Drawing from his own considerable gardening experience and expertise, as well as leaning on 500 years of collective wisdom from the people he calls “The Zen Masters of the Western Garden”, local author DAVID WANN gathers a mix of stories, how-to advice, and simple, doable projects that are ideal for gardeners in the high and arid landscapes of the West. The Zen of Gardening (Fulcrum, $17.95) is a friendly and invaluable guide to such topics as strategic gardening (how to grow salsa or pesto from scratch), pest-proof planting (he playfully advises using a photograph of his face to deter the bugs), choosing the right varieties of edibles for the region (he’s bullish on Sungold cherry tomatoes), how to become a seed-starting maniac using a Farmer’s Almanac approach to gardening (plant peas when the first cottonwood leaves appear!), as well as profiles of colorful local gardens and gardeners.

The Zen of Gardening

JOHN N. MACLEAN
Friday, July 11, 7:30 p.m.

JOHN N. MACLEAN, author of the acclaimed Fire on the Mountain, offers a view from the frontlines of wilderness fires in his new Fire and Ashes (Henry Holt & Company, $25.00), combining action-packed storytelling with moving insights about firefighters and informed analysis of firefighting strategy past and present. Returning to the site of his father’s classic Young Men and Fire to interview the last survivor of the worst disaster in the history of smoke jumping, Maclean illustrates how fatal fires can burn in our minds for generations. From the worst case of arson in wildfire history – 1953’s Rattlesnake Fire in Mendocino National Forest, which claimed the lives of fifteen firefighters – to 1999’s Sadler Fire in Nevada, when a line of flames suddenly trapped six firefighters mistakenly placed in harm’s way, Maclean offers a prescient view of the inevitable conflict among people, property, and nature.

Fire and Ashes

Fire on the Mountain ($ 13.95)

SANDY JOHNSON
Monday, July 14, 7:30 p.m.

Reeling from the ravages of chemotherapy and her chilling chances for a cancer recurrence, SANDY JOHNSON set out to investigate the powers of renowned spiritual healers. Traveling from Santa Fe to Idaho, from the Big Island of Hawaii to a remote village in Brazil, she met with a striking array of inspired practitioners of alternative medicine. At every stop, she interviewed each healer about his or her particular method and road to the calling. She sat in on treatment sessions and talked with satisfied “patients” and devout followers. What’s more, she gave every healer – a housewife, a voice coach, a Brooklyn-born Shaman and octogenarian Kahuna, among others – complete access to her own immune-weakened body and troubled soul. The Brazilian Healer With the Kitchen Knife (Rodale, $22.95) recounts Johnson’s global journey of astounding discoveries, amazing recoveries, and personal renewal.

The Brazilian Healer With the Kitchen Knife

SILVIA PETTEM
Wednesday, July 16, 7:30 p.m.

Written to commemorate the 125th anniversary of the Boulder Police Department, Behind the Badge (Book Lode, $29.95 cloth, $19.95 paper) takes the reader through the evolution of the department to the present day. Beginning in the days when the town’s biggest problem was feuding madams and continuing into recent decades, local author SILVIA PETTEM takes a human-interest approach to both high-profile and little-known crimes. To offset the serious, and sometimes tragic nature of police work, Behind the Badge also showcases lighthearted anecdotes of Boulder’s early marshals and chiefs, colorful descriptions of the city’s more infamous characters, and amusing accounts of officer pranks. Capturing both the pioneer spirit of nineteenth-century Boulder and the ongoing challenges of the current administration, Pettem offers a comprehensive history of law enforcement that parallels that of Boulder itself.

DAN SIMMONS
Wednesday, July 23, 7:30 p.m.

Many centuries in the future, Thomas Hockenberry, a late-twentieth-century professor of classics, has apparently been resurrected, along with other scholars from his era, by Gods resident on planet Mars. The scholars’ duty? To observe the Trojan War being waged on Earth and report even the smallest deviations from Homer’s The Iliad. Meanwhile, from the radiation-swept reaches of Jovian space, four sentient machines – including specialists in Shakespeare and Proust – race to investigate the potentially catastrophic quantum activity originating on Mars. Hugo- and Stoker-winning Colorado author DAN SIMMONS makes a triumphant return to the genre with Ilium (Eos, $25.95), the first book in a two-part epic and an adventure enormous in scope and imagination, sweeping across time and space to connect seemingly disparate stories in a truly masterful work of speculative fiction.

Ilium

JON KRAKAUER
Thursday, July 24, 7:30 p.m. at Unity Church

On July 24, 1984, a woman and her infant daughter were murdered. Their killers, Mormon fundamentalists Ron and Dan Lafferty, insist they received a revelation from God ordering them to slay their blameless victims. Beginning with a meticulously researched account of this “divinely inspired” crime, local author JON KRAKAUER constructs a multi-layered narrative of messianic delusion, savage violence, polygamy, and unyielding faith. Along the way, he uncovers a shadowy offshoot of America’s fastest-growing religion, and raises provocative questions about extremes of religious belief. Under the Banner of Heaven (Doubleday, $26.00) takes us into isolated communities in the American West where some 40,000 Mormon Fundamentalists openly defy both civil authorities and the Mormon establishment, where deviation from or objection to the leaders’ harsh edicts may be punishable by death.

This event will be held at Unity Church, 2855 Folsom Street. Tickets are available at Boulder Book Store for $5.

Under the Banner of Heaven

SHERMAN ALEXIE
Saturday, July 26, 2:00 p.m.

Ten Little Indians (Grove, $24.00) offers poignant and emotionally resonant new stories about Native Americans who, like all Americans, find themselves at personal and cultural crossroads, faced with heartrending, tragic, sometimes wondrous moments that test their notions of who they are and whom they love. An intellectual feminist Spokane Indian woman saves the lives of white women all around her, to the bewilderment of her only child; two college sweethearts rescue a lost cat, a simple act that will transform the rest of their lives together. A homeless Indian man must raise $1,000 in twenty-four hours to buy back the fancy dance outfit stolen from his grandmother fifty years earlier. SHERMAN ALEXIE’s stories are driven by lyricism and candor that cut to the heart of the human experience, shedding brilliant light on what happens when we grow into and out of each other.

Ten Little Indians

PAM HOUSTON, ERIKA KROUSE, AND MEREDITH BROUSSARD
Tuesday, July 29, 7:30 p.m.

The Dictionary of Failed Relationships (Three Rivers, $11.00) is required reading for anyone who has had a relationship end badly—and isn’t that just about everyone? Celebrating her twenty-sixth birthday and realizing that she’d survived exactly twenty-six failed romantic entanglements, editor MEREDITH BROUSSARD decided it was time to dissect this topic that had filled her life with so much…angst. Collecting fiction and personal experiences from twenty-six of today’s most influential female writers – including local, award-winning authors PAM HOUSTON and ERIKA KROUSE, the critically acclaimed Jennifer Weiner, Boulder Book Store favorites Anna Maxted and Amy Sohn, and many more – Broussard gets to the heart of the matter, shedding light on the emotions (from anger to melancholy to rage supreme) associated with love gone wrong.

The Dictionary of Failed Relationships

IF YOU CANNOT ATTEND AN EVENT, BUT WOULD LIKE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY, please call us to order one (personalized copies must be prepaid). All events are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted. If you are unable to use the stairs to the second floor ballroom where our events are held, please call ahead to arrange for the closed-circuit television service available on the main floor. Events are subject to change or cancellation. Please call us to confirm on the day of the event: (303) 447-2074. Books not purchased at Boulder Book Store will be signed only if time permits.