Tuesday, May 6
KIMBERLY LISAGOR

KIMBERLY LISAGOR looks at DISAPPEARING DESTINATIONS: 37 Places in Peril and What Can Be Done to Help Save Them. A vital and meticulously reserached guide to the world's most endangered locales, DISAPPEARING DESTINATIONS is a much-needed reminder that the wonders of the world far exceed the classic "seven." The planet is actually filled with awe-inspiring but endangered places, from the phosphorescent bays of Puerto Rico to the Boreal forests of Finland, each of which are destined to undergo dramatic transformations in our lifetime. Unless we intervene. While most of the headlines have rightly focused upwards (on the climate, the ozone layer and the very air we breathe), Lisagor's book reminds us that we should not forget to look down...and watch where we're stepping.

Joining Ms. Lisagor for the reading is DISAPPEARING DESTINATIONS co-author Heather Hansen, who has worked on staff at Boston magazine, the Sunday Independent (Johannesburg, South Africa) and the Provincetown Banner, where she wrote extensively on people and the environment. She won the Harper's magazine award for Distinguished Magazine Writing in 1999, and has contributed to two books by Gail Sheehy: Middletown, America and Hillary's Choice. Heather has political science and English degrees from Mount Holyoke College and a masters in journalism from UC Berkeley. She lives in Boulder, Colorado.

Kimberly Lisagor is a freelance journalist who has written about travel and the environment for Outside, Mother Jones, Men's Journal, National Geographic Adventure, USA Weekend, the New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times, among others; she is the author of Outside's Wilderness Lodge Vacations , which won the Lowell Thomas Award for best guidebook and an Award of Excellence from the North American Travel Journalists Association. She lives in San Luis Obispo.

7:00 PM in the store

Wednesday, May 7
ANTONIA ARSLAN

ANTONIA ARSLAN discusses SKYLARK FARM, a beautiful, wrenching debut novel chronicling the life of a family struggling for survival during the Armenian genocide in Turkey, in 1915. At the center: Yerwant, who, at thirteen, left his home in the Anatolian hills of Turkey to study at an Armenian boarding school in Venice. Now, in May 1915, after forty years, he is planning a long-awaited reunion with his family at their homestead, Skylark Farm. But while preparations for Yerwant's arrival are being made, Italy enters the Great War and closes its borders. At the same time, in Turkey, Yerwant's family begins a brutal odyssey of forced marches and prison camps, hunger, and humiliation at the hands of the young Turks who are determined to rid their nation of minorities. In the unfolding story we follow Yerwant's family as it struggles to survive and as four of its children set out on a dangerous and daring course of their own: to reach Yerwant, and safety, in Italy.

Antonia Arslan, who lives in Padua, has a degree in archaeology and was professor of modern and contemporary Italian literature at the University of Padua. This is her first novel.

7:00 PM in the store

Saturday, May 10
SHELLEY RIDEOUT

SHELLEY RIDEOUT and ED HERNY give us a tour of the lavishly illustrated BERKELEY BOHEMIA, a cultural history that highlights the contributions of the eccentric residents of one of America's centers of cultural innovation, during a critical period in the development of the country's radical thought. The concept of bohemia, or a place of unconventional lifestyles, flooded the city of Berkeley at the turn of the century. It was a city of scholars, a crossroads of cultures, and a magnet for visionaries. And because freethinking was welcome, Berkeley was a nurturing environment for the likes of Florence Boynton, who introduced natural living; John Muir, who led the ecology movement; and Charles Keeler, who founded the Cosmic Religion. In BERKELEY BOHEMIA, Herny, Rideout and Wadell provide glimpses into the lives of the artists, writers, and philosophers who had a profound influence on what Berkeley has become today.

Ed Herny has served on the Board of Directors of the Berkeley Historical Society since its founding in 1978. He lives in Oakland, California. Shelley Rideout joined the Berkeley Historical Society as a board member and volunteer upon moving to Berkeley in 2000. Katie Wadell earned a master's degree in American history from New York University, and later worked with the Berkeley Historical Society for five years.

7:00 PM in the store

Sunday, May 11
HERTHA SWEET WONG

HERTHA SWEET WONG, co-editor of RECKONINGS, discusses the fifteen Native women writers in this anthology who document transgenerational trauma and yet celebrate survival. In RECKONINGS, you will find favorite stories, vibrant new work by well-known contemporary Native American writers, and fresh, emergent voices. Vital testaments of our times, these stories share an understanding of the loss and struggle in Native women's lives, the resistance and acceptance, rage and compassion. RECKONINGS includes short stories by Paula Gunn Allen, Kimberly M. Blaeser, Louise Erdrich, Diane Glancy, Reid Gomez, Joy Harjo, Linda Hogan, Misha Nogha, and Leslie Marmon Silko.

Hertha Sweet Wong is Associate Professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley. She is the author of Sending My Heart Back Across the Years: Tradition and Innovation in Native American Autobiography. Jana Sequoya Magdaleno lives in Northern California where her focus is on Native community health and healing practices.

4:00 PM in the store