A number of author appearances and book-related events are taking place this spring at Bookshop Santa Cruz. One of the more noteworthy is a stop by Mary Roach, who is skilled at making science both accessible and humorous. She’s dug into cadavers (in Stiff), the afterlife (Spook) and sex (Bonk). Her latest book, Gulp (now in paperback), embarks on a “fantastic voyage” through humanity’s alimentary canal. April 2 at 7pm.
Four days later, esteemed short-story writer Lorrie Moore will be in town to discuss Bark, her first collection of stories in more than a decade. April 6 at 7:30pm.
Emma Donoghue’s new mystery, Frog Music, conjures up the gilded age of San Francisco in the 1870s. Set during the course of a mere three days, the novel tells the tale of a burlesque dancer who tries to find a killer. Donoghue talks about her work on April 11 at 7:30pm.
Bird lovers will want to alight early on the chance to go on a 15-person birding sojourn with that modern Audubon, David Allen Sibley Sibley, whose text and illustrations make his birding guides indispensable to amateur ornithologists (the second edition of his seminal Sibley Guide to Birds is now out). The bird walk is scheduled for April 23 at 2pm, and the only way to participate is to buy the book early (by April 1 at the latest) at Bookshop and get entered in a lottery. Sibley will also talk in the evening, at 7pm, at Bookshop.
At the end of the month, Barbara Ehrenreich, whose Nickel and Dimed anticipated much of today’s discussion about the minimum wage, will talk about her memoir, Living with a Wild God. In the book, the experienced adult Ehrenreich comes to terms with her wild, speculative younger self as expressed in her own adolescent journals. April 24 at 7:30pm.
Over at the Museum of Art and History, this Friday (March 21, 5–8pm), the monthly third Friday celebration is billed as a Poetry and Book Arts Extravaganza. The event brings together Santa Cruz’s vibrant community of artists who use books as materials for creation. Among the many workshops and demonstrations there will be classes on papermaking, bookbinding and paper marbling. Starting at 6pm, Poetry Santa Cruz hosts readings by Robert Sward, Peggy Heinrich and others, followed by an open mic at 7pm. Admission is $5 ($3 for students, seniors and kids).
