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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,
Hey, it's been nearly three years since I signed the lease on this beautiful new space!
We actually opened in October, but all the work started in early summer to close down the other store and move to this one. What a ride it's been. Downtown is more interesting than many people talk about. There's growth for sure, and it's still very quiet in the evenings and on weekends. And then not so quiet when things get lively! Several surrounding businesses have left, a few new ones are anticipated. We have enjoyed growth in customer base and sales quarter over quarter all three years, and still it's not an easy path.
Every month we make decisions about what to carry, what to reduce, what have people been asking for, what simply doesn't move. Conventional wisdom says that it takes three years to get a sense of what your location wants and it's sure been true here. We are just getting the hang of what new releases are going to be in demand and which might not. Nonfiction has jumped in the last 3 years, escapist fiction jumped since November as well as uplifting and inspiring books. Children's books enjoy their best sales on Fridays, current events on Thursdays, biographies on Saturdays.
As we look ahead I will look into my crystal ball to see what we can do to keep going. We certainly need more folks through the doors. We need to mix up our offerings a bit more- each time we bring in some new gifts they fly so we know to watch for cute things. We need those who work downtown to spread the word in the office that we are here for gift, education, and entertainment needs. We need to retire some debt and keep conducting the events that work and drop the ones that don't.
It's still a delight to have people every week, sometimes every day, thank us for being here.
Bookstores are important.
And I'm still looking for a business partner. I've spoken with a number of people since October and will continue to do so until the right person (people?) comes along. There's so much more that we can do!
But the present is upon us now and we have a whole host of interesting things happening this month so please take a look and join us for any or all of them. Take a look below for some awesome books and events.
As always, take care of each other,
06-03-17
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New and Notable
Now in Paperback!
Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson $14.99 The New York Times bestselling and National Book Award-winning author of
Brown Girl Dreaming delivers her first adult novel in twenty years. Running into a long-ago friend sets memory in motion for August, transporting her to a time and a place where friendship was everything--until it wasn't. For August and her girls, sharing confidences as they ambled through neighborhood streets, Brooklyn was a place where they believed that they were beautiful, talented, brilliant--a part of a future that belonged to them. But beneath the hopeful veneer, there was another Brooklyn, a dangerous place where grown men reached for innocent girls in dark hallways, where ghosts haunted the night, where mothers disappeared. A world where madness was just a sunset away and fathers found hope in religion.
Another Brooklyn heartbreakingly illuminates the formative time when childhood gives way to adulthood--the promise and peril of growing up--and exquisitely renders a powerful, indelible, and fleeting friendship that united four young lives.
Things Come Apart by Todd McLellan $29.95 This book makes visible the inner workings of some of the world's most iconic designs. From the SLR camera to mantel clock to espresso machine, from iPad to bicycle to grand piano, every single component of each object is revealed. These disassembled objects show that even the most intricate of modern technologies can be broken down and understood, while beautifully illustrating the quality and elegance of older designs. Stunning photography is interspersed with essays by notable figures from the worlds of restoration, DIY, and design innovation who discuss historical examples of teardowns, disassembly, and reverse-engineering Each photograph is itself a work of art and offers a reinterpretation of our familiar world. They connect people with the child-like joy of taking something apart to see how it works and will appeal to anyone with a curiosity about the material world.
~I LOVE this book. If you understand how something is put together, you can understand and improve it.~
A Spectacular Selection of Sea Critters by Betsy Franco and illustrated by Michael Wertz $19.99 What might you see if you swam in the sea? Dive on in to encounter everything from dolphins and octopuses to sea turtles and squirrel fish. This clever book features twenty-nine concrete poems celebrating a spectacular selection of sea critters.
ABC Oakland written and illustrated by Michael Wertz $17 Yes! A fabulous picture book all about Oakland and the places that make it so cool! We have a limited number of signed copies on hand. He was a whole lot of fun last weekend when he came to hang out with us, sing some songs, and draw some pictures!
Here's a little video of just one of the songs he performed with his group.
Did you know that Lake Merritt is not a lake? Listen and learn.
***Meet Aya De Leon on Thursday, June 8 at 7pm***
The Boss by Aya De Leon $9.95 T
yes
ha Co
uvillier will never forget the rip-offs and brutal treatment she endured as a sex worker. So as the new director of the
groundbreaking Lower East Side Women's Health Clinic, she'll take on the Ukrainian mob and corrupt strip club bosse
s to stop local exotic dancers from being pressured into selling sex. And if she and her crew can pull off a
n elaborate heist, the evidence they steal could upend this vicious game--and give exploited women a chance at justice...But suddenly Tyesha's traumatic past and high-drama family are back on the scene--and turning up the heat to explosive. With a notorious celebrity ex-lover out to win back her heart, and a drug kingpin from her Chicago past in the mix, crucial scams go dead-wrong, and buried secrets bring wrenching betrayal. Now this fiercely compassionate beauty must gamble on tricks she never dared to protect those she loves--and survive to carry on the fight.
Kiss Me Again, Paris by Renate Stendhal $19.95 From Paris's famous opera house to its gossip-rich salons, Kiss Me Again, Paris celebrates youth at the end of the 1970s, when women were in fashion and every woman, gay or straight, fell in love with women. Author Renate Stendhal ekes out a living as a cultural journalist in Europe's most cultured city. She walks Paris at night dressed as a boy, has friends and lovers among artists and writers, and falls under the spell of the mercurial actress Claude, who has all of Paris talking. At the same time, she finds herself in the crosshairs of an alluring stranger who seems to appear everywhere and nowhere at once. There are mysteries with and without clues. Is sexual obsession a way to avoid the risk of love? Filled with sensuality, style, romance, and suspense, Stendhal plays with the concept of memoir as a genre and transports the reader to another time and place. No matter what age, you'll be young and in love again when you reach the last page.
**Renata Stendhal will be joining us at the store and then after the Laurel event for Anne-Christine D'Adesky at the after party at The Uptown and reading from her new memoir, Kiss Me Paris Again, set in 70s and 80s France. Saturday, June 17 at 4pm.**
Chuck Klosterman X $27 New York Times-bestselling author and cultural critic Chuck Klosterman compiles and contextualizes the best of his articles and essays from the past decade. Chuck Klosterman has created an incomparable body of work in books, magazines, newspapers, and on the Web. Klosterman's tenth book (a.k.a. Chuck Klosterman X) collects his most intriguing of those pieces, accompanied by fresh introductions and new footnotes throughout. Klosterman presents many of the articles in their original form, featuring previously unpublished passages and digressions. Subjects include Breaking Bad, Lou Reed, zombies, KISS, Jimmy Page, Stephen Malkmus, steroids, Mountain Dew, Chinese Democracy, The Beatles, Jonathan Franzen, Taylor Swift, Tim Tebow, Kobe Bryant, Usain Bolt, Eddie Van Halen, Charlie Brown, the Cleveland Browns, and many more cultural figures and pop phenomena. This is a tour of the past decade from one of the sharpest and most prolific observers of our unusual times.
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Postcards
Here are our Laurel Book Store exclusive postcards for sending to
elected officials who might need to hear your concerns.
The creations of illustrator
Eve Aldridge are on our website and they fit the bill for anyone who
wants a bit more pointed message. .60 each. Limited quantity on hand for now.
Yes, you can order them individually or as a mixed pack.
Click here.
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EVENTS
Here is what we have scheduled so far.
Please join us for any or all of our literary events.
Click on links for more info.
See the website for a whole lot of what's coming up!
In conversation with Keiko Lane
June 22 7pm
Helen Klonaris author of the collection of short stories
______________________________________________________
Not yet finalized but in the works:
Would you be interested in a cookbook club
that would meet for a lunchtime gathering once a month?
Or would you rather is be after work?
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Book Group
Third Thursday of the month, 6:15 to 7:30
June 15
Deserts are environments that can be inhospitable even to seasoned explorers. Craig Childs has spent years in the deserts of the American West, and his treks through arid lands in search of water reveal the natural world at its most extreme.
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