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Laurel Book Store
1423 Broadway, Oakland, CA 94612
Mon-Th10-6 Fri-Sat 10-7
Sun for events
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Dear Reader,
I want to especially invite you to a reception this month for the art work we have hanging. It's many, many years worth of children's art from the
Junior Center of Art and Science at Lake Merritt. You've likely walked past the building by the bird sanctuary and wondered what they did. Well, on Saturday, September 10 from 5-7 you can come and ask about it and see how they help kids, schools, teachers and the community. Plus hang out with art!These are art pieces done from the 50s to now by kids. An incredible show.
This week we have two cool events on Thursday and Friday. Please see below for details.
And on to books!
Happy reading!
Luan
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NEW AND NOTEWORTHY
The Devil's Chessboard by David Talbot is now in paperback $19.99
America s greatest untold story: the United States rise to world dominance under the guile of Allen Welsh Dulles, the longest-serving director of the CIA. Drawing on revelatory new materials, David Talbot exposes the underside of one of America s most influential figures. The Devil s Chessboard tells the timely, provocative, and gripping story of the rise of the national security state and the battle for America s soul.
American Revolutions, A Continental History, 1750-1804 by Alan Taylor $37.50
The American Revolution is often portrayed as a high-minded, orderly event whose capstone, the Constitution, provided the ideal framework for a democratic, prosperous nation. Alan Taylor, two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize, gives us a different creation story in this magisterial history of the nation s founding.
Rising out of the continental rivalries of European empires and their native allies, Taylor s Revolution builds like a ground fire overspreading Britain s mainland colonies, fueled by local conditions, destructive, hard to quell. Conflict ignited on the frontier, where settlers clamored to push west into Indian lands against British restrictions, and in the seaboard cities, where commercial elites mobilized riots and boycotts to resist British tax policies. When war erupted, Patriot crowds harassed Loyalists and nonpartisans into compliance with their cause. Brutal guerrilla violence flared all along the frontier from New York to the Carolinas, fed by internal divisions as well as the clash with Britain. Taylor skillfully draws France, Spain, and native powers into a comprehensive narrative of the war that delivers the major battles, generals, and common soldiers with insight and power.
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SPQR, A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard is now in paperback $17.95 A masterful new chronicle . Beard is a sure-footed guide through arcane material that, in other hands, would grow tedious. Sifting myth from fact in dealing with the early history of the city, she enlivens and deepens scholarly debates by demonstrating how the Romans themselves shaped their legendary beginnings to short-term political ends . Exemplary popular history, engaging but never dumbed down, providing both the grand sweep and the intimate details that bring the distant past vividly to life.
Be Frank With Me by Julia Claiborne Johnson $15.99
Meet Mimi: Reclusive literary legend. Wrote Pulitzer- and National Book Award winning novel at nineteen. Hasn t been seen or heard from much since, though, ironically, she lives in a glass mansion in Bel Air. Lost all her money in a Ponzi scheme, needs to write another novel. So her publisher sends her . . .
Alice Whitley: Editorial assistant. Twenty-five years old. Highly competent. Thinks she s going to be typing up pages and delivering cups of coffee. Instead finds that her primary job is to be companion to . . .
Frank: Mimi s nine-year-old son. A boy with the intellect of Albert Einstein, the wardrobe of a 1930s movie star, and very little in common with his fellow fourth graders. About to give Alice the education of her life.
The Great Glowing Coils of the Universe, Welcome to Night Vale Episodes, Volume 2 by Joseph Fink & Jeffrey Cranor $16.99
Trumpets playing soft jazz from out of the dark desert distance. They come tomorrow. It is too late for us.
Welcome to Night Vale.
In June 2013, one year after the creators of Welcome to Night Vale began airing twice-monthly podcasts, their fanbase had exploded, vaulting the podcast into the #1 spot on iTunes. Since then, its popularity has grown by epic proportions and Night Vale has expanded to a successful live international touring stage show and a New York Times bestselling novel.
The Great Glowing Coils of the Universe includes the episodes from season two of the podcast, in which we witness a totalitarian takeover of Night Vale that threatens to forever change the town and everyone living in it, and offers both an entertaining reading experience as well as a valuable reference guide to past episodes.
Color Your Own Dutch Masters coloring book $14.99
Really, what more do you need to know? Inside the cover are full color photos of the actual paintings. So you can replicate them. Faithfully.
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Younger Readers
A Child of Books by Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston $17.99 This is a book for book lovers. No, really, book Lovers. Whether 5 or 95. If you were raised on books, or came to that love later than childhood, you know how infinite the word of books can be. Do yourself a favor and pick this up, read it for yourself, marvel at the art, delight in the simple but powerful words, and then give one to a book lover that you love.
Ghosts by Raina Telgemeier $10.99 Okay, you likely know if your kid has read Smile, Drama, Sisters or any of the new Babysitter's Club graphic novels. Because they're very distinctive and very good! So here's Telgemeier's newest offering and it will be a must-have as well.
Catrina and her family have moved to the coast of Northern California for the sake of her little sister, Maya, who has cystic fibrosis--and Cat is even less happy about the move when she is told that her new town is inhabited by ghosts, and Maya sets her heart on meeting one. Graphic novel 8 and up.
Taking Aim, Power and Pain, Teens and Guns edited by Michael Cart $9.99 Powerful, riveting, real. Sixteen celebrated authors bring us raw, insightful stories that explore guns and teens in a fiction collection that is thought provoking and emotionally gripping. For fans ofForgive Me, Leonard PeacockandGive a Boy a Gun, and with an array of YA talent like the late great Walter Dean Myers, the poetic Joyce Carol Oates, the prophetic Elizabeth Wein, and the gritty Chris Crutcher, these are evocative voices that each has a different perspective to give. Capturing the hurt and the healing, victims and perpetrators, these stories get to the heart of the matter.
From a boy whose low self-esteem is impacted when a gun comes into his possession to a student recalling a senseless tragedy that befell a favorite teacher, from a realistic look at hunting to a provocative look at a family that defies stereotypes, each emotional story stirs the debate to new levels. The juxtaposition of guns and their consequences offers moving tales, each a reminder of how crucial the question of guns in our society is, and the impact they have on all of us.
It Looks Like This by Rafi Mittlefehldt $16.99 Mike and Sean s discovery of their love for each other is told with such exquisite tenderness, I could not put the book down, even when I knew that something dreadful was going to happen. Despite many obstacles, Mike comes into his own with the help of understanding friends, a few kind adults, a faithful dog, and Toby, the greatest little sister since Phoebe Caulfield. This is an extremely powerful book.
Teen
Girl Mans Up by M-E Girard $17.99 All Pen wants is to be the kind of girl she s always been. So why does everyone have a problem with it? They think the way she looks and acts means she s trying to be a boy that she should quit trying to be something she s not. If she dresses like a girl, and does what her folks want, it will show respect. If she takes orders and does what her friend Colby wants, it will show her loyalty.
But respect and loyalty, Pen discovers, are empty words. Old-world parents, disintegrating friendships, and strong feelings for other girls drive Pen to see the truth that in order to be who she truly wants to be, she ll have to man up.
Teen
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Book Club pick for September 15
To join, read the book and show up. We would love to have you with us.
Next meeting is Thursday,
September 15, 6:15.
Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance
From a former marine and Yale Law School graduate, a powerful account of growing up in a poor Rust Belt town that offers a broader, probing look at the struggles of America's white working class
Hillbilly Elegy is a passionate and personal analysis of a culture in crisis-that of white working-class Americans. The decline of this group, a demographic of our country that has been slowly disintegrating over forty years, has been reported on with growing frequency and alarm, but has never before been written about as searingly from the inside. J. D. Vance tells the true story of what a social, regional, and class decline feels like when you were born with it hung around your neck.
The Vance family story begins hopefully in postwar America. J. D.'s grandparents were "dirt poor and in love," and moved north from Kentucky's Appalachia region to Ohio in the hopes of escaping the dreadful poverty around them. They raised a middle-class family, and eventually their grandchild (the author) would graduate from Yale Law School, a conventional marker of their success in achieving generational upward mobility.
But as the family saga of Hillbilly Elegy plays out, we learn that this is only the short, superficial version. Vance's grandparents, aunt, uncle, sister, and, most of all, his mother, struggled profoundly with the demands of their new middle-class life, and were never able to fully escape the legacy of abuse, alcoholism, poverty, and trauma so characteristic of their part of America. Vance piercingly shows how he himself still carries around the demons of their chaotic family history.
A deeply moving memoir with its share of humor and vividly colorful figures, Hillbilly Elegy is the story of how upward mobility really feels. And it is an urgent and troubling meditation on the loss of the American dream for a large segment of this country.
October
The Race for Paris
November
The Sympathizer
December
Dogs of Christmas
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EVENTS
Thursday, Sept. 8, 6pm
Supervision Matters: 100 Bite Sized Ideas to Transform You and Your Team
Friday, Sept. 9, 6pm
The Newbie's Guide to the
Cannabis Industry
Saturday, Sept. 10,
5-7pm
Selections from the collection of
The Junior Center for Arts & Science
Saturday, Sept. 17, 2-4
Informational session with Marshall Hasbrouck
Learn about oil painting and then sign up for the November series of classes!
More here!
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