Laurel Book Store 
1423 Broadway,  Oakland, CA 94612 
510-452-9232 

 

 www.laurelbookstore.com  

[email protected]     

Your neighborhood book store in downtown Oakland.     8-25-15

Free parking every Saturday at the Clay St. Garage behind City Hall!
 
    

Laurel Book Store
1423 Broadway
Oakland, CA 94612
510-452-9232

Mon - Thurs 10-6
Fri & Sat  10-7
Except Event nights and First Fridays
 Sun Closed    Find us on Facebook

 
In This Issue
FREE parking every Saturday at the Clay St. Garage right behind City Hall between 14th and 15th.


We can't wait to see
you here!

UPCOMING
EVENTS
click the date for info

Tonight
Friday, Aug. 28 6:30pm
Mujeres Unidas
Reading

Saturday, Aug. 29  4pm
Launch Party for
George by
Alex Gino
 
Check the website for more listings!

  Have you ever seen a

Fog Globe? 
  
We have them and there's a video of one in action on our facebook page. 
Go look.  
Yes, right now. 
Just scroll down, you'll see it and be amazed like we are.  
And we have to order more now that the word is out!  

  I think it had a green cover.....

  

Dear Reader,     

    There are lots of wonderful books out today!

Plus we received a bunch of new children's titles that I hope you like as much as we do.

    Don't forget to come to the launch of George on Saturday at 4. It's the book this season that everyone should read and every school should have in stock. If not for the child who is feeling like George, then for all the other kids who are or will  be friends and allies. Grown ups too.

     Friday night we have a wonderful reading by Spanish speaking women - Mujeres Unidas y Activas. Be here at 6:30.

     This is the last week to see Heather Piazza's wonderful art on our walls and choose the one you are going to buy. Support artists!!  

 

     We still have a selection of children's nonfiction on sale at 25% off through the week! Get in here. 

      

     And on with the books already!! 

       

Happy reading, 

Luan   

 

Don't forget, if you're shopping online, we're there. From our website you can shop for books and ebooks too!  We're no big internet giant but if you just want it sent to you, feel free to check that box. But we love to see you come in so do that too.

Downtown Delivery Coming Soon!! 

 

 

 
Secondhand Souls by Christopher Moore $26.99 Something really strange is happening in the City by the Bay. People are dying, but their souls are not being collected. Someone-or something-is stealing them and no one knows where they are going, or why, but it has something to do with that big orange bridge. Death Merchant Charlie Asher is just as flummoxed as everyone else. He's trapped in the body of a fourteen-inch-tall "meat puppet" waiting for his Buddhist nun girlfriend, Audrey, to find him a suitable new body to play host.
To get to the bottom of this abomination, a motley crew of heroes will band together: the seven-foot-tall death merchant Minty Fresh; retired policeman turned bookseller Alphonse Rivera; the Emperor of San Francisco and his dogs, Bummer and Lazarus; and Lily, the former Goth girl. Now if only they can get little Sophie to stop babbling about the coming battle for the very soul of humankind . . .


X by Sue Grafton $28.95
(tantalizingly close to Z, no?)
X: The number ten. An unknown quantity. A mistake. A cross. A kiss.
X: The shortest entry in Webster's Unabridged. Derived from Greek and Latin and commonly found in science, medicine, and religion. The most graphically dramatic letter. Notoriously tricky to pronounce: think xylophone.
X: The twenty-fourth letter in the English alphabet.
Sue Grafton's X: Perhaps her darkest and most chilling novel, it features a remorseless serial killer who leaves no trace of his crimes. Once again breaking the rules and establishing new paths, Grafton wastes little time identifying this sociopath. The test is whether Kinsey can prove her case against him before she becomes his next victim.

The Nature of the Beast by Louise Penny $27.99 Hardly a day goes by when nine year old Laurent Lepage doesn't cry wolf. From alien invasions, to walking trees, to winged beasts in the woods, to dinosaurs spotted in the village of Three Pines, his tales are so extraordinary no one can possibly believe him. Including Armand and Reine-Marie Gamache, who now live in the little Quebec village.
But when the boy disappears, the villagers are faced with the possibility that one of his tall tales might have been true.
And so begins a frantic search for the boy and the truth. What they uncover deep in the forest sets off a sequence of events that leads to murder, leads to an old crime, leads to an old betrayal. Leads right to the door of an old poet.

Purity by Jonathan Franzen $28  Purity is a grand story of youthful idealism, extreme fidelity, and murder. The author ofThe Corrections and Freedom has imagined a world of vividly original characters--Californians and East Germans, good parents and bad parents, journalists and leakers--and he follows their intertwining paths through landscapes as contemporary as the omnipresent Internet and as ancient as the war between the sexes. Purity is the most daring and penetrating book yet by one of the major writers of our time.

The Taming of the Queen by Philippa Gregory  $27.99
Why would a woman marry a serial killer?
Because she cannot refuse...
Kateryn Parr, a thirty-year-old widow in a secret affair with a new lover, has no choice when a man old enough to be her father who has buried four wives-King Henry VIII-commands her to marry him.
Kateryn has no doubt about the danger she faces: the previous queen lasted sixteen months, the one before barely half a year. But Henry adores his new bride and Kateryn's trust in him grows as she unites the royal family, creates a radical study circle at the heart of the court, and rules the kingdom as Regent.

Voices in the Ocean by Susan Casey $27.95  Since the dawn of recorded history, humans have felt a kinship with the sleek and beautiful dolphin, an animal whose playfulness, sociability, and intelligence seem like an aquatic mirror of mankind. In recent decades, we have learned that dolphins recognize themselves in reflections, count, grieve, adorn themselves, feel despondent, rescue one another (and humans), deduce, infer, seduce, form cliques, throw tantrums, and call themselves by name. Scientists still don't completely understand their incredibly sophisticated navigation and communication abilities, or their immensely complicated brains.
While swimming off the coast of Maui, Susan Casey was surrounded by a pod of spinner dolphins. It was a profoundly transporting experience, and it inspired her to embark on a two-year global adventure to explore the nature of these remarkable beings and their complex relationship to humanity.

Mission High by Kristina Rizga $26.99  The United States has been on a century long road toward increased standardization in our public schools, which resulted in a system that reduces the quality of education to primarily one metric: standardized test scores. According to this number, Mission High is a low-performing" school even though its college enrollment, graduation, attendance rates and student surveys are some of the best in the country.
The qualities that matter the most in learning skills like critical thinking, intellectual engagement, resilience, empathy, self-management, and cultural flexibility can't be measured by multiple-choice questions designed by distant testing companies, Rizga argues, but they can be detected by skilled teachers in effective, personalized and humane classrooms that work for all students, not just the most motivated ones.
Based on four years of reporting with unprecedented access, the unforgettable, intimate stories in these pages throw open the doors to America's most talked about and arguably least understood public school classrooms where the largely invisible voices of our smart, resilient students and their committed educators can offer a clear and hopeful blueprint for what it takes to help all students succeed.
Please join us for the launch party for George on Saturday, August 29 at 4pm.

George by Alex Gino $16.99
 BE WHO YOU ARE.
When people look at George, they think they see a boy. But she knows she's not a boy. She knows she's a girl.
George thinks she'll have to keep this a secret forever. Then her teacher announces that their class play is going to be Charlotte's Web. George really, really, REALLY wants to play Charlotte. But the teacher says she can't even try out for the part . . . because she's a boy.
With the help of her best friend, Kelly, George comes up with a plan. Not just so she can be Charlotte -- but so everyone can know who she is, once and for all.

Captain Underpants and teh Sensational Saga of Sir Stinks-a-Lot by Dav Pilkey $9.99  George and Harold, and their doubles, Yesterday George and Yesterday Harold, have a good thing going. Two of them go to school, while the other two hide in the tree house and play video games all day -- then they switch! But when their malicious gym teacher, Mr. Meaner, creates a method of mind-control that turns their fellow students into attentive, obedient,perfect children, the future of all humanity will be in their hands! Is there a 2nd or 3rd grade boy who needs something fun??

Friendshape by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Tom Lichtenheld $16.99 Friends shape who we are. They make us laugh. They fill us with fun. They stand by us during life's up and downs. And even when we disagree with our friends, if they're tried-and-true, they don't stay bent out of shape for long. That's the beauty of a good buddy. This joyous book rejoices in the simple beauties of friendship, and reminds readers of all ages that it's good to have a group of pals. Three and up.

Ripley's Believe It or Not 2016 $16.99 This new special edition features 144 pages of awesomely weird information and photos, behind a cover with eye-catching special effects! From a life-size gingerbread house in Texas to a real underwater city in China, or a dolphin with an artificial tail to an ex-soldier with a bionic arm--you really won't believe it until you see it! The ultimate crowd pleaser!

Percy Jackson's Greek Heroes by Rick Riordan  $24.99
Who cut off Medusa's head? Who was raised by a she-bear? Who tamed Pegasus? It takes a demigod to know, and Percy Jackson can fill you in on the all the daring deeds of Perseus, Atalanta, Bellerophon, and the rest of the major Greek heroes. Told in the funny, irreverent style readers have come to expect from Percy, (I've had some bad experiences in my time, but the heroes I'm going to tell you about were the original old school hard luck cases. They boldly screwed up where no one had screwed up before. . .) and enhanced with vibrant artwork by Caldecott Honoree John Rocco, this story collection will become the new must-have classic for Rick Riordan's legions of devoted fans--and for anyone who needs a hero.

Luan's Pick of the Week!
Sardines of Love by Zurine Aguirre $16.99 When she runs out of sardines, her husband's favorite food, Grandmother Lola goes fishing for more and winds up in the belly of an octopus, causing Grandfather Lolo to mourn her until something surprising happens.
Why is it my pick? It's cute, it's quirky, it shows what you do for love every day and how you make adjustments for the people you love. And sardines. Luan

 
LAST WEEK TO SEE AND BUY HER ART HERE!
The art of Heather Piazza is on our walls now.
Heather is also the owner of Creative Framing on Park Boulevard.



A native of California's central valley, Heather joined in the Bay Area art scene in 2002 after receiving her Fine Arts Degree. She has been a custom picture framer for more than 20 years. Heather has a passion for the non-traditional, for the variety and complexity of light, for color, texture and design. These passions come through in the frames she designs for her clients as well as in each new piece of art she creates. Whether expressing herself through acrylic and oil painting, glass lamp-working, printmaking, drawing or photography,
Heather has let creative intuition guide her work.


Heather's art is derived by her enthusiasm in life and is expressed in whatever medium helps translate her feelings or fits her artistic mood. She is fortunate enough to show art regularly in all mediums.
Heather looks forward to her next creative challenge,
 in whatever form it may take.