Laurel Book Store Newsletter - Hot off the press!

Laurel Book Store

1423 Broadway, Oakland, CA 94612

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

Mon-Th10-6 Fri-Sat 10-7
Sun for events

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Dear Reader,

Have you ever thought about traveling to Elena Ferrante's Italy? Or Life Death & Rebirth in Mexico around Day of the Dead? Or Literary Krakow?

Please join us on Friday between 11:30 and 1:30 to meet a couple of staff from Classical Pursuits- Travel Adventures for the Mind With the World's Best Books, Art and Music as Your Guides. Enter the drawing for books, and find out how amazing your next trip could be. Start with a book!

Don't forget that Jack London is being celebrated all over the city this year and there will be several group discussions of White Fang in October. Check with your branch to see when and where.

It's been darn quiet this week- where is everyone? I know school is back in session so get in here and get some new books!

We've been hard at work selecting great things for fall! Just you wait!

Happy reading!

Luan

PS- Here's a line of goodies we are thinking of bringing in. Come by and give us some feedback.

09-14-16

NEW AND NOTEWORTHY

The Seasoned Life: Food, Family, Faith, and the Joy of Eating Well by Ayesha Curry $27 is due here in a few days! Please reserve one now! In THE SEASONED LIFE Ayesha Curry will share 100 of her favorite recipes and invite readers into the home she has made with her two daughters and her husband Stephen Curry. Ayesha knows firsthand what it is like to be a busy mom and wife, and she knows that for her family, time in the kitchen and around the table is where that balance begins.
This book has something for everybody. The simple, delicious recipes include Cast Iron Biscuits, Smoked Salmon Scramble, Homemade Granola, Mom's Chicken Soup, Stephen's 5 Ingredient Pasta, and plenty of recipes that get the whole family involved -- even the little ones!

My Life with Earth, Wind & Fire by Maurice White with Herb Powell $27.99

With its dynamic horns, contrasting vocals, and vivid stage shows, Earth, Wind & Fire was one of the most popular acts of the late twentieth century the band "that changed the sound of black pop" (Rolling Stone) and its music continues to inspire modern artists including Usher, Jay-Z, Cee-Lo Green, and Outkast. At last, the band s founder, Maurice White, shares the story of his success.

White reflects on the great blessings music has brought to his life and the struggles he s endured: his mother leaving him behind in Memphis when he was four; learning to play the drums with Booker T. Jones; moving to Chicago at eighteen and later Los Angeles after leaving the Ramsey Lewis Trio; forming EWF, only to have the original group fall apart; working with Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond; his diagnosis of Parkinson s; and his final public performance with the group at the 2006 Grammy Awards. Through it all, White credits his faith for his amazing success and guidance in overcoming his many challenges.

Death's End by Cixin Liu $26.99 With The Three-Body Problem, English-speaking readers got their first chance to experience the multiple-award-winning and bestselling Three-Body Trilogy by China's most beloved science fiction author, Cixin Liu. Three-Body was released to great acclaim including coverage in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. It was also named a finalist for the Nebula Award, making it the first translated novel to be nominated for a major SF award since Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities in 1976. Now this epic trilogy concludes with Death's End. Half a century after the Doomsday Battle, the uneasy balance of Dark Forest Deterrence keeps the Trisolaran invaders at bay. Earth enjoys unprecedented prosperity due to the infusion of Trisolaran knowledge. With human science advancing daily and the Trisolarans adopting Earth culture, it seems that the two civilizations will soon be able to co-exist peacefully as equals without the terrible threat of mutually assured annihilation. But the peace has also made humanity complacent.

Cheng Xin, an aerospace engineer from the early 21st century, awakens from hibernation in this new age. She brings with her knowledge of a long-forgotten program dating from the beginning of the Trisolar Crisis, and her very presence may upset the delicate balance between two worlds. Will humanity reach for the stars or die in its cradle?

Cold is the Grave by Peter Robinson $15.99 Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks' life is shaken to the core when he is unexpectedly pulled into the investigation of a young girl's disappearance in this shattering suspense novel from the hand of a modern master.
Now in paperback.

The Bone Tree by Greg Iles $17.99 Former prosecutor Penn Cage and his fiancee, reporter and publisher Caitlin Masters, have barely escaped with their lives after being attacked by wealthy businessman Brody Royal and his Double Eagles, a KKK sect with ties to some of Mississippi s most powerful men. But the real danger has only begun as FBI Special Agent John Kaiser warns Penn that Brody wasn t the true leader of the Double Eagles. The puppeteer who actually controls the terrorist group is a man far more fearsome: the chief of the state police s Criminal Investigations Bureau, Forrest Knox. Now in paperback.

Events We Want to See You Here For!

Sunday, September 18 at 3pm
The Future of White Men and Other Diversity Dilemmas by Joan Steinau Lester $10.99 This refreshing handbook-equally useful in the boardroom, the classroom, and the living room-captures insightful lessons from personal encounters with diversity. Award-winning author Dr. Joan Lester is a talented storyteller. Her generous voice sheds keen insight, humor and practical advise on the polarizing dilemmas of living with diversity.

Thursday, October 6 at 7pm
So Much to Be Done, The Writings of Breast Cancer Activist Barbara Brenner edited by Barbara Sjoholm with an afterword by Anne Lamott $22.95

A key figure in North American breast cancer history, Barbara Brenner was executive director of the nonprofit organization Breast Cancer Action, based in San Francisco. She died in 2013 at the age of sixty-one.

Barbara Sjoholm is an author and translator. She was a cofounder of the feminist publisher Seal Press and an editor of many works of women s studies.

Anne Lamott is the author, most recently, of "Small Victories," which includes an essay about Barbara Brenner. There will be readings of her work by friends of Barbara's.

Younger Readers

Two Nomis by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich and Audrey Vernick $16.99 8 and up.

A realistic contemporary story of two girls, both named Naomi, whose divorced parents begin to date perfect for fans of Lisa Graff, Sara Pennypacker, and Rita Williams-Garcia.

Other than their first names, Naomi Marie and Naomi Edith are sure they have nothing in common, and they wouldn t mind keeping it that way.

Naomi Marie starts clubs at the library and adores being a big sister. Naomi Edith loves quiet Saturdays and hanging with her best friend in her backyard. And while Naomi Marie s father lives a few blocks away, Naomi Edith wonders how she s supposed to get through each day a whole country apart from her mother.

When Naomi Marie s mom and Naomi Edith s dad get serious about dating, each girl tries to cling to the life she knows and loves. Then their parents push them into attending a class together, where they might just have to find a way to work with each other and maybe even join forces to find new ways to define family.

An Artist's Alphabet by Norman Messenger $17.99
At first glance, this elegant alphabet book showcasing both upper- and lowercase letters seems to follow a familiar formula. There s an acrobat standing atop a horse to form a big letter A and another curled under herself to make a small one. There s a colony of beetles attached to the leaves they ve munched, creating a big and a small letter B. But then comes the letter C, made of sea waves evoking the artist Hokusai. Or a lowercase I in the form of a pen that has left an ink smudge, or two kingly beasts that create the letter K. And what of the many letters, equally fantastical and fascinating, whose associations are left to the viewers imaginations? Ingenious and intriguing, beautiful and full of stunning detail, this is an alphabet book sure to invite many repeat explorations. Why have boring ABC books in the house when you can have art??

Fiona's Little Lie by Rosemary Wells $14.99
It s Felix s birthday tomorrow! His best friend, Fiona, has promised to bake cupcakes to celebrate, and Felix can t wait. But the next morning, Fiona arrives at the party with no cupcakes . . . and a tall tale that s as colorful as raspberry icing with lemon sprinkles. Fiona s little lie points the finger at three likely suspects, but Felix has a feeling that she might be getting in deeper and deeper. Now Fiona doesn t know which is worse forgetfulness or a queasy conscience. Luckily she has a friend like Felix to whisper some advice into her ear! 4 and up

Construction Crew Boxed Set by Sally Sutton and Illustrated by Brian Lovelock $19.99 2 years and up.
Construction and demolishing equipment clamors to life with noisy rhymes, boisterous sound words, and bright spreads. This rambunctious boxed set includes board book editions of Construction, Demolition, and Roadwork.
You know every kid has to have construction books!

Cloud and Wallfish by Anne Nesbet $16.99
Slip behind the Iron Curtain into a world of smoke, secrets, and lies in this stunning novel where someone is always listening and nothing is as it seems.
Noah Keller has a pretty normal life, until one wild afternoon when his parents pick him up from school and head straight for the airport, telling him on the ride that his name isn t really Noah and he didn t really just turn eleven in March. And he can t even ask them why not because of his Astonishing Stutter, but because asking questions is against the newly instated rules. (Rule Number Two: Don t talk about serious things indoors, because Rule Number One: They will always be listening). As Noah now "Jonah Brown" and his parents head behind the Iron Curtain into East Berlin, the rules and secrets begin to pile up so quickly that he can hardly keep track of the questions bubbling up inside him: Who, exactly, is listening and why? When did his mother become fluent in so many languages? And what really happened to the parents of his only friend, Cloud-Claudia, the lonely girl who lives downstairs? In an intricately plotted novel full of espionage and intrigue, friendship and family, Anne Nesbet cracks history wide open and gets right to the heart of what it feels like to be an outsider in a world that s impossible to understand.
10 and up.

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.

October The Race for Paris
November The Sympathizer
December Dogs of Christmas