Join us for live music in the courtyard.

Beyond Boundaries Children’s Foundation is delighted to invite you to the launching of its cookbook Exclusive Recipes from Claudette’s Kitchen by Claudette Hawit. Claudette is a renown Honduran chef who is known for donating all her book proceeds to help benefit children. Please stop by to delight yourselves with these amazing recipes and at the same time you will be helping the children of Honduras have a better tomorrow. 

POSTPONED: 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?

Polite and respectful behavior is vanishing from our world today. Bullying, hostile and polarizing political interactions, tasteless and tactless comments delivered without discretion, everyone talking at once but nobody listening we are treating one another badly in our day-to-day lives and our relationships are fragmenting and deteriorating as a result.

It doesn't have to be this way. Sara Hacala, a certified etiquette and protocol consultant, offers guidance that goes beyond the hollow or artificial display of proper manners and good conduct. She presents civility as a mind-set that encompasses values and attitudes that help us embrace our shared humanity and society. She taps the wisdom of ancient spiritual luminaries as well as the latest social science research to provide fifty-two practical ways we can reverse the course of incivility and create a more enriching, pleasant place to live.

Whether in our interpersonal lives, the workplace, our schools, or the world at large

Join us for Coral Gables Gallery Night. 

Join us for live music in the courtyard. 

Join us for a poetry reading with Lemon Andersen, subject of the film “LEMON” that will be screening at the Coral Gables Cinema at 9:30pm tonight, about 3-time felon turned poet Lemon Andersen and his last-ditch effort to get out of poverty through his autobiographical, one man-show, "County of Kings." It is a story about artistic struggle, the consequences of ambition, and ultimately, creative triumph. Lemon has been championed by Spike Lee. At tonight’s event, Lemon will be introduced by co-director of the film, Laura Brownson for a poetry reading and Q&A, followed by a book signing. Presented in collaboration with The Center @ Miami Dade College.

Join us for live music in the courtyard

The Rogue Aviator, an insider's perspective of a professional pilot's exposure to the "back alleys" of commercial aviation will reveal a roller-coaster-like ride that is both entertaining and informative. Ace Abbott's unstable career results in numerous oscillations between the aviation penthouse and the aviation outhouse. The myth of under-worked and over-paid pilots will be debunked. Spiced with humor, The Rogue Aviator is complemented with occasional sketches of pathos and poignancy. Captain Abbott's story also contains a smattering of decadence and debauchery. Ace Abbott was employed by numerous Miami area airlines and local area charter companies. He provides an insider's view of the South Florida aviation environment.  Fasten your seat belt and hang on!

In Panther Baby: A Life of Rebellion & Reinvention (Algonquin, $23.95) Jamal Joseph vividly recounts his introduction to the Black Panther Party, and his progression from a young, naïve street kid to a confident and outspoken member of an influential national movement, and later to an Oscar nominee (for IMPACT Repertory Theatre’s song “Raise It Up” from the movie August Rush) and a professor at an Ivy League college. In addition to providing insight into the Panther movement, Joseph’s story spans and illuminates a ground-shifting and volatile period of New York and national history, encompassing anti-Vietnam protests and the rise of the Weathermen, police brutality and the height of the drug war, the murder of George Jackson and the Attica rebellion, and gang violence and the untimely death of Tupac Shakur (to whom Joseph was godfather). Presented in collaboration with The Center @ Miami Dade College.

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. 

Paisajes: metaforas de nuestro tiempo de Dennys Matos constituye un gran aporte para el estudio del arte contemporáneo y sus nuevas condiciones de producción y recepción. La propia hibridez del libro donde se mezclan la autobiografía intelectual, la entrevista, la reseña a una exposición y el ensayo crítico, le hace justicia al carácter heteróclito y heterogéneo de los artistas y las prácticas estudiadas en el mismo. Paisajes constituye uno de los mayores aportes al estudio de la cultura poscomunista y desde ya podemos decir que ocupará un lugar prominente entre los grandes textos producidos por los ensayistas cubanos de su generación.

Join us for live music in the courtyard

In the stifling days before the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, Isadora Khaled dreams of catfish and murdering her daughter, setting off a chain of events that will not be resolved until Hurricane Ike in 2008. The descendents of Isadora are defined by and eventually named after the hurricanes that shape their lives: Fatima, who enters into a doomed relationship with a visiting artist in 1961; her drug-numbed daughter Carla, desperate to get home in 1983; and Carla’s daughter Alicia, reunited with her heritage on a modern island embracing disaster culture in 2008. An epic tale, Audra Martin D’Aroma’s The Galveston Chronicles (Rozlyn Press, $22) holds a mirror to the transformation of an unforgettable island, looking at the Gulf Coast region through the eyes of these women in the days preceding and following Galveston’s major hurricanes.

M.J. Rose’s The Book of Lost Fragrances (Atria, $24) fuses history, passion and suspense in an intoxicating web that moves from Cleopatra’s Egypt and the terrors of revolutionary France to Tibet’s battle with China and the glamour of modern-day Paris. This marvelous, spellbinding novel mixes the sensory allure of Perfume with the heartbreaking beauty of The Time Traveler’s Wife, coming to life as richly as our most wildly imagined dreams.

At a reception hosted by a notorious Russian black marketeer, Doc Ford uses darkness as cover to get an underwater look at the billionaire's yacht. By the time Ford surfaces, everything has changed. Environmental extremists have taken control of the island. Or are they thugs hired by the Russian's competitors? Whatever the motive, they have herded everyone together and threatened to kill one hostage every hour unless their demands are met. Electronic jammers make communications with the outside world impossible. The militants don’t know Ford's capabilities, or that he is still on the loose. But that situation won't last for long...and the clock is ticking. Discover what happens in the newest book by Randy Wayne White – Chasing Midnight (Putnam, $25.95).

Books & Books will be hosting the RASG Hebrew Academy Second Annual Poetry Night Event.

Thirteen middle and high school students will read original poems that they have written, and the Elementary School Choir will perform a repertoire of songs, before the poetry reading begins.

Student art work will be on display during the event. 

Arcadia (Hyperion, $25.99) by Lauren Groff follows a romantic, rollicking, and tragic utopian dream from its hopeful start through its heyday and after. Arcadia’s inhabitants include Handy, the group’s charismatic leader; Abe, a master carpenter; Hannah, a baker and historian; and Abe and Hannah’s only child, the book’s protagonist, Bit, who is born soon after the commune is created. While Arcadia rises and falls, Bit, too, ages and changes. If he remains in love with the peaceful agrarian life in Arcadia and deeply attached to its residents—including Handy and Astrid’s lithe and deeply troubled daughter, Helle—how can Bit become his own man? How will he make his way through life and the world outside of Arcadia where he must eventually live?

Americans see water as abundant and cheap: We turn on the faucet and out it gushes, for less than a penny a gallon. We use more water than any other culture in the world, much to quench what’s now our largest crop – the lawn. Yet most Americans cannot name the river or aquifer that flows to our taps, irrigates our food and produces our electricity. And most don’t realize their freshwater sources are in trouble. In Blue Revolution (Beacon, $26.95), journalist Cynthia Barnett describes an illusion of water abundance that has encouraged everyone, from homeowners to farmers to utilities, to tap more and more. She proposes the most important part of the solution is also thesimplest and least expensive: a shared water ethic among citizens, government and major water users. 

The Boston Globe recently named Blue Revolution one of the best science books of 2011. The Los Angeles Times wrote that "Barnett takes us back to the origins of our water in much the same way, with much the same vividness and compassion as Michael Pollan led us from our kitchens to potato fields and feed lots of modern agribusiness."

In Canada, Francesca, a young American reporter, is brutally murdered to stop her from publishing an explosive story. Craig Page is determined to find out who killed his daughter, Francesca. Joined by the gutsy Elizabeth Crowder, Francesca’s editor, Craig peels back the conspiracy layer by layer, slowly uncovering the conspiracy. Find out what Craig discovers in China Gambit (Vantage, Point, $14.95) by Allan Topol.

Boston, 1868. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is rising. But in Boston Harbor a fiery cataclysm throws commerce into chaos. Soon after, another mysterious catastrophe devastates the heart of the city. Is it sabotage by scientific means or Nature revolting against man’s attempt to control it?
 With their first graduation and the very survival of their groundbreaking college now in doubt, a band of the Institute’s best and brightest students secretly come together to save innocent lives and track down the truth. 
Studded with suspense and soaked in the rich historical atmosphere for which its author is renowned, The Technologists (Random House, $26) by Matthew Pearl is a dazzling journey into a dangerous world not so very far from our own, as the America we know today begins to shimmer into being. 

Daniel Rechtschaffen, M.A., a psychotherapist and leader in the field of mindfulness who teaches children, teachers, and educational organizations nationwide, will speak about the many issues & challenges facing schoolchildren today from grades Pre-K thru 12. He will talk about the impact of these on our children’s ability to become successful academically and socially.

Daniel will explain how age-appropriate mindfulness practices, already being implemented in many schools across the country, teach children how to increase focus & academic achievement, improve impulse control, reduce stress, and build community and teamwork. At the end of his talk, there will be a Q&A so Daniel can answer your questions. Copies of The Mindful Child by Susan Greenland will be sold in conjunction with the event.

Artwork donated by well-known local artists for silent auction will be on display.  

Presented in collaboration with Mindful Kids Miami, Inc.

Join us for live music in the courtyard

With an artist's eye to describe Italy's beauty, Jojo Capece chronicles an unforgettable story of American expatriate, Bébé Deverton, documenting the kaleidoscope of the Italian Network of Power - the Supreme Court, CIA, Mafia, Masons and ultimately, the Vatican. Rome burns with intrigue and passion - Capece's tale sizzles with facts, imagination and a top-notch plot that transforms the reader into the splendour and vortex of the Eternal City. All Roads Lead to Rome (Createspace, $17.99) is a first-class ticket to Italy.

Join us for the sound and story of The Mikado 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. 

With an artist's eye to describe Italy's beauty, Jojo Capece chronicles an unforgettable story of American expatriate, Bébé Deverton, documenting the kaleidoscope of the Italian Network of Power - the Supreme Court, CIA, Mafia, Masons and ultimately, the Vatican. Rome burns with intrigue and passion - Capece's tale sizzles with facts, imagination and a top-notch plot that transforms the reader into the splendour and vortex of the Eternal City. All Roads Lead to Rome (Createspace, $17.99) is a first-class ticket to Italy. 

The Hamptons possess an unmistakable and indisputable charm. So much so – that Books & Books opened a new location in Westhampton Beach recently and it was here that Silvia Lehrer hosted a dinner and book signing last summer. She’s now coming to Miami and will bring us closer to this unique region with a talk and book signing that highlights the variety of elements and characteristically rugged charm of the Hamptoms. Savoring the Hamptons (Running Press, $30) includes more than 250 recipes, accompanied by stories and photographs of local wineries, farmers, fisherman, artisans, and restaurateurs to create a Hamptons mosaic. From Starr Boggs in Westhampton Beach and Mecox Bay Dairy in Bridgehampton to Wolfer Estates in Sagaonack and Quail Hill Organic Farm in Amagansett, this is the definitive cookbook of the Hamptons. Let’s give her a warm Miami welcome! 

An instant bestseller that is poised to become a classic, Moonwalking with Einstein (Penguin, $16) recounts Joshua Foer's yearlong quest to improve his memory under the tutelage of top "mental athletes." He draws on cutting-edge research, a surprising cultural history of remembering, and venerable tricks of the mentalist's trade to transform our understanding of human memory. From the United States Memory Championship to deep within the author's own mind, this is an electrifying work of journalism that reminds us that, in every way that matters, we are the sum of our memories.

Almost unknown as a poet in her lifetime, Emily Dickinson is now recognized as one of America's greatest poets and, in the view of some, as one of the greatest lyric poets of all time. The past fifty years or so have seen an outpouring of books and essays attempting to explain her poetry and her life. Some critics have used her life to try to explain her poetry, and others have tried to explain her life by referring to her poems, which they assume are autobiographical. In 1882, Emily Dickinson's brother began an adulterous love affair with Mabel Todd, setting in motion a series of events that would forever change the lives of the Dickinson family. Award-winning scholar and biographer Lyndall Gordon tells the story of the feud that erupted-and that still continues today. Making unprecedented use of letters, diaries, and legal documents, Gordon proposes a groundbreaking new solution to the secret behind the poet's insistent seclusion, presenting a woman beyond her time who found love, spirituality, and immortality all on her own terms. Lives Like Loaded Guns(Penguin, $18) is a highly acclaimed story of creative genius, illicit passion, and betrayal that will forever change the way we view one of America's most important literary figures. 

Join us for a fascinating discussion of a unique American voice and collect your FREE COPY of The Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson, courtesy of THE BIG READ, presented in collaboration with The Center @ Miami Dade College. Refreshments will be served. 8pm 

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.