Rebekka is no stranger to funerals and the dead. Her grandmother went to every funeral in her home town, stood at every grave, and told the dead to stay where she put them. Rebekka has spent much of her life running – from commitment, from her home town, from the memories of her sister’s suicide, and especially from her attraction to Byron. But she returns to bury her grandmother and learns more about the town’s secrets than she ever wanted to know. It changes everything. Is she really meant to take her grandmother’s place? Do the dead really walk? And, most importantly, do she and the Undertaker really not have any choice if they want to keep the town safe? I loved this book. The mysterious world haunted my dreams. The characters crawled under my skin. This dark, scary, gothic horror manages to be edgy and seductive, disturbing and unforgettable, yet full of compassion and beauty. Filled with ancient contracts, the walking dead, and fated love, this book sucks you in and leaves you yearning for more. – Angela M, Youth Events Coordinator

Alex White, a young American soldier wounded in the Great War, journeys to Gatford while seeking a place to heal the wounds in his body and soul. But the village is not as idyllic as Alex first thinks; and it becomes downright dangerous when he wanders off the traveled paths and discovers that the surrounding woods are populated with capricious spirits. Alex finds himself desperately out of his depth as he draws the notice of the fairies and a sensual, grieving witch. He is lured deeper into the mysteries of the forest, where reality and enchantment become tangled together, in this beautifully written tale. – Ann D, Gift Buyer

It starts the way so many stories start: boy meets girl, lives with her, meets her parents, asks her to marry him. But everything changes when Richard loses control of his car in a freak storm and realizes, when he regains consciousness, that Jen has disappeared. She’s not in the hospital and not at her parents’ house. Her mother doesn’t recognize him, and he’s been staying with her for the past four days. He simply can’t find Jen. Worse, nobody remembers her, not her friends, not his friends, no one. It’s as if she never existed. Richard is a journalist, so he writes about his dilemma, including a drawing of Jen. He doesn’t anticipate the popularity of his article, or how many people will write to him. One person writes that she thinks Jen might be her sister. And Richard is startled to find she looks exactly like Jen. And thus starts Richard's desperate search to find out what is real and what has happened to him and to Jen. Is he crazy? Can he trust anyone? This is a fast paced page-turner that grips you to the very end. – Angela M, Youth Events Coordinator

A dangerous and elusive killer is stalking women in Vienna. Detective Oskar Reinhardt enlists the aid of Dr. Max Liebermann, whose expertise in the emerging field of psychoanalysis has proven useful in previous cases. But with more victims being found, Reinhardt’s superiors demand that he find a solution quickly or they will turn the case over to another investigator. And this is just one of the cases that Reinhardt needs Liebermann’s assistance with. Turn of the century Vienna comes alive as Reinhardt and Liebermann work to solve crimes against the backdrop of the city’s vibrant café culture in this captivating mystery, the fifth of Tallis’s Max Liebermann novels. – Ann D, Gift Buyer

This book wrecked me. I have trouble even saying that I recommend it, because its sheer brilliant intensity will tear you apart. I am not a crier. I didn't cry at Old Yeller, I didn't cry at Romeo and Juliet, and while I didn't see Titanic, the odds are I would have been giggling at the end. And yet. And yet I was bawling over my cooking dinner by the second chapter of "The Long Goodbye." I finished it in a few hours, and there were precious few dry-eyed moments. Meghan's gri...moreThis book wrecked me. I have trouble even saying that I recommend it, because its sheer brilliant intensity will tear you apart. I am not a crier. I didn't cry at Old Yeller, I didn't cry at Romeo and Juliet, and while I didn't see Titanic, the odds are I would have been giggling at the end. And yet. And yet I was bawling over my cooking dinner by the second chapter of "The Long Goodbye." I finished it in a few hours, and there were precious few dry-eyed moments. Meghan's grief is so raw, so writ large in every sentence, every word, that you have no choice but to feel it with her. This is not a memoir with the benefit of years of distance, as some gentler memoirs would frame things. "The Long Goodbye" is immediate, the suffering vivid. I think Meghan O'Rourke may be the bravest writer alive, because to share this sort of grief with the public audience - to lay one's self this bare, when one has already been laid bare by sorrow - is terrifying to me. I hope against hope that this memoir gave her some catharsis, some relief from the pain of losing a beloved parent. I have probably done "The Long Goodbye" somewhat of an injustice this far, as well. Amongst the sorrow is a stunningly precious study of mothers and daughters. Perhaps due to the nature of the memoir, there is nothing saccharine about O'Rourke's description of her relationship with her mother. Every aspect of mother-daughter relations is examined, even the ones we are less likely to want to discuss: the anger, the jealousy, the desire to always be the child and not the care-taker. In the end, although I am wary to say "You should read this," well... you should. It is likely the most affecting book I've read in my 28 years. Halfway through I had to stop and call my mother to tell her I loved her, and I can't imagine anyone with a living mother being able to bear doing any less. -- Sarah L, Keplers.com Manager

Renegade monk Giordano Bruno returns in this thrilling historical mystery. Bruno is a condemned heretic living just out of the reach of the Spanish Inquisition and enjoying the relative safety and intellectual freedom of Queen Elizabeth’s England. Her spymaster, Sir Francis Walsingham, has another job for Bruno. He needs someone to search out a conspiracy against the Queen in the French Embassy. While Bruno is untangling court intrigues, one of the Queen’s maids of honour is murdered and occult signs are cut into her skin. Bruno is convinced the murder is connected to a plot against the Queen, but Elizabeth refuses to believe that the killer could be someone from within her own court. Bruno must find the proof the Queen needs without giving away his own precarious undercover position or allowing the conspiracy to go too far. Atmospheric and full of intrigue, these mysteries draw the reader into a skillfully woven world of court politics and secret desires where one misstep by Bruno will be his last. – Ann D, Gift Buyer

Great characters, mystery, and action always make for a good read, and Started Early, Took My Dog has it all. Add events that are disturbing, but soulful, heartwarming, but misguided, and you have a book that is hard to put down. Tracy Waterhouse, a retired police officer working at an English mall, is out running errands when she “makes a purchase she hadn’t bargained for.” Tilly, an actress, witnesses the exchange, but she is caught up in her own disaster. Jackson Brodie, a private investigator, is also on the scene, searching for someone else’s roots. As the stories of these characters intertwine, all three are about to learn that the “past is never history, and that no good deed goes unpunished.” This book reveals the worst and best sides of mankind. It’s another great book club read. – Sina H, Bookseller

Just published by Heyday Books, New California Writing 2011 is a thought-provoking literary anthology about California by some of the freshest voices in new California literature. Think of Houghton Mifflin’s “Best American” series, but for our state. With a notable exception or two, most of the contributors were unfamiliar to me. This remarkable Berkeley publisher continues to produce the highest quality anthologies; African- American, Asian-American and California Indian histories; memoirs; and books on nature, photography, poetry, and politics. It’s one of only a few publishers whose books we have collected together to display in the store. The next time you visit us, be sure to check out other Heyday titles. In his introduction, Heyday’s founder, Malcolm Margolin, quotes Wallace Stegner’s famous line: “California is like the rest of America, only more so.” “After you read this collection,” Malcolm writes, “you will conclude that the best of California literature is like the best of American literature, only more so.” – Clark K

"Dearest Eudora, what there is to say, we have said, in one way or another," wrote William Maxwell to Eudora Welty on December 19, 1993. Their 58-year-long correspondence started in 1942 when Maxwell, fiction editor at The New Yorker, solicited a story by Welty. This beautiful book is a testament to their kindness and generosity. We watch how their long friendship blossoms, as the two writers put their hearts down on paper, sharing their love of family life, reading, writing fiction, and gardening. There are many intimate and humorous pages in this volume of more than 300 letters, masterfully edited by Suzanne Marrs (known for her biography on Welty), such as Maxwell's description of his trip to a small Irish village: "Where we were all four so happy I wonder we didn't die of it. But now it is as if we had seen a ghost and were going around not talking about it. Do you understand? If you don't, who does?" This book will speak to you in a way that only the best friends do. – Aggie Z, Literature Buyer

Paperback Dreams is an independent film that aired on KQED Public Television as part of the Truly CA series and nationwide on PBS. The film chronicles the stories of Cody's and Kepler's, two landmark independent bookstores struggling to survive in the new digital age, and underscores the value of independent, locally-owned businesses to their communities. The film is especially poignant now that Cody's has closed. Paperback Dreams captures Kepler's remarkable rebirth in 2005 when thousands of Peninsula residents stepped forward to save their independent bookstore. If you are a member of our Literary Circle, you are actively continuing that support today. This film is about you too. – Clark K

In 1933, Von Hindenberg lives and Hitler is only the newly appointed Chancellor of Germany. There is no SS, no Gestapo, and no concentration camps. The horror of the Third Reich is barely apparent, a few seemingly random, if brutal, attacks on Jews and foreigners. The SA is filled with handsome young men and patriotic pride. The Nazis are the first party in ten years to care about the needs of ordinary Germans in the midst of an economic disaster. President Roosevelt must appoint a new ambassador to Germany. He finally chooses a college professor, and in the summer of 1933, William E. Dodd arrives in Berlin with his wife and grown children. Neither the American ambassador nor the world has any idea what is about to be unleashed. Erik Larson takes us through the daily lives of the Dodd family as they are entertained by Goebbels and Himmler; as the ambassador meets the strange little Chancellor before he names himself führer; and as he desperately tries to convince a hostile State Department of the horror that is about to fall across Europe. – Antonia S, General Manager