Laguna Beach Books
                                                March 2011

Book Group

 True Grit 
Join us to discuss True Grit by Charles Portis 
on Wednesday, April 20 at 6:30 pm. 
Greetings! 
It's only been a couple of weeks and we have so much to tell you! First, we just debuted our new website, and you can now order books online from us. This includes Google eBooks! Please check it out and tell us what you think.
  
Also, we have selected our new Laguna Reads author, and it is none other than New York Times bestselling author Terri Cheney! This city-wide reading event is co-sponsored by St. Mary's Episcopal Church and Laguna Beach Books and will take place on April 28. See below for more details. 
  
In addition to our Laguna Reads event, we also have a couple of other events coming up in April, specifically with authors Ellen Ruderman and Victoria Patterson. Victoria did an event with us for Drift, her short story collection, and we are looking forward to celebrating the publication of her debut novel.
  
We have a variety of book recommendations in fiction this time around. Don't forget that if any of these suit your fancy you can pick them up in the store or order them online.
  
Happy reading!
AnnouncingAnnouncing Our New Website!
Shop for BooksWe are so pleased to announce the debut of our new website! The bigger, better version of our original site, you can now order books online from us. And that includes Google eBooks, the most flexible way to buy eBooks.
  
Now you can support your local indie bookstore, while also enjoying the convenience of shopping from the comfort of your home or office. We hope that you will let us connect you with a great book... please check us out today and see how easy it is! And please do let us know what you think of our new site, we appreciate any feedback you may have.
EllenEllen Ruderman Event

Please join us on Sunday, April 10 at 4 pm when we will welcome Ellen Ruderman, author of Chasing the Red Car, to the store. Ellen will be reading from her book, will answer questions, and sign copies. There is no charge for this event.        

 

CTRC

Transplanted from the Bronx to the burgeoning San Fernando Valley of 1947, Kim Lebow is faced with trouble on every side.  Her home life is emotionally unpredictable, while the McCarthy era communist witch hunts strike all around, threatening Kim's father and even reaching into her high school.

 

Drawing parallels between the political repression of the 1950s and the abuses of executive power after 9/11, Chasing the Red Car reminds us that all politics is personal, and that the truth of Santayana's maxim about history repeating itself can be seen all around us every day.

 

Ellen Ruderman

Chasing the Red Car has already garnered many favorable reviews, including one from Julia Harumi Mass, Staff Attorney, ACLU of Northern California: "Chasing the Red Car brings the reader vividly into California's San Fernando Valley of the 1950's and brings alive the pervasive fear and disruption that ordinary families experienced under McCarthyism."

 

Ellen Ruderman is a practicing psychotherapist and psychoanalyst in Encino. She is a mental health consultant and educator and is the author of many academic publications. Chasing the Red Car is her first novel.

 

VictoriaVictoria Patterson Event

On Sunday, April 17 at 4 pm we will welcome Victoria Patterson, author of This Vacant Paradise to the store. Victoria will read an excerpt from her book, answer questions, and sign copies. There is no charge for this event.

 

This Vacant ParadiseThe 1990s -- Newport Beach, California. Money is god. A man's worth is judged by the size of his boat, the make of his car. A woman's value is assessed by the blank perfection of her quantifiable desirability: dress size, cup size, the whiteness of her teeth. And oh yes, her youth. Though Esther Wilson, the heroine of Victoria Patterson's debut novel, has the looks to marry well, things aren't going as planned. She's nearing her mid-30s and possibly aging out of the only role she's equipped to play: wife to a powerful member of the elite. Instead, Esther finds herself drawn to college professor Charlie Murphy, who challenges her and offers an alternative vision. 

 

This Vacant Paradise has received a starred review in Publishers Weekly and the book has been likened to a modern take on Edith Wharton's House of Mirth. And Kate Christensen from The New York Times Book Review had the following praise: "Patterson beautifully parses the consequences of one woman's fall in this memorable, penetrating, fully achieved novel." 

 

Victoria PattersonVictoria Patterson is the author of the story collection Drift, which was a finalist for the Commonwealth Club Award and the Story Prize. Her work has appeared in various publications and journals, including the Los Angeles Times, the Alaska Quarterly Review, and the Southern Review. She lives with her family in Southern California and teaches through the UCLA Writers Extension and as a Visiting Assistant Professor at UC Riverside.

LagunaLaguna Reads Event with Terri Cheney

The long-awaited time is finally here! After the success of our very first city-wide reading program, we are so pleased to announce our next Laguna Reads event. Mark your calendars for Thursday, April 28 at 7 pm, when Laguna Beach Books and St. Mary's Episcopal Church will welcome Terri Cheney, author of The Dark Side of Innocence. The event will take place at St. Mary's, which is located at 428 Park Avenue in Laguna.

 

Dark Side of InnocenceAs a young girl, Terri Cheney's life looked perfect. Her family lived in a lovely house in a tranquil Los Angeles suburb where the geraniums never once failed to bloom. She was pretty and smart, an academic superstar and popular cheerleader whose father doted on her. But starting with her first suicide attempt at age seven, it was clear that her inner world was anything but perfect.

 

"There's something wrong with her," her mother would whisper, her voice quivering on the edge of despair. And indeed there was, although no one had a name for it yet. Hostage to her roller-coaster moods, Terri veered from easy A-pluses to total paralysis, from bouts of obsessive hypersexuality to episodes of alcoholic abandon that nearly cost her her life. Throughout Terri's chaotic early years, nothing was certain from day to day except this: whatever was so deeply wrong with her must be kept a secret.

 

Thirty years later, Terri wrote Manic, a harrowing memoir that revealed her adult struggle with bipolar disorder. It became an instant New York Times bestseller and received passionate critical acclaim. But it didn't tell the whole story. The mystery of Terri's childhood remained untouched- too troubling, too painful to fathom. The Dark Side of Innocence explores those tumultuous formative years, finally shattering Terri's well-guarded secret. It also provides a heart-rending, groundbreaking insider's look into the fascinating and frightening world of childhood bipolar disorder, an illness that affects a staggering one million children.

 

TerriTerri Cheney, once a successful entertainment attorney representing the likes of Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones, now devotes her advocacy skills to the cause of mental illness. On the boards of directors of several mental health organizations, she also facilitates a weekly community support group at UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute. Her writings about bipolar disorder have been featured in the New York Times, the Huffington Post, and countless articles and blogs. She currently resides in Los Angeles.

UpcomingUpcoming Book Club Picks
 
George Dawes Green
$13.99
 

When Shaw McBride and Romeo Zderko pull up at a convenience store off I-95 in Georgia, their only thought is to fix a leaky tire and be on their way again to Florida-away from their dull Ohio tech-support jobs. But this happens to be the store from which a 318,000,000 million dollar Jackpot ticket has just been sold -- and when a pretty clerk accidentally reveals to Shaw the identity of the winning family, he hatches a ferociously audacious scheme: He and Romeo will squeeze the family for half their prize.

 

Andrew Sean Greer
$14.00

 

It is 1953 and Pearlie, a dutiful young housewife, finds herself living in the Sunset District in San Francisco, caring not only for her husband's fragile health, but also for her son, who is afflicted with polio. Then, one Saturday morning, a stranger appears on her doorstep, and everything changes. Lyrical, and surprising, The Story of a Marriage is, in the words of Khaled Housseini, "a book about love, and it is a marvel to watch Greer probe the mysteries of love to such devastating effect." 

Happy Wife, Happy Life
 
Tea Obreht
$25.00
 

Weaving a brilliant latticework of family legend, loss, and love, T�a Obreht, the youngest of The New Yorker's twenty best American fiction writers under forty, has spun a timeless novel that will establish her as one of the most vibrant, original authors of her generation. Publishers Weekly gave her book a starred review and the following praise: "Obreht is an expert at depicting history through aftermath, people through the love they inspire, and place through the stories that endure; the reflected world she creates is both immediately recognizable and a legend in its own right."

 

 

Paris Wife

The Paris Wife

Paula McLain

$25.00 

 

A deeply evocative story of ambition and betrayal, The Paris Wife captures a remarkable period of time and a love affair between two unforgettable people: Ernest Hemingway and his wife Hadley. Chicago, 1920: Hadley Richardson is a quiet twenty-eight-year-old who has all but given up on love and happiness -- until she meets Ernest Hemingway and her life changes forever. Following a whirlwind courtship and wedding, the pair set sail for Paris, where they become the golden couple in a lively and volatile group -- the fabled "Lost Generation"-- that includes Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, and F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.


New & Stimulating Fiction
 
Kate Atkinson
$24.99
 

Tracy Waterhouse leads a quiet, ordered life as a retired police detective -- a life that takes a surprising turn when she encounters Kelly Cross, a habitual offender, dragging a young child through town. Both appear miserable and better off without each other -- or so decides Tracy, in a snap decision that surprises herself as much as Kelly. Suddenly burdened with a small child, Tracy soon learns her parental inexperience is actually the least of her problems, as much larger ones loom for her and her young charge.

 

 

So Much Pretty
Cara Hoffman
$25.00 
When she disappeared from her rural hometown, Wendy White was a sweet, family-oriented girl, a late bloomer who'd recently moved out on her own, with her first real boyfriend and a job waiting tables at the local tavern. It happens all the time -- a woman goes missing, a family mourns, and the case remains unsolved. Stacy Flynn is a reporter looking for her big break. She moved east from Cleveland, a city known for its violent crime, but that's the last thing she expected to cover in Haeden.
  
  
Jodi Picoult
$28.00
  

For better or for worse, music is the language of memory. It is also the language of love. In the aftermath of a series of personal tragedies, Zoe throws herself into her career as a music therapist. When an unexpected friendship slowly blossoms into love, she makes plans for a new life, but to her shock and inevitable rage, some people -- even those she loves and trusts most -- don't want that to happen. Includes a compact disc of original songs.

  

 Imperfectionists

Tom Rachman
$15.00
  

One of most acclaimed books of the year, Tom Rachman's debut novel follows the topsy-turvy private lives of the reporters and editors of an English-language newspaper in Rome. Janet Maslin from The New York Times had this to say about the book: "Marvelous... a rich, thrilling book... a splendid original, filled with wit and structured so ingeniously that figuring out where the author is headed is half the reader's fun."

Top Sellers

  Monster High Radio Shangrila Lotus Eaters 

 See what's been selling this month. Visit our Top Sellers Page.
Happy Reading!
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