A Great Good Place for Books proudly welcomes William Broad\, author of The Science of Yoga\: The Risks and Rewards\, on Sunday\, April 1st at 2\:00 p.m.
Five years in the making\, The Science of Yoga draws on more than a century of painstaking research to present the first impartial evaluation of a practice thousands of years old.
It celebrates what’s real and shows what’s illusory\, describes what’s uplifting and beneficial and what’s flaky and dangerous—and why. Broad illuminates how yoga can lift moods and inspire creativity. He exposes moves that can cripple and kill. As science often does\, this groundbreaking book also reveals mysteries. It presents a fascinating body of evidence that raises questions about whether humans have latent capabilities for entering states of suspended animation and unremitting sexual bliss.
The Science of Yoga takes us on a riveting tour of unknown yoga that goes from old archivesin Calcutta to the world capitals of medical research\, from storied ashrams to spotless laboratories\, from sweaty yoga studios with master teachers to the cozy offices of yoga healers. Broad unveils a burgeoning global industry that attracts not only curious scientists but true believers and charismatic hustlers. In the end\, he shatters myths\, lays out unexpected benefits\, and offers a compelling vision of how the ancient practice can be improved.
END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20130522T205325Z DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20120403T030000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20120403T030000Z UID:http://www.ggpbooks.com/event/carolina-de-robertis-book-release-party-perla URL;VALUE=URI:http://www.ggpbooks.com/event/carolina-de-robertis-book-release-party-perla SUMMARY:CAROLINA DE ROBERTIS--BOOK RELEASE PARTY FOR PERLA DESCRIPTION:A Great Good Place for Books invites you to come celebrate the release of Perla with Oakland's own Carolina deRobertis on Monday\, April 2nd at 7\:00 p.m.
Perla is a coming-of-age story\, based on a recent shocking chapter of Argentine history\, about a young woman who makes a devastating discovery about her origins with the help of an enigmatic houseguest.
Perla Correa grew up a privileged only child in Buenos Aires\, with a cold\, polished mother and a straitlaced naval officer father\, whose profession she learned early on not to disclose in a country still reeling from the abuses perpetrated by the deposed military dictatorship. Perla understands that her parents were on the wrong side of the conflict\, but her love for her papá is unconditional. But when Perla is startled by an uninvited visitor\, she begins a journey that will force her to confront the unease she has suppressed all her life\, and to make a wrenching decision about who she is\, and who she will become.
\;
END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20130522T205325Z DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20120405T030000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20120405T030000Z UID:http://www.ggpbooks.com/event/anne-lamott-and-her-son-sam-montclair-presbyterian-church-some-assembly-required-journal-my-so URL;VALUE=URI:http://www.ggpbooks.com/event/anne-lamott-and-her-son-sam-montclair-presbyterian-church-some-assembly-required-journal-my-so SUMMARY:ANNE LAMOTT AND HER SON\, SAM AT MONTCLAIR PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH--SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED\: A JOURNAL OF MY SON'S FIRST SON DESCRIPTION:A Great Good Place for Books and Montclair Presbyterian Church welcome Anne Lamott and her son Sam on Wednesday\, April 4th at 7\:00 p.m. They'll be discussing their new book\, Some Assemby Required\: A Journal of My Son's First Son.
Montclair Presbyterian is located at 5701 Thornhill Drive\, in Oakland's Montclair Village. For more information call GGP @ 510-339-8210 or MPC @ 510-339-1131. This event is free and open to the public.
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.
In careful and often hilarious detail\, Lamott and Sam-about whom she first wrote so movingly in Operating Instructions-struggle to balance their changing roles with the demands of college and work\, as they both forge new relationships with Jax's mother\, who has her own ideas about how to raise a child. Lamott writes about the complex feelings that Jax fosters in her\, recalling her own experiences with Sam when she was a single mother. Over the course of the year\, the rhythms of life\, death\, family\, and friends unfold in surprising and joyful ways.
By turns poignant and funny\, honest and touching\, Some Assembly Required is the true story of how the birth of a baby changes a family-as this book will change everyone who reads it.
END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20130522T205325Z DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20120411T030000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20120411T030000Z UID:http://www.ggpbooks.com/event/ruta-sepeyts-between-shades-gray URL;VALUE=URI:http://www.ggpbooks.com/event/ruta-sepeyts-between-shades-gray SUMMARY:RUTA SEPEYTS-BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY DESCRIPTION:Ruta Sepeyts returns to A Great Good Place for Books to read from the paperback edition of her book\, Shades of Gray\, on Tuesday\, April 10th at 7\:00 p.m.
Lina is just like any other fifteen-year-old Lithuanian girl in 1941. She paints\, she draws\, she gets crushes on boys. Until one night when Soviet officers barge into her home\, tearing her family from the comfortable life they've known. Separated from her father\, forced onto a crowded and dirty train car\, Lina\, her mother\, and her young brother slowly make their way north\, crossing the Arctic Circle\, to a work camp in the coldest reaches of Siberia. Here they are forced\, under Stalin's orders\, to dig for beets and fight for their lives under the cruelest of conditions.
Lina finds solace in her art\, meticulously-and at great risk-documenting events by drawing\, hoping these messages will make their way to her father's prison camp to let him know they are still alive. It is a long and harrowing journey\, spanning years and covering 6\,500 miles\, but it is through incredible strength\, love\, and hope that Lina ultimately survives. Between Shades of Gray is a novel that will steal your breath and capture your heart.
END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20130522T205325Z DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20120412T030000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20120412T030000Z UID:http://www.ggpbooks.com/event/wendy-mcclure-wilder-life-my-adventures-lost-world-little-house-prairie URL;VALUE=URI:http://www.ggpbooks.com/event/wendy-mcclure-wilder-life-my-adventures-lost-world-little-house-prairie SUMMARY:WENDY MCCLURE--THE WILDER LIFE\: MY ADVENTURES IN THE LOST WORLD OF LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE DESCRIPTION:
Where you a fan of Little House on the Prairie?
We have the PERFECT event for you!
A Great Good Place of Books welcomes Wendy McClure\, author of The Wilder Life\: My Adventures in the lost world of Little House on the Prairie\, to read from her book on Wednesday\, April 11th at 7\:00 p.m.
For anyone who has ever wanted to step into the world of a favorite book\, here is a pioneer pilgrimage\, a tribute to Laura Ingalls Wilder\, and a hilarious account of butter-churning obsession.
Wendy McClure is on a quest to find the world of beloved Little House on the Prairie author Laura Ingalls Wilder-a fantastic realm of fiction\, history\, and places she's never been to\, yet somehow knows by heart. She retraces the pioneer journey of the Ingalls family- looking for the Big Woods among the medium trees in Wisconsin\, wading in Plum Creek\, and enduring a prairie hailstorm in South Dakota. She immerses herself in all things Little House\, and explores the story from fact to fiction\, and from the TV shows to the annual summer pageants in Laura's hometowns. Whether she's churning butter in her apartment or sitting in a replica log cabin\, McClure is always in pursuit of "\;the Laura experience."\; Along the way she comes to understand how Wilder's life and work have shaped our ideas about girlhood and the American West.
The Wilder Life is a loving\, irreverent\, spirited tribute to a series of books that have inspired generations of American women. It is also an incredibly funny first-person account of obsessive reading\, and a story about what happens when we reconnect with our childhood touchstones-and find that our old love has only deepened.
END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20130522T205325Z DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20120418T030000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20120418T030000Z UID:http://www.ggpbooks.com/event/penguin-group-young-readers-teen-tour-2012-featuring-gayle-forman-stephanie-perkins-jess-rothe URL;VALUE=URI:http://www.ggpbooks.com/event/penguin-group-young-readers-teen-tour-2012-featuring-gayle-forman-stephanie-perkins-jess-rothe SUMMARY:PENGUIN GROUP FOR YOUNG READERS TEEN TOUR 2012 FEATURING GAYLE FORMAN\, STEPHANIE PERKINS\, JESS ROTHENBERG AND NINA LACOUR DESCRIPTION:
GGP is proud to invite to The Penguin Teen Tour 2012 featuring Gayle Forman\, author of If I Stay and Where She Went\, Stephanie Perkins\, author of Anna and the French Kiss and Lola and the Boy Next Door\, Jess Rothenberg\, author of The Catastrophic History of You and Me\, and Nina Lacour\, author of Hold Still and The Disenchantments\, in coversation with Yvonne Prinz\, author of The Vinyl Princess\, on Tuesday\, April 17th at 7\:00 p.m.
GAYLE FORMAN
In the three years since the tragic accident Mia barely survived in If I Stay\, she and high school ex-boyfriend Adam have lived separate lives on opposite coasts. But then Adam\, now the dissatisfied front man of popular LA-based band Collateral Damage\, stops over in New York City for one night before kicking off the European leg of his tour. It happens to be the same evening that Mia\, now well on her way to becoming a renowned cellist\, is performing at Carnegie Hall. Adam buys a ticket\, planning to slip in and out\, but Mia spots him and for the first time in years they’re face-to-face with each other and their shared past. Over the course of one evening\, as Adam and Mia traverse the city’s streets\, they relive the four days Mia spent in the intensive care unit as well as her departure to Juilliard and from the life she knew. Emotionally raw and incredibly moving\, Gayle Forman again showcases her considerable talent for drawing complex characters who face impossible decisions and then bear the consequences. Equally as compelling as If I Stay\, Where She Went is powerful\, heartbreaking\, and everything fans of Mia\, Adam\, and Forman could hope for.
STEPHANIE PERKINS
In this companion novel to Anna and the French Kiss\, two teens discover that true love may be closer than they think
For budding costume designer Lola Nolan\, the more outrageous\, the outfit - more sparkly\, more fun\, more wild - the better. But even though Lola's style is outrageous\, she's a devoted daughter and friend with some big plans for the future. And everything is pretty perfect (right down to her hot rocker boyfriend) until the dreaded Bell twins move back into the house next door.
When the family returns and Cricket - a gifted inventor and engineer - steps out from his twin sister's shadow and back into Lola's life\, she must finally reconcile a lifetime of feelings for the boy next door.
JESS ROTHENBERG
Brie's life ends at sixteen\: Her boyfriend tells her he doesn't love her\, and the news breaks her heart--literally.
But now that she's D&\;G (dead and gone)\, Brie is about to discover that love is way more complicated than she ever imagined. Back in Half Moon Bay\, her family has begun to unravel. Her best friend has been keeping a secret about Jacob\, the boy Brie loved and lost--and the truth behind his shattering betrayal. And then there's Patrick\, Brie's mysterious new guide and resident Lost Soul...who just might hold the key to her forever after.
With Patrick's help\, Brie will have to pass through the five stages of grief before she's ready to move on. But how do you begin again\, when your heart is still in pieces?
NINA LACOUR
Colby and Bev have a long-standing pact\: graduate\, hit the road with Bev's band\, and then spend the year wandering around Europe. But moments after the tour kicks off\, Bev makes a shocking announcement\: she's abandoning their plans - and Colby - to start college in the fall.
But the show must go on and The Disenchantments weave through the Pacific Northwest\, playing in small towns and dingy venues\, while roadie- Colby struggles to deal with Bev's already-growing distance and the most important question of all\: what's next?
Morris Award–finalist Nina LaCour draws together the beauty and influences of music and art to brilliantly capture a group of friends on the brink of the rest of their lives.
END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20130522T205325Z DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20120420T030000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20120420T030000Z UID:http://www.ggpbooks.com/event/lindy-hough-and-contributor-karine-schomer-wonderous-child-joys-and-challenges-grandparenting URL;VALUE=URI:http://www.ggpbooks.com/event/lindy-hough-and-contributor-karine-schomer-wonderous-child-joys-and-challenges-grandparenting SUMMARY:LINDY HOUGH AND CONTRIBUTORS KARINE SCHOMER AND DONNE DAVIS--WONDEROUS CHILD\: THE JOYS AND CHALLENGES OF GRANDPARENTING DESCRIPTION:Editor and author Lindy Hough and contributors Karine Schomer and Donne Davis will be discussing their book\, Wonderous Child\: The Joys and Challenges of Grandparenting\, on Thursday\, April 19th\, 7\:00 p.m.
A Santa Cruz postpartum doula\, a New Hampshire flute-maker\, a Zen teacher\, a dance therapist\, a Sri Lankan film director—these are a few of the grandparents who share their stories in this bracing collection. The essays cover a wide range of experiences as they examine the marrow of this often undervalued relationship from both the grandparent and the grandchild point of view. A common thread running throughout is the special importance of these relationships\, which are often as complex and rewarding as the parent-child connection.
Wondrous Child is divided into four parts. In Part One\, “Settling In\,” new grandparents survey the territory and describe their expectations. Part Two\, “Balancing Reality and Hope\,” takes a deeper look at some of the heartbreak that can occur\, as well as complexities\: step-grandparenting\, spanning geographical distance\, the surprise of children living with grandparents. Part Three\, “Grandparents Raising Grandchildren\,” explores men and women parenting their grandchildren in the absence of parents. Part Four\, “Grandchildren Remember” is written by grown grandchildren who catch the tone and feeling of this special person in their life. These vivid essays will appeal to both grandparents\, as a celebration of their place in the family\, and new parents curious about how grandparents can contribute to their children.
END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20130522T205325Z DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20120426T030000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20120426T030000Z UID:http://www.ggpbooks.com/event/maxine-hong-kingston-i-love-broad-margin-my-life URL;VALUE=URI:http://www.ggpbooks.com/event/maxine-hong-kingston-i-love-broad-margin-my-life SUMMARY:MAXINE HONG KINGSTON AND PHYLLIS HOGE--HELLO HOUSE DESCRIPTION:
A Great Good Place for Books welcomes our good friend\, Maxine Hong Kingston\, author of I Love A Broad Margin\, and her friend Phyllis Hoge reading from Hello House on Wednesday\, April 25th at 7\:00 p.m.
The poems in Hello\, House describe in small\, significant detail what
goes into daily chores\, like making beds\, doing laundry\, cooking\,
cleaning\, straightening. Phyllis Hoge lavishes attention on favorite
things around the house and home\, and in the process she examines her
self\, and learns that living in a house involves compromise\: with pets\,
with clutter\, with imperfection\, and with loss. Many of these poems are
written in formal verse\, with rhyme and meter\, but the poet works well
in free verse as well. All the poems are strong\, honest\, and friendly.
Each poem is Illustrated by Maxine Hong Kingston's black and white
line drawings.
Phyllis Hoge is a retired Professor of English at the University of
Hawaii. She was awarded the Hawai'i Award for Literature from the
Hawai'i Literary Arts Council. Hoge's poetry has been widely published
in periodicals\, including Hudson Review\, New Yorker\, Prairie Schooner.
She is the author of eight previous poetry collections.
Maxine Hong Kingston
has written three novels and several works of non-fiction about the
experiences of Chinese immigrants living in the United States. She has
received several awards including the National Book Award in 1981 for
her novel China Men. and the Nationlal Humanitarian Award\, awarded by
President Bill Clinton in 1997. While not well known for her art work\,
she now spends more time drawing than writing and enjoys the change of
pace.
Regina O'Melveny will visit GGP on Thursday\, April 26th at 7\:00 p.m. She'll be reading from her debut novel\, The Book of Madness and Cures.
Dr. Gabriella Mondini\, a strong-willed\, young Venetian woman\, has followed her father in the path of medicine. She possesses a singleminded passion for the art of physick\, even though\, in 1590\, the male-dominated establishment is reluctant to accept a woman doctor. So when her father disappears on a mysterious journey\, Gabriella's own status in the Venetian medical society is threatened. Her father has left clues--beautiful\, thoughtful\, sometimes torrid\, and often enigmatic letters from his travels as he researches his vast encyclopedia\, The Book of Diseases.
After ten years of missing his kindness\, insight\, and guidance\, Gabriella decides to set off on a quest to find him--a daunting journey that will take her through great university cities\, centers of medicine\, and remote villages across Europe. Despite setbacks\, wary strangers\, and the menaces of the road\, the young doctor bravely follows the clues to her lost father\, all while taking notes on maladies and treating the ill to supplement her own work.
Gorgeous and brilliantly written\, and filled with details about science\, medicine\, food\, and madness\, THE BOOK OF MADNESS AND CURES is an unforgettable debut.
END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20130522T205325Z DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20120428T030000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20120428T030000Z UID:http://www.ggpbooks.com/event/debut-author-night-sere-prince-halverson-amy-franklin-willis-and-melanie-thorne URL;VALUE=URI:http://www.ggpbooks.com/event/debut-author-night-sere-prince-halverson-amy-franklin-willis-and-melanie-thorne SUMMARY:DEBUT AUTHOR NIGHT WITH SERE PRINCE HALVERSON\, AMY FRANKLIN-WILLIS\, AND MELANIE THORNE DESCRIPTION:Come celebrate with Sere Prince Halverson\, author of The Underside of Joy\, Amy Franklin-Willis\, author of The Lost Saints of Tennesee\, and Melanie Thorne\, author of Hand Me Down\, as they read from their debut novels on Friday\, April 27th at 7\:00 p.m.
SERE PRINCE HALVERSON
Set against the backdrop of Redwood forests and shimmering vineyards\, Seré Prince Halverson's compelling debut tells the story of two women\, bound by an unspeakable loss\, who each claims to be the mother of the same two children.
To Ella Beene\, happiness means living in the northern California river town of Elbow with her husband\, Joe\, and his two young children. Yet one summer day Joe breaks his own rule-never turn your back on the ocean-and a sleeper wave strikes him down\, drowning not only the man but his many secrets.
For three years\, Ella has been the only mother the kids have known and has believed that their biological mother\, Paige\, abandoned them. But when Paige shows up at the funeral\, intent on reclaiming the children\, Ella soon realizes there may be more to Paige and Joe's story. "\;Ella's the best thing that's happened to this family\,"\; say her close-knit Italian-American in-laws\, for generations the proprietors of a local market. But their devotion quickly falters when the custody fight between mother and stepmother urgently and powerfully collides with Ella's quest for truth.
The Underside of Joy is not a fairy-tale version of stepmotherhood pitting good Ella against evil Paige\, but an exploration of the complex relationship of two mothers. Their conflict uncovers a map of scars-both physical and emotional-to the families' deeply buried tragedies\, including Italian internment camps during World War II and postpartum psychosis.
Weaving a rich fictional tapestry abundantly alive with the glorious natural beauty of the novel's setting\, Halverson is a captivating guide through the flora and fauna of human emotion-grief and anger\, shame and forgiveness\, happiness and its shadow complement . . . the underside of joy.
AMY FRANKLIN WILLIS
With enormous heart and dazzling agility\, Amy Franklin-Willis expertly mines the fault lines in one Southern working-class family. Driven by the soulful voices of forty-two-year-old Ezekiel Cooper and his mother\, Lillian\, The Lost Saints of Tennessee journeys from the 1940s to 1980s as it follows Zeke’s evolution from anointed son\, to honorable sibling\, to unhinged middle-aged man.
After Zeke loses his twin brother in a mysterious drowning and his wife to divorce\, only ghosts remain in his hometown of Clayton\, Tennessee. Zeke makes the decision to leave town in a final attempt to escape his pain\, throwing his two treasured possessions—a copy of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and his dead brother’s ancient dog—into his truck\, and heads east. He leaves behind two young daughters and his estranged mother\, who reveals her own conflicting view of the Cooper family story in a vulnerable but spirited voice stricken by guilt over old sins and clinging to the hope that her family isn’t beyond repair.
When Zeke finds refuge with cousins in Virginia horse country\, divine acts in the form of severe weather\, illness\, and a new romance collide\, leading Zeke to a crossroads where he must decide the fate of his family.
MELANIE THORNE
A tough\, tender\, debut novel\, in the tradition of Dorothy Allison and Janet Fitch\, Hand Me Down is the unforgettable story of a girl who travels between California and Utah in search of her true family\, having never been loved best of all.
Fourteen-year-old Elizabeth Reid has spent her life protecting her sister\, Jaime\, from their parents' cruel mistakes. Their father\, who'd rather work the system than a job\, pours every dollar into his many vices\, denying his daughters the shoes and clothing they need. Their mother\, once a loving parent\, is going through a post-post-adolescent rebellious streak and finds love with a dangerous ex-con. When she chooses starting a new family over raising her first-born girls\, Elizabeth and Jaime are separated and forced to rely on the begrudging kindness of increasingly distant relatives.
A string of broken promises that begins with Liz's mother swearing\, "\;I would never hurt you\, Liz. You're family\,"\; propels her between guest beds in two states searching for a safe home. All the while\, Liz is burdened by her stake in a bleak pact with a deceitful adult\: to tell the truth about the darkest of her circumstances will cost her the ability to shelter Jaime. As Liz spirals into the abyss of fear and shame that haunts her sleepless nights\, can she break free from her bonds in time to fight for her life?
Thorne writes with a command of language that is at once affecting and enticing. Her debut is the kind of voice-driven reading experience fiction lovers crave.
END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR