Thunderstruck by Erik Larson (Crown, $25.95). The year is 1910, the height of the Edwardian Age, when the wealthy vied to outshine each other with ostentatious displays and when science introduced new marvels every month. On one of the age’s great ocean-liners, a murderer is escaping London for the United States. He is believed to be “the kindest of men,” the sort who never could, never would mean harm to anyone. Chasing him is a chief inspector for Scotland Yard who comes to find himself strangely sympathetic towards his quarry. Aiding in the investigation is a young Italian nobleman who is struggling to invent wireless communication, ending the world’s “great hush.” Thrilling as only a true story can be, Thunderstruck is a must read for fans of The Devil in the White City.

Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road? by Jon Agee and the rest of the coop (Dial Books for Young Readers, $16.99). We all know the joke. We’ve all told it. Kids love to tell it over and over and over again, with as many different punch lines as possible. And now we’ve found out that some award-winning artists love to tell the joke too – and they have some wacky and downright hilarious ideas about that chicken really did cross the road. One thing is certain – you won’t be able to cross this book without a good laugh! *Limited number of signed copies available.*

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green (Dutton, $16.99). When it comes to relationships, Colin Singleton’s type happens to be girls named Katherine. And when it comes to girls named Katherine, Colin is always getting dumped. Nineteen times, to be exact. He’s also a washed-up child prodigy with ten thousand dollars in his pocket, a passion for anagrams, and overweight, Judge Judy-obsessed best friend. Colin’s on a mission to prove The Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability, which will predict the future of all relationships, transform him from a fallen prodigy into a true genius, and finally win him the girl. Letting expectations go and allowing love in are at the heart of Colin’s hilarious quest to find his missing piece and avenge dumpees everywhere.

The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor (Dial Books for Young Readers, $17.99). The myth is known to us all: Alice was an ordinary girl who stepped through the looking glass and entered a fairy-tale world invented by Lewis Carroll. The truth is far stranger and is only being revealed: Wonderland is real. And Alyss Heart is an exceptional girl who was born into a world of unearthly delights. She would have grown up to become the most beloved queen of this Wonderland if her evil aunt Redd hadn’t shattered her fairy-tale life by brutally murdering Alyss’s parents and forcing Alyss to flee. For thirteen years Alyss has taken refuge in our world, struggling to forget her past, yet knowing that she must one day return. Now she’s back, but Queen Redd is strong. She’s been amassing an army of card soldiers that are unbeatable. Alyss has her fiercely loyal bodyguard, Hatter Madigan, and a few others at her side. Together they must travel through the Pool of Tears, into the Chessboard Desert to meet with the caterpillar counsel. It’s time for Alyss to reclaim her rightful throne even if it means fighting Redd and possibly losing everything that means anything. What a stunning debut and a great read! *Reserve your signed copy now!*

Crawling: A Father’s First Year by Elisha Cooper (Pantheon, $19.95). With his wife in school getting her PhD, 30-something-year-old children’s book author and illustrator Elisha Cooper is left at home to care for their newborn daughter Zoë. “How do you explain the world to someone who has just come into it?” he wonders. But he is really asking the same question of himself as he enters the bewildering world of fatherhood. There’s the endless changing of diapers and filling of bottles and waking up throughout the night. There’s the onslaught of pink, plastic toys that Cooper wants to throw except that make his daughter smile. There’s the anxiety about Zoë getting bit by a dog and then actually having it happen. There’s the fear that due to his shortcomings, Zoë will turn into a “bad-food-eating, Coke-drinking, rap-playing, sports-watching, profanity-spewing misanthrope – and his fear that she won’t. And, of course, there is a lot of love, and “the many moments when looking at my daughter broke my heart.”

The Echoing Green: The Untold Story of Bobby Thompson, Ralph Branca, and the Shot Heard Round the World by Joshua Prager (Pantheon, $26.95). The full, fascinating story of the most famous moment in baseball history: Bobby Thompson’s home run off Ralph Branca in the bottom of the ninth inning on October 3, 1951, which won the pennant for the New York Giants against their archrivals, the Brooklyn Dodgers. A wonderfully evocative picture of a the great American pastime when it epitomized the ethos of fairness and possibility, The Echoing Green is baseball history, social history, and biography – irresistible reading from any angle.

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson (Broadway, $25). Bill Bryson was born in the middle of the American century – 1951 – in the middle of the country – Des Moines, Iowa – in the middle of the largest generation in American history – the baby boomers. As one of the best and funniest writers alive, he is perfectly positioned to mine his memories of his all-American childhood for twenty-four-carat memoir gold. Using his childhood persona of superhero, Bryson recreates the life of his family in the 1950s in all its transcendent normality – a life at once completely familiar to us and as far away and unreachable as another galaxy. Warm and laugh-out-loud funny, and full of Bill Bryson’s inimitable, pitch-perfect observations, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid is as wondrous a book as any he has ever written.

The End: A Series of Unfortunate Events Book the Thirteenth by Lemony Snicket (HarperCollins, $12.99). Like an off-key violin concert, a flash flood, or a bout of food poisoning, all things must come to an end. Thankfully, for Lemony Snicket, and A Series of Unfortunate Events, the end is here. The thirteenth and final installment will answer readers’ most burning questions: Will Count Olaf prevail? Will the Baudelaires survive? Will the series end happily? If there’s nothing out there, what was that noise?

Villa Air-Bel by Rosemary Sullivan (HarperCollins, $26.95). I am going to share a fellow bookseller’s review for this terrific book. Nancy Brown at R. J. Julia Booksellers in Connecticut writes, “The writing is compelling, the story tingling, everything is wonderful. The names involved for rescue -- from 1936 or so to 1942 -- is like a who’s who of the intelligentsia, art, science, literature of that era. This reads like a novel, only because I cannot comprehend what it must have been like to live through it. I hope Harper realizes what a prize they have – copies should go to Paul Newman so he can make a film, Imus so he can read it and promote it on air, David McCullough so he could wish he wrote it. So, I love it and can’t wait to sell it to everyone who walks in the building – this should be an award winner – reminiscent of Paris 1919 because of the ‘oh my god’ that happens as you read. A wonderful book.”

The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories by Susanna Clarke (Bloomsbury, $23.95). “Magic, madam, is like wine and if you are not used to it, it will make you drunk.” Following the international success of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, Susanna Clarke returns with an enchanting collection of short stories. Each of this stories is as Keats said “a charm’d magic casement” opening “on faerie lands forlorn”; a window that returns the reader to world of Strange and Norrell and, most especially, to that of John Uskglass the Raven King. For new readers, The Ladies of Grace Adieu introduces a world where charm is always tempered by eeriness and picaresque comedy is always darkened by the disturbing shadow of Faerie. *Available October 16th.*

The Meaning of Night: A Confession by Michael Cox (W.W. Norton, $26.95). For readers of The Crimson Petal and the White, this is an extraordinary story of murder, deceit, love, and revenge set in Victorian England. Cox has spent thirty years writing this lavish tale and, in it he has created a world that is both brilliantly vivid and compelling, yet is accurate in every detail. Cox’s editor Jill Bialosky predicts that The Meaning of Night will become a classic. I think she may be right – what a read! *Signed first editions available October 18th.*
 

One of Rakestraw's greatest friends, Elisha Cooper comes to visit on Thursday, 12 October 2006 at 7:00 PM. He will be sharing his newly published memoir Crawling: A Father's First Year.

We are delighted to invite you to an Heirloom Tomato Luncheon with Mimi Luebberman on Friday, 13 October 2006 as we celebrate the publication of The Heirloom Tomato Cookbook. Tickets are $15 and reservations are essential.

Peter Brown visits on Monday, 16 October at 1:00 PM to present his new picture book Chowder. Note that this event takes place at the Dorris Eaton School. Please ask for more information.

Bay area writer Lissa Rovetch visits to present her new books Hot Dog And Bob And the Seriously Scary Attack of the Evil Alien Pizza Person and Hot Dog And Bob And the Particularly Pesky Attack of the Pencil People on Tuesday, 17 October at 10:00 AM. Class reservations are essential.

National bestselling author and illustrator Todd Parr returns to Rakestraw Books on Thursday, 19 October at 10:00 AM to celebrate the publication of The Giant Book of Friendship Fun!. Class reservations are essential.

Caldecott Medal-winning illustrator Paul Zelinsky visits Rakestraw on Thursday, 19 October 2006 at 1:30 PM as we celebrate the publication of not one, but two new books for young readers. Please note that this event will take place at Alamo School. Please ask for more information.

Frank Beddor visits Rakestraw Books to present his new novel The Looking Glass Wars on Wednesday, 25 October at 9:15 AM. Please note the time change.

Rabbi Lawrence Kushner visits on Wednesday, 25 October at 7:00 PM as we celebrate the publication of his new novel Kabbalah: A Love Story.

Jim LaMarche, a truly wonderful author-illustrator, visits on Thursday, 26 October 2006 at 1:00 PM to present Up. It's a beautiful book and one that we cannot recommend too highly.

Bestselling journalist and essayist Michael Lewis returns to Rakestraw Books to discuss his new book Blind Side : Evolution of a Game on Thursday, 2 November at 7:00 PM. Reservations may be necessary.

Michael Prinz Medal winner John Green visits on Friday, 3 November at 10:00 to discuss his new novel An Abundance of Katherines. Please call for more information. Class reservations are essential.

Local writer Annie Barrows joins us to present her new children's novel Ivy And Bean And the Ghost That Had to Go on Wednesday, 8 November at 10:00 AM. Class reservations are essential.

It is our pleasure to announce that Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Richard Ford will visit Rakestraw Books on Thursday, 9 November 2006 at 7:00 PM. He will be reading from and signing his new novel The Lay of the Land, one of the most eagerly anticipated books of the season. We will producing one of our special broadsides in commemoration of this event.

Bestselling novelist Claire Messud returns to Rakestraw Books to share her new novel The Emperor's Children on Wednesday, 15 November 2006 at 7:00 PM. Please join us for this very special evening.

One of our all-time favorite author-illustrators Tim Egan returns to Rakestraw on Friday, 18 November 2006 at 10:00 AM to share his new books, Roasted Peanuts and Serious Farm.

Debut picture book author Nancy Tillman visits Rakestraw Books to present her brand-new, and really very wonderful, book On the Night You Were Born on Saturday, 18 November 2006 at 10:30 AM.

Celebrated wine writer Leslie Sbrocco returns to Rakestraw Books to taste some wine with us and talk about her new book Simple & Savvy Wine Guide : Buying, Pairing, And Sharing for All on Friday, 8 December 2006 at 7:00 PM. Come enjoy the evening and help us raise some money for Meals on Wheels.

Please note that these events are subject to change but that as of this writing all details are correct. We encourage you to call us at (925) 837-7337 to confirm. In addition, you should remember that more events will be added to this calendar so be sure to check each newsletter for additions.