Wednesday January 12 7:30 pm
In 1950 the Chinese invaded
Tibet, claiming that it was not a separate country but a region of China. Within
a decade, more than a million Tibetans would be tortured or murdered, almost six
thousand monasteries would be destroyed, and Tibetans would become a minority in
their own land. At the time of the invasion, the U.S. government, with reasons
of its own, sent in a CIA task force to secretly arm and train Tibetans who were
resisting the Chinese. Mikel Dunham, who spent seven years interviewing
both Tibetan soldiers and CIA officers, tells their stories in Buddha’s
Warriors: The Story of the CIA-Backed Tibetan Freedom Fighters, the Chinese
Communist Invasion, and the Ultimate Fall of Tibet.
Tuesday January 18 7:30 pm
Long-time Berkeley
wine merchant Kermit Lynch opened his first shop in 1972 as a hobby
(“Business Hours: Wednesday – Saturday 1 to 6:30 pm”). He sent out announcements
of recent acquisitions and soon found that when he added his own comments it
increased his clientele dramatically. Inspiring Thirst: Vintage Selections
from the Kermit Lynch Wine Brochure brings together excerpts from over
thirty years of excellent and entertaining commentary on wine and wine-making,
accompanied by Gail Skoff’s wonderfully evocative photographs. Paul Bertolli
calls Inspiring Thirst “a manifesto of the genuine and the antithesis of
wine-speak.”
Wednesday January 19 7:30 pm
Sandra Gilbert,
author of six previous books of poetry as well as co-editor of The Norton
Anthology of Literature by Women, reads from Belongings, her
new collection of poems. Her subjects range from the jazz musician Charles Lloyd “hauling the music into its only / accurate place” to a bird mask that makes its
wearer look “as if / the very thought of lift / could hurl you into heaven /
beyond the stone, the given.” “Belongings is a stellar collection by a
virtuoso with heart.” Billy Collins
Thursday January 20 7:30 pm
Nonagenarian
Phyllis Whetstone Taper captures the atmosphere of a hot California summer
in 1927 in her first novel, On Kelsey Creek. As the long days of
the harvest come upon them, the younger inhabitants—brash and hopeful—find
themselves at odds with their more cautious elders whose ability to survive in
the tiny farm town of Kelseyville has come at the cost of great struggle. On
Kelsey Creek beautifully embodies the tradition of illuminating ordinary
lives against the grand landscape of the American West.
|
Monday January 24 7:30 pm
In The
Eloquent President: A Portrait of Lincoln Through His Words, Ronald C.
White, Jr., examines eleven of Abraham Lincoln’s speeches, tracking his
moral and political evolution from the careful lawyerly style he used in a
speech given in Springfield, Illinois, as he left for his First Inaugural to the
fiery poetry of the Gettysburg Address. White gives the historical context for
each speech, indicates how Lincoln’s rhetoric would have resonated with his
audiences, and explains the many sources of his unique oratorical style.
Wednesday January 26 7:30 pm
Veteran investigative
reporter Kate Coleman creates a dramatic
portrait of radical Earth First! leader Judi Bari’s tumultuous life in The Secret Wars of Judi Bari: A Car Bomb, the Fight for the Redwoods, and the
End of Earth First! In 1990, a car bomb in
Oakland almost killed Bari and injured her passenger, Darryl Cherney. The FBI
accused the pair of transporting the explosive device knowingly as a part of a
violent campaign of “ecotage.” Coleman delineates the problems that confronted
Bari before and after the bombing, including disagreements with her fellow
activists, conflicts with her estranged husband, five years of legal wrangles
with the FBI and the State of California, and finally the cancer that killed
her.
Thursday January 27 7:30 pm
Eihei Dogen, a thirteenth-century Zen
master and founder of the school of Soto Zen, is known for two major works. The
first, The Shobogenzo, which consists of his earlier teachings, has had
numerous English translations. Dogen’s later teachings, compiled under the title
of Dogen’s Extensive Record, have now been translated into English
for the first time. Taigen Dan Leighton, co-translator with Shohaku
Okumura, joins us to discuss this invaluable collection of Dogen’s
discourses, koan commentaries, and verses.
Monday January 31 7:30 pm
Laurence Gonzales will discuss Deep Survival:
Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why, his deeply perceptive and literate
exploration of the neurological, psychological, and spiritual factors that come
into play when we are faced with life-threatening situations. (In one example, a
woman who was on an airplane destroyed by lightning fell two miles while
strapped to her seat then walked to safety through eleven miles of rainforest in
high heels and her confirmation dress.) Gonzales has noted the patterns in such
cases of survival against the odds and his findings apply equally to
catastrophic wilderness emergencies (this book is used in training Navy SEALs
and forest firefighters) and personal crises such as illness, addiction, or job
loss.
|
