When a health scare puts him in the hospital, Eric Weiner-an agnostic by default-finds himself tangling with an unexpected question, posed to him by a well-meaning nurse. "Have you found your God yet?" The thought of it nags him, and prods him-and ultimately launches him on a far-flung journey to do just that.

Weiner, a longtime "spiritual voyeur" and inveterate traveler, realizes that while he has been privy to a wide range of religious practices, he's never seriously considered these concepts in his own life. Face to face with his own mortality, and spurred on by the question of what spiritual principles to impart to his young daughter, he decides to correct this omission, undertaking a worldwide exploration of religions and hoping to come, if he can, to a personal understanding of the divine.

The journey that results is rich in insight, humor, and heart. Willing to do anything to better understand faith, and to find the god or gods that speak to him, he travels to Nepal, where he meditates with Tibetan lamas and a guy named Wayne. He sojourns to Turkey, where he whirls (not so well, as it turns out) with Sufi dervishes. He heads to China, where he attempts to unblock his chi; to Israel, where he studies Kabbalah, sansMadonna; and to Las Vegas, where he has a close encounter with Raelians (followers of the world's largest UFO-based religion).

At each stop along the way, Weiner tackles our most pressing spiritual questions: Where do we come from? What happens when we die? How should we live our lives? Where do all the missing socks go? With his trademark wit and warmth, he leaves no stone unturned. At a time when more Americans than ever are choosing a new faith, and when spiritual questions loom large in the modern age, Man Seeks God (Twelve, $26.99) presents a perspective on religion that is sure to delight, inspire, and entertain.

Join us for live music in the courtyard. 

Disturbing in its honesty, this anthology by Keith Jardim, Near Open Water: Stories (Peepal Tree Press Ltd, $18.95) focuses a sharp yet intimate eye upon the people of the Caribbean. The characters face problems of freedom, history, race, class, violence, entrapment, and morality. Theirs is a region in constant flux, trying to break away from its dehumanizing past while uncertain of how to manage the present and plan for the future. Unflinching in its portrayal of the realities of Caribbean life, these dark short stories also find solace in the natural beauty of the region

Join us for live music in the courtyard. 

The votes are in--it's a Bad Kitty landslide! It's time to elect a new president of the Neighborhood Cat Coalition! Who will win the election? The candidate chosen by the kitties on the right side of the street or the candidate chosen by the kitties on the left side of the street? When election time rolls around, one candidate (guess who?) will discover that she never bothered to register to vote and the entire election will be decided by a surprise, last minute absentee ballot sent by Old Kitty. Discover what happens to the kitties in Bad Kitty for President (Roaring Brook, $13.99), the newest book by Nick Bruel.

Books for Smart Kids: Your son is reading far beyond his grade level. Your daughter is a voracious reader with a curious mind. Sounds like every parents’ dream, right? Except... the books that challenge these kids’ vocabulary and comprehension levels also have content that’s not age-appropriate for them. What to do? It’s a conundrum faced by parents and teachers across the country: Where are the books for the smart kids? Join Books & Books’ own children’s literature expert and Children’s Book Buyer, Becky Quiroga Curtis, and Events & Marketing Director Debra Linn for a look at the right books for your super reader. They’ll break down books by age- and reading-level-appropriateness. There will be a wide range of subject matters and age groups — something for everyone. Teachers and parents of gifted students won’t want to miss this night. Plus we’ll have FREE classroom materials for teachers! A Wonders of Teaching: Teacher Appreciation Night at Books & Books. 

Lucia Ewing had what looked like an all-American childhood. She lived with her mother, father, sister, and brother in an affluent suburb of Minneapolis, where they enjoyed private schools, sleep-away camps, a country club membership, and skiing vacations. Surrounded by a tight-knit extended family, and doted upon by her parents, Lucia had no doubt she was loved and cared for. But when it came to accidents and illnesses, Lucia’s parents didn't take their kids to the doctor's office--they prayed, and called a Christian Science practitioner.  
 
fathermothergod (Crown, $25) is Lucia Greenhouse's story about growing up in Christian Science, in a house where you could not be sick, because you were perfect; where no medicine, even aspirin, was allowed. As a teenager, her visit to an ophthalmologist created a family crisis. She was a sophomore in college before she had her first annual physical. And in December 1985, when Lucia and her siblings, by then young adults, discovered that their mother was sick, they came face-to-face with the reality that they had few--if any--options to save her. Powerless as they watched their mother’s agonizing suffering, Lucia and her siblings struggled with their own grief, anger, and confusion, facing scrutiny from the doctors to whom their parents finally allowed them to turn, and stinging rebuke from relatives who didn’t share their parents’ religious values.  
 
In this haunting, beautifully written book, Lucia pulls back the curtain on the Christian Science faith and chronicles its complicated legacy for her family.  At once an essentially American coming-of-age story and a glimpse into the practices of a religion few really understand, fathermothergod is an unflinching exploration of personal loss and the boundaries of family and faith.  

Coral Gables Gallery Night: Jeannette Stargala – The Garden: “You will see - What I found and brought home, what fell before my feet, what I needed to recognize, what I wanted to make my own, what I played with, what I couldn't name but saw, what was inviting me to participate in its beauty. The camera in my hand for the need to translate, to relate, to collect, to hold on to, to lure me out with reason, to engage. What shows is close to my heart, defines my space.”

Jeannette was born in East Germany where she grew up in Dresden. She studied Architecture at the University of Aachen and received the state award for young artists for her final work. She worked as a project architect and licensed architect in Germany before she moved to the United States with her husband and her two daughters. Once here she started focusing more on her photographic work and participated in various fine art programs including the continuing studies program at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. Jeannette is now living in Miami with her three daughters and her husband. 

Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, two misfit teens in Depression-era Cleveland, were more like Clark Kent—meek, mild, and myopic—than his secret identity, Superman. Both boys escaped into the worlds of science fiction and pulp magazine adventure tales. Jerry wrote stories, and Joe illustrated them. In 1934, they created a superhero who was everything they were not. It was four more years before they convinced a publisher to take a chance on their Man of Steel in a new format—the comic book. The author includes a provocative afterword about Jerry and Joe’s long struggle with DC Comics when they realized they had made a mistake in selling all rights to Superman for a mere $130.

Marc Tyler Nobleman’s Boys of Steel (Knopf, $16.99) captures the excitement of Jerry and Joe’s triumph, and the energetic illustrations by Ross MacDonald, the author-artist of Another Perfect Day, are a perfect complement to the time, the place, and the two young visionaries.

Join us for live music in the courtyard.

A host of books and films in recent years have documented the dangers of our current food system, from chemical runoff to soaring rates of diet-related illness to inhumane treatment of workers and animals. But advice on what to do about it largely begins and ends with the admonition to "eat local or "eat organic."

Fair Food (PublicAffairs, $24.99) is an enlightening and inspiring guide to changing not only what we eat, but how food is grown, packaged, delivered, marketed, and sold. Oran B. Hesterman shows how our system's dysfunctions are unintended consequences of our emphasis on efficiency, centralization, higher yields, profit, and convenience--and defines the new principles, as well as the concrete steps, necessary to restructuring it. Along the way, he introduces people and organizations across the country who are already doing this work in a number of creative ways, from bringing fresh food to inner cities to fighting for farm workers' rights to putting cows back on the pastures where they belong. He provides a wealth of practical information for readers who want to get more involved.

This event is presented in collaboration with Slow Food Miami.

Los ciclos del alma de Sharon Koenig es una poderosa guía que describe de manera simple, los pasos definitivos para restablecer nuestra conexión con la Divinidad y lograr así, vivir nuestro verdadero propósito. La integración con la esencia divina es el anhelado regreso al hogar, el lugar donde todas las preguntas obtienen respuesta y la vida fluye en armonía; el reino de la paz interior, la prosperidad y el propósito. Este libro ayuda a despejar el camino para conocerse a sí mismo y no dejarse engañar por las falsas apariencias y por las fuerzas del ego.

Join us for live music in the courtyard

Tigertail brings back Lenelle Moïse, a powerhouse poet, theater artist and dynamic speaker. Lenelle Moïse offers interactive performances and workshops that address race, class, feminism, LGBTQ identities, new theater aesthetics, immigration and Haitian-American culture. She creates intimate, fiery, politicized texts about the intersection of race, class, gender, sexuality, culture and compassion.

Join us for live music in the courtyard

Candles, Kiddush, challah and more. It’s time to celebrate stories that celebrate Shabbat. Join us for stories, crafts and fun today! The national PJ Library program supports families in their Jewish journey by sending Jewish-content books and music on a monthly basis to children. Presented in collaboration with the Greater Miami Jewish Federation and the Gordon Schools of Beth David Congregation. 

Candles, Kiddush, challah and more. It’s time to celebrate stories that celebrate Shabbat. Join us for stories, crafts and fun today! The national PJ Library program supports families in their Jewish journey by sending Jewish-content books and music on a monthly basis to children. Presented in collaboration with the Greater Miami Jewish Federation and the Lehrman Community Day School.

Share the timeless tale and moving music of Sleeping Beauty at Piano Story Time presented by the Miami Piano Academy. Little ones, as young as 2 years old, will float away with this story and musical accompaniment. Miami Piano Academy is an educational institution offering individual piano classes to adults and children, starting as young as 4 years old.

The Vizcaya Lunch and Learn Series presents the Centennial Edition of Last Train to Paradise by Les Standiford.

In an age where e-publishing has created profound changes in the industry, the commemorative edition of Last Train to Paradise (B&B Press, $60) is a reminder that there are some books that can only be fully experienced and appreciated in physical form.

As artistic director for the Commemorative Edition, published by B&B Press in conjunction with the Flagler Museum of Palm Beach, Petra Mason culled through more than 1,000 photographs in archives up and down the East Coast, including the Library of Congress, Cooper-Hewitt Museum, the Miami-Dade and Monroe County Libraries and others, finally selecting 154 to illustrate and augment the original text.  She then had the unenviable task of choosing just the right formats and placement of the images, many of which have not been published in book form before, to properly support and enhance the reading experience.

Please call 305-856-4866, Ext 111 to RSVP. Seating is limited. 

Join us for live music in the courtyard.

Abandoned Hat Factories: Setting & Atmosphere in Fiction with Peter Selgin is a reading/discussion with the award-winning author on his newest work, and specifically on the roles of atmosphere and setting in fiction.

The University of Miami sponsored Writers’ Salon will feature Selgin reading from various works, including his yet-to-be-published Pirate’s Alley / Faulkner Society Prize-Winning new novel, The Water Master, set in a dying hat factory town in 1963, as well as from 179 Ways to Save a Novel, his book on the craft of fiction writing.

The reading will be followed by a Q & A with the author moderated by University of Miami MFA in Creative Writing student Benjamin “Benjy” Caplan.

More information coming soon...

Join us for live music in the courtyard

After many years of seeing his extraordinary Cuban slide shows, Mr. William Gonzalez is now bringing a truly unique treasure trove of his latest acquisitions. Images of a long gone 1940's telephone, a rare seen "dos centavos" coin. Did you ever see the "tranvias" cemetery? Did you ever cross in Miramar the all steel "Puente de Pote"? Or for that matter saw a real Cuban "bodega"? Bet you bought "Guarina" ice-cream from a horse drawn vendor, didn't you? How about a picture of the world famous Cuban sailboat yacht "El Criollo" during the St. Petersburg to Havana race? These and many more of his gems will make this list too extensive. Do not miss this Very Cuban Presentation…shown in his own peculiar way via one of the last Kodak slide projectors, for a real "nostalgia" night with "boleros" music and all.

Join us for live music in the courtyard.