Rainy Days and Reading

Laurel Book Store

1423 Broadway, Oakland, CA 94612

510-452-9232 [email protected]
www.laurelbookstore.com

Mon-Th 10-6 Fri-Sat 10-7

Dear Reader,

     We've been looking back on our first year in this location. What a year! We hosted 58 author readings, 20 workshops or student readings, enjoyed 4 days as a venue for the National Poetry Slam, and went out to sell books at several off-site locations including school book fairs. No wonder we were all tired and buzzy by the time the New Year rolled around!
     We are all looking forward to 2016 to get to know you better, meet new folks, and especially to see what this year will bring from the creators of the books we love now and will get to know in the coming months.
     Thank you for your support and if you have suggestions going forward, please let us know! Topics to stock, gifts you'd like to pick up, cards you want to send and authors you'd like to see.
     We literally wouldn't be here without you and want to stay for a very long time!
     We finished inventory last weekend so watch for a cart of sale items. Some things just need to be in your hands so we'll try to entice you with them. Also we're planning our First Annual Cookbook Swap now. Start culling now, we'll set a week for you to drop them off, and then on one day we'll display them all so you can take some home in their place. Fun!

Thank you for all your support,

Happy Reading,

Luan
1-22-16

AMONG THE ARRIVALS THIS WEEK

The Man Without a Shadow by Joyce Carol Oates $27.99 In 1965, neuroscientist Margot Sharpe meets Elihu Hoopes: the "man without a shadow," who will be known, in time, as the most-studied and most famous amnesiac in history. A vicious infection has clouded anything beyond the last seventy seconds just beyond the fog of memory. Over the course of thirty years, the two embark on mirrored journeys of self-discovery: Margot, enthralled by her charming, mysterious, and deeply lonely patient, as well as her officious supervisor, attempts to unlock Eli's shuttered memories of a childhood trauma without losing her own sense of self in the process. Made vivid by Oates' usual eye for detail, and searing insight into the human psyche, The Man Without a Shadow is eerie, ambitious, and structurally complex, unique among her novels for its intimate portrayal of a forbidden relationship that can never be publicly revealed.

Medusa's Web by Tim Powers $26.99

From the award-winning author of Hide Me Among the Graves, Last Call, Declare, andThree Days to Never, a phantasmagoric, thrilling, mind-bending tale of speculative fiction in which one man must uncover occult secrets of 1920s Hollywood to save his family. In the wake of their Aunt Amity's suicide, Scott and Madeline Madden are summoned to Caveat, the eerie, decaying mansion in the Hollywood hills in which they were raised. But their decadent and reclusive cousins, the malicious wheelchair-bound Claimayne and his sister, Ariel, do not welcome Scott and Madeline's return to the childhood home they once shared. While Scott desperately wants to go back to their shabby South-of-Sunset lives, he cannot pry his sister away from this haunted "House of Usher in the Hollywood Hills" that is a conduit for the supernatural.

Book of Love by Roger Rosenblatt $13.99
Roger Rosenblatt explores love in all its moods and variations romantic love, courtship, battle, mystery, marriage, heartbreak, fury, confusion, melancholy, delirium, ecstasy; love of family, of friends; love of home, of country, of work, of writing, of solitude, of art; love of nature; love of life itself.

Valentine's Day is just about 3 weeks away. Just sayin'.

Mind Gym; Achieve More by Thinking Differently by Sebastian Bailey, Ph.D. and Octavius Black $15.99
Today, the pressure to achieve is intense. To be at our best, we need our minds working at peak potential. But unless you train it, your mind stays on autopilot, stuck in unhealthy thought patterns that lead to self-sabotaging habits and behaviors. This hands-on guide presents a fitness program for the mind that tackles the most common challenges at work and home: How to adopt a positive mindset How to repair broken relationships How to resolve conflict successfully How to influence others How to minimize stress and gain energy How to be more creative Insightful, proven, and practical, Mind Gym is the essential mental workout that will wake up your mind and help you be your best in life.

The Index Card by Helaine Olen and Harold Pollack $25
The most important financial advice is stunningly simple and fits on an index card. The newbie investor will not find a better guide to personal finance.
Burton G. Malkiel, author of "A RANDOM WALK DOWN WALL STREET "
When it comes to our money, many of us make the same mistakes over and over again. We are confident when we should panic. We believe that stock we heard about on CNBC or saw promoted on Twitter is the next Apple or Google. Or we find managing our money difficult and boring, and we don't pay any attention at all. We neglect things. We toss our retirement statements in a drawer, planning to look at them on a future day that never arrives. We pay our bills the day before they are due. There is only one thing more confusing: all the you-can-have-it-all financial how-to books out there.
In The Index Card, Helaine Olen and Harold Pollack draw on years of experience researching and reporting on the financial lives of Americans to present an accessible, one-stop guide to taking back your financial future. The answers are simple enough to fit on an index card-an idea so user-friendly and helpful that Money magazine named it one of their Best New Money Ideas.

The End of Average by Todd Rose $27.99 Modern science has proven that people behave and learn in distinctive ways. And yet these individual patterns get lost in our institutions of opportunity-from education to the workforce-which remain rooted in the misguided belief that statistical averages are good enough to understand individuals and identify their unique talents. Standardized tests, grading systems, job applicant profiling, performance reviews-they invariably ignore our differences and ultimately fail at measuring our capacity for success.

Edward Gorey Dancing Cats Coloring Cards with envelopes $13.95
That's right, the coloring movement is branching out and what better subject than images by Edward Gorey? The tin includes 8 cards and envelope and 6 colored pencils.
And yes, we still have a great selection of coloring books for everyone.

Faithfully Religionless, A Memoir by Timber Hawkeye $12.99

When his pursuit of happiness in Corporate America feels counterproductive, Timber Hawkeye escapes the flourescent-lit hell of his cubicle in Seattle, and sets out to fully embrace the stress-free lifestyle of Hawaii. Intrigued and curious about what people believe (and why they believe what they do), he questions everything he ever thought was true, and discovers the beauty of letting go.

If you consider yourself spiritual but not religious, then you're going to love this inspirational book. And if you want to lead a simple and uncomplicated life with happiness at your fingertips, then you'll want to read this page-turner more than once!
Timber is the author of Buddhist Bootcamp and we are working on a date to host him here in March. Stay tuned!

Start reading up now on Jeri Westerson's medieval noir mysteries. She's coming in March and you might just like her character Crispin! We have earlier novels in stock now to prep you for the new one!