A delectable journey into the world of chocolate--from manufacturing to marketing, French boutiques to American multinationals--by the award-winning author of Olives.

Science, over recent years, has confirmed what chocolate lovers have always known: the stuff is actually good for you. It's the Valentine's Day drug of choice, has more antioxidants than red wine, and triggers the same brain responses as falling in love. Nothing, in the end, can stand up to chocolate as a basic fundament to human life.

In this scintillating narrative, acclaimed foodie Mort Rosenblum delves into the complex world of chocolate. From the mole poblano--chile-laced chicken with chocolate--of ancient Mexico to the contemporary French chocolatiers who produce the palets d'or--bite-sized, gold-flecked bricks of dark chocolate--to the vast empires of Hershey, Godiva, and Valrhona, Rosenblum follows the chocolate trail the world over. He visits cacao plantations, meets with growers, buyers, makers, and tasters, and investigates the dark side of the chocolate trade as well as the enduring appeal of its product.

Engaging, entertaining, and revealing, Chocolate: A Bittersweet Saga of Dark and Light is a fascinating foray into this "food of the gods." It is our pleasure to announce a reading, signing, and chocolate tasting with Mort Rosenblum on Friday, 21 January 2005 at 7:00 PM. Please join us for an interesting and delicious evening.

Manet, Monet, Renoir, van Gogh, Cézanne--even the names are powerful evocations of our cultural wealth and pleasure. In the admiration of their work, we forget that famous painters had concerns other than painting--a baby crying, models to appease, a dying wife, the pressure to sell in order to eat, sexual temptations, attractions in the midst of grief, distractions, addictions, illness.

The stories in Life Studies focus on individuals peripheral to the lives of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painters, people whose personal challenges are played out against the artists at work. They are stories of ordinary people--Monet's gardener forced to choose between his wife and the painter he loves; a disillusioned banker suffering the ennui of the modern age; a naïve wet nurse facing the loss every mother fears so that another woman can paint; Manet's widow puzzling out the tangle of her husband's sexual indiscretions; a tormented child throwing stones at the painter his parents reviled; an orphan piecing together imaginings of her father, Modigliani. Each character has his or her own private issues to work out. Sometimes art helps.

Counterbalancing these historic stories are contemporary ones in which non-artists encounter art in meaningful, sometimes surprising ways. They ask vital questions. How can art help us through grief, confusion, loneliness? Why do we feel lost, meager, adrift without it? How does it communicate when words fail?

Again, ordinary people--a construction worker in an art museum for the first time; a bright, sassy foster child who expresses her longing by "correcting" the Virgin Mary's painted _expression; a grandfather offering a mute black girl's humble pencil drawing as a test of love when he visits his wife in the penitentiary. That art can be understandable, useful, moving, and meaningful to ordinary people is the underlying premise of these stories.

We are absolutely thrilled to announce that Susan Vreeland -- a longtime friend to Rakestraw Books -- is returning to celebrate the publication of Life Studies on Monday, 24 January 2005 at 7:00 PM. A special slideshow accompanies this evening's event.

Join San Francisco Chronicle’s best selling author, Khaled Hosseini, as he discusses his successful and powerful debut novel, The Kite Runner. He will share his own experiences and motivations for writing the gripping story about family, friendship and conflict. The first Afghan novel to be written in English has been optioned by Dreamworks Film and may soon appear as a feature film.

Note: This event is sponsored by The Danville Library Foundation and takes place at the Danville Community Center located on Front Street (next door to the Library). Seating is available on a first come, first seated basis.

The Danville Library Foundation has established the Danville Library Endowment Fund. The Friends of the Danville Library Endowment Fund was established to ensure that our library has the books, materials, programs and activities that often suffer due to the ebb and flow of tax-based support. The deep-rooted community backing that we have found ensures our library's excellence and that it will flourish even during difficult times. Contributions in any amount are welcome. Our funds are professionally managed by the East Bay Community Foundation, and through their auspices we are able to accept donations of securities, bequests and a variety of planned giving programs such as charitable remainder trusts and charitable lead trusts. For more information on the Endowment and the ways in which you can make a lasting contribution to the Danville Library, please call 938 READ (938 7323).

Female fans of all ages have embraced Brashares' poignant, humorous, and captivating novels about the friendship of four teenage girls, and the pair of thrift-store jeans that fits each girl perfectly. The traveling pants keep them connected during the summer months when each is off forging her own summer of self-discovery. Both The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, praised by USA Today as "funny, perceptive and moving," and its successor The Second Summer of the Sisterhood received much critical acclaim.

Girls in Pants gives readers the third summer of Tibby, Lena, Carmen, and Bridget -- four best friends who embarking upon their final summer together before heading off to college. Critics are already raving about this latest Sisterhood novel. In a starred review, Booklist praised Ann Brashares as an "an author who encourages her readers to look, feel, trust, and empathize with her characters."

Rakestraw Books is delighted to announce a very special event with Ann Brashares as we celebrate the publication of Girls in Pants on Saturday, 19 February 2005 at 11:00 AM. In addition to our usual reading and signing, we will be serving brunch. Guests are also encouraged to bring an article of clothing (new or used in good condition) for donation to charity. Please reserve your space for this event by calling us at (925) 837-7337.

In addition to our wonderful brown paper Rakestraw Books Gift Certificates (available in any amount), we are pleased to be able to offer Booksense Gift Certificates redeemable in more than 1,200 independent bookstores nationwide. If we are unable to help you choose a book for your farway reader, a Booksense Gift Certificate is the way to go.

Julie's Morning Book Group is reading Present Value