Village Books in Historic Fairhaven - Events Feed

CANCELLED! CAROL KEARNS, SUGAR COOKIES AND A NIGHTMARE

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 15:16:28 -0500

Start: Tue, 03/16/2010 - 7:00pm

End: Tue, 03/16/2010 - 7:00pm

When her 7-year-old daughter was swept out to sea by a rogue wave in 1976, Carol Kearns thought she would lose her sanity. Trying to be strong for her 9-year-old son, she met with the late Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, who taught Carol a new concept called "grief therapy" and encouraged her to become a psychologist. In this uplifting memoir, Carol recalls her 24 years as a grief specialist, corrects a misguided radio host she calls "Dr. Expert," and reveals her own battle with post-traumatic stress disorder after her son, a naval flight surgeon, was deployed to Iraq. Although she retired from active clinical psychologist practice in 2004, Carol continues to volunteer for nonprofit organizations and writes a column for bereaved families.

VB READS...ENGAGED CITIZENS BOOK GROUP

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 20:20:36 -0500

Start: Wed, 03/17/2010 - 12:00pm

End: Wed, 03/17/2010 - 12:00pm

VB Reads…Engaged Citizens Book Group Authors DO NOT attend.
Join Mary Dumas in the Readings Gallery on the 3rd Wednesday of each month to discuss books exploring how to create a more civil and engaged community. Brown bag lunches encouraged. Anyone interested in exploring their role as an engaged citizen is welcome.

The Magic of Dialogue, by Daniel Yankelovich

In this groundbreaking work, famed social scientist and world-famous public opinion expert Daniel Yankelovich reinvents the ancient art of dialogue. Successful managers have always known how to make decisions and mobilize coworkers. But as our businesses continue to expand, conversations and discussions just aren't enough to bring people and their different agendas together anymore. Dialogue, when properly practiced, will align people with a shared vision, and help them realize their full potential as individuals and as a team. Drawing on decades of research and using real life examples, The Magic of Dialogue outlines specific strategies for maneuvering in a wide range of situations and teaches managers, leaders, business people, and other professionals how to succeed in the new global economy, where more players participate in decision-making than ever before

STEVEN HILL, EUROPE'S PROMISE: WHY THE EUROPEAN WAY IS THE BEST HOPE IN AN INSECURE AGE

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 20:22:50 -0500

Start: Wed, 03/17/2010 - 7:00pm

End: Wed, 03/17/2010 - 7:00pm

Europe's Promise masterfully conveys how Europe has taken the lead in this make-or-break century challenged by a worldwide economic crisis and global warming. Here Hill shows how Europe's leadership manifests in five major areas: economic strength (Europe’s now the world's wealthiest trading bloc, nearly as large as the U.S. and China combined); the best health care and other workfare supports; widespread use of renewable energy technologies and conservation; the world's most advanced democracies; and regional networks of trade, foreign aid, and investment that link one-third of the world to the European Union. "Europe's Promise should startle, inform, and galvanize Americans in raising the ante in favor of a political economy where people matter first."—Ralph Nader

Steven Hill is Director of the Political Reform Program for the New America Foundation and author of 10 Steps to Repair American Democracy and other books on politics. His articles have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Salon.com, The Nation, International Herald Tribune, The Guardian, Prospect, and many other publications and websites.

SARA DONATI, THE ENDLESS FOREST

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 20:24:43 -0500

Start: Fri, 03/19/2010 - 7:00pm

End: Fri, 03/19/2010 - 7:00pm

In the spring of 1824, a flood devastates the village of Paradise. As the Bonner family struggles to rebuild, their way of life is threatened when their adopted daughter’s mother, a dangerous schemer with a secret, arrives back in town after a decade-long absence. The Bonners must stand together to protect both heart and home. Told with a masterful storyteller’s skill and a devoted historian’s precision, Sara Donati weaves a rich and multilayered portrayal of family strength.

Rosina Lippi is no stranger to literary acclaim, having won the prestigious PEN/Hemingway Award for First Fiction as well as being short-listed for Britain’s coveted Orange Prize for Fiction. Under the pen name of Sara Donati, she continues her tradition of excellence with her bestselling Wilderness series. Critics have praised the series as “powerful…gorgeous, vividly described” (People Magazine) and “as good as it gets…Donati writes eloquently about frontier life” (Tampa Tribune). With The Endless Forest, she delivers the final installment in this enthralling historical saga set in the American frontier and featuring the incomparable Bonner family.

JO NESBO, THE DEVIL'S STAR

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 20:33:52 -0500

Start: Tue, 03/23/2010 - 7:00pm

End: Tue, 03/23/2010 - 7:00pm

From its very first haunting scene, where Nesbø describes the old world bricklaying technique of using blood in mortar, you’ll be hooked. Characters and utterly vivid scenes that stay with you, heart-stopping situations, with clues coming a pace so one can savor the story – these are all Jo Nesbo trademarks. The Devil’s Star, in which Detective Harry Hole follows the trail of a serial killer on the sweltering summer streets of Oslo, is the perfect introduction to Jo Nesbø’s work.

Jo Nesbø divides his time between singing lead vocals for Norwegian rock band Di Derre and writing. His first novel featuring Harry Hole was an instant hit in Norway, winning the Glass Key Award for Best Nordic Crime Novel—the most prestigious crime-writing award in Northern Europe. Two of his seven internationally acclaimed crime novels have been published in the U.S.: The Redbreast and Nemesis (a Publishers Weekly “Best Book of 2009”). Translated into thirty languages, awarded a wide range of awards, and boasting record-breaking sales, Nesbø has enjoyed lavish international critical praise, and is today regarded as one of Europe’s most important writers.

THE CHUCKANUT RADIO HOUR, WITH SPECIAL GUESTS MARK SPRAGG (BONE FIRE) & LAURA BELL (CLAIMING GROUND)

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:59:26 -0500

Start: Thu, 03/25/2010 - 7:00pm

End: Thu, 03/25/2010 - 7:00pm

The March 25th edition of the Chuckanut Radio Hour will have a real Western theme. Our guest authors, Mark Spragg and Laura Bell, hale from Wyoming and their books are strong evocations of the Western landscape. Ron Hardesty will bring his own style of music with a distinctive Western flavor and we'll have Cowboy Poetry in the Poet's Corner. The show, which will take place in the Leopold's Crystal Ballroom, begins with music at 6:30 and taping at 7pm (we ask that everyone be seated by 6:45). Tickets are $5 and are available at the store and online at Brown Paper Tickets. Buy either book at Village Books (in -store purchases only) prior to the event, and receive a free ticket to the show. We hope to see you as we begin another fun season of the Chuckanut Radio Hour.

Bone Fire by Mark Spragg

What the cast of Spragg’s characters have to contend with on a daily basis in their tiny Wyoming town is bracing enough, involving car accidents, runaway children, strokes and Lou Gehrig’s disease, not to mention the motorcycle rallies and rodeos that flood the tiny local jail. But as their lives become even more strained, hardship foments exceptional compassion and generosity, and those caught in their own sorrow alleviate the same in others, changing themselves as they do so. In this gripping story, along with harsh truths and difficult consolation come moments of hilarity and surprise and beauty. No one writes more compellingly about the modern West than Mark Spragg, and in Bone Fire he is at the very height of his powers.

Mark Spragg is the author of Where Rivers Change Direction, a memoir that won the Mountains & Plains Booksellers Award, and the novels The Fruit of Stone and An Unfinished Life, which was chosen by the Rocky Mountain News as the Best Book of 2004. All three were top-ten Book Sense selections and have been translated into fifteen languages. He lives with his wife, Virginia, in Wyoming.

Claiming Ground by Laura Bell
“In a sheep wagon, called an ark, parked under cottonwoods along a creek in Wyoming, Laura Bell began the life she came west to find. Decades later, after seasons spent with sheep, cows, horses, and dogs, after a failed marriage, death, and grief, she now works to protect the place of her heart as a conservationist. Love, she says, never seems to be enough until we decide that it is. This is a wonderfully written, refreshing story.”—William Kittredge

“First, it is the language you notice: phrases, whole passages composed with the musical authority of psalms. Then it is the evocation of place, Wyoming rising from these pages as actual as a wild perfume. But, start to finish, it is her honesty that keeps you up in the night, wondering at the frailty of what it means to be human and glad and brave and, at times, broken. Laura Bell’s Claiming Ground is the finest memoir I’ve read.”—Mark Spragg

Laura Bell’s work has been published in several collections, and from the Wyoming Arts Council she has received two literature fellowships as well as the Neltje Blanchan Memorial Award and the Frank Nelson Doubleday Memorial Award. She lives in Cody, and since 2000 has worked there for the Nature Conservancy.

REINHARD STETTLER, COTTONWOOD AND THE RIVER OF TIME

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 20:42:49 -0500

Start: Fri, 03/26/2010 - 7:00pm

End: Fri, 03/26/2010 - 7:00pm

Cottonwood and the River of Time looks at how scientists have unraveled the puzzles of the natural world. With a lifetime of work in forestry and genetics to guide him, Reinhard Stettler celebrates both what has been learned and what still remains a mystery as he examines not only cottonwoods but also trees more generally, their evolution, and their relationship to society. By offering lessons in how nature works, as well as how science can help us understand it, he illuminates connections between the physical, biological, and social worlds. Reinhard Stettler is professor emeritus of forestry at UW.

CAROLINE FRASER, REWILDING THE WORLD: DISPATCHES FROM THE CONSERVATION REVOLUTION

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 20:45:57 -0500

Start: Sat, 03/27/2010 - 7:00pm

End: Sat, 03/27/2010 - 7:00pm

Around the world, biologists and environmental activists are fighting back against the biodiversity crisis, empowered by a visionary idea that is transforming conservation: rewilding. Unfolding across six continents—from Puget Sound to Africa’s Peace Parks to the forests of Nepal—Caroline Fraser’s report from the front lines is the first comprehensive account of the rewilding revolution. A stirring story of scientific discovery, Rewilding the World offers hope for a richer, wilder future.

Born in Seattle, Caroline Fraser holds a Ph.D. from Harvard. Formerly on the editorial staff of The New Yorker, she has written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Outside Magazine, Allure, and The Los Angeles Times Book Review, among other publications. Her essays and reviews have also appeared frequently in The New York Review of Books. She has received a PEN Award for Best Young Writer and numerous prizes for her poetry. She lives in Santa Fe.

VB READS...FEMINIST BOOK GROUP

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 20:48:12 -0500

Start: Sun, 03/28/2010 - 2:00pm

End: Sun, 03/28/2010 - 2:00pm

VB Reads...Feminist Book Group -- Village Books Reading Group!
Join Jen, on the last Sunday of every month to discuss and explore feminism in a fun, empowering environment. Open to anyone who wants to explore feminism. Authors DO NOT attend.

Passing by Nella Larsen

First published in 1929, this sophisticated story is about two girlhood friends who are reunited unexpectedly in Chicago to find that they have made opposite choices - one has cut all ties to her past to marry a white man who has no idea of her background, while the other has chosen to stay in an African American community, though still living with lies of a different kind. Larsen shows the limits placed on those who are "too black" and "too feminine" to be recognized by any of the powerful in the 1920s.

OPEN MIC WITH LAUREL LEIGH

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 20:50:56 -0500

Start: Mon, 03/29/2010 - 7:00pm

End: Mon, 03/29/2010 - 7:00pm

Village Books invites everyone to enjoy local talents as they share their written words. Not published? No worries. Feel free to share some of your own writing! Sign up at our main counter on the first floor. Laurel Leigh, story writing instructor at Whatcom Community College, will host.

MARTIN BURWASH, VIS MAJOR: RAILROAD MEN, AN ACT OF GOD--WHITE DEATH AT WELLINGTON

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 14:14:27 -0500

Start: Wed, 03/31/2010 - 7:00pm

End: Wed, 03/31/2010 - 7:00pm

At 1:43 a.m., March 1, 1910, a wall of snow descended on two Great Northern Railway trains stalled in the town of Wellington, Washington. Ninety-six people died in a single moment. To this day, the Wellington Slide remains North America's worst avalanche disaster. Although other accounts of this monumental event exist, none are told entirely from the perspective of the railroad men who battled the week-long blizzard leading up to the tragedy. Vis Major gives voice to those men.

With vivid imagery and evocative prose, historian Martin Burwash brings railroaders from Cascade Division Superintendent James O'Neill to brakeman Anthony John Dougherty to brilliant life. Relive the crucial moments where men worked feverishly to clear the snow-clogged line over Washington's Stevens Pass and intimately feel the fatigue, frustration, and misery of working hours upon hours in the harsh winter weather or aboard steaming rotary snow plows.

Expertly blending historical fact with railroad knowledge, Burwash delivers an amazing fictional account of this incredible, but often overlooked true event and simultaneously reveals the courage and fortitude of the human spirit.

BILL THORNESS, EDIBLE HEIRLOOMS: HERITAGE VEGETABLES FOR THE MARITIME GARDEN

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 18:53:41 -0500

Start: Thu, 04/01/2010 - 7:00pm

End: Thu, 04/01/2010 - 7:00pm

STAY TUNED FOR DETAILS FOR THIS GARDENING EVENT.

KATHLEEN DEAN MOORE, WILD COMFORT: THE SOLACE OF NATURE

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 20:17:01 -0500

Start: Fri, 04/02/2010 - 7:00pm

End: Fri, 04/02/2010 - 7:00pm

EVENT DETAILS FORTHCOMING

VAL EASTON, THE NEW LOW-MAINTENANCE GARDEN

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 16:27:06 -0500

Start: Tue, 04/06/2010 - 7:00pm

End: Tue, 04/06/2010 - 7:00pm

GET GARDENING SERIES EVENT. DETAILS FORTHCOMING.

DIANE HAMMOND, SEEING STARS

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 20:08:14 -0500

Start: Wed, 04/07/2010 - 7:00pm

End: Wed, 04/07/2010 - 7:00pm

From the author of Hannah’s Dream comes a new novel of hope, dreams, love, and ambition—set this time in Hollywood, where every child wants to be a star and every grownup wants a piece of the action

Ruth Rabinowitz believes. She believes that her daughter, Bethy (now going by Bethany Ann Roosevelt), is a terrific little actress. And if Bethy wants to leave her father, leave her school, leave the Pacific Northwest for a crappy studio apartment in LA and a merry-go-round of auditions, classes, coaching and callbacks—well, Ruth will try and lead the way.

Hollywood, of course, eats people like Ruth and Bethy for breakfast. And they’re not alone on their quest. Surrounded by other aspiring child stars, stage mothers, managers, talent agents, and The Business, Ruth and Bethy will discover just how far they can go—and maybe just how far they want to.

Diane Hammond is the author of the critically acclaimed novels Hannah’s Dream, Going to Bend, and Homesick Creek. She has worked as both a writer and an editor, and is the recipient of an Oregon Arts Commission literary fellowship. She served as a spokesperson for the Free Willy Keiko Foundation and the Oregon Coast Aquarium, and currently lives in Bend, Oregon, with her husband and daughter.

Public Talk: "Musing about Music Listening" with Roupen Shakarian (Music Director, Skagit Symphony & Philharmonia Northwest)

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 18:27:04 -0500

Start: Thu, 04/08/2010 - 11:00am

End: Thu, 04/08/2010 - 12:00pm

Bellingham Independent Music Society Proudly presents

“Musing about Music Listening”
With

Roupen Shakarian
Music Director
Skagit Symphony
Philharmonia Northwest

Listening to music at once engages our entire humanity and its mystery. It's also a journey that allows us to encounter both new and familiar territories. How and what do we see along the way? What can we discover about music, its journey? This informal one-hour musing will offer some aspects of listening to classical music. All ages welcome.

Roupen Shakarian is presently in his 6th season as music director of the Skagit Symphony and in his 24th season as music director of Philharmonia Northwest, a Seattle-based chamber orchestra. He has appeared as guest conductor with the Seattle Symphony, Victoria Symphony, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Seattle Youth Symphony, California Youth Symphony and the Northwest Chamber Orchestra; and conducted Skagit Opera productions of Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, and Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance at McIntryre Hall. Mr. Shakarian is also a published composer and a recipient of numerous commissions, whose works include concertos for violin and flute, chamber music, as well orchestral and choral compositions.

More info: www.bima.com or 360-714-1630
Sponsored by BIMA

This is the second event of the 2009-2010 lecture series offered to the general public free of charge.

JESSICA LOHAFER, WHAT'S LEFT TO BE DONE (POETRY)

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 20:02:35 -0500

Start: Thu, 04/08/2010 - 7:00pm

End: Thu, 04/08/2010 - 7:00pm

EVENT DETAILS FORTHCOMING.

HUGH RAFFLES, INSECTOPEDIA

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 21:59:43 -0500

Start: Fri, 04/09/2010 - 7:00pm

End: Fri, 04/09/2010 - 7:00pm

This is an exploration of the beautiful, ancient, successful, astoundingly accomplished, largely unknown, and unfathomably different species with which we share this world--INSECTS. For as long as humans have been here, insects have been here. Yet we hardly know them--the insects that eat our food, share our beds, live in our homes. Weaving together brief vignettes, meditations, and extended essays, Raffles uses the prism of history and science, anthropology and travel, economics and popular culture to show how insects have triggered our obsessions, stirred our fears, and beguiled our imaginations.

Raffles provides a glimpse into the ritualized world of Chinese cricket fighting, the deceptive courtship rituals of the dance fly, the vital and vicious role locusts play in the famines that afflict the African continent, the queer sexual practices among insects, how insects deformed by Chernobyl inspired art, and how our unease with insects has prompted aberrant behavior of our own. Deftly combining the anecdotal and the scientific, Raffles has given us an essential book of reference that is, as well, a fascination of the highest order.

Hugh Raffles teaches anthropology at The New School. He is the author of In Amazonia: A Natural History, which received the Victor Turner Prize in Ethnographic Writing. His essays have been published in Best American Essays, Granta, and Orion. He received a Whiting Writers’ Award in 2009. He lives in New York City.

SARAH BOWEN SHEA, RUN LIKE A MOTHER: HOW TO GET MOVING AND NOT LOSE YOUR FAMILY, JOB, OR SANITY

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 19:44:14 -0500

Start: Sat, 04/10/2010 - 2:00pm

End: Sat, 04/10/2010 - 2:00pm

EVENT DETAILS FORTHCOMING.

FRANCES MOORE LAPPE, GETTING A GRIP2: CLARITY, CREATIVITY, AND COURAGE FOR THE WORLD WE REALLY WANT

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 19:34:29 -0500

Start: Sat, 04/10/2010 - 4:00pm

End: Sat, 04/10/2010 - 4:00pm

Village Books is pleased to announce that Frances Moore Lappe will be presenting as part of a community event called "The Great Unleashing," which will be held at Bellingham High School. Stay tuned for more information on this great event!

KARL MARLANTES, MATTERHORN: A NOVEL OF THE VIETNAM WAR

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 20:24:26 -0500

Start: Sat, 04/10/2010 - 7:00pm

End: Sat, 04/10/2010 - 7:00pm

EVENT DETAILS FORTHCOMING.

SUE MILLER, THE LAKE SHORE LIMITED

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 20:58:48 -0500

Start: Sun, 04/11/2010 - 4:00pm

End: Sun, 04/11/2010 - 4:00pm

Event details forthcoming.

HOWARD FRANK MOSHER, WALKING TO GATLINBURG

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 17:41:08 -0500

Start: Mon, 04/12/2010 - 12:00pm

End: Mon, 04/12/2010 - 12:00pm

EVENT DETAILS FORTHCOMING.

OLIVER DE LA PAZ, REQUIEM FOR THE ORCHARD

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 20:52:53 -0500

Start: Mon, 04/12/2010 - 7:00pm

End: Mon, 04/12/2010 - 7:00pm

DETAILS FORTHCOMING FOR THIS NATIONAL POETRY MONTH EVENT!