ChAngels! Changing the world one Pajama at a time!

* The girls of local mother-daughter organization, ChAngels!*

On Friday February 5th, Book Inc. joined together with M Magazine & a local mother-daughter group, ChAngels to host a "Pajama Party" to collect Pajamas & books for needy children in our community! Not only did we make a FANTASTIC group of new friends but we also helped ChAngels collect over 100 PJ's, 80 books & a $500 donation courtesy of our store! Keep on going ChAngels! You are changing the world, one pajama at a time!

M Magazine, a literary magazine published specifically for moms, is on Facebook! Click here to see their profile!

Cheers!
-Colleen

Peter Yarrow sings Puff the Magic Dragon

On Friday, October 9th, Peter Yarrow stopped by the store to sing some songs. Day is Done is his latest. We all had a great time! It was a truly special and inspiring night. Here's a little video of this final number, Puff the Magic Dragon.

Eric

Great Time Had by All at our Kids Otter Read Day

Saturday, May 16th, was the first Kids Otter Read Day, when twelve independent bookstores all across the Bay Area hosted more than fifty authors. We were one of those lucky stores. The whole shindig was put on by the Northern California Children's Booksellers Association. We at the store all had a great time, so thanks for coming!

If you missed out on the good times, or if you just want to relive the experience, here are few pictures.

Betsy Franco, a long time favorite of the store, recited from her fabulous new collection of poetry, A Curious Collection of Cats! She also brought in pictures of her own silly kitties helping her write.


Store favorite, Jim LaMarche, sketches a member of the audience, after talking about how he got started as an artist. He showed us some original art from his story Lost & Found.

Dorina Lazo Gilmore drove all the way down from Fresno to share her book Cora Cooks Pancit. She also brought a pot of pancit for everyone to taste. Yummy!


Next up, Cynthia Chin-Lee treated us to a reading from her alphabet books Ameila to Zora, about amazing women who fought to make the world a better place, and Akira to Zoltan, about men who did the same.


Last up for the day was middle reader author Susan Taylor Brown, to read from her book Hugging the Rock, which is a novel writen in poetry. She told us all about growing up with a love for telling stories.

A huge thanks to all our authors for taking the time to come in. It was great fun! Hope to see you at our next event.

--Eric

Lee Konstantinou - Pop Apocalypse

The Lee Konstantinou event, celebrating the first printing of his debut novel Pop Apocalypse, was as beguiling an event as I have participated in. It was a small event, at which the attendees consisted mainly of Lee's fellow Stanford graduate students that produced no dearth of intellectual commentary and social dissection. And while the conversation was at once stimulating, it also seethed with illicit and cerebral-tingling humor. On a satirical scale, Lee's writing fomented with an exceptional amount of caustic wit. Waggish material was drawn from the plethora of contemporary pop culture that is strewn about us in this our day and age. Lee has collected the absurdities that lurk behind every corner of our cities and has portrayed them in a manner relentlessly amusing, and all his own. From the addlepating assimilation of all things trendy-secular by religious subscribers to the befuddling commodification of name and personhood, one is all but beside themselves at such confounding concoctions that Lee has created in his world on the eve of apocalypse.

-Derek

Don't miss Russell Howze here in the store, Tuesday, May 19th at 7pm. He'll have a slide presentation of stencil art from his book Stencil Nation.

While you wait here's a sneak peak at the book:

Saxon Holt - Grasses and Hardy Succulents

I am a day or so late on this event update, but it was an interesting enough event with such a great guest that I feel it deserving of a quick posting, better late than never anyways.
Saxon Holt, a garden photographer with many publications under his belt, those among them including Grasses and Hardy Succulents, graced a small crowd with an event appearance at Books Inc. in Palo Alto Tuesday May 5th. The event ran more as a discussion about, and critique of the artist's work than a presentation of materials. Composition, lighting, filtering, texture, and the "60-Mintutes" technique were all discussed as the essentials of garden shooting. Old photographs were shown aside new one's exemplifying Saxon's maturation as a photographer and how having a vision can change the possibilities of one's shoot. I was, and am impressed how much passion and humility this artist has retained throughout his career and displayed in his discussion with the aspiring and interested. This was a great event to take part in, and it was a pleasure to converse with such an individual.

-Derek

Kid's Otter Read Day May 16

Jean Hanff Korelitz - Admission

Last night Jean read from her new novel Admission to a small, yet garrulous audience. An interesting discussion ensued upon the reading's conclusion concerning the strengths and shortcomings of the college admissions processes for top tier schools. Are our youth being adjured to write beyond their means in application essays? Are the pressures of matriculation conducive to focus and direction, or rather to an angst-ridden academic youth subculture? Exhaustively introspective applicants stretch and knead their ambitions into feigned likenesses of what they believe to meet national prestigious standards, but what comes of it may be detrimental to our youth and society in general.
While the system has it flaws, it may be argued that it makes more than due with what has been passed down successively from generation to generation. Without a complete, from the foundations up, reworking of the entire system there may be little hope for fundamental change. Jean's new novel gives further insight into the world of the application process and its intriguing unknowns.
Jean's reading was well accepted and very encouraging to those who are yet to crack open her new novel. We invite you to check it out yourself and consider the issues embedded in this engaging story.

-Derek

Fran Gage - The New American Olive Oil

The event today went off even better than expected with a fortuitous gathering of devotees and passers-by. After having made the drive down from San Francisco, where she had earlier made an appearance on KRON Channel 4, Fran was able to appease a curious and prodding crowd with her sagacity pertaining to all things olive. Leaping and bounding through varietal sorts, growing conditions, press processes, bottling, and tasting, Fran was able to engross a crowd that pushed the limits of our seating capacity. The oil sampling lessons and olive cake at the end of the question and answer session put a definitively satisfying end to a particularly gratifying afternoon at Books Inc. in Palo Alto.

Things to remember when selecting your olive oil (not to be confused with Olive Oyl, that would have a-whole-nother set of criteria altogether):

• Never profile your olive oil by its color...this makes no difference in quality or taste and makes you a presumptuous bigot of sorts, only joking of course.
• Make sure it can wear an especially white dress should you decide to settle down with it (i.e. only Extra Virgin olive oil should be used to ensure flavor, quality, and to avoid oils subjected to refinement processes)
• A darker bottle is conducive to longer shelf-life, attempt to stow it "where the sun don't shine" (i.e. your cupboard or closet)
• A bottle of olive oil is neither a bottle of wine nor an exquisite woman, it will not attain any favorable characteristics over time, shelf life is typically 1-2 years...enjoy sooner as opposed to later, and, if need be, throw a party tonight.
  
• When assessing the flavor and quality of a particular olive oil be sure to begin by warming it to approximately 80 degrees Fahrenheit; then swish it around in a circular motion in an open faced container that allows for oil to breathe a bit; with nose over the brim of the container inhale deeply while attempting to identify any distinctive characteristics; proceed to imbibe the oil and let it rest on your tongue while breathing in through taught lips, allowing the air to pass over the oil while it rests on your palette; and finally swallow and exhale through your nasal passage in order to take note of any further qualities accentuated through nasal exhalation. Note: this procedure is for the aspiring connoisseur and not to be attempted by the faint of heart nor the uneducated dilettante.
  

-Derek