Seattle - University Book Store

Tuesday • January 25 • 7pm
Peter Carey
Tuesday • January 25 • 7pm
Jennifer Jordan
Friday • January 28 • 7pm
Fred Luskin
Wrong About Japan (KNOPF)
Savage Summit: The True Stories of the First
Five Women Who Climbed K2, the World’s Most
Feared Mountain (WILLIAM MORROW)
Stress Free for Good: 10 Scientifically Proven Life
Skills for Health and Happiness (HARPERCOLLINS)
Peter Carey, author of two Booker prize-winning
novels, offers the mostly true story (he fictionalized
some of it) of he and his son’s obsession with
Japanese manga and anime. Charley, a reserved
young boy, develops an interest in the comics and
cartoons of the land of the rising sun, and bonds
with his father over them. The two journey to
Japan to learn more, and Wrong About Japan is the
result of his observations. It’s a funny and sweet
tale of bonding and transformable ninja robots.
Cosponsored by the East Asia Studies Center at the Jackson
School of International Studies.
Tuesday • January 25 • 7pm
Marta Tienda
“Equity and Access in Higher Education”
UW Kane Hall, Room 110
Professor in Demographic Studies and Professor
of Sociology and Public Affairs at Princeton
University, Tienda will take part in the WalkerAmes lecture series. Philosophically, affirmative
action in higher education is a principle of fairness
that recognizes a need to equalize opportunities
in an unequal society; practically, it requires a
compromise between the principles of democratic
inclusion and meritocracy. Tienda, drawing lessons
from her research evaluating the consequences
of the Texas top 10 percent plan, will discuss this
controversial issue. Cosponsored by the Graduate
School, the Daniel J. Evans School of Public
Affairs, Women’s Studies, and the Center for
Research on Families.
Using journals, letters and published biographies,
Jennifer Jordan tells the stories of the first five
women to ascend to the top of K2. Though not the
tallest mountain in the world, it may well be the
most dangerous, attracting only the most daring
climbers around, and the women of Jordan’s
book certainly fly in the face of stereotype and
expectation. Sponsored by the Climbing Club at the
University of Washington. Please call 206.634.3400 for
venue information.
Wednesday
January 26 • 7:30pm
Malcolm Gladwell
Blink
Town Hall 1119 8 Avenue, Seattle
th
Our Event Coordinator, Stesha Brandon, was mad
for this book when it came out. And how could
she help herself? Gladwell, an author with the
uncanny ability to make the intricacies of human
behavior both gripping and accessible without ever
tarting it up or dumbing it down, examines the
way we make snap decisions. Should we trust quick
judgments? Can we train ourselves to make them
more effectively? How much can we know in the
blink of an eye? Part of the Seattle Science Lecture Series.
Admission is $5 at the door.
The Children’s Blizzard (HARPERCOLLINS)
An unseasonably warm January day in 1888 took
an unexpected and dangerous turn when a violent
blizzard swept through the American plains.
Hundreds of people, many of them children on
their way home from school, were killed, and many
more stranded. And surviving youngsters were
given a story to trump all “when I was your age we
had to walk to school” tales forever. Laskin’s book
looks at the immigrant families who settled the
plains looking for prosperity and instead found a
harsh, unforgiving environment.
A Pearl
of wisdom
“
Isn’t that interesting? Here we
two
addicted
Standard
US Postage Paid
Seattle, WA
Permit # 1174
JANUARY 2005 • Volume 3 : Issue 1
Bellevue
Venue TBD
Wednesday • January 27 • 7pm
David Laskin
are,
Pre-sorted
readers,
read-
ing by and large totally different
kinds of books – what does that
say about the world of literature?”
-Nancy Pearl
So, you took Tom Kelly’s advice on the 13th, and
bought a second house. It’s turning out to be a
great investment, but, boy, are you stressed. Have
no fear, Eastsiders! Fred Luskin and Stress Free for
Good are arriving at our Bellevue store to assist you.
Come on down and learn to stop worrying.
Monday • January 31 • 7pm
Peter Deleo
Survive!: My Fight for Life in the High Sierras
Jack London, eat your heart out. Peter Deleo’s
single-engine plane crashed in the Sierra Nevada
mountains, injuring him and his passengers. But
Deleo was determined to survive, and set out to
find help. Survive details his desperate fight against
injury, exhaustion and malnutrition in one of the
most remarkable real-life man-versus-nature stories
ever.
How to
Seattle
by
Nancy Pearl and
Nick DiMartino
4326 University Way NE
Seattle, WA 98105
Return Service Requested
JANUARY
2005
How to Find the Good Ones
(continued from front page)
NANCY: I usually love memoirs, but this year my
favorites were novels. I loved Susanna Clarke’s
fantasy about two warring magicians, Jonathan
Strange and Mr. Norrell, and Neal Stephenson’s
triumphant conclusion to the Baroque Trilogy, The
System of the World – I think he’s just brilliant. Liam
Callanan’s The Cloud Atlas is beautifully written
and taught me something about World War Two.
The Hamilton Case by Michelle De Kretser takes
place in a part of the world I’m totally in love with,
southern Asia – in this case, Sri Lanka.
NICK: I haven’t read any of those! For
me it was Ha Jin’s War Trash, a profound
novel set in an American POW camp in
Korea that practically left scars on my
brain, it was so intense. Heavyweight Jose
Saramago proved he could be hilarious
in The Double. Russell Banks tried to show
me the real meaning of revolution in
his gorgeous, sobering shocker set in
Liberia, The Darling. Jonathan Tropper’s
The Book of Joe has a gay-straight
friendship with all the heart of a Capra
movie, and Marjane Satrapi completed
her two-volume cartoon-strip memoir
with the brilliant Persepolis 2. For sheer
old-fashioned storytelling, Carlos Ruiz
Zafon’s The Shadow of the Wind was hard
to beat. The best new Latin American
novel in years is Edmundo Paz Soldan’s
The Matter of Desire – talk about a jawdropping surprise ending. And then,
of course, there’s Edward P. Jones’ The
Known World.
NANCY: What a book! The Known World
really deserved every award it got – it’s
well written, illuminates a little known
aspect of the past, and makes you think.
NICK: I discovered Wendell Berry this year. His new Hannah
Coulter was not only gorgeously written, but it helped me understand
the other half of America in my post-election depression.
NANCY: What I love about Wendell Berry’s books is that reading them
is like listening to a master storyteller — you’re lulled into that Port
William, Kentucky world he’s created in so many of his books. I’d also
recommend his Jayber Crow.
NICK: For sheer gripping objectivity and the
highest journalistic standards, I was hypnotized by
Jon Lee Anderson’s The Fall of Baghdad. Talk about
shining a light on the Iraq situation. Suddenly I
could read between the lines, and the headlines
made sense.
NANCY: I always read Jon Lee Anderson’s work in
The New Yorker — his writing is so incisive and
provocative. The Fall of Baghdad is no exception. I
am in awe of anyone who has the guts to report
from war zones! But the non-fiction I most
enjoyed was Steve Coll’s insightful and
thought-provoking Ghost Wars: The
Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan,
and Bin Laden.
NICK: Brave books like Asne
Seierstad’s The Bookseller of Kabul and
Sayed Kashua’s Dancing Arabs helped
open my mind and heart to the
predicament of Afghani women and
Arab-Israelis.
NANCY: Don’t overlook Alice Munro’s
Runaway. She’s probably our best living short story writer.
And Malcolm Gladwell’s follow-up to The Tipping Point is
his equally interesting Blink: The Power of Thinking Without
Thinking. Don’t forget Stella Rimington’s At Risk. And my
favorite nature writer, Craig Childs, has a new book, The
Way Out: A True Story of Ruin and Survival.
NICK: I’ve got some new favorites, too. On January
31 in Nick’s Book Club we’ll be discussing John Falk’s
harrowing and hilarious adventure in Sarajevo, Hello
to All That: A Memoir of War, Zoloft and Peace, and on
February 28 the topic will be 25-year-old Rattawat
Lapcharoensap’s superb collection of insightful,
touching stories set in Thailand, Sightseeing. Unless,
of course, I find even better books. And I’m always
looking. And so are you, Nancy. Two different readers,
two different lists. I think the message is to follow your
loves, and you’ll find the good ones. Make your own list.
T
The Good Ones
here’s nothing a book-addict
wants more than a tip on where to
find the next satisfying book. Out of the thousands
of books hitting bookstores every year, how do you
find the good ones? Discovering the best reading
experiences is the nationally-recognized specialty
of Nancy Pearl, author of Book Lust, popular NPR
commentator and former librarian at Seattle Public
Library, and it’s the obsession of Nick DiMartino,
author of three Seattle ghost novels, creator of Nick’s
Picks and host of Nick’s Book Club at University
Book Store.
NICK: People who find the right books love reading.
What do you look for, Nancy, when you browse through
a book in a bookstore? What are the tips and clues that
lead you toward good books?
NANCY: I’m first attracted by the cover of the book.
Then I read the blurb on the dust jacket, and then I
read the first sentence. If that’s all inviting, I’m a goner
and have to give the book a try. I am always looking for
new books by favorite authors – Neal Stephenson, Anne
Tyler, John Irving, Antonya Nelson, Richard Morgan,
John McPhee, Lee Child, Mark Kurlansky – but I’m
also looking for first novels or books on subjects that
I enjoy, like history, India, and political science. I also
read a lot of reviews, but I read them not to see what
the reviewer thought of the book but instead how he or
she describes the book – whether or not the characters
seem interesting, how well-written the book sounds.
And I always get suggestions from my friends. How
about you?
NICK: First, the cover, yes. But I avoid reading the
jacket copy. I don’t want any clues to the story. I want to
be surprised. I open to the first page, read a paragraph
or two. I look for an “I” in the writing, because lately all
I want to read is first-person narrative, seeing the world
through the limited viewpoint of one person, guessing
at other people’s motivations and often guessing
at your own. I’m not in the mood for authors who
tell me exactly what happened and what people are
thinking and feeling. To me, it’s more realistic to guess,
to interpret incorrectly until you discover the truth.
Someone said, “Misunderstanding is the root of all
evil,” and I believe that. I want to see through someone
else’s eyes what life is all about, what matters, what’s
worth doing, the author’s vision of life.
NANCY: Isn’t that interesting? Here we are,
two addicted readers, reading by and large
totally different kinds of books – what does
that say about the world of literature?
NICK: What were your favorite reading experiences last year?
NANCY: My favorites of 2004 were Philip
Roth’s chilling The Plot Against America and
Adam Langer’s wonderful first novel Crossing
California. I could only bear to read a little of
The Plot Against America at a time, because a
palpable sense of dread emanates from every
page. I think readers will really have to ask
themselves if that sort of thing could happen
here. I answer that question differently depending on my current level of pessimism.
NICK: I haven’t heard of the second book you
mentioned.
NANCY: In Crossing California Adam Langer
uses an affectionately satirical tone to describe
the lives of a group of teenagers, their
families, and their friends, so that the effect
is of having someone plopping himself down
next to you, at a party perhaps, telling you
stories about his life. The amazingly threedimensional characters remain in your mind
long after you close the book, especially his
fascinating teenager, Michelle Wasserstrom.
NICK: This year, to my amazement, my favorite books were not novels, but memoirs. I was
spellbound by Quang Van Nguyen’s Fourth
Uncle in the Mountain, about a brave, funny
little orphan in Vietnam learning the ancient
healing arts, and Dominika Dery’s The Twelve
Little Cakes, about growing up too short for
ballet in Communist Czechoslovakia. Honest
attempts to tell the truth, simple and clear
language, hilarious and endearing characters
– I’ve read them both twice, and could read
them again.
(continued on back page)
NANCY: Just talking about so many good books makes me want to go
home and read right now.
NICK: Exactly what I’m going to do! A good book, a comfortable
armchair and a cat in my lap, now that’s happiness.
F ind
www.ubookstore.com
1.800.335.READ
JANUARY
2
3
4
EVENTS-AT-A-GLANCE
All events take place at our U District store, except as noted
5
6
• Robert Barnes
U District
7pm
9
10
• Margaret Hollenbach
U District
7pm
• Marianne
Williamson
University Temple
United Methodist
Chruch
7pm
16
17
11
• George Haloulakos
Bellevue
7pm
• David Kertzer
University
Congregational
United Church of
Christ
7pm
• Jeffrey Paul Chan
U District
7pm
18
• Thomas Quinn
UW Kane Hall,
Room 220
7pm
• Amanda Lumry
U District
7pm
23
24
• Warren Etheredge
“Film Rap: Monday
Night Football”
U District
7pm
• Simon Singh
Town Hall
7pm
30
25
• Peter Carey
U District
7pm
• Marta Tienda
UW Kane Hall,
Room 110
7pm
• Jennifer Jordan
Venue TBD
7pm
7
8
• Peter Charles Hoffer,
Jon Weiner & Ron
Robin
U District
7pm
12
• Adam Hochschild
U District
7pm
13
14
• Tom Kelly
Bellevue
7pm
15
• Yann Martel
U District
3pm
JANUARY
Tuesday • January 4 • 7pm
Robert Barnes
The Good Doctor is Naked: Finding the Human
Beneath My Mask (IUNIVERSE)
The Gift of Change: Spiritual Guidance for a
Radically New Life (HARPERSANFRANCISCO)
Appearances can be deceiving. Behind the
veneer of success, Dr. Robert Barnes—physician,
community and church leader, Eagle Scout—was
a man filled with self-doubt. He wrestled with the
suicide of his father, but always did so privately.
One day, though, the mask fell, and the Barnes
found some of the inner peace he had always
sought by simply letting others see him for who he
was: a man like any other.
University Temple United Methodist Church
1415 NE 43rd Street, Seattle
Friday • January 7 • 7pm
Peter Charles Hoffer,
Jon Weiner & Ron Robin
Past Imperfect: Facts, Fictions, Frauds—American
History From Bancroft and Parkman To Ambrose,
Bellisles, Ellis and Goodwin (PUBLICAFFAIRS),
Historians in Trouble: Plagiarism, Fraud, and
Politics in the Ivory Tower (NEW PRESS),
Scandals and Scoundrels: Seven Cases That
Shook the Academy
(UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS)
19
• Susan Knox
U District
7pm
20
• Neil deGrasse Tyson
Town Hall
7:30pm
• Amanda Lumry
Bellevue
7pm
21
22
• Andrew Cayton
U District
7pm
We host a summit on academic fraud, as we
welcome three authors of books on famous cases of
plagiarism in the world of letters. All the dirty little
secrets of the academy—from historians who have
fibbed about their own histories to writers who have
cribbed more than a little of the work of others to
be passed off as their own.
Monday • January 10 • 7pm
Margaret Hollenbach
Lost and Found: My Life in a Group Marriage
Commune (UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO PRESS)
26
• Malcolm Gladwell
Town Hall
7:30pm
27
• David Laskin
U District
7pm
28
• Fred Luskin
Bellevue
7pm
29
Monday • January 10 • 7pm
Marianne Williamson
Margaret Hollenbach dropped out of graduate
school at the University of Washington in 1970,
and found a family in Taos, New Mexico. Actually,
she found The Family in Taos, a group marriage
commune that expected her to change her name,
give up her worldly possessions and lose her privacy
to group living. With Lost and Found, she recounts
the experience for readers. Was this a commune,
or a cult? How does one tell the difference? In the
end, what was the price she paid for membership in
The Family?
Best-selling author Marianne Williamson combines
a psychotherapeutic and a spiritual approach to
discuss the role change plays in our lives. Life is
full of transformation, and our ability to grow
as the world around us does is—according to
Williamson—the best measure of success. Part
of the Seattle Spiritual Reading Series, cosponsored by
the University District Interfaith Alliance. Free tickets
available December 27. $3 suggested donation at the door
to benefit the Seattle Spiritual Reading Series.
Tuesday • January 11 • 7pm
George Haloulakos
Dollars and Sense: A Workbook on the ABCs of
Investments (SPARTAN RESEARCH)
Bellevue
Start the new year off smart with advice from
Bellevue resident and investment expert George
Haloulakos.
Tuesday • January 11 • 7pm
David Kertzer
Prisoner of the Vatican (HOUGHTON MIFFLIN)
University Congregational United Church of
Christ 4515 16th Avenue NE, Seattle
Kertzer examines the long and sometimes tense
relationship between the Vatican and the secular
Italian state. From the exile of Pope Pius IX within
the walls of Vatican palaces when he refused to
agree to share power with Victor Emmanuel II, to
the 1929 concordant with Mussolini in which the
Vatican finally officially recognized the legitimacy
of the Italian state, the whole surprising history
is here. Part of the Seattle Spiritual Reading Series,
cosponsored by the University District Interfaith Alliance.
A $3 donation is suggested.
Tuesday • January 11 • 7pm
Jeffrey Paul Chan
Book Eve nts
Saturday • January 15 • 3pm
Yann Martel
Wednesday • January 19 • 7pm
Susan Knox
Friday • January 21 • 7pm
Andrew Cayton
(UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON PRESS)
The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios
Financial Basics: A Money-Management Guide
for Students (OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS)
Dominion of War: Empire and Liberty in North
America, 1500 – 2000 (VIKING)
Christopher Columbus Wong, the narrator of
this debut novel by San Francisco State University
professor Jeffrey Chan, is an orphan raised in
California. He grows up as his country fights a war
in Asia, and looks to create a family and an identity
for himself, while the culture around him shifts and
changes through experimentation with drugs and
sex. Always in the back of his mind is his imagined
China, which eventually bumps up against the real
country from which his family emigrated, a place
starkly contrasting the idealized one of his dreams.
A novella and three short stories by the author of
the beloved, Booker-winning Life if Pi see print
in the U.S. a decade after they were published in
Canada. Yann Martel’s stories concern death and
memory, music and modern history. Long before
Life of Pi was a widely-read, award-winning novel,
we hosted an intimate reading with Martel, and are
ecstatic to welcome a writer of his grace, empathy,
humor and intelligence back.
Susan Knox, a CPA, teacher and former university
administrator, offers the college bound a guide to
the pitfalls of financial freedom. Discover the joys
of your credit rating, the thrills of putting together
a monthly budget and the excitement of storing
important financial documents. It’s the book we
would have ignored through the first two weeks
of college (we thought we knew everything) and
then spent the next few years checking it daily and
praising that aunt or uncle for giving it to us.
Andrew Cayton (with co-author Fred Anderson)
presents a history of our continent through the
warrior’s lense. How has militarism affected the
cultural and political development of our nation?
Can our character be best inferred by a survey
of our imperial conquests? Dominion of War is a
chronicle that focuses on great figures of military
history to tell its tale.
Eat Everything Before You Die: A Chinaman in
the Counterculture
Wednesday • January 12 • 7pm
Adam Hochschild
Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight
to Free an Empire’s Slaves (HOUGHTON MIFFLIN)
The modern techniques of civic activism
(boycotts, mass mailings, posters, lapel buttons,
etc.) were invented in the late 18th century by a
group of British citizens bent on ending slavery
in their empire. Adam Hochschild—author of
the acclaimed King Leopold’s Ghost—has written
a history of this, the grassroots movement that,
though not as well known to us as our U.S.
abolitionist movement, remains the blueprint for
protests for social change to this day.
Thursday • January 13 • 7pm
Tom Kelly
How a Second Home can be Your Best Investment
(MCGRAW HILL)
Bellevue
Hey, Bellevue! Know what’s better than owning
one home? Why, it’s owning two. Real estate expert
Tom Kelly will tell you how you can invest those
gigantic sacks of money you have cluttering up your
basement in a second home. And property taxes,
schmoperty taxes. Tim Eyman is sure to get rid of
those by the next election.
(HARCOURT)
Tuesday • January 18 • 7pm
Thomas Quinn
Behavior and Ecology of Pacific Salmon and
Trout (UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON PRESS)
Thursday
January 20 • 7:30pm
Neil deGrasse Tyson
UW Kane Hall, Room 220
Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic
Evolution (W.W. NORTON & COMPANY)
Before we moved to the Northwest, we had trouble
imagining that people could get emotional over
the management and protection of fish. And
though sometimes we still have trouble with that,
the raucous and lively discussions we’ve seen at
Pacific salmon-related readings are sure turning
us around. University of Washington professor of
aquatic and fishery sciences Thomas Quinn offers
a definitive guide to the only fish we’ve ever seen
provoke a donnybrook. Sponsored by University of
Washington College of Ocean and Fishery Sciences and
University of Washington Press.
Town Hall 1119 8th Avenue, Seattle
Astrophysicist and director of New York City’s
Hayden Planeterium Neil deGrasse Tyson offers a
print companion to his popular NOVA television
special recounting the history of the universe.
And—get this—he manages to do it in merely 300
pages, never once copping out with, “After that, a
bunch of stuff cooled for a few million years, so let’s
just skip ahead.” Written in an engaging, accessible
style, it’s a book on science we can all enjoy. Part of
the Seattle Science Lecture Series. Admission is $5 at the door.
Tuesday • January 18 • 7pm
Amanda Lumry
Thursday • January 20 • 7pm
Amanda Lumry
(EAGLEMONT PRESS)
Adventures of Riley—Amazon River Rescue
Adventures of Riley—Amazon River Rescue
Riley, the intrepid, carrot-topped adventurer,
journeys to the Amazon rain forest to help
his Uncle Max study the Kapok tree. Science
facts, environmental messages and exploration
meet in this popular kids’ series. Come meet
Amanda Lumry, local author and publisher of
this eco-adventure that combines illustration and
photography.
Monday
January 24 • 7pm
Warren Etheredge presents Film Rap
Monday Night Football
Warren Etheredge had to cancel his Film Rap on
football and film a couple of months ago. But,
he’s rescheduled, and, coincidentally, “Monday
Night Football” will now be competing with Monday
Night Football. Join Warren and the usual band
of Etheredge-aganders for a lively, prize-tossing
discussion of the pig skin on the big screen. We
have Warren’s assurance he won’t be slipping out of
a bath towel and jumping into the arms of Terrell
Owens in a desperate bid to get attention.
Monday
January 24 • 7:30pm
Simon Singh
Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe
(EAGLEMONT PRESS)
Bellevue
See the January 18 description of this book and
author for details. And then, add your own little
Eastside flavor to it by imagining that Microsoft will
be involved in some way.
(FOURTH ESTATE)
Town Hall 1119 8th Avenue, Seattle
There was a day in the distant past that had no
yesterday. And on that day, there was an explosion,
a moment of creation for our universe. Big Bang
theory is, in Simon Singh’s opinion, one of the
pinnacles of human achievement. Big Bang offers a
history of the elegant and sometimes controversial
explanation of what happened in the first moments
of the world as we know it. Part of the Seattle Science
Lecture Series. Admission is $5 at the door.
Admission is $5 at the door.
Nick’s Book Club
For this month’s title
please call 206 543-5896
Free tickets are required for this
event and are available at all
University Book Store locations
starting December 17.
Film Rap with
Warren Etheredge
31
• Peter Deleo
U District
7pm
Part of the Seattle Spiritual
Reading Series, cosponsored
by the University District
Interfaith Alliance. A $3
donation is suggested.
KUOW-FM 94.9 co-sponsors
events held in Kane Hall
and Puget Sound Speaks
Community Forums.
General Book Events take place at our U District store, are free and
Events open to the public, except as noted.
Information For up-to-the-minute event information and schedule
changes please visit www.ubookstore.com.
For more information call 206.634.3400.
© 2004 University Book Store
E5001 (01/05)