Love and Trouble

First, as a few of you kindly pointed out, I need to correct a couple of mixups in last week's event announcements. In both cases, I got the dates right, but the days wrong: Nicole Dieker's book launch for The Biographies of Ordinary People is on Tuesday, May 23, at 7 pm, and John Bierlein's visit to discuss his new book on the zoo, Woodland, takes place on the following night, Wednesday, May 24, also at 7. Sorry for any confusion, and I hope you can join us at one or both.

And to return, as promised, to another (correctly dated) from last week's list of May events: our book lunch with Thomas Ricks on May 30 at 12:30. As I mentioned, this is something—lunch with an author at the store—we haven't done before, and there are few writers I'd rather do this with than Tom Ricks. In my previous life at Amazon, I was lucky enough to talk with many authors, but there was no encounter more interesting or memorable than a lunch a colleague and I had with Tom before his book Fiasco came out (and shot immediately to #1 on every bestseller list). He had fascinating, disturbing stories to tell from his first-hand experience of the Iraq War, but, as we got to know him then and later, we learned he's curious and knowledgable about a wide range of subjects. After he wisely retired from reporting from the front lines, he has turned to history, with his book The Generals and now with the intriguing pairing of his new book (out May 23), Churchill & Orwell: The Fight for Freedom, a timely look at how those two iconic figures, one on the right and one on the left, helped save democracy from authoritarianism. I'm sure he'll have plenty to say on those men, as well as on many other subjects you might be curious about. It should be a wonderful lunch, and you can reserve a spot (the $38 price includes a copy of the book and a catered lunch from the deli at Ken's Market) on our website.

And one last note about events: you'll see a face familiar to many of you in our New Book of the Week below. Claire Dederer, a friend of ours and a former Phinney Ridge neighbor, has read twice at the store already in our short history, both hilarious and incisive pieces from her work in progress that became the book below, Love and Trouble (which turned out to be every bit as good as I knew it would be). She's doing a few events in town before she leaves on her book tour, but she'll also be coming back to Phinney Books at the end of her travels, on July 27, if you want to mark your calendars (and plan your vacations). Can't wait for that.
Thanks—Tom, Laura, Kim, Liz, and Haley