Rainy Day Books, Inc.


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Rainy Day Books
Rainy Day Books is located in
The Fairway Shops
2706 W 53rd Street
Fairway, Kansas 66205-1705
Phone: 913-384-3126

Store Hours:
Mon/Tue/Wed/Thu/Fri 10 to 6 and Saturdays 10 to 5
Sundays we are Home with our families and friends when we read and rest!

In This Newsletter
Wednesday Night: Jeannette Walls!
Saturday Afternoon: Gwen Cooper!
JUST ADDED: Mary Pipher!
JUST ADDED: Julie Garwood!
Great New Books arriving this Week!
HERE THEY COME!
Our World-Famous Author Events Calendar!

 

Jeannette Walls, Wednesday, June 19

 

Gwen Cooper, Saturday, June 22

 

Sahar Delijani, Wednesday, June 26

 

Curtis Sittenfeld, Tuesday, July 9

 

Chris Bohjalian and Stephen Kiernan, Wednesday, July 10

 

Mary Pipher, Tuesday, July 6

 

Tim O'Mara, Wednesday, July 17

 

B.A. Shapiro, Tuesday, July 23

 

Julie Garwood, Tuesday, August 6

 

Susannah Cahalan, Wednesday, August 14

 

Kate White, Monday, September 23

 

Bill McKibben, Friday, September 27

 

Nicholas Sparks, Thursday, October 10

Volume 640                        June 17, 2013

Greetings! ,

  

This past Tuesday, June 11, Rainy Day Books hosted Alex Grecian, Bestselling Author of The Yard in Unity Temple Chapel for his New Book The Black Country.  Alex's son Graham came with his Dad in celebration of Father's Day!

That same Night, Rainy Day Books hosted Jonathan Alter, former Senior Editor of NEWSWEEK and New York Times Bestselling Author of The Promise and Defining Moment in Unity Temple Sanctuary for his New Book The Center Holds.

Rainy Day Books
sells Author Autographed Hardcovers of The Black Country and The Center Holds that are mailed globally.

Jonathan Alter, Alex and Graham Grecian with Vivien & Roger 06112013

 

Read a great Book and pass it on, 

 

Vivien & Roger 

Wednesday Night:  Jeannette Walls will appear for her New Novel The Silver Star

Jeannette Walls 

Jeannette Walls, New York Times Bestselling Author of the Memoir The Glass Castle and the Novel Half-Broke Horses, will return to Kansas City to present her New Novel The Silver Star.

 

This Event is Wednesday, June 19, 2013 at 7:00 PM at Unity Temple on The Plaza, Sanctuary, 707 W 47th Street, Kansas City, Missouri 64112.

Saturday Afternoon:  Gwen Cooper will celebrate her New Novel Love Saves The Day

GwenCooper 2013 
Gwen Cooper, New York Times Bestselling Author of Homer's Odyssey: A Fearless Feline Tale, or How I Learned about Love and Life with a Blind Wonder Cat, will return to Kansas City to celebrate her New Novel Love Saves the Day. Co-Sponsored by Rainy Day Books and Wayside Waifs. 

 

In Love Saves The Day, humans best understand the truth of things if they come at it indirectly.  Like how sometimes the best way to catch a mouse that's right in front of you is to back up before you pounce.   So notes Prudence, the irresistible brown tabby at the center of Gwen Cooper's tender, joyful, utterly unforgettable novel, which is mostly told through the eyes of this curious (and occasionally cranky) feline.

 

This Event is OPEN to the general public.  Walk-ins are welcome.

 

A special message from Gwen Cooper:

 

"When you help animals, you help people.  The tour for LOVE SAVES THE DAY highlights that animal welfare is ultimately about human welfare.  The shelters and rescue groups on the tour have been selected on the strength of innovative programs that extend their work with animals into programs that serve humans.  They've implemented programs that serve the elderly, the homeless, military families, at-risk children (with programs for literacy, anti-bullying, character building), low-income families, disaster survivors, domestic violence victims, and more.  Love does save the day, and not just for the animals these organizations rescue. 

 

Many thanks to our Presenting Sponsor, ARM & HAMMER� Ultra Last™Clumping Cat Litter, who will donate 500 pounds of litter to each shelter and rescue group on the tour! 

 

Thanks also to corporate partner Litter Genie � System, who will be distributing a free Litter Genie � System to each and every person who attends a tour event (while supplies last, so come early!)."

 

This Event is Saturday, June 22, 2013 from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM at Unity Temple on The Plaza, Chapel, 707 W 47th Street, Kansas City, Missouri 64112.

JUST ADDED:  Mary Pipher, Ph.D., will present her New Book The Green Boat: Reviving Ourselves in Our Capsized Culture

MaryPipher 
Mary Pipher, Ph.D., New York Times Bestselling Author of Reviving Ophelia, Seeking Peace, Another Country and The Shelter of Each Other will present her New Book The Green Boat: Reviving Ourselves in Our Capsized Culture.
 

 

This Event is Tuesday, July 16, 2013 at 7:00 PM at Unity Temple on The Plaza, Sanctuary, 707 W 47th Street, Kansas City, Missouri 64112.

JUST ADDED:  Julie Garwood will celebrate the release of her New Book Hotshot

JulieGarwood2013 
Celebrate with Kansas City native and New York Times Bestselling Author Julie Garwood!  Join us for the Launch Party for her New Novel Hotshot.

 

This Event is Tuesday, August 6, 2013 at 6:30 PM at Andr�'s Confiserie Suisse, 5018 Main Street, Kansas City, Missouri 64112.

Great New Books arrive on our shelves every Tuesday!  Be the first to discover something New and Wonderful!

Loyalty

Loyalty

Ingrid Thoft

Putnam

 

The Ludlows are a hard-charging family, and patriarch Carl Ludlow treats his offspring like employees-which they are. But his daughter, Fina, is a bit of a black sheep. A law school dropout, her father keeps her in the fold as the firm's private investigator, working alongside her brothers. Juggling her family of high-powered (and highly dysfunctional) attorneys, the cops and Boston's criminal element is usually something Fina does without breaking a sweat. But when her sister-in-law disappears, she's caught up in a case unlike any she's encountered before. Carl wants things resolved without police interference, but the deeper Fina digs, the more impossible that seems. The Ludlows close ranks, and her brother Rand and his unruly teenage daughter Haley grow mysteriously distant from the family. As Fina unearths more dirt, the demands of family loyalty intensify. But Fina is after the truth-no matter the cost.

 

Lexicon

Lexicon

Max Barry

Penguin

 

At an exclusive school somewhere outside of Arlington, Virginia, students aren't taught history, geography, or mathematics-at least not in the usual ways. Instead, they are taught to persuade. Here the art of coercion has been raised to a science. Students harness the hidden power of language to manipulate the mind and learn to break down individuals by psychographic markers in order to take control of their thoughts. The very best will graduate as "poets": adept wielders of language who belong to a nameless organization that is as influential as it is secretive. Whip-smart orphan Emily Ruff is making a living running a three-card Monte game on the streets of San Francisco when she attracts the attention of the organization's recruiters. She is flown across the country for the school's strange and rigorous entrance exams, where, once admitted, she will be taught the fundamentals of persuasion by Bront�, Eliot, and Lowell-who have adopted the names of famous poets to conceal their true identities. For in the organization, nothing is more dangerous than revealing who you are: Poets must never expose their feelings lest they be manipulated. Emily becomes the school's most talented prodigy until she makes a catastrophic mistake: She falls in love. Meanwhile, a seemingly innocent man named Wil Jamieson is brutally ambushed by two strange men in an airport bathroom. Although he has no recollection of anything they claim he's done, it turns out Wil is the key to a secret war between rival factions of poets and is quickly caught in their increasingly deadly crossfire. Pursued relentlessly by people with powers he can barely comprehend and protected by the very man who first attacked him, Wil discovers that everything he thought he knew about his past was fiction. In order to survive, must journey to the toxically decimated tow nof Broken Hill, Australia, to discover who he is and why an entire town was blown off the map. As the two narratives converge, the shocking work of the poets is fully revealed, the body count rises, and the world crashes toward a Tower of Babel event which would leave all language meaningless. Max Barry's most spellbinding and ambitious novel yet, Lexicon is a brilliant thriller that explores language, power, identity, and our capacity to love-whatever the cost.

 

Island Girls

Island Girls

Nancy Thayer

Ballantine

 

New York Times bestselling author Nancy Thayer returns to her beloved Nantucket in a highly emotional, wholly entertaining tale of three sisters forced to confront the past over one event-filled summer on the island. Charming ladies' man Rory Randall dies with one last trick up his sleeve: His will includes a calculating clause mandating a summer-long reunion for his daughters, all from different marriages-that is, if they hope to inherit his posh Nantucket house. Relations among the three sisters are sour thanks to long-festering jealousies, resentments, and misunderstandings. Arden, a successful television host in Boston, hasn't been back to the island since her teenage years, when accusations of serious misbehavior led to her banishment. College professor Meg hopes to use her summer to finish a literary biography and avoid an amorous colleague. And secretive Jenny, an IT specialist, faces troubling questions about her identity while longing for her sisters' acceptance. To their surprise, the three young women find their newfound sisterhood easier to trust than the men who show up to complicate their lives. And if that weren't problematic enough, their mothers descend on the island. When yet another visitor drops by the house with shocking news, the past comes screaming back with a vengeance. Having all the women from his life under his seaside roof-and overseeing the subsequent drama of that perfect storm-Rory Randall might just be enjoying a hearty laugh from above. Nancy Thayer's novel insightfully illustrates how the push and pull of family altercations make us whole. It's how the Randall sisters come to forgive, and learn to open their hearts to love.

 

The Heist

The Heist

Janet Evanovich, Lee Goldberg

Bantam

 

From Janet Evanovich, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Stephanie Plum novels, and Lee Goldberg, bestselling author and television writer for Monk, comes the first adventure in an electrifying new series featuring an FBI agent who always gets her man, and a fearless con artist who lives for the chase. FBI Special Agent Kate O'Hare is known for her fierce dedication and discipline on the job, chasing down the world's most wanted criminals and putting them behind bars. Her boss thinks she is tenacious and ambitious; her friends think she is tough, stubborn, and maybe even a bit obsessed. And while Kate has made quite a name for herself for the past five years the only name she's cared about is Nicolas Fox-an international crook she wants in more ways than one. Audacious, handsome, and dangerously charming, Nicolas Fox is a natural con man, notorious for running elaborate scams on very high-profile people. At first he did it for the money. Now he does it for the thrill. He knows that the FBI has been hot on his trail-particularly Kate O'Hare, who has been watching his every move. For Nick, there's no greater rush than being pursued by a beautiful woman . . . even one who aims to lock him up. But just when it seems that Nicolas Fox has been captured for good, he pulls off his greatest con of all: He convinces the FBI to offer him a job, working side by side with Special Agent Kate O'Hare. Problem is, teaming up to stop a corrupt investment banker who's hiding on a private island in Indonesia is going to test O'Hare's patience and Fox's skill. Not to mention the skills of their ragtag team made up of flamboyant actors, wanted wheelmen, and Kate's dad. High-speed chases, pirates, and Toblerone bars are all in a day's work . . . if O'Hare and Fox don't kill each other first.

 

The Lovebird

The Lovebird

Natalie Brown

Doubleday

 

A spectacularly vibrant, original debut, The Lovebird takes us from the orange-scented streets of Southern California to the vast prairie landscape of Montana, and introduces us to Margie Fitzgerald, a spirited and unforgettable heroine for our times. Margie has always had a soft spot for helpless creatures. Her warm heart breaks, her left ovary twinges, and she is smitten with sympathy. This is how she falls in love with Simon Mellinkoff, her charismatic, obviously troubled Latin professor. As the two embark on an unconventional romance, Simon introduces Margie to his small coterie of animal rights activists, and with this ragtag group she finds her apparent mission in life. But Margie's increasingly reckless and dangerous actions force her to flee her California college town, say goodbye to her fragile dad, and seek shelter on the Crow Indian Reservation in Montana. Here, against a backdrop of endless grass and sky, Margie meets a soap opera-loving grandmother, an intriguing, ink-splattered man, and an inscrutable eleven-year-old girl-and makes unexpected discoveries about her heart. Suffused with humor and compassion, The Lovebird is a radiant novel about one young woman's love of animals, yearning for connection, and search for her place in this world.

 

The 9th Girl

The 9th Girl

Tami Hoag

Dutton

 

#1 New York Times bestselling author Tami Hoag brings back her fan-favorite Minneapolis investigators Sam Kovac and Nikki Liska in the haunting new thriller The 9th Girl. "Kovac had seen more dead bodies than he could count: Men, women, children; victims of shootings, stabbings, strangulations, beatings; fresh corpses and bodies that had been left for days in the trunks of cars in the dead of summer. But he had never seen anything quite like this . . . " On a frigid New Year's Eve in Minneapolis a young woman's brutalized body falls from the trunk of a car into the path of oncoming traffic. Questions as to whether she was alive or dead when she hit the icy pavement result in her macabre nickname, Zombie Doe. Unidentified and unidentifiable, she is the ninth nameless female victim of the year, and homicide detectives Sam Kovac and Nikki Liska are charged with the task of not only finding out who Zombie Doe is, but who in her life hated her enough to destroy her. Was it personal, or could it just have been a crime of opportunity? Their greatest fear is that not only is she their ninth Jane Doe of the year, but that she may be the ninth victim of a vicious transient serial killer they have come to call Doc Holiday. Crisscrossing America's heartland, Doc Holiday chooses his victims at random, snatching them in one city and leaving them in another, always on a holiday. If Zombie Doe is one of his, he has brought his gruesome game to a new and more terrifying level. But as Kovac and Liska begin to uncover the truth, they will find that the monsters in their ninth girl's life may have lived closer to home. And even as another young woman disappears, they have to ask the question: which is the greater evil--the devil you know or the devil you don't?

 

The Long War

The Long War

Terry Pratchett, Stephen Baxter

Harper

 

The Long War by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter follows the adventures and travails of heroes Joshua Valiente and Lobsang in an exciting continuation of the extraordinary science fiction journey begun in their New York Times bestseller The Long Earth. A generation after the events of The Long Earth, humankind has spread across the new worlds opened up by "stepping." A new "America"--Valhalla--is emerging more than a million steps from Datum--our Earth. Thanks to a bountiful environment, the Valhallan society mirrors the core values and behaviors of colonial America. And Valhalla is growing restless under the controlling long arm of the Datum government. Soon Joshua, now a married man, is summoned by Lobsang to deal with a building crisis that threatens to plunge the Long Earth into a war unlike any humankind has waged before.

 

The Ocean at the End of the Lane

The Ocean at the End of the Lane

Neil Gaiman

William Morrow

 

A brilliantly imaginative and poignant fairy tale from the modern master of wonder and terror, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is Neil Gaiman's first new novel for adults since his #1 New York Times bestseller Anansi Boys. This bewitching and harrowing tale of mystery and survival, and memory and magic, makes the impossible all too real...

 

Sweet Salt Air

Sweet Salt Air

Barbara Delinsky

St. Martin's Press

 

On Quinnipeague, hearts open under the summer stars and secrets float in the Sweet Salt Air... Charlotte and Nicole were once the best of friends, spending summers together in Nicole's coastal island house off of Maine. But many years, and many secrets, have kept the women apart. A successful travel writer, single Charlotte lives on the road, while Nicole, a food blogger, keeps house in Philadelphia with her surgeon-husband, Julian. When Nicole is commissioned to write a book about island food, she invites her old friend Charlotte back to Quinnipeague, for a final summer, to help. Outgoing and passionate, Charlotte has a gift for talking to people and making friends, and Nicole could use her expertise for interviews with locals. Missing a genuine connection, Charlotte agrees. But what both women don't know is that they are each holding something back that may change their lives forever. For Nicole, what comes to light could destroy her marriage, but it could also save her husband. For Charlotte, the truth could cost her Nicole's friendship, but could also free her to love again. And her chance may lie with a reclusive local man, with a heart to soothe and troubles of his own. Bestselling author and master storyteller Barbara Delinsky invites you come away to Quinnipeague...

 

The Wonder of Aging: A New Approach to Embracing Life After Fifty

The Wonder of Aging: A New Approach to Embracing Life After Fifty

Michael Gurian

Simon & Schuster

 

The New York Times bestselling author of The Wonder of Boys offers a holistic and uplifting look at the emotional, spiritual, and cognitive dimensions of aging-and how to celebrate life after fifty. The years after fifty are generally discussed in terms of health: what are the physical symptoms that come with advancing age, and what can we do about them? The Wonder of Aging goes beyond these topics to serve as both a spiritual, meditative guide and a practical exploration of the emotional and psychological dimensions of the second half of life. This profound book looks at aging as something positive, life-giving, and miraculous. In his characteristically accessible and moving prose, family therapist Michael Gurian shows how we become elders. The world needs our wisdom, he argues, and he shows us how to develop and share it. Called "the people's philosopher" for his ability to apply scientific ideas to our ordinary lives, Gurian sees life after fifty as an enormously fruitful, exciting, and fulfilling time. Drawing on groundbreaking research in neuroscience as well as anecdotes from his many clients over the last two decades, he goes beyond the physical-centered view of aging to present a new, holistic paradigm that embraces the soul-enriching opportunities of fifty and beyond. The Wonder of Aging divides the second half of life into three stages: the Age of Transformation, from our late forties to around sixty; the Age of Distinction, from sixty to seventy-five; and the Age of Completion, which involves the final stage of our journey. Discussing topics such as sex, how men and women age differently, the effects of aging on the brain, grandparenting, living with purpose, and what to expect in your last chapter, Gurian also provides meditations and exercises to help you design your present and future. Written with Gurian's courageously optimistic outlook on life, The Wonder of Aging is a comprehensive and comforting road map of what to expect in the second half of your life-and how to celebrate it. The elder years can be a journey into something richer and deeper, full of hope and meaning rather than a sense of fate, and this book gives you the tools to revel in them to the fullest.

 

A History of Food in 100 Recipes

A History of Food in 100 Recipes

William Sitwell

Little Brown

 

A riveting narrative history of food as seen through 100 recipes, from ancient Egyptian bread to modernist cuisine. We all love to eat, and most people have a favorite ingredient or dish. But how many of us know where our much-loved recipes come from, who invented them, and how they were originally cooked? In A HISTORY OF FOOD IN 100 RECIPES, culinary expert and BBC television personality William Sitwell explores the fascinating history of cuisine from the first cookbook to the first cupcake, from the invention of the sandwich to the rise of food television. A book you can read straight through and also use in the kitchen, A HISTORY OF FOOD IN 100 RECIPES is a perfect gift for any food lover who has ever wondered about the origins of the methods and recipes we now take for granted.

 

Second Suns: Two Doctors and Their Amazing Quest to Restore Sight and Save Lives

Second Suns: Two Doctors and Their Amazing Quest to Restore Sight and Save Lives

David Oliver Relin

Random House

 

From the co-author of Three Cups of Tea comes the inspiring story of two very different doctors-one from the United States, the other from Nepal-united in a common mission: to rid the world of preventable blindness. In this transporting book, David Oliver Relin shines a light on the work of Geoffrey Tabin and Sanduk Ruit, gifted ophthalmologists who have dedicated their lives to restoring sight to some of the world's most isolated, impoverished people through the Himalayan Cataract Project, an organization they founded in 1995. Tabin was the high-achieving bad boy of Harvard Medical School, an accomplished mountain climber and adrenaline junkie as brilliant as he was unconventional. Ruit grew up in a remote Nepalese village, where he became intimately acquainted with the human costs of inadequate access to health care. Together they found their life's calling: tending to the afflicted people of the Himalayas, a vast mountainous region with an alarmingly high incidence of cataract blindness. Second Suns takes us from improvised plywood operating tables in villages without electricity or plumbing to state-of-the-art surgical centers at major American universities where these two driven men are restoring sight-and hope-to patients from around the world. With their revolutionary, inexpensive style of surgery, Tabin and Ruit have been able to cure tens of thousands-all for about twenty dollars per operation. David Oliver Relin brings the doctors' work to vivid life through poignant portraits of patients helped by the surgery, from old men who cannot walk treacherous mountain trails unaided to cataract-stricken children who have not seen their mothers' faces for years. With the dexterity of a master storyteller, Relin shows the profound emotional and practical impact that these operations have had on patients' lives. Second Suns is the moving, unforgettable story of how two men with a shared dream are changing the world, one pair of eyes at a time.

 


Thank You for supporting Your Community Bookseller, Rainy Day Books!

Since 1975, we have pursued our Legacy of Literacy: 38 years of helping match readers to great books, bringing famous and soon-to-be-famous names to Kansas City, and enjoying the excitement of sharing so many experiences.

 

Take the time to tell someone new about Rainy Day Books.  Each book that you purchase at Rainy Day Books makes Rainy Day Books a place authors ask to visit, a vibrant part of Kansas City's arts community, and a bookstore where people love books enough to talk about them all day long.  Please encourage your fellow readers to sign up for this E-Newsletter.  We have an exciting schedule of upcoming Author Events, and this is the first place to hear about them!  We also take Orders for Author Autographed Books, so your friends far and wide can share in the experience.

 

Rainy Day Books is located in The Fairway Shops, at the intersection of Shawnee Mission Parkway and Belinder Road.  Our address is 2706 W 53rd Street, Fairway, Kansas (KS) 66205.

 

Get directions to Rainy Day Books and our Event venues by clicking here. 

 

Store Hours:  Mon/Tue/Wed/Thu/Fri 10 AM to 6 PM, Sat 10 AM to 5 PM, and Sundays we read, rest and enjoy our families and friends.

 

When you shop at Rainy Day Books you're a part of our Legacy of Literacy for Kansas City.  We provide full service, knowledgeable recommendations and priceless Author Event experiences, all at a fair price.  To our customers, 

thank you for your support. 

 

We look forward to seeing you soon!

 

Vivien Jennings & Roger Doeren  


Vivien, Roger, and all of your friends at Rainy Day Books