At thirteen, Rachel Lloyd found herself spiraling into a life of abuse as a victim of commercial sexual exploitation.  Eventually, Lloyd was able to escape "the life"—but as the founder of GEMS (Girls Educational and Mentoring Services), a groundbreaking non-profit programs that helps girls and young women, ages 12-21, who have experienced commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking, Lloyd knows all too well that her success story is the exception. In her astonishingly frank memoir, Girls Like Us: Fighting for a World Where Girls Are Not for Sale: A Memoir (Harper Perennial, $15.99), Lloyd bravely tells of her own ordeal as a sexually exploited girl, and shares stories from her tireless work with other subjugated girls, drawing much-needed attention to the largely misunderstood epidemic of the commercial sexual exploitation of children in the United States. The evening will include a panel discussion will focus on sex trafficking and the tourism industry, demand, our culture that glorifies prostitution, and what this means for children in South Florida. The panel will include Rachel Lloyd; Sandy Skelaney, Program Manager for Kristi House’s Project GOLD; Lt. Israel McKee of Miami-Dade Police Department; and Fran Katz of The Women’s Fund.
Presented in collaboration with GEMS and Kristi House. 

History of a Pleasure Seeker is a brilliantly written portrait of the senses, a novel about pleasure and those who are in search of it; those who embrace it, luxuriate in it, need it; and those who deprive themselves of it as they do those they love. It is a book that will beguile and transport you—to another world, another time, another state of being.

The novel opens in Amsterdam at the turn of the last century. It moves to New York at the time of the 1907 financial crisis and proceeds onboard a luxury liner headed for Cape Town.

 It is about a young man—Piet Barol—with an instinctive appreciation for pleasure and a gift for finding it. Piet’s father is an austere administrator at Holland’s oldest university. His mother, a singing teacher, has died—but not before giving him a thorough grounding in the arts of charm.

 Piet applies for a job as tutor to the troubled son of Europe’s leading hotelier: a child who refuses to leave his family’s mansion on Amsterdam’s grandest canal. As the young man enters this glittering world, he learns its secrets—and soon, quietly, steadily, finds his life transformed as he in turn transforms the lives of those around him.

CANCELLED: Unfortunately, Chef Jacques Van Standen has been forced to cancell his event at Books & Books. Thanks for your understanding.

Since taking the helm of Culinary Operations at Celebrity Cruises in 2007, the visionary Chef Jacques Van Staden has led the development of an utterly distinctive onboard dining experience, bringing together top food trends from around the globe, top talent, and stylish surroundings. Excite the Senses(Celebrity, $59.95) features more than 250 signature recipes created by Van Staden and team, blended with easy-to-adapt tips and anecdotes from members of the line's highly-skilled, global culinary staff, and informative profiles of vintners and other partners Celebrity hand-picked to create its widely varied dining experiences. An engaging 400-page book that will find itself right at home on the coolest coffee tables, Excite the Senses provides an up-close and personal look at Celebrity Cruises' exceptional dining experience, complete with recipes, rich photography, and a host of tips for entertaining and hosting friends and family in Celebrity style at home

Join us for live music in the courtyard

WordSpeak – Tigertail's Teen Spoken Word Project: This teen spoken word project includes workshops, slams and performances in a residency by Josh Healey, a community organizer, arts educator, and award winning poet from the SF Bay Area. Healey has been featured in The New York Times, NPR, and Al-Jazeera. He is the co-founder of the First Wave program at the University of Wisconsin, the first college hip-hop arts program in the nation. Healey is the recent Youth Development Program Director of the nationally recognized, San Francisco-based youth literacy organization Youth Speaks and was key staff for Brave New Voices, the annual Olympics of spoken word.

Cancer Dreams (Authorhouse, $14.03) is the story, told by Paul Winick a pediatrician, of his wife's battle with breast cancer. Along the way, we meet children he has cared for with cancer, and their families who watched them suffer. We are also introduced to loved ones of the doctor and his wife who suffered the scourge of cancer. Ultimately, though, the book delivers the message that cancer need not be an ending, but a beginning, filled with new hopes and dreams.

The modern United States Capitol is a triumph of both engineering and design. From its 9-million-pound cast-iron dome to the dazzling opulence of the President’s Room and the Senate corridors, the Capitol is one of the most renowned buildings in the world. But the history of the U.S. Capitol is also the history of America’s most tumultuous years. As the new Capitol rose above Washington’s skyline, battles over slavery and secession ripped the country apart. Ground was broken just months after Congress adopted the compromise of 1850, which was supposed to settle the “slavery question” for all time. The statue Freedom was placed atop the Capitol’s new dome in 1863, five months after the Battle of Gettysburg.

In Freedom’s Cap, the award-winning journalist Guy Gugliotta recounts the history and broader meaning of the Capitol building through the lives of the three men most responsible for its construction. We owe the building’s scale and magnificence to none other than Jefferson Davis, who remained the Capitol’s staunchest advocate up until the week he left Washington to become president of the Confederacy. Davis’s protégé and the Capitol’s lead engineer, Captain Montgomery C. Meigs, became quartermaster general of the Union Army and never forgave Davis for his betrayal of the nation. The Capitol’s brilliant architect and Meigs’s longtime rival, Thomas U. Walter, defended slavery at the beginning of the war but eventually turned fiercely against the South.

In impeccable detail, Gugliotta captures the clash of personalities behind the building of the Capitol and the unique engineering, architectural, design, and political challenges the three men collectively overcame to create the iconic seat of American government.

Mark your calendars and get ready to attend the South Florida Writers Association's third annual Special Event Night -- an opportunity to support two outstanding authors who are members of SFWA – Estefania Jaramillo and Maxine Schnall.  Estefania and Maxine will woo you with their writing and publication experiences and share passages from their fascinating books and there is more. Listen as Christine Pointer, a multifaceted performing artist and a SFWA member entertains us with her songs. The Master of Ceremony for the evening will be Jonathan Rose. Refreshments will be served. 

Join us for live music in the courtyard.

Bennet Shelfer is a former instructor pilot for the U.S. Air Force, National, Pan Am, and Delta Airlines, and a former twenty-five year Miami resident. He piloted the White House Press Corps., accompanying two Presidents overseas and to every state in the union. He is the only known living pilot to have been hijacked twice. In Drawing Dead (Unlimited Publishing, $17.99), FBI Special Agent Jason Lancer is obsessed with horoscopes and tarot cards after losing his mother in a plane crash. She had ignored the warnings of the stars and the cards. Lancer is pursuing terrorist hijackers and is ordered to take a plane to St. Louis but faces the same warnings that spelled doom for his mother. He resigns and moves to Las Vegas. A sexy poker professional persuades him to ignore the stars and the cards and teaches him to read people. Lancer confronts his obsessions and the terrorists at Hoover Dam using his newly acquired skills.

Note: This event is in Spanish. Alentando el encuentro desde múltiples perspectivas, para explorar cómo los cambios del último milenio, dan forma al hombre y la realidad contemporánea, Letra Urbana junto al Centro Cultural Argentino presenta: ¿Y para qué el arte? con la Dra. Cristina Bulacio. La condición humana conlleva tres factores que marcan su perfil: la caducidad de la existencia, sólo un margen de libertad y, también una poderosa imaginación; a ellos se debe la imperiosa necesidad de trascender más allá de sus propios límites. En ese movimiento de salir de sí mismo los hombres han buscado sostén, tradicionalmente, en los sentidos que albergan el arte y la religión, más que el saber que da la ciencia. Sin arte y sin religión una sociedad languidece y muere. Nos preguntamos por qué. No hablamos de los mercados actuales de arte ni de obras de arte como mercancías; hablamos de la obra de arte como autorreferente y del verdadero hacedor, el artista anónimo y creativo, que se juega el sentido de la vida en cada obra. En tiempos de violencia y exclusión, de tecnología y utilitarismo, donde la eficiencia es un valor supremo, nos preguntamos ¿por qué el hombre sigue haciendo arte?

In her emotionally uncompromising memoir, Motherhood Exaggerated (CavanKerry, $21), Judith Hannan recounts the ordeal of her young daughter's battle with cancer and how the frightening medical journey tested and strengthened a mother's reliance.Motherhood Exaggerated takes readers from diagnosis to remission as eight-year-old Nadia Hannan endures the nightmare of potentially terminal bone cancer, and the entire family weathers the dire interruption in their lives. Told with grace and candor, Judith Hannan's fierce depiction of an unwelcome trial of motherhood is, in the words of novelist Mary Gordon, "a moving, engaging retelling of the complex bonds and tensions every parent experiences in our relationship with our children." Tonight, Judith will be "in conversation" with Alan Dershowitz, who wrote the forward for the book. 

Juicy Joy (Hay House, $15.95) by Lisa McCourt is a streamlined path to radical authenticity and the ability to flat-out adore that precious, imperfectly perfect you. Living juicy-joyfully is not a matter of adding anything to yourself. It’s simply a matter of shedding the limitations that separate you from your true core being—the limitations that trap you in the numbness and detachment that have become distressingly “normal” in our culture. Wouldn’t it feel amazing to trust your instincts and fearlessly act on them? Isn’t it time to gain mastery over your experience of life, shed victimhood, and learn to honor the voice within you that always, unfailingly leads you to your greatest joy and highest truth? Juicy Joy is an invitation to a bigger life—a deeper, richer, more rewarding existence. And it will launch you into an enduring love affair with your glorious, genuine self!

Publicizing your book is a critical component to its overall success. It also should be an enjoyable, creative and rewarding experience. Book publicist Jessica Jonap will offer an overview of the publicity process and tips for determining the best, most effective way to promote your book. Whether you're an experienced or first-time published author, this seminar is sure to be helpful with instruction on how to evaluate your book, set realistic publicity goals, and create a plan for achieving those goals. Participants will learn the importance of drafting a persuasive book description for use in interviews and press materials, defining the key audience and identifying appropriate media outlets. Also included will be differing techniques for promoting fiction versus non-fiction books and self-published as compared to commercially published works. All attendees will leave with tools they can use to generate buzz for their books, including instructional materials and resources. 6-8pm. This series of classes consists of 2 Thursdays -- March 29 and April 5. The classes cost $80.

For more information or to register, please visit The Center's website or call/email Nicole Swift at 305-237-3023 or Nicole.swift@mdc.edu or Lissette Mendez at lmendez@mdc.edu or 305-237-3940. 

Table for One is Diego Singh's first monograph, focusing on paintings by the Argentine artist executed between the years 1993 and 2011. The book explores the artist's interest in abstraction, modernism, the politics of its imposition and the subsequent crisis experienced by painting practices worldwide. Approached from the perspective of a young Argentine artist, Modernism and the critical years of its gestation in New York come under scrutiny in conversations with one of the key figures in its positioning, the late Muriel Oxenberg-Murphy; who acted as the Co-Founder of the Department of Modern American Painting and Sculpture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where she served as an Associate Curator from 1949 until 1961.

Published to coincide with his solo exhibition at Tomio Koyama Gallery in Tokyo, the book brings together a comprehensive group of writers from Museums and Institutions such as Gerard Hemsworth, Director of Post Graduate Studies and Professor of Fine Arts, at Goldsmiths University, London; Dominic Molon, Chief Curator at the MCA Saint Louis; Rene Morales, Associate Curator at the Miami Art Museum; artist Hernan Bas, Sonia Becce, the Curator of the retrospective works of Guillermo Kuitca at the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid and MALBA, Buenos Aires; Felix Gonzalez Torres at the MUAC in Mexico City; and Andrea Elias, Director of the Museo de Bellas Artes in Salta.

Join us for live music in the courtyard


In this combination medical guide and cookbook -- The Acid Reflux Solution (Ten Speed, $19.99) -- gastroenterologist Jorge E. Rodriguez, MD, has teamed up with registered dietitian and food writer Susan Wyler to present a three-step program to heal heartburn naturally. 
In step one you make some simple lifestyle modifications, like raising the head of your bed, loosening your belt, and eating less but more often. In step two, you start eating to avoid reflux. With 100 high-fiber, low-fat, portion-controlled recipes to choose from, this step is the most delicious—and surprising. 
In the final step, you reduce the dosage and frequency of the medications you were taking to control your heartburn because you won’t need them anymore. The Acid Reflux Solution combines the latest medical research with reflux-friendly recipes to help you feel great, lose weight, and live heartburn free.

Join us for live music in the courtyard.

AUTOGRAPHING: Offering professional wrestling fans a ringside seat into his adventurous life, WWE Hall of Fame wrestler Jim Duggan recounts for the first time key moments and legendary bouts both inside and outside the ring in Hacksaw: The Jim Duggan Story (Triumph, $19.95). Known to millions of enthusiasts as a charismatic patriot -- with an American flag in his right hand and his signature two-by-four in his left -- Duggan shares how an injury-plagued NFL rookie season curtailed his football ambitions and paved the way for a brighter career in professional wrestling. Rising to fame in the Cold War–era 1980s, Duggan engaged in legendary feuds with some of the biggest names in wrestling, including the Iron Sheik, Nikolai Volkoff, and Andre the Giant. Duggan also reflects on his fight against kidney cancer during the prime of his career. With each page peppered with Duggan’s charming wit, fans will find much to enjoy and discover about the man they once knew only as “Hacksaw.” 

During their term, Juan and Eva Perón (1946–1955) led the region’s largest populist movement in pursuit of new political hopes and material desires. In Dignifying Argentina (Univ of Pittsburgh, $27.95), Eduardo Elena considers this transformative moment from a fresh perspective by exploring the intersection of populism and mass consumption. He argues that Peronist actors redefined national citizenship around expansive promises of a vida digna (dignified life), which encompassed not only the satisfaction of basic wants, but also the integration of working Argentines into a modern consumer society. Presented in collaboration with the School of International and Public Affairs at Florida International University. 

In Heart Attack Proof (BenBella, $19.95), Dr. Michael Ozner shares the same six-week cardiac makeover to prevent and reverse heart disease he has been successfully giving his patients for more than 25 years. Even if you’ve been diagnosed with heart disease or have undergone surgery, you can still improve your condition; his easy week-by-week plan arms you with the latest science and research to make you virtually heart attack proof. Complete with checklists to keep you on track and a heart-healthy 7-day meal plan and recipes, Heart Attack Proof gives you the toolkit to start your six-week journey toward a heart-healthy life!

Coral Gables Gallery Night: SOPHIA TORRENTS: Children of Haiti, 2009 Sophia Torrents, now a senior, in the International Baccalaureate, at Coral Gables High School, was 16 when she went to Port au Prince, in 2009 to help out a group of doctors and nurses, with Project Medishare. The medical team was there to operate on children with hydrocephalus, and Sophia was fortunate to be able to record the experience with her camera. Sophia’s sister, Elisabet, had been to Haiti, in 2007, and was transformed by the experience. Both Sophie and Elisabet’s photos have been sold to the Helene Lamarque gallery in Miami. Proceeds, from the sale of these photographs will benefit the Hydrocephalus Project (Pediatric Neuroseurgery in Haiti).

Join us for live music in the courtyard. 

La ciudad de la unidad posible: selección poética de Miami and The City of Possible Unity: A Miami Poetry Collection, both edited by the scholar and cultural activist, Aida Levitan, were published by Editorial Ultramar of Miami in 2009 and 2011, in beautiful editions funded by a variety of Miami cultural institutions. When read together these two books present an extraordinary array of intense emotion and poetic drama by more than thirty Spanish language poets now living in the Miami area. Tonight, you’ll get to hear readings by many of these poets, in both English and Spanish. The book’s title, suggested by writer Luis de la Paz, comes from a poem written in Miami, in exile from Spain, by Spanish Nobel laureate, Juan Ramón Jiménez, where he wrote of Miami that: “Memory is comprised of dreams, but not will or intelligence. Isn’t that true,/ great city of this world? Say that it’s true, city of possible unity where I live./ Isn’t it true that unity is possible […]? 

Join us for live music in the courtyard

In Power in the Balance (Univ. Notre Dame, $38), Barry S. Levitt answers urgent questions about executive power in “new” democracies. He examines in rich detail the case of Peru, from President Alan García’s first term, to the erosion of democracy under President Alberto Fujimori, through the interim government of Valentín Paniagua and the remarkable, if rocky, renewal of democracy culminating in Alejandro Toledo’s 2001–2006 presidency. This turbulent experience with democracy brings into clear focus the functioning of formal political institutions—constitutions and electoral laws, presidents and legislatures, political parties and leaders—while also exposing the informal side of Peru’s national politics over the course of two decades. Presented in collaboration with the School of International and Public Affairs at Florida International University.

UM’s Creative Writing Program welcomes Bino A. Realuyo and Susana Chávez-Silverman to participate in a Writers’ Salon discussion of craft this evening. Realuyo is the author of The Umbrella Country and The Gods We Worship Live Next Door. Susana Chávez-Silverman is the author of Killer Crónicas: Bilingual Memories and Scenes from la Cuenca de Los Angeles y otros Natural Disasters.

Once a major reporter, Catherine Winslow has retreated to the Upper Valley of Vermont to write a household hints column. While out walking, Catherine discovers the body of a woman near her house. Winslow recognizes her as the latest victim of a serial killer, a woman reported missing weeks before during a blizzard. When her neighbor is pulled into the investigation, Catherine begins to discover some unexpected connections to the serial murders. One is that the murders might be based on a rare unfinished Wilkie Collins novel that is missing from her personal library. The other is her much younger lover from her failed affair has unexpectedly resurfaced. Elegant, haunting and profoundly gripping, Cloudland (Minotaur, $24.99) by Joseph Olshan is an ingenious psychological trap baited with murder, deception and the intricacies of desire.

As Mexico has descended into a feudal narco-state-one where cartels, death squads, the army, and local police all fight over billions of dollars in profits from drug and human trafficking-the border city of Juárez has been hit hardest of all. And yet, more than a million people still live there. They even love their impoverished city, Nothing exemplifies the spirit and hope of Juarenses more than the Indios, the city's beloved but hard-luck soccer team. Sport may seem a meager distraction, but to many it's a lifeline. In This Love is Not For Cowards (Bloomsbury, $25) honest, unflinching, and powerful book, Robert Andrew Powell chronicles a season of soccer in this treacherous city just across the Rio Grande, and the moments of pain, longing, and redemption along the way. As he travels across Mexico with the team, Powell reflects on this struggling nation and its watchful neighbor to the north. This story is not just about sports, or even community, but the strength of humanity in a place where chaos reigns.

Join us for live music in the courtyard. 

After nearly a decade, In the Kingdom of the Sea Monkeys (Ecco, $14.99) marks a return for Campbell McGrath to the poetic forms that brought him national acclaim--lyrical meditations on American art and society by turns satirical, tender, and haunted by the merciless work of time. McGrath explores the intersection of the personal and the public realms of American culture like no other poet at work today. Whether he's documenting the decay and transformation of American cities, eulogizing Allen Ginsberg and Frank O'Hara, or rhapsodizing on the extramortal lifespan of books, McGrath writes poems of dazzling energy, intelligence, humor, and engagement. In the Kingdom of the Sea Monkeys is a collection of dreams, visions, jibes, essays, arguments, and love songs, each of them transformed into poetry by one of our most honored and entertaining poets. 

Celebrate Family Day on Aragon with a special Animal Story Time with authors Frank Remkiewicz and Lisa Fleming. Illustrator Frank Remkiewicz has delighted us for years with the tales of Froggy. In his newest book, Froggy Builds a Treehouse (Viking, $16.99), Froggy and his pals decide to build a tree house (with lots of help from Dad). Their plans don't include inviting Frogilina to hang out there for pizza parties. "Boys only!" says Froggy. But things don't go as planned… Debut author Lisa Fleming brings the amazing true story of friendship between Cassie the cat and Moses the crow – seen by millions on YouTube, The Oprah Winfrey Show, Lifetime, and more – to us with Cat and Crow: An Amazing Friendship (Collage, $14.95). Drawn from first-hand accounts, this delightful book celebrates their unusual friendship and champions the story’s hopeful message of friendship and peace. 

In Heroes for My Daughter (Harper, $19.99), New York Times bestselling author Brad Meltzer brings together the stories of fifty-five remarkable people, a diverse set of individuals from across time and from all walks of life who each dedicated their life to making our world a better place. From Eleanor Roosevelt to Amelia Earhart, Anne Frank to Randy Pausch, Theodore Roosevelt to Lucille Ball, Rosa Parks to the passengers on United Flight 93, the lives of these men and women offer lessons to guide our daughters on their journey to adulthood--lessons sure to inspire them as they take their place as citizens in our society and in the world. 

Join us for live music in the courtyard. 

In our continuing series, KeepMePosted will be reading from the acclaimed book In The Sea by David Elliot. We selected this poetic book and an accompanying activity to enhance your children's skills with poetry, word choice and rhyming patterns.

Wahoo Cray lives in a zoo. His father is an animal wrangler, so he's grown up with all manner of gators, snakes, parrots, rats, monkeys, snappers, and more in his backyard. The critters he can handle. His father is the unpredictable one. When his dad takes a job with a reality TV show called "Expedition Survival!" the job keeps getting more complicated. And Wahoo's acquired a shadow named Tuna—a girl who's sporting a shiner courtesy of her old man and needs a place to hide out. They've only been on location in the Everglades for a day before Derek Badger, the show's boneheaded star, gets bitten by a bat and goes missing in a storm. Search parties head out and promptly get lost themselves. And then Tuna's dad shows up with a gun... In Chomp (Knopf, $16.99) by Carl Hiaasen, it's anyone's guess who will actually survive "Expedition Survival"... TICKETS REQUIRED: Free tickets available at our Coral Gables, Miami Beach and Bal Harbour Shops stores. 

The Center @ MDC presents Craft Talk with John Blair -- Writing Around Your Agenda: How to Write Good Poetry about the Big Issues. Blair will discuss how poets can write affecting poems about the social, political, and moral issues that move them without becoming pedantic or maudlin. He will read from his newest book of poems, The Occasions of Paradise, 2011 winner of the Tampa Review Prize for Poetry. John Blair's earlier poetry collection, The Green Girls, was the 2003 winner of the Lena-Miles Wever Todd Award from Pleiades Press, and his short story collection, American Standard, was the 2002 winner of the Drue Heinz Literature prize. He is on the faculty at Texas State University, where he teaches American Literature and directs the undergraduate creative writing program. Free and open to the public.

Hospitalized with a freak case of tropical pneumonia, goaded by his wife, and ashamed of a middle-aged body best described as “a python that swallowed a goat,” A.J. Jacobs felt compelled to change his ways and get healthy. And he didn’t want only to lose weight, or finish a triathlon, or lower his cholesterol. His ambitions were far greater: maximal health from head to toe. The story of his transformation is not only brilliantly entertaining, but it just may be the healthiest book ever written. Drop Dead Healthy (Simon & Schuster, $26) will make you laugh until your sides split and endorphins flood your bloodstream. It will alter the contours of your brain, imprinting you with better habits of hygiene and diet. It will move you emotionally and get you moving physically in surprising ways. And it will give you occasion to reflect on the body’s many mysteries and the ultimate pursuit of health: a well-lived life. 

Did you sign up to be a giver for World Book Night 2012? Did you pick Books & Books as your pick up location? If so, join us for our World Book Night Pick-Up Party. Pick up your books and some other goodies to help you in your book-giving duties with your fellow book givers. Discuss your book choice, drop-off locations, and more. It’s a gathering for the book lovers and book givers. Share a bit of bubby and a nosh from our Cafe while you meet and mingle. 

Truths from the Self (Indigo Reef, $15.95) is an insightful guide to discovering the ever-changing wisdom of the present moment and its application to every facet of our lives. Moving us beyond fixed beliefs and rigid value systems, this book shows us how to transform ideological absolutes into flexible responses based on the realities of the current situation. Written by Stormy Smoleny a nationally certified psychoanalyst, Truths from the Self is factual and well grounded, yet resonates deeply with the heart and soul. Reading it is more than informational; it is an uplifting and joyful experience. 

We live in a world that places significant importance and value on achieving the highest levels of personal, social, and professional performance. In Think Excellence: Harnessing Your Power to Succeed Beyond Greatness ($22.95), Dr. Chaim Y. Botwinick presents nine power principles that can lead to an understanding and an appreciation of your full potential—all in order to achieve high levels of excellence while challenging your ability, capacity, and willingness to strive for greater heights. Think Excellence was born of a concept used to help motivate others to create a mindset that assesses individual and collective potential that encourages the pursuit of consistent improvement. It's also a call to think beyond self imposed limitations; to think boldly, creatively, tactically, and strategically. The challenge here is to stretch your potential, your capabilities, your imagination, and your capacity, in the hope of excelling toward a point of maximum potential.

Perla Correa grew up a privileged only child in Buenos Aires, with a cold, polished mother and a straitlaced naval officer father, whose profession she learned early on not to disclose in a country still reeling from the abuses perpetrated by the deposed military dictatorship. Perla understands that her parents were on the wrong side of the conflict, but her love for her papá is unconditional. But when Perla is startled by an uninvited visitor, she begins a journey that will force her to confront the unease she has suppressed all her life, and to make a wrenching decision about who she is, and who she will become. Perla (Knopf, $25.95) by Carolina de Robertis is a coming-of-age story, based on a recent shocking chapter of Argentine history, about a young woman who makes a devastating discovery about her origins with the help of an enigmatic houseguest.

Emmy Award winning journalist Cindy Roesel gives readers a glimpse at what goes on internally at broadcast news stations in her new novel, Viewer Discretion Advised (BluePoint). After being fired from her job in Los Angeles, Charlene “Charley” Thomas moves to sizzling Miami and begins working as a news director at a local station. Charley discovers her station manager, Jonathan Lefton, is the boss from hell who will do anything for a story no matter who gets hurt in the process. When nude photos of noon anchor, Miranda Andrews, are discovered in the men’s room of a local bar, she’s promoted over the main anchor, sparking off a firestorm. Miranda’s quickly thrown into the mix and assigned special reports. Charley finds herself overseeing an investigation that could shine light on the guilt of a dirty cop. Real life begins to mimic the drama of broadcast news when station personalities face life and death all for ratings and Emmys. 

In 2009, New York Times bestselling author Eloisa James took a leap that many people dream about: she sold her house, took a sabbatical from her job as a Shakespeare professor, and moved her family to Paris. Paris in Love: A Memoir (Random House, $26) chronicles her joyful year in one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
 With no classes to teach, no committee meetings to attend, no lawn to mow or cars to park, Eloisa revels in the ordinary pleasures of life—discovering corner museums that tourists overlook, chronicling Frenchwomen’s sartorial triumphs, walking from one end of Paris to another.

From Karen Gravano, a star of the hit VH1 reality show Mob Wives, comes a revealing memoir of a mafia childhood, where love and family come hand-in-hand with murder and betrayal.

Karen Gravano is the daughter of Sammy “the Bull” Gravano, once one of the mafia's most feared hit men. With nineteen confessed murders, the former Gambino Crime Family underboss—and John Gotti’s right-hand man—is the highest ranking gangster ever to turn State’s evidence and testify against members of his high-profile crime family. 

But to Karen, Sammy Gravano was a sometimes elusive but always loving father figure.  He was ever-present at the head of the dinner table.  He made a living running a construction firm and several nightclubs.  He stayed out late, and sometimes he didn’t come home at all.  He hosted “secret” meetings at their house, and had countless whispered conversations with “business associates.” By the age of twelve, Karen knew he was a gangster.  And as she grew up, while her peers worried about clothes and schoolwork, she was coming face-to-face with crime and murder.  Gravano was nineteen years old when her father turned his back on the mob and cooperated with the Feds.  The fabric of her family was ripped apart, and they were instantly rejected by the communities they grew up in.

Mob Daughter: The Mafia, Sammy "The Bull" Gravano, and Me (St. Martin's, $24.99) is the story of a daughter’s struggle to reconcile the image of her loving father with that of a murdering Mafioso, and how, in healing the rift between the two, she was able to forge a new life.

Join us for live music in the courtyard. 

Good Morning America correspondent Lara Spencer has a passion for shopping at yard sales, thrift shops, and estate sales, and for decorating her home and friends’ homes with her fabulous finds. In I Brake for Yard Sales (Stewart, Tabori, & Chang, $24.95), Lara shares her secrets for bargain hunting and tells you where to shop, what to look for, how to pay for it, how to restore it, and finally, where to put it in your house. Peppered with wisdom from world-renowned appraisers whom Lara knows from her previous work on Antiques Roadshow as well as contributions from well-known designers.

INITIAL CLASS The Center @ MDC presents Writing Your Novel the TV Way at Books & Books: The next time you’re wondering how you’ll ever get through the writing of a novel, think about TV producers and writers of original series and even non-fiction shows. They pretty much have to see the whole thing in their heads, and process it all into a readable “series bible” before they can get a green light. Learn to think like the TV executive who sees it, feels it and believes in it, and get your novel written! Taught by Anjanette Delgado is an Emmy award-winning journalist, writer and producer. Her first novel, The Heartbreak Pill (Atria) and won the 2008 and 2009 Latino Book Award for Best Novel/ Romance, as well as first place in the romance category within the Books into Movies competition. April 21, 28, May 5, 12, 19 and 26, 10:30 am-12:30 pm. $200. Click here to register.

In Drawing Dead (Unlimited Publishing, $17.99), FBI Special Agent Jason Lancer is obsessed with horoscopes and tarot cards after losing his mother in a plane crash. She had ignored the warnings of the stars and the cards. Lancer is pursuing terrorist hijackers and is ordered to take a plane to St. Louis but faces the same warnings that spelled doom for his mother. He resigns and moves to Las Vegas. A sexy poker professional persuades him to ignore the stars and the cards and teaches him to read people. Lancer confronts his obsessions and the terrorists at Hoover Dam using his newly acquired skills.

Bennet Shelfer is a former instructor pilot for the U.S. Air Force, National, Pan Am, and Delta Airlines, and a former twenty-five year Miami resident. He piloted the White House Press Corps., accompanying two Presidents overseas and to every state in the union. He is the only known living pilot to have been hijacked twice. 

Join social entrepreneur and documentary filmmaker Noah Gray at a Special Event hosted by Mitchell Kaplan where he will present plans for the VIRGIN VOTING PROJECT 2012 National Bus Tour with special guest Janelle Rodriguez, CNN’s Vice President of Programming. Noah is the Founder and Executive Director of The Virgin Voting Project, a non-partisan, not-for-profit 501c3 organization.

The Virgin Voting Project is dedicated to motivating young people to become civically engaged, informed voters, and active participants in shaping the future of our democracy, using a “for young people, by young people” approach. The organization’s latest initiative is a national bus tour, where Noah and a team of passionate young people will bring high-energy live, interactive events to high schools and colleges throughout the country, to encourage tens of thousands of potential new voters to cast their ballots in November.

The expected result: a new generation of actively involved young people, and a documentary film for future waves of “virgin voters.” You may know Noah, a 2010 Silver Knight award winner in New Media, the Florida winner of the Freedom Forum’s “Free Spirit” award, and a proud graduate of Miami-Palmetto Senior High, from his award-winning film “Virgin Voting” and his multiple appearances on CNN as their special youth political correspondent. He is currently a student at American University in Washington, DC. Come support young voters and future leaders of our nation, and hear about how you can contribute to the 2012 Bus Tour and its special Miami launch. Get on board with The Virgin Voting Project!

Refreshments will be served. Tax-deductible contributions to The Virgin Voting Project will be accepted in any amount.

Join us for live music in the courtyard.