California, and Osteria Firenze, a Los Angeles Italian eatery. He has appeared on Top Chef (season five), Top Chef All Stars, and Life After Top Chef.

Fit Quickies: 5-Minute Targeted Body-Shaping Workouts ($19.95) is an effective, research-driven collection of exercises by Lani Muelrath for functional fitness and body shaping that cuts through the confusion of trends and complicated weight loss routines. It minimizes the time investment needed to see results, yet is honest about what is needed to achieve fitness and body-shaping goals.

Award-winning Lani Muelrath, M.A., CGFI, CPBN, FNS, is a presenter and celebrity coach for the 21-Day PCRM Vegan Kickstart and VegRun Programs, and fitness adviser for the Dr. John McDougall Health and Medical Center discussion boards. She is the health and fitness expert for Vegan Mainstream and a contributing author for VegWorld Magazine. She is certified in Plant-Based Nutrition through Cornell University and holds a Fitness Nutrition Specialist Advanced Credential from the National Academy of Sports Medicine. Muelrath also Lani created and starred in her own CBS TV show, Lani's All-Heart Aerobics. 

Sat., May 4 • 10:00-4:00 pm • $105

Aristotle called it “the most important element of storytelling.” But to plot properly, you must have a plan, and the plan must give rise to emotion. Does the plot always seem to elude you? Spend a day planning and plotting and find out what you’re missing. Bring your flat-lining fiction and nonfiction and fix it.

Linda Watanabe McFerrin is the Founder of Left Coast Writers®.Her latest novel, Dead Love, a global supernatural thriller, was a Bram Stoker Award finalist.

Rebecah Freeling is a master storyteller, experienced early childhood educator, and parent coach. New to California, she recently joined the faculty of Marin Mountain School Early Childhood Center in Corte Madera. For thirteen years she was owner, Director and Lead Teacher of Briar Rose Children's Center in her home state of Ohio. Her magical stories, both original and drawn from the folk and fairy tale traditions, are enhanced by handmade table puppets and simple marionettes. One often observes the children hearing her stories to be sitting on the edge of their seats, eyes wide and mouths open in anticipation!

Eric Maisel’s prolific, multi-faceted career is a testament to his profound understanding of what it takes to live out one’s creative ambitions. A therapist who is also a bestselling author, coach (and coach trainer), columnist for Professional Artist magazine, and featured blogger for Psychology Today and the Huffington Post, Maisel is an expert on all that “blocks” the creative. In Making Your Creative Mark,: Nine Keys to Achieving Your Artistic Goals ($15.95) Maisel turns his decades of coaching, teaching, listening and creating into nine key lessons. Each key, including Passion, Confidence, Empathy, Stress, and Relationship, helps creators implement real solutions to their individual challenges. Whether they are writers, painters, actors, composers, or some kind of craftsperson, readers will learn to “unlock” what has kept them from beginning, continuing, completing — and succeeding.

Eric Maisel, PhD, the author of forty books, is widely regarded as America’s foremost creativity coach. Eric is a columnist for Professional Artist magazine and a featured blogger for Psychology Today and The Huffington Post. He reaches thousands through his website, workshops, and online courses. He is the founder of noimetic psychology, the new psychology of meaning, and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Curran Galway’s first novel, The Aquarians: Awakening the True Self, follows two young Americans in 1970 as they search to find deeper meaning in a chaotic world. At the height of anti-Vietnam War sentiment, with the dream that empowered a generation to unite against the corruption of “the Establishment,” this story is a poignant journey of personal transformation.

Curran Galway was raised in the Pacific Northwest. She has a degree in Education and English, and a Master of Divinity degree in Transforming Spirituality.

Bestselling author, public theologian, and leading Christian activist Jim Wallis offers his definition of the spiritual compass we need to effect lasting change in our society in On God's Side: What Religion Forgets and Politics Hasn't Learned About Serving the Common Good ($21.99). He argues that by working together, we can reshape our society, politics, and economy. Wallis explores how reading the Bible as well as the culture can shape our lives for genuine transformation.

Former Los Angeles Times humor columnist Kathleen Buckstaff weaves together an unforgettable story using her own emails and columns about her journey with her mother through illness and beyond. The Tiffany Box ($14.99) is raw, humorous, heartbreaking and inspiring.

Sharon Socol’s debut photographic compilation, Plus One: An Outsider’s Photographic Journey Into the World of Fashion ($60.00), features 100 candid images from seminal moments at famed fashion shows and parties in New York and Paris between 2001 and 2010. The book’s title and theme reflect Socol’s status as a self-proclaimed ‘plus one’ for husband Howard Socol. Using her unique Everyman perspective, Socol was able to capture stunningly intimate moments not only of industry icons including supermodels and designers including Diane von Furstenberg, Alber Elbaz, Narciso Rodriguez, Zac Posen, Tommy Hilfiger and Giorgio Armani, but also of those who toiled behind the curtain – the dressmakers, dressers, choreographers, makeup and hair artists, bouncers and waiters who provided the backbone for those glamorous, fleeting moments.

Sharon Socol lives in Coral Gables, Florida, with her husband Howard. They have two daughters and four grandchildren. Sharon travels the world regularly and is always taking photographs. Sharon is the founder of Photographing Ourselves, a photography and creative writing program for children at risk, and Casa Valentina, safe and affordable housing and supportive services for girls leaving foster Care in Miami. 

From Broughton Coburn, author of the New York Times bestselling Everest: Mountain Without Mercy, comes a chronicle of the iconic first American expedition to Mt. Everest in May 1963 – published to coincide with the climb's 50th anniversary­ – combining riveting adventure, a perceptive analysis of the mountain's dark and terrifying historical context, and revelations about a secret mission that followed.

The Vast Unknown ($26.00) is, on one level, a harrowing, character-driven account of the climb itself and its legendary team of alternately inspiring, troubled, and tragic climbers who suffered injuries, a near mutiny, and death on the mountain.  It is also an examination of the profound sway the expedition had over the American consciousness and sense of identity during a time when the country was floundering.  And it is an investigation of the expedition's little-known outcome: the selection of a team to plant a CIA surveillance device on the Himalayan peak of Nanda Devi, to spy into China where Defense Intelligence learned that nuclear missile testing was underway.

Broughton Coburn, author or editor of seven books, including two national bestsellers, has worked in environmental conservation and development projects in the Himalaya for more than two of the past three decades.  In addition he has directed projects for the World Bank, World Wildlife Fund, and American Himalayan Foundation.

Driven by curiosity, wanderlust, and health crises David Downie and his wife set out from Paris to walk across France to the Pyrenees. Starting on the Rue Saint-Jacques then trekking 750 miles south to Roncesvalles, Spain, Paris to the Pyrenees: A Skeptic Pilgrim Walks the Way of Saint James ($27.95) follows their eccentric route: 72 days on Roman roads and pilgrimage paths--a 1,100-year-old network of trails leading to the sanctuary of Saint James the Greater. It is best known as El Camino de Santiago de Compostela-"The Way" for short.

The object of any pilgrimage is an inward journey manifested in a long, reflective walk. For Downie, the inward journey met the outer one: a combination of self-discovery and physical regeneration. More than 200,000 pilgrims take the highly commercialized Spanish route annually, but few cross France. Downie had a goal: to go from Paris to the Pyrenees on age-old trails, making the pilgrimage in his own maverick way.

Listen to David discuss his new book on NPR below:
http://www.npr.org/2013/04/14/176830220/a-pilgrimage-through-france-though-not-for-god

Book Passage hosts monthly meetings of Left Coast Writers® at our Corte Madera store. The monthly meetings provide an evening of literary connections, support, counsel, readings, writing tips, literary chat, unabashed networking, and great fun. Each meeting also features a presentation by one of several Bay Area literary figures. LCW has its own lively newsletter and website at www.leftcoastwriters.com/.
  

Six years ago, an overweight, pre-diabetic Mark Bittman faced a medical directive: adopt a vegan diet or go on medication. As one whose professional and leisure time revolved around cooking, eating, and enjoying a wide variety of fine foods, neither choice was appealing, yet it was clear something had to give. His solution? Shift the focus of his diet to vegetables, fruits, and grains, following a strict vegan diet (no meat or dairy) and eliminating processed foods for most of the day, then eat the foods he simply couldn’t give up forever only after 6 p.m.—and (mostly) in moderation. Beyond that, his eating plan involved no gimmicks, scales, calorie-counting, or point systems—and there were no so-called forbidden foods. Just wholesome, all-natural, mostly home-cooked meals that were as varied and satisfying as they were delicious. The results of this dietary recalibration are presented in Vb6: Eat Vegan Before 6:00pm to Lose Weight and Restore Your Health ($26.00), which reveals the lasting and sustainable value of this new, flexible and viable approach to eating.

Mark Bittman is one of the country's best-known and most widely respected food writers. His How to Cook Everything books, with one million copies in print, are a mainstay of the modern kitchen. Bittman writes for the Opinion section of the New York Times on food policy and cooking and is a columnist for the New York Times Magazine. His cooking show, The Minimalist, based on his popular New York Times column, can be seen on the Cooking Channel. He is also the author of Food Matters, Food Matters Cookbook, Fish, and Leafy Greens.

The long-awaited memoir from the Academy Award–winning director of such legendary films as The French Connection, The Exorcist, and To Live and Die in LA, The Friedkin Connection ($27.99) takes readers from the streets of Chicago to the suites of Hollywood and from the sixties to today, with autobiographical storytelling as fast-paced and intense as any of the auteur's films.

William Friedkin, maverick of American cinema, offers a candid look at Hollywood, when traditional storytelling gave way to the rebellious and alternative; when filmmakers like him captured the paranoia and fear of a nation undergoing a cultural nervous breakdown.

Four Tuesdays: May 7 - 28 • 6:30-8:30 pm • $160

Are you ready to commit to completing your book? Use the support and camaraderie of fellow writers, as well as helpful, well-timed feedback, to move through resistance and finish your work. Leslie provides incisive feedback as well as structural and publishing advice as needed.

Limited to 10—Restricted registration; call (415) 927-0960 for information

"The war tried to kill us in the spring." So begins the National Book Award-finalist The Yellow Birds ($14.99), a powerful account of friendship and loss. In Al Tafar, Iraq, twenty-one-year old Private Bartle and eighteen-year-old Private Murphy cling to life as their platoon launches a bloody battle for the city. Bound together since basic training when Bartle makes a promise to bring Murphy safely home, the two have been dropped into a war neither is prepared for.

With profound emotional insight, especially into the effects of a hidden war on mothers and families at home, Kevin Powers has written a groundbreaking novel that is destined to become a classic.

Kevin Powers was born and raised in Richmond, Virginia, graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University, and holds an MFA from the University of Texas at Austin, where he was a Michener Fellow in Poetry. He served in the US Army in 2004 and 2005 in Iraq, where he was deployed as a machine gunner in Mosul and Tal Afar. This is his first novel.

Stegner Fellow, Iowa MFA, and winner of The Atlantic's Student Writing Contest, Anthony Marra has written a brilliant debut novel that brings to life an abandoned hospital where a tough-minded doctor decides to harbor a hunted young girl, with powerful consequences. A Constellation of Vital Phenomena ($26.00) begins in the final days of December 2004, in a small rural village in Chechnya, eight-year-old Havaa hides in the woods when her father is abducted by Russian forces. Fearing for her life, she flees with their neighbor Akhmed--a failed physician--to the bombed-out hospital, where Sonja, the one remaining doctor, treats a steady stream of wounded rebels and refugees and mourns her missing sister. Over the course of five dramatic days, Akhmed and Sonja reach back into their pasts to unravel the intricate mystery of coincidence, betrayal, and forgiveness that unexpectedly binds them and decides their fate. With The English Patient's dramatic sweep and The Tiger's Wife's expert sense of place, Marra gives us a searing debut about the transcendent power of love in wartime, and how it can cause us to become greater than we ever thought possible.

Anthony Marra is the winner of a Whiting Award, a Pushcart Prize, The Atlantic's Student Writing Contest, and the Narrative Prize, and his work was anthologized in Best American Nonrequired Reading 2012. He holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop and is currently a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. He has lived and studied in Eastern Europe, and now resides in Oakland, CA.

In conversation with Sandra M. Gilbert

Driven by curiosity, wanderlust, and health crises David Downie and his wife set out from Paris to walk across France to the Pyrenees. Starting on the Rue Saint-Jacques then trekking 750 miles south to Roncesvalles, Spain, Paris to the Pyrenees: A Skeptic Pilgrim Walks the Way of Saint James ($27.95) follows their eccentric route: 72 days on Roman roads and pilgrimage paths--a 1,100-year-old network of trails leading to the sanctuary of Saint James the Greater. It is best known as El Camino de Santiago de Compostela-"The Way" for short.

The object of any pilgrimage is an inward journey manifested in a long, reflective walk. For Downie, the inward journey met the outer one: a combination of self-discovery and physical regeneration. More than 200,000 pilgrims take the highly commercialized Spanish route annually, but few cross France. Downie had a goal: to go from Paris to the Pyrenees on age-old trails, making the pilgrimage in his own maverick way.

Professor Emerita at the University of California, Davis, Berkeley resident Sandra M. Gilbert has published eight collections of poetry, most recently Aftermath. Among her prose books are the memoir Wrongful Death, the cultural study Death’s Door: Modern Dying and the Ways We Grieve; and two essay collections, On Burning Ground, and Rereading Women.. With Susan Gubar, she is coauthor of The Madwoman in the Attic, No Man’s Land (three volumes) and coeditor of The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women. She is currently at work on a book tentatively titled The Culinary Imagination along with an anthology of food writing. In 2013, Gilbert and Gubar were named winners of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Listen to David discuss his new book on NPR below:
http://www.npr.org/2013/04/14/176830220/a-pilgrimage-through-france-though-not-for-god

May 8-June 12 • 7:00-9:00 pm • $150

Reading Group: There are many poets, but discerning readers are scarce. In this reading group we look at English-language poetry of many styles and periods. What makes poetry tick? What makes a poem worth the effort of reading it? John Hart co-edits the venerable all-poetry journal Blue Unicorn, now in its 35th year.

Remember reading Catcher in the Rye and The Great Gatsby in high school? How about Slaughterhouse-Five and Pride and Prejudice? Would you read them again now that no one’s grading you, just for your own enjoyment? Practical Classics ($18.00) helps you do just that.

Author Kevin Smokler guides you through fifty books commonly assigned in high school English class and shows you why you’d probably enjoy rereading the same books as an adult. Smokler’s essays on the classics—witty, down-to-earth, appreciative, and insightful—are divided into ten sections, each covering an archetypical stage of life—from youth and first love to family, loss, and the future. The author not only reminds you about the essential features of each great book but gives you a practical, real-world reason why revisiting it in adulthood is not only enjoyable but useful.

Kevin Smokler is the editor of Bookmark Now: Writing in Unreaderly Times, a San Francisco Chronicle Notable Book of 2005. His writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Fast Company, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Believer. He can be found online at www.kevinsmokler.com or on Twitter at @weegee.

The thirteen stories in Birds of Paradise Lost ($15.95) shimmer with humor and pathos as they chronicle the anguish and joy and bravery of America’s newest Americans, the troubled lives of those who fled Vietnam and remade themselves in the San Francisco Bay Area. The past—memories of war and its aftermath, of murder, arrest, re-education camps and new economic zones, of escape and shipwreck and atrocity—is ever present in these wise and compassionate stories. It plays itself out in surprising ways in the lives of people who thought they had moved beyond the nightmares of war and exodus. It comes back on TV in the form of a confession from a cannibal; it enters the Vietnamese restaurant as a Vietnam Vet with a shameful secret; it articulates itself in the peculiar tics of a man with Tourette’s Syndrome who struggles to deal with a profound tragedy. Andrew Lam's debut short story collection is an emotional tour de force, intricately rendering the false starts and revelations in the struggle for integration, and in so doing, the human heart.

Andrew Lam is the author of Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora, which won the 2006 PEN Open Book Award, and East Eats West: Writing in Two Hemispheres. Lam is an editor and cofounder of New American Media, an association of over two thousand ethnic media outlets in America. He was a regular commentator on NPR’s All Things Considered for many years, and was the subject of a 2004 PBS documentary called "My Journey Home". His essays have appeared in newspapers and magazines such as the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Baltimore Sun, the Atlanta Journal, the Chicago Tribune, Mother Jones, and the Nation, among many others. His short stories have been widely taught and anthologized.

In 1994, Anchee Min made her literary debut with a memoir of growing up in China during the violent trauma of the Cultural Revolution. Red Azalea became an international bestseller and propelled her career as a successful, critically acclaimed author. Twenty years later, Min returns to the story of her own life to give us The Cooked Seed ($26.00), an immigrant story that takes her from the shocking deprivations of her homeland to the sudden bounty of the promised land of America, without language, money, or a clear path.

Anchee Min was born in Shanghai in 1957. At seventeen she was sent to a labor collective, where a talent scout for Madame Mao's Shanghai Film Studio recruited her to work as a movie actress. She moved to the United States in 1984. Her first memoir, Red Azalea, was an international bestseller, published in twenty countries. She has since published six novels, most recently Pearl of China.

Four Fridays: May 10-May 31 • 10:00-12:00 pm • $100

Following a class on the small museums in the United States, Kerrin Meis introduces collections seldom visited by American travelers. We learn about the  collectors as well as their passions in art. In most cases the museums were residences first, museums later.

In Paris: the Jacquemart-Andre,. the Cluny, the Cognac- Jay, and the Musee Carnavalet.  In London: the Royal Academy, the Wallace Collection, The Courtauld and the Sir John Soane Museum.  In Venice, the C'a Rezzonico and the C'a d'Oro and in Milano the Museo  Poldi-Pezzoli , which was an inspiration to Isabella Stewart Gardner.

Terri Glass of Marin Poets in the Schools hosts a lively poetry reading of K-12 students from schools in the county. Lea Aschenas, Claire Blotter, Dana Lomax, Michele Rivers, and Kathy Evans will be on hand to introduce their students and speak about the impressive language of these young poets.

Sat. May 11 • 10:30-12:30 pm • $50

This class will focus on how to write a book proposal and find a literary agent through query letters. Students will submit their drafts of book proposals and query letters in advance— details provided at time of registration. Andy Ross is a literary agent in the East Bay. He consults privately with writers on editing and proposal writing. He owned the legendary Cody’s Books in Berkeley for 30 years.

In Dad is Fat ($25.00), stand-up comedian Jim Gaffigan, who’s best known for his legendary riffs on Hot Pockets, bacon, manatees, and McDonald's, expresses all the joys and horrors of life with five young children—everything from cousins ("celebrities for little kids") to toddlers’ communication skills (“they always sound like they have traveled by horseback for hours to deliver important news”), to the eating habits of four year olds (“there is no difference between a four year old eating a taco and throwing a taco on the floor”). Reminiscent of Bill Cosby’s Fatherhood, Dad is Fat is sharply observed, explosively funny, and a cry for help from a man who has realized he and his wife are outnumbered in their own home.

Jim Gaffigan is a stand-up comedian and actor with numerous film, television, and stage credits. He lives in Manhattan with his wife, Jeannie, and their five children in a two-bedroom apartment.

Your family has a hankering--a yen for chicken tikka masala or queso fundido, for shrimp pad thai or a Philly cheesesteak--and they want it bad. So you decide to eat out at a local ethnic or roadside restaurant, or do take-out. It's expedient, but is the food really that good? Really really good? Because Lucinda Scala Quinn's versions of all those dishes families crave will knock your socks off and prove beyond a doubt that the foods you love can be made better, faster, tastier, cheaper, and more healthfully at home.

Lucinda Scala Quinn is all about smart strategies that simplify and make for great taste, so why outsource feeding our families when it takes less time, money, and effort to cook these favorite comfort foods ourselves? And why miss out on the untold gifts of sitting at home with your family around the dining room table? So next time there's a request for pulled pork or deep-dish pizza or chicken fettuccine Alfredo, or cold soba noodles or fried rice, forget about soggy takeout and overpriced restaurants--just crack open Mad Hungry Cravings ($27.95) and you'll find simple recipes for all those dishes your family wants to eat, right now.

In conversation with Don George 

Driven by curiosity, wanderlust, and health crises David Downie and his wife set out from Paris to walk across France to the Pyrenees. Starting on the Rue Saint-Jacques then trekking 750 miles south to Roncesvalles, Spain, Paris to the Pyrenees: A Skeptic Pilgrim Walks the Way of Saint James ($27.95) follows their eccentric route: 72 days on Roman roads and pilgrimage paths--a 1,100-year-old network of trails leading to the sanctuary of Saint James the Greater. It is best known as El Camino de Santiago de Compostela-"The Way" for short.

The object of any pilgrimage is an inward journey manifested in a long, reflective walk. For Downie, the inward journey met the outer one: a combination of self-discovery and physical regeneration. More than 200,000 pilgrims take the highly commercialized Spanish route annually, but few cross France. Downie had a goal: to go from Paris to the Pyrenees on age-old trails, making the pilgrimage in his own maverick way.

Listen to David discuss his new book on NPR below:
http://www.npr.org/2013/04/14/176830220/a-pilgrimage-through-france-though-not-for-god

Left Coast Writers Launch®

Enjoy a preview of Wandering in Paris, the next anthology from the editors of Wandering in Costa Rica.

Life for Alex Schrader has never involved girls. He goes to an all-boys prep school and spends most of his time goofing around with his friends. But all that changes the first time he meets Bijou Doucet, a Haitian girl recently relocated to Brooklyn after the earthquake-and he is determined to win her heart. For Bijou, change is the only constant, and she's surprised every day by how different life is in America, especially when a boy asks her out. Alex quickly learns that there are rules when it comes to girls-both in Haitian culture and with his own friends. And Bijou soon learns that she doesn't have to let go of her roots to find joy in her new life.

Told in alternating viewpoints against the vibrant backdrop of Haitian-American culture, A Song for Bijou ($16.99) is Josh Farrar's heartwarming story of Alex and Bijou's first steps toward love.

Josh Farrar is the author of Rules to Rock By.

Daphne Oz, cohost of ABC's hit lifestyle show The Chew, shares the concerns of women everywhere: How can I eat food that is delicious and nutritious, live in a home that feels like mine, develop my personal style, find purpose and love in my life, get out and see the world, and still have me time left over? In short, how do I start living a life worth relishing?

In Relish: An Adventure in Food, Style, and Everyday Fun ($27.50), Daphne shares her essential and practical advice for happy, healthy eating and delicious living--perfect for everyone who wants to start leading a better life right now. Filled with beautiful food and entertaining photos, real-world decorating ideas for achievable inspiration, and lots of creative lifestyle imagery, Relish offers easy ways to fill your life with fun.

Daphne Oz is a student at Princeton University. She grew up in Cliffside Park, New Jersey, with her three younger siblings, Arabella, Zoe, and Oliver. While still in high school she was a writer for ELLEgirl magazine, and she changed her school's lunch menu from processed cafeteria food to include whole grains and raw foods. She is the daughter of Lisa and Dr. Mehmet Oz, co-author of the bestsellers You: The Owner's Manual and You: The Smart Patient.

2nd Sunday of Every Month, 5:00 - 8:00pm
$40 per session

Critique Circle for Developing and Revising your Children's Book is a monthly workshop led by Andrea Alban for children's writers to deepen the craft of fiction, from initial concept through finished manuscript. Included is plotting a page-turning story structure, developing quintessential characters, creating vivid story worlds, and practicing the art of revision. Writers learn how to give and receive feedback in the spirit of generosity. The mission of this university-level workshop is to guide writers to publish their work. Included is research into publishing houses and literary agencies, and the art of writing cover/query letters, synopses and sample chapters that stand out from the crowd.

Testimonials:

What I most appreciate about Andrea is her optimism and support--a self-described "cheerleader." She has been like a college professor giving me valuable lessons in picture book creation. Her honesty and writing exercises helped me find my voice. It's been an incredible journey with Andrea as my story midwife!

Andrea Alban is the author of nine books, including the YA novel, Anya's War, (shortlisted for China's 2012 Panda Awards and an ALA honor book), and the bestseller, The Happiness Tree. She is a dynamic speaker at schools, writing conferences, and literary festivals. Andrea edits manuscripts and coaches writers in manuscript development and revision as well as how to prepare submissions to editors and agents. 

Left Coast Writers Launch®

Join us for a look at the books that are coming our next from our Left Coast Writers®.

Jaron Lanier is the bestselling author of You Are Not a Gadget, the father of virtual reality, and one of the most influential thinkers of our time. For decades, Lanier has drawn on his expertise and experience as a computer scientist, musician, and digital media pioneer to predict the revolutionary ways in which technology has transformed our culture. Who Owns the Future? ($26.99) is a visionary reckoning with the effects network technologies have had on our economy. Lanier asserts that the rise of digital networks led our economy into recession and decimated the middle class. Now, as technology flattens more and more industries—from media to medicine to manufacturing—we are facing even greater challenges to employment and personal wealth. But there is an alternative to allowing technology to own our future. In this ambitious and deeply humane book, Lanier charts the path toward a new information economy that will stabilize the middle class and allow it to grow. It is time for ordinary people to be rewarded for what they do and share on the web.

Jaron Lanier is a scientist and musician best known for his work in Virtual Reality research, a term he coined and popularized. He lives in Berkeley, California.

Have you ever wondered where the ideas for baking red velvet cupcakes, brownies, birthday cake, Girl Scout cookies, and other dessert recipes came from? Discover the history behind America's most popular and nostalgic desserts with popular CakeSpy blogger and self-proclaimed "dessert detective" Jessie Oleson Moore in The Secret Lives of Baked Goods: Sweet Stories & Recipes for America's Favorite Desserts ($24.95). Moore has put her sweet-sleuthing skills to work uncovering the fascinating histories and tastiest recipes for America's favorite sweets, including whoopee pies, chocolate chip cookies, Baked Alaska, and New York cheesecake. From romantic musings on how desserts got their names to sugar-fueled scandals, these classic recipes and photographs are guaranteed to offer food for thought and leave you with plenty of room for dessert.

Jessie Oleson is the founder of the uber-popular blog, CakeSpy.com, which bills itself as a Dessert Detective Agency dedicated to seeking sweetness (literally) in everyday life. An accomplished cake anthropologist, she documents bakery finds around the United States, conducts baking experiments, posts recipes, picks the brains of bakers and food artists in interviews, and generally explores the lure and lore of baked goods on her site. Oleson is a freelance writer and illustrator whose writing has appeared on DailyCandy.com, and she has a weekly column on Serious Eats. She has illustrated for various companies, including Microsoft, iPop, All-Mighty, Taylored Expressions, and is a regular contributor to Taste of Home. She is also the founder of CakeSpy Shop, a Seattle art boutique primarily featuring her greeting cards and artwork; she currently divides her time between the East and West coasts, and eats sweetly everywhere in-between.

Noted science writer Virginia Morell explores the frontiers of research on animal cognition and emotion, offering a surprising and moving exploration into the hearts and minds of wild and domesticated animals. Animal Wise: The Thoughts and Emotions of Our Fellow Creatures ($26.00) takes us on a dazzling odyssey into the inner world of animals, from ants to elephants to wolves, and from sharp-shooting archerfish to pods of dolphins that rumble like rival street gangs.  With 30 years of experience covering the sciences, Morell uses her formidable gifts as a story-teller to transport us to field sites and laboratories around the world, introducing us to pioneering animal-cognition researchers and their surprisingly intelligent and sensitive subjects.  She explores how this rapidly evolving, controversial field has only recently overturned old notions about why animals behave as they do.  She probes the moral and ethical dilemmas  of recognizing that even “lesser animals”  have cognitive abilities such as  memory, feelings, personality, and self-awareness--traits that many in the twentieth century felt were unique  to human beings.

Virginia Morell is a prolific contributor to National Geographic, Science, and Smithsonian, among other publications. She is also the author of Ancestral Passions, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year; Blue Nile; and coauthor with Richard Leakey of Wildlife Wars.

Plum Bistro, Seattle's wildly popular vegan restaurant, is known for its delicious and innovative vegan recipes using local ingredients. Sure to please both vegans and meat-eaters, Plum: Gratifying Vegan Dishes from Seattle's Plum Bistro ($29.95), features Plum's flavorful, comforting dishes for brunch, soups, salads, entrées, desserts, and more. This photo-filled book by Makini Howell

features 60 recipes, including Pesto Plum Pizza, Good Old-Fashioned French Toast, Barbecue Oyster-Mushroom Sliders, Fresh Blueberry Shortcake, homemade vegan pasta, and more. Bring home delicious vegan cuisine with the Plum cookbook!

Makini Howell has been passionate about creating a chic dining experience that appeals to vegans, foodies, and omnivores alike since her days of living in New York City working as a men's denim designer. In 2005 she moved back home to Seattle with the goals of redirecting her family's restaurant business and creating a new perception of veganism. Makini is focused on using organic and non-GMO seasonal produce and herbs from family-owned farms in combinations that are both comforting and unexpected. As an entrepreneur she has developed a sustainable business model using what the earth provides to supply wholesome, nourishing food.

Watch a book trailer for Plum below:

Introduced by Guy Johnson

Walter Mosley's Easy Rawlins is back in Little Green ($25.95) and cruising the hippified streets of the Sunset Strip circa 1967, in search of a young black man who has gone missing—and maybe of his own rebirth.

Walter Mosley burst on the literary scene in 1990 with Devil in a Blue Dress (recently named one of the L.A. Times's best novels about L.A.), the first Easy Rawlins mystery, a combustible and irresistible mixture of Raymond Chandler and Richard Wright that future president Bill Clinton picked up on, as did hundreds of thousands of other readers. Eleven books later, Easy Rawlins is one of the small handful of private eyes in contemporary crime fiction who can be called immortal. So it is great news on every front that this major figure's new mystery features the return of his signature and most resonant character.

Co-Sponsored by GeoEx 
In conversation with Don George

Travel writer and novelist Paul Theroux first came to Africa as a 22-year-old Peace Corps volunteer. Now in Last Train to Zona Verde ($27.00), he returns, after fifty years on the road, to explore the little-traveled territory of western Africa. His odyssey takes him overland from Cape Town through South Africa, then to Namibia, where he realizes an old dream of visiting the San People (Bushmen) in the far northeast. In Botswana he enjoys an elephant-back safari before venturing back through the north of Namibia into Angola, up to the Congo. After 2,500 arduous miles through the bush, he comes to the end of his journey in more ways than one, a decision he chronicles with typical irascible honesty in a chapter called “What Am I Doing Here?”

Paul Theroux is the author of many highly acclaimed books. His novels include The Lower River and The Mosquito Coast, and his renowned travel books include Ghost Train to the Eastern Star and Dark Star Safari. He lives in Hawaii and on Cape Cod.

Rebecah Freeling is a master storyteller, experienced early childhood educator, and parent coach. New to California, she recently joined the faculty of Marin Mountain School Early Childhood Center in Corte Madera. For thirteen years she was owner, Director and Lead Teacher of Briar Rose Children's Center in her home state of Ohio. Her magical stories, both original and drawn from the folk and fairy tale traditions, are enhanced by handmade table puppets and simple marionettes. One often observes the children hearing her stories to be sitting on the edge of their seats, eyes wide and mouths open in anticipation!

Susan C. Shea presents The King's Jar ($14.00). When the renowned archaeologist who authenticated the King s Jar turns up dead, and the invaluable relic vanishes, Dani suddenly finds herself trapped in a real-life game of Clue with a gallery of glittering suspects, and a killer who s playing for keeps. But drumming up donations from society swells is a far cry from matching wits with homicidal thieves. And juggling the amorous advances of a police detective, a TV celebrity, and her own playboy ex-husband while sparring with an African ambassador, an obsessed archaeologist-in-training, a millionaire and his trophy wife certainly doesn't make it any easier to figure out who's lying...or keep anyone else from dying.

Susan Shea spent more than two decades as a non-profit executive before beginning her best-selling mystery series featuring a professional fundraiser for a fictional museum. She loved her former work but admits to having much more fun hanging out with crime writers and inspired storytellers. She’s a regular on The LadyKillers blog, is on the board of the Northern California chapter of Sisters in Crime and is a past board member of Norcal’s chapter of Mystery Writers of America. She lives in Marin County, California, but hopes no one will hold it against her.

We’ve all seen the vegetable garden overflowing with corn, tomatoes, and zucchini that looks good for a short time, but then quickly turns straggly and unattractive (usually right before friends show up for a backyard barbecue). If you want to grow food but you don’t want your yard to look like a farm, what can you do? The Beautiful Edible Garden ($19.99) shares how to not only grow organic fruits and vegetables, but also make your garden a place of year-round beauty that is appealing, enjoyable, and fits your personal style. Written by landscape design experts Leslie Bennett and Stefani Bittner this book will show you that it’s possible for gardeners of all levels to reap the best of both worlds. Featuring a fresh approach to garden design, glorious photographs, and ideas for a range of spaces—from large yards to tiny patios—this guide is perfect for anyone who wants a gorgeous and productive garden.

Leslie Bennett and Stefani Bittner are co-founders of Star Apple Edible + Fine Gardening, a San Francisco Bay Area landscape design firm focusing on aesthetic edible gardening. At Star Apple, they bring together ecologically sound landscape design principles and small-scale urban agriculture, working with both ornamental and edible plants to create integrated landscapes. Visit www.StarAppleEdibleGardens.com.

Work With Me: The 8 Blind Spots Between Men and Women in Business ($27.00) is the timely collaboration of two of the world’s foremost authorities on gender relations. Barbara Annis, world-renowned expert on gender issues in the workplace, and John Gray, author of the number one bestselling relationship book of all time, Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus, team up to resolve the most stressful and confusing challenges facing men and women at work. Readers will discover the Eight Gender Blind Spots, the false assumptions and opinions men and women have of each other, and in many ways, believe of themselves. Through research, science, and stories, Annis and Gray expose the blind spots that cause our misunderstandings, miscommunications, mistrust, resentment, and frustrations at work.

John Gray, PhD is the leading relationship expert in the world and bestselling relationship author of all time. His book, Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, is ranked by USA Today as one of the top ten most influential books over the last 25 years. His 17 books have been published in 50 different languages and he is a popular keynote speaker for international organizations and Fortune 500 companies. He is the founder of Mars Venus Coaching and has personally trained over 500 coaches in 27 countries to bridge the gender gap in business through gender smart leadership, sales, and team-building trainings.

Charles Darwin, William Thomson (Lord Kelvin), Linus Pauling, Fred Hoyle, and Albert Einstein were all brilliant scientists. Each made groundbreaking contributions to his field—but each also stumbled badly. These five scientists expanded our knowledge of life on earth, the evolution of the earth itself, and the evolution of the universe, despite and because of their errors. As Mario Livio luminously explains in Brilliant Blunders: From Darwin to Einstein ($26.00) that the scientific process advances through error, and why mistakes are essential to progress.

Mario Livio is an internationally known astrophysicist at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland. He is the author of The Golden Ratio, a highly acclaimed book about mathematics and art for which he received the International Pythagoras Prize and the Peano Prize; The Equation That Couldn’t Be Solved; Is God a Mathematician?; and The Accelerating Universe. He lives in Baltimore, Maryland.

When author and newspaper columnist Amy Friedman walked into a federal penitentiary to research and write about prison life, she never expected to fall in love with a man serving a life sentence for second degree murder. No one, Friedman included, imagined she would ultimately marry him. Desperado’s Wife ($25.95) follows the couple’s love story, from their wedding in a prison chapel to struggles with prison officials and newspaper bosses, from the blossoming love for the daughters she helped to raise to conjugal visits with her husband in prison trailers and ultimately to her husband’s release on parole and the dissolution of the marriage.

Amy Friedman is the author of the popular syndicated newspaper feature Tell Me A Story, as well as a former columnist in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. She has written several memoirs and hundreds of essays and short stories. She teaches creative writing at UCLA Extension. She is also an editor and ghostwriter. www.amyfriedman.net 

Women Writing Their Lives
A conversation with three memoir writers

Join three award-winning memoir writers as they read from their new books and talk about their personal writing journeys. Topics will include writing about secrets and truth, family and identity, and the complex decisions that must be made when we write memoir. They will open the group to a lively discussion about memoir writing and answer questions about their books.

Linda Joy Myers
Founder and President of the National Association of Memoir Writers
Author of Don’t Call Me Mother ($16.95)

Accompany Linda Joy Myers as she uncovers family secrets, finds solace in music, and begins her healing journey. Learn how she transcends the prison of childhood to discover light in the darkness of strife, abuse, and undiagnosed mental illness. Originally published in 2005, this revised edition includes a new introduction and afterword, with new insights about memoir writing.

Judith Newton
Author of Tasting Home: Coming of Age in the Kitchen ($16.95)

In this food memoir, Judith Newton shares the unforgettable story of a life on the front lines of activism and in the kitchen. Having discovered during a difficult childhood that food and cooking were sources of comfort and emotional sustenance, in the decades to come, through her marriage to a gay man, her discovery of feminism, her life in a commune, and her career in a university, she learned how deeply food is tied to identity, love, community, and political engagement.

Judy L. Mandel
Author of Replacement Child: A Memoir ($16.00)

Judy Mandel is the replacement child for her sister who was killed in a tragic accident. It would be years before she would understand how the event, that happened before she was born, shaped her life. In this powerful story of love and lies, hope and forgiveness, Mandel discovers the truth that changes her life forever and forces her to confront the complex layers of her relationships with her father, mother, and sister. When she has her own child, her epiphany comes full circle.
 

Sprague Theobald, an award-winning documentary filmmaker and expert sailor with over 40,000 offshore miles under his belt, always considered the Northwest Passage the sea route connecting the Atlantic to the Pacific the ultimate uncharted territory. Since Roald Amundsen completed the first successful crossing of the fabled Northwest Passage in 1906, only twenty-four pleasure craft have followed in his wake. Many more people have gone into space than have traversed the Passage, and a staggering number have died trying. From his home port of Newport, Rhode Island, through the Passage and around Alaska to Seattle, it would be an 8,500-mile trek filled with constant danger from ice, polar bears, and severe weather.

What Theobald couldn't have known was just how life-changing his journey through the Passage would be. Reuniting his children and stepchildren after a bad divorce more than fifteen years earlier, the family embarks with unanswered questions, untold hurts, and unspoken mistrusts hanging over their heads. Unrelenting cold, hungry polar bears, and a haunting landscape littered with sobering artifacts from the tragic Franklin Expedition of 1845, as well as personality clashes that threaten to tear the crew apart, make The Other Side of the Ice ($24.95) a harrowing story of survival, adventure, and, ultimately, redemption.

Worried about waning enrollment, the head counselor of the world's worst summer camp leads his campers on a series of increasingly dubious escapades in an effort to revive their esprit de corps. A young boy on a sailing vacation with his father comes face-to-face with a dangerous stranger, and witnesses a wrenching act of violence. Parents estranged from their disturbed son must gird themselves for his visit, even as they cannot face each other. And in the dazzling title story, the beleaguered crew of the first Confederate submarine embarks on their final, doomed mission during the closing days of the Civil War. Alternately funny, menacing, and deeply empathetic, the wildly inventive stories in Ethan Rutherford's The Peripatetic Coffin ($13.99) mark the debut of a powerful new voice in contemporary fiction.

Ethan Rutherford received his MFA in fiction from the University of Minnesota, and has taught creative writing at Macalester, the University of Minnesota, and the Loft Literary Center. A former bookseller at Three Lives & Co. as well as Magers & Quinn, he lives in Minneapolis, where he is the guitarist for the band Pennyroyal.

Third Monday of Every Month • 6:30-8:30 pm
$200 per year/$40 Drop-in fee ($150 for Left Coast Writers® members)

Register for annual membership
(Left Coast Writers Salon Rate):

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Finally, the writing group everyone has been asking for! Get in on the latest Left Coast Writers® literary adventure: The Left Coast Writers® Monthly Writers' Workshop. Bring your work and your imagination as well as humor, honesty, and attention to an evening of sharing recent writings, discussion on craft, and fabulous literary prompts. Either author/instructors Linda Watanabe McFerrin or Joanna Biggar will be on hand to contribute editorial direction and orchestrate sessions. This is a chance to get feedback on your work and hone your skills in a stimulating, supportive, and highly professional environment.

Led by Linda Watanabe McFerrin & Joanna Biggar

Angelico Hall, Dominican University
Tickets: $35 (includes signed book)

Online registration is now closed. To register, call (415) 927-0960 ext. 1

In Cooked, Michael Pollan explores the previously uncharted territory of his own kitchen. Here, he discovers the enduring power of the four classical elements—fire, water, air, and earth—to transform the stuff of nature into delicious things to eat and drink. Apprenticing himself to a succession of culinary masters, Pollan learns how to grill with fire, cook with liquid, bake bread, and ferment everything from cheese to beer. In the course of his journey, he discovers that the cook occupies a special place in the world, standing squarely between nature and culture. Both realms are transformed by cooking, and so, in the process, is the cook. 

A bittersweet novel filled with longing and hope, Jennie Shortridge’s Love Water Memory ($26.00) explores the raw, tender complexities of relationships and personal identity. Who is Lucie Walker? Even Lucie herself can’t answer that question after she comes to, confused and up to her knees in the chilly San Francisco Bay. Back home in Seattle, she adjusts to life with amnesia, growing unsettled by the clues she finds to the selfish, carefully guarded person she used to be. Will she ever fall in love with her handsome, kindhearted fiancé, Grady? Can he devote himself to the vulnerable, easygoing Lucie 2.0, who is so unlike her controlling former self? When Lucie learns that Grady has been hiding some very painful secrets that could change the course of their relationship, she musters the courage to search for the shocking, long-repressed childhood memories that will finally set her free.

Jennie Shortridge has published five novels: Love Water Memory, When She Flew, Love and Biology at the Center of the Universe, Eating Heaven, and Riding with the Queen. When not writing, teaching writing workshops, or volunteering with kids, Jennie stays busy as a founding member of Seattle7Writers.org, a collective of Northwest authors devoted both to raising funds for community literacy projects and to raising awareness of Northwest literature.

 Erica Bauermeister presents The Lost Art of Mixing ($25.95). In prose to be savored, Bauermeister brings back some of the most engaging characters from School and introduces intriguing new personalities as she follows them around the seasons of a year.  At the heart of her story once again is Lillian, the chef and restaurant owner with a remarkable ability to bring out the hidden essence of people as well as ingredients, and to combine both in surprising, delightful new ways  

Erica Bauermeister, the bestselling author of The School of Essential Ingredients and Joy for Beginners, is also the coauthor of 500 Great Books by Women: A Reader’s Guide and Let’s Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14.  She has taught literature and creative writing at the University of Washington, from which she holds a Ph.D. in literature, and is a graduate of Occidental College.