Please join us as Kim Stanley Robinson\, the "\;writer whose work will set the standard for science fiction in the future"\;\, discusses his new book 2312.
The year is 2312. Scientific and technological advances have opened gateways to an extraordinary future. Earth is no longer humanity's only home\; new habitats have been created throughout the solar system on moons\, planets\, and in between. But in this year\, 2312\, a sequence of events will force humanity to confront its past\, its present\, and its future.
The first event takes place on Mercury\, on the city of Terminator\, itself a miracle of engineering on an unprecedented scale. It is an unexpected death\, but one that might have been foreseen. For Swan Er Hong\, it is an event that will change her life. Swan was once a woman who designed worlds. Now she will be led into a plot to destroy them.
END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20130519T211247Z DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20120602T033000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20120602T033000Z UID:http://www.avidreaderbooks.com/event/author-event-davis-times-shadow-arnold-bauer URL;VALUE=URI:http://www.avidreaderbooks.com/event/author-event-davis-times-shadow-arnold-bauer SUMMARY:Author Event (Davis) -- Time's Shadow with Arnold Bauer DESCRIPTION:Arnold Bauer grew up on his family’s 160-acre farm in Goshen Township in Clay County\, Kansas\, amidst a land of prairie grass and rich creek-bottom soil. His meditative and moving account of those years depicts a century-long narrative of struggle\, survival\, and demise. A coming-of-age memoir set in the 1930s to 50s\, Time’s Shadow blends local history with personal reflection to paint a realistic picture of farm life and families from a now-lost world.
Bauer’s was typical of true family farms\, where wives supplemented family income by
selling butter and eggs and children provided unpaid labor. These hardworking farmers
were not particularly heroic or virtuous. They had their debts and doubts\; but at the same
time their struggles for a kind of moral economy offer valuable lessons that merit our
attention today.
Among Bauer’s vivid recollections\: driving a team of huge\, clomping work horses\;
his father’s daybreak call to long days in the field at age 12\; and surviving eight years
of education in a one-room schoolhouse (with one teacher determined to have all
her students learn the harmonica). He shares the trials of Depression and drought\,
experiences the coming of electricity—which prompted his father to take on a sideline as
an electrician—and reveals the vital importance of the local blacksmith. Throughout the
book\, he finds wonder in the commonplace\, like going to town on a Saturday night for a
black walnut ice cream cone.
“Bauer thoughtfully and gracefully examines a way of life that has disappeared. . . . On
a small\, 160-acre farm\, the family was an economic unit\; and the mutual goal of keeping
the operation running and profitable superseded affection in binding husband\, wife\, and
children together. Although the community was well-peopled with other families\, many
of which were cousins\, a keen and somewhat melancholy sense of isolation pervades
this memoir. It arises in part from the endless open landscape itself\, and in part from the
knowledge that the world it describes is long lost\, but also\, more prosaically\, from the
extreme self-sufficiency of the farmers\, who needed regularly from town only ‘coffee\,
sugar\, shoes and overalls.’” --The Atlantic
Here is a childhood that few in the United States will ever know. More than that\, it is a
key to understanding the tragedy that befell the smaller family farms on the Great Plains
as sweeping changes after the mid-1950s—falling grain and livestock prices\, adverse
terms of trade for agricultural products—turned out to be more devastating than tornados
or dust storms.
Gracefully written with a keen eye for the telling detail\, Time’s Shadow eloquently captures the events of an era and the meaning it held for one boy and those around him.
It is a refreshingly unsentimental “Little House on the Prairie” that will resonate not only
with older compatriots but with anyone whose curiosity leads them to wonder about a
world we have lost.
Arnold Bauer went from his family farm to study in Mexico and Berkeley and to teach
Latin American Studies at the University of California at Davis. In 2005 he received
the “Order of Merit Gabriela Mistral\,” the highest recognition the Chilean government
awards for contributions to education and culture. He lives in Davis.
A Spiritual Renegade’s Guide to the Good Life is an honest\, brave\, and playful guide. It offers a practical and achievable—if not revolutionary—blueprint for creating and sustaining happiness in a modern age of consumerism\, self-absorption\, and stress. Through a series of meditations\, exercises\, and useful insights\, Lama Marut offers a fresh take on our quest for happiness and the good life. Each chapter ends with an action plan designed to incite happiness and forge a clear path toward fulfillment. Microsoft tags throughout the book link to videos in which Lama Marut discusses each step in depth. The book is designed to help readers transform problems into opportunities\, set themselves free from fear and anxiety\, unburden past resentments\, and create an action plan for true happiness.
"\;A Spiritual Renegade's Guide to the Good Life is so good I wish I had written it myself! Seriously\, you really should try to overcome your fear of bliss and start living the way Lama Marut suggests. I recommend this delightful book that should accompany your day to day from now on."\;
—Robert A. F. "\;Tenzin"\; Thurman\, Je Tsongkapa professor of Buddhist Studies\, Columbia University\, cofounder of Tibet House US\, and author of Why The Dalai Lama Matters
As a surfer\, motorcycle enthusiast\, ordained Buddhist monk\, and university professor\, Marut is accessible to a broad audience—spiritual and irreverent alike. His unique background and easy\, down-to-earth style has attracted thousands of followers around the world of all ages and walks of life who gather to hear his call for a revolution of true and lasting happiness. He uses Western cultural signposts\, pop references\, and humor to help remove cross-cultural hurdles. A perfect combination of warmth and wit\, Lama Marut makes even the most esoteric brain-busters of Eastern philosophy work as practical tools for immediate transformation. Marut pulls no punches in his hardcore presentation of timeless spiritual truths and their profound relevance to our modern Western world. Ruthlessly compassionate\, he insists that the goals of the spiritual life are totally realizable—here and now.
A Spiritual Renegade’s Guide to the Good Life aims to disrupt your suffering\, disturb your dissatisfaction\, and elicit a deep-seated contentment.
Aristocratic and delightfully witty amateur sleuth Dandy Gilver was greeted with boisterous cheers from readers and reviewers alike in Catriona McPherson's previous outing\, Dandy Gilver and the Proper Treatment of Bloodstains\, which The Boston Globe named "\;one of the best crime novels of 2011."\; In this new book in this charming and funny series\, Dandy is caught between two feuding families who run rival department stores.
Dandy's services are needed when the heiress to one of the stores goes missing. As Dandy starts to unravel long-hidden family secrets\, she begins to discover disturbing connections\, and it's not long before danger abounds.
"\;With witty dialogue and low-key humor\, McPherson's series is a great choice for Jacqueline Winspear\, Carola Dunn\, and Amy Patricia Meade fans. A strong traditional offering with sly humor\, a love of dogs\, and not too much violence. A real contender for the Agathas!"\;(Library Journal\, starred review)\, Dandy Gilver and an Unsuitable Day for a Murder is one mystery not to be missed.
END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20130519T211247Z DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20120613T033000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20120613T033000Z UID:http://www.avidreaderbooks.com/event/author-event-davis-last-breath-francis-slakey URL;VALUE=URI:http://www.avidreaderbooks.com/event/author-event-davis-last-breath-francis-slakey SUMMARY:Author Event (Avid Reader Active) -- To the Last Breath with Francis Slakey DESCRIPTION:A journey to the most extreme points on Earth and deep inside the human spirit
Before Georgetown physics professor Francis Slakey set out to climb the highest mountain on every continent and surf every ocean\, he had shut himself off from other people. His lectures were mechanical\; his relationships were little more than ways to fill the evenings. But as his journey veered dangerously off course\, everything about him began to change.
A gripping adventure of the body and mind\, To the Last Breath depicts the quest that leads Slakey around the globe\, almost takes his life\, challenges his fiercely held beliefs\, and opens his heart. The scientist in Slakey explores the history of Robert Falcon Scott’s doomed Antarctica expedition\, the technology of climbing\, and the geophysics of waves. But it is the challenges he endures and the people he encounters—a Lama who gives him a mysterious amulet\, a life-or-death choice atop Everest\, an ambush at gunpoint in Indonesia\, a head-on collision in the high desert—that culminate in a moving lesson about what it means to be human.
END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20130519T211247Z DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20120615T033000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20120615T033000Z UID:http://www.avidreaderbooks.com/event/author-event-davis-unsaid-neil-abramson URL;VALUE=URI:http://www.avidreaderbooks.com/event/author-event-davis-unsaid-neil-abramson SUMMARY:Author Event (Davis) -- Unsaid with Neil Abramson DESCRIPTION:Unsaid is told from the perspective of Helena Colden\, a veterinarian who has just died of breast cancer. Helena is forced to witness the rapid emotional deterioration of the beloved husband she has left behind. With Helena's passing\, David\, a successful Manhattan attorney\, loses the only connection that made his life full. He tries to carry on the life that Helena had created for them\, but he is too grief-stricken\, too angry\, and too quickly reabsorbed into the demands of his career. Helena's animals likewise struggle with the loss of their understanding and compassionate human companion. Because of Helena\, David becomes involved in a court case to save the life of a chimpanzee that may hold the key to unlocking the mysteries of animal consciousness. Through this case\, all the threads of Helena's life entwine and explode - unexpectedly\, painfully\, beautifully.
"\;Unsaid carries the reader through a maze of knowing and denial interwoven into the master narrative of science...an unrelenting story of the times-a pivotal moment of recognition and atonement...."\;
--Psychology Today
"\;If you love legal dramas...or dogs...or terrific writing...or originality...or people...or discovering wonderful new writers\, then Neil Abramson's Unsaid is a book you simply must read."\;
--David Rosenfelt\, author of Dog Tags
END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20130519T211247Z DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20120617T033000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20120617T033000Z UID:http://www.avidreaderbooks.com/event/author-event-davis-spy-mom-beth-mcmullen URL;VALUE=URI:http://www.avidreaderbooks.com/event/author-event-davis-spy-mom-beth-mcmullen SUMMARY:Author Event (Davis) -- Spy Mom with Beth McMullen DESCRIPTION:Fall in Love with Sally Sin
One Unforgettable Heroine
2 X the Adventure
Meet Sally Sin. Wife. Mother. Retired Spy. Or so she thinks. After nine years with the USAWMD (United States Agency for Weapons of Mass Destruction)--where she desperately tried to stay one step ahead of her dashing nemesis\, Ian Blackford--Sally has become Lucy Hamilton\, stay-at-home mom to Theo and wife to adoring husband\, Will\, who knows nothing of her covert past. But now\, instead of chasing bad guys through perilous jungles\, she builds giant Lego towers\, reads Green Eggs and Ham and crafts exceptional forts from couch cushions and blankets.
Just when she's starting to settle into retirement\, Sally's old Agency boss\, Simon Still\, shows up to recruit her for one more job\, involving the illegal arms dealer\, Blackford\, who is on the move again. Original Sin features Sally's great chase to thwart Blackford\, who\, conveniently\, no one besides her seems to be able to stop. But can she make it to preschool pickup\, get dinner on the table\, and foil Blackford's nefarious plot?
And just when you think the thrills are over\, you'll be ready To Sin Again.
When the Agency Director is taken hostage\, Sally is once again called into action. A rescue operation? Easy. That is\, until Sally learns of a connection between the kidnapping and her own mysterious childhood\, which complicates everything\, even Theo's kindergarten applications. Being a mom is hard enough\, without having to save the world.
Funny\, fast-paced\, and compulsively readable\, Spy Mom offers two action-packed adventures for mothers and spies\, and anyone who has ever dreamed about being either.
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