This Wednesday we'll be hosting an author whom I really like, Mary Robinette Kowal. Mary's first novel, Shades of Milk and Honey, was a Regency romance, but with a fantastical twist. In addition to the other genteel and womanly arts, a lady of good breeding is expected to learn the art of glamour, the ability to create illusion and enhance reality with magic.

 

Glamour in Glass is the follow up to the fantastic first novel. By the end of Shades of Milk and Honey, our heroes Jane and Vincent are finally married. In Glamour in Glass they leave for a honeymoon in Belgium. Travel to the continent has only recently opened due to the exile of Napoleon to Elba. When Napoleon escapes Elba, the couple unable to return to England.

 

What follows is more adventure than romance, and it's a fantastic read. I won't spoil it for you with details. Come to the Weller Book Works on Wednesday, April 25th at 7 PM to meet Mary and get your copy!

This Friday, August 26th, we will have the pleasure of hosting Alexandra Fuller for a reading from her brand new memoir, Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness. I remember reading her first memoir, Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight, which looks on her childhood in Southern Rhodesia/Zimbabwe. It was an absolute delight, and it is still one of my favorite go-to reading recommendations. Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness is both a prequel and a sequel, continuing Alexandra's own story, but its main focus is on her mother, Nicola Fuller. I haven't finished it yet, but Catherine has—read her review in the current issue of BookTalk, Sam Weller's newsletter.

We hope you join us at the Salt Lake City Public Library at 7:00 PM for this wonderful reading and signing.

This event is free and open to the public.

Join us on Thursday, June 2nd at the Salt Lake City Library's Nancy Tessman Auditorium for a reading with Justin Cronin, author of the New York Times bestselling novel, The Passage.

The Passage became a blockbuster hit when it was published in hardcover. Cronin says of its success, “The Passage taps into a great deal of our shared anxieties about the world we live in. These are fraught times, to put it mildly, and the dangers we face, internal and external, in ourselves and in others, seem like strange new monsters to wrestle with. But at the same time, The Passage is not an unremittingly bleak story. I think we’re all wondering what will redeem us. It’s a hopeful thing to think that it could be something as simple as love for a little girl.”

The Passage is a breathtaking tale of catastrophe and survival and a mesmerizing work of sacrifice and hope. In telling this epic story of a girl given the chance to save humanity, award-winning and highly acclaimed author Justin Cronin’s ambitious vision and powerful prose combine to make The Passage this summer’s most anticipated read.

Tonight (5/27/11) we are proud to welcome author and filmmaker John Sayles to our store! The reading of his new book, A Moment in the Sun, will begin at 7pm with a signing to follow. Please join us - no ticket is required!

I recently finished reading John Scalzi's latest novel, Fuzzy Nation. Fuzzy Nation is a "reboot" of H. Beam Piper's classic, Little Fuzzy, which is on my reading list, but I haven't gotten to it quite yet.

I am saddened to report that our event with Katie Arnold-Ratiliff, author of Bright Before Us has been canceled.

We extend our apologies to anyone disappointed or inconvenienced by the late notice. We also extend our best wishes to Ms Arnold-Ratliff.

We people — we social animals — love stories. We're fascinated by the experiences of others; we enjoy sharing our own. Be it around a campfire, in a bar, or (since approximately 1450) in books folks have a lot to share with one another.

The book has added a dimension to the sharing process that literary geeks thrive on: the connection made by a cover, a name, a place, an image, an idea contained by the physical object. We connect with people we never thought we'd know, places we never thought we'd see, experiences we never thought we'd have. Worlds not even of our making can bring us together in strange ways.

I was traveling the week after the sixth Harry Potter book was released. It was everywhere during my travels. Fellow airplane passengers nodded to each other, smiled in recognition of another member of the tribe of Potter, and compared notes careful avoid spoilers. When I found myself weeping at the death of Dumbledore, I paused my reading for a moment to surreptitiously glance around, embarrassed to be crying in public once again. But then I heard tell-tale sniffling coming from the seats behind me and knew I was not alone. Another anecdote: on our first date, my now husband Tony decided I really was a person to get to know when he looked at the books on the shelves in my apartment. Thomas Pynchon may have something to do with our marriage.

So imagine yourself at a dinner, seated at a table with an author and other booksellers. Everyone is telling stories because that's what we humans do. All of a sudden you can bear keeping your secret no longer, so you turn to the author sitting next to you and blurt out, "My Grandfather built your fire tower." The author's mouth drops open. Conversation at the table stops. You explain slowly at first, then the words rush out. And the stories — the connections — begin again. You're trading tales about the cemetery in a little town no one's heard of, an inn keeper's turkey, your grand dad and his time in the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps). Suddenly you've not only discovered a great new author, you've rediscovered a part of your world long buried and learned more about it from a new friend.

That happened to me last September at a dinner in Denver. I met an author whose isolated job and workplace connects with my family in so many ways it's quite remarkable and very nearly creepy. I began his book thinking I'd read a nice piece of nature writing about a part of the country with which I'm intimate. Instead, I discovered a great book by a wonderful writer who admires many of the authors I do. I reconnected with my past.

The book is Fire Season: Field Notes from a Wilderness Lookout by Philip Connors. Your life may have no connection with his work in a New Mexico fire tower. But I bet you'll find a connection with an extraordinary book about a life of solitude in the West. You can meet him here on Saturday, April 9th at 6 p.m.

Click here for the Salt Lake Tribune's interview with Philip.
Click here for the Deseret News article about Fire Season.

Sexual Fluidity chronicles Lisa M. Diamond's study of 100 young women over the course of 10 years to try to understand the nature of women's love and desire. If you're worried that reading this will be difficult because it's academic, do be, Diamond's writing is accessible and enjoyable to read. In Sexual Fluidity, Diamond delves into the science behind attraction and lust, love and infatuation. She reveals that biology plays as large a part in who we partner with as anything else, and that women's preferences toward one gender or another can fluctuate wildly over the span of a lifetime. Freud touched on this with his Polymorphous Perversity theory stating that children up to the age of five had no sexual preference to one gender or another until they were taught to repress sexuality into socially normal behavior creating heterosexual adults. He may have been on to something, but this was never really studied properly and it was dismissed at the time, like a good portion of Freud's work, because of its perverse nature. Now, in the age of outspoken and accepted homosexuality, a proper study has been done. The findings in Sexual Fluidity probably won't come to a surprise to most women, and it may even help some women understand that they aren't alone in their confusing attractions. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in or curious about gender studies and psychology, which happen to be the two fields Lisa M. Diamond is an Associate Professor of at the University of Utah.

On Thursday, March 31st, at 6pm, Lisa M. Diamond will be joining us in-store to discuss her book Sexual Fluidity. We hope you'll join us (it's free and open to the public!)!

Only 4 days left until David Sedaris's appearance at Sam Weller's Bookstore, and boy are we excited! Come check out his latest, Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk.

The reading is un-ticketed and will begin at 7:00 PM. After the reading, Mr. Sedaris will sign everyone's books. We are issuing free tickets for the signing in order to keep the signing line manageable. Tickets are available now with the purchase of any David Sedaris title from Sam Weller's Bookstore. Tickets will be available without a purchase on Saturday, November 27th.

Sam Weller's will be hosting Chris Guillebeau's Unconventional Book Tour for The Art of Non-Conformity: Set Your Own Rules, Live the Life You Want, and Change the World on Wednesday, November 10th, at 6:00 PM.

In 2008 Chris Guillebeau gained widespread attention for his online manifesto “A Brief Guide to World Domination,” which challenged readers to wake up, join “the living world” and create a passion-oriented life while serving others in a unique way. With his book The Art of Non-Conformity: Set Your Own Rules, Live the Life You Want, and Change the World, Chris seeks to reach even more people and radically shift how readers think about earning a living and making a difference in the world.

To spread the message, Chris will visit all 50 states to meet readers on an “Unconventional Book Tour” between September 2010 and January 2011. Chris has also partnered with Charity: Water to raising $500,000 for wells in two Ethiopian communities. If readers buy his book during the tour, 100% of author royalties will go to the Ethiopia project.

Guillebeau simplifies his goal into one statement: “The mission is to help people live unconventional lives, make their own choices, and change the world.”

The Art of Non-Conformity is a “freedom manifesto” for anyone wanting to break out of an unremarkably average existence to create a meaningful, productive life. As Chris says, “I’m writing for believers, not cynics—and if you make some big changes as a result of the stories and ideas you read here, we will have both succeeded.”

Chris Guillebeau served as a volunteer for a medical charity in West Africa from 2002-2006. After relocated to the U.S. and entering graduate school at the University of Washington, he began actively traveling to countries like Burma, Uganda, Iraq and Pakistan. On his personal quest to visit every country in the world, Chris has currently visited 145 countries (only 47 to go!).

And for the grown-up set, author and former Sam Weller's staffer Ben Higginbotham will read from Demonica, also on Saturday, October 30th at 6:00 PM!

Demonica Valios just wants to be normal. But normal doesn't come easy for her. Maybe that's because of the fact that she's half demon. Or maybe it's due to the three-foot long tail that comes along with her origins. But things are about to get weird, even for Demonica. Lately, more and more demons seem to be centering in on New Orleans, but little does she know that something even bigger than she's used to is coming to tow. Something controlled by a single old man, rolling a pair of dice endlessly, and when he releases his fury, all of Hell's fury will come along with it.

Children's picture book author Barbie McConnell will be at Sam Weller's Bookstore reading Marsipity on Saturday, October 30th, at 1:00 PM! Come in costume!

Marsipity is an enchanted young lady with bad luck who delights and astounds her best friend, the indispensable Marlin, on the sweetest of all holidays, Halloween Night. A story of friendship, loyalty and giving, Marsipity is about never underestimating the people around you, and the simple joy that comes from thinking of others first.

Join us and Gerald Elias as he reads from Danse Macabre, his latest mystery featuring the crusty violin teacher and ex-concertmaster Daniel Jacobus.


Just after his Carnegie Hall swansong and before his imminent departure for retirement in France, beloved violinist and humanitarian Rene Allard is brutally murdered with a mysterious weapon. His young African American rival, crossover artist BTower, is spotted at the scene of the crime hovering over the contorted body of Allard with blood on his hands. In short order the aloof and arrogant BTower is convicted and sentenced to death, in part the result of the testimony of blind and curmudgeonly violin pedagogue Daniel Jacobus, like millions of others, an ardent admirer of Allard. Justice has been served . . . or has it? Jacobus is dragged back into the case kicking and screaming, and reluctantly follows a trail of broken violins and broken lives as it leads inexorably to the truth, and to his own mortal peril.


A graduate of Yale, Gerald Elias has been a Boston Symphony violinist, Associate Concertmaster of the Utah Symphony since 1988, Adjunct Professor of Music at the University of Utah, first violinist of the Abramyan String Quartet, and Music Director of the Vivaldi Candlelight concert series.

Dear Sam Weller’s Bookstore customers and Chelsea Handler fans,

We regret to inform you that Chelsea Handler has canceled her appearance at Sam Weller’s Bookstore scheduled for August 6th at 5:00 PM. She will still be appearing at Abravanel Hall, and Sam Weller’s Bookstore will still be handling her book signing after her show.

Fear not! Books are still available for sale right now, but instead of coming to the store for the signing, you will now pick them up at Abravanel Hall to be signed there. Those who do not have tickets for the show will be given wristbands that get you in for the after-show signing at approximately 10:00 PM. If you are unable to come to the later signing, we will have Ms. Handler sign the books for you, and you may either pick them up at the store or have them shipped to you. If you have not already reserved your copy call 801-328-2586 to reserve now.

We regret to be the bearers of bad news.

Last night we hosted Richmond Fontaine front man Willy Vlautin and guitarist Dan Eccles. Willy read excerpts from his latest novel Lean On Pete, while Eccles strummed the guitar, lending a nice atmosphere to the event. In-between reading, they played music, live in the book store. If Willy’s good natured vibe is contagious, which I believe it is, I’d feel safe saying everyone got something from last nights event. Willy signed copies of his books (which we still have a few of!) and spent time talking with his fans and then played nearly 2 hours at the State Room following the reading. A modest 2 piece, Willy and Dan, played hard, giving a great performance, and again chatting after the show with fans, in the lobby of the State Room. Two down to earth dudes, Willy and Dan, couldn’t have given us a better show.