KPFA Radio presents:
THOMAS FRANK
Pity the Billionaire:
The Hard-Times Swindle & the Unlikely Comeback of the Right
Wednesday, January 25 @ 7:30 pm
The Hillside Club
2286 Cedar Street, Berkeley
Hosted by Richard Wolinsky

Advance Tickets: $12.00 | Tickets at the Door: $15.00

In Pity the Billionaire Thomas Frank, the great chronicler of American paradox, examines the peculiar mechanism by which dire economic circumstances have delivered wildly unexpected political results. Using firsthand reporting on the Tea Party, a deep knowledge of the American Right, and a wicked sense of humor, he gives us the first full diagnosis of the cultural malady that has transformed collapse into profit, reconceived the Founding Fathers as heroes from an Ayn Rand novel, and enlisted the powerless in a fan club for the prosperous. The understanding Frank reaches is at once startling, original, and profound. "A brilliant expose of the most breath-taking ruse in American political history: how the right turned the biggest capitalist breakdown since 1929 into an opportunity for themselves." — Barbara Ehrenreich. "Be glad that in this election year you can read Pity the Billionaire instead of turning on the television or the radio or your computer. Pity the Billionaire? Hell. Pity us all." — James K. Galbraith. Thomas Frank is also the author of The Wrecking Crew, What's the Matter with Kansas?, and One Market Under God. A former opinion columnist for The Wall Street Journal, Frank is the founding editor of The Baffler and a monthly columnist for Harper's.

Walden Pond Books will be providing signed copies of Thomas Frank's books for sale at the event . We hope to see you there!

Walden Pond Books welcomes
The East Bay Mystery Readers' Group

(EBMRG)

The East Bay Mystery Readers' Group (EBMRG) meets at 7:00 pm on the first Tuesday of each month at Walden Pond Books.

Books discussed at the December 6 meeting:
• THE DRAGON SCROLL (Hist Mys-Akitada-Japan-11th Cent) – 1st in series – by I.J. Parker
  The Dragon Scroll introduces readers to the lively world of eleventh-century Japan and an irrepressible hero—Sugawara Akitada. On his first official assignment, Akitada—an impoverished nobleman and earnest young government clerk in the Ministry of Justice—is sent from the capital city on a nearly impossible mission to the distant province of Kazusa to discover why tax convoys are disappearing. In the politically murky world of the Japanese court, he has been set up to fail. Against the odds, the ever-resourceful Akitada, his elderly servant Seimei, and his impudent bodyguard Tora are determined to fulfill their mission and discover the truth in a town of dangerous secrets.
• THE PARIS ENIGMA (Hist Mys-Sigmund Salvatorio-Paris-1889) – Standalone – by Pablo de Santis
  Twelve detectives meet for the first time in Paris, at the 1889 World's Fair. Argentine Sigmundo Salvatrio, loyal assistant to founding member Renaldo Craig, represents the absent Craig. When Louis Darbon, one of two claimants among the 12 for the title of Detective of Paris, falls to his death from the Eiffel Tower shortly before the fair's opening, Darbon's rival, Polish expatriate Viktor Arkazy, takes Salvatrio on as his apprentice, and the pair struggle to solve the mystery before more victims are claimed.
• THE MISCHIEF OF THE MISTLETOE (Hist Mys-Arabella Dempsey-Pink Carnation-England-Regency) - 7th in series - by Lauren Willig
  Turnip Fitzhugh, a bumbling but well-meaning nobleman, is often mistaken for the English spy known as the Pink Carnation. Turnip isn’t looking for trouble when he visits his younger sister at her boarding school, but when he literally runs into Arabella Dempsey, a pretty young teacher, the two find themselves drawn into international intrigue via an unlikely source: a message written in French on the wrapping of a Christmas pudding. Turnip’s own limited experiences with espionage lead him to want to check it out, and Arabella agrees to go along. What seems like a frivolous endeavor soon proves to be something else entirely when Turnip learns of a missing list of English spies in France and Arabella is attacked after a school play.

Books to be discussed at the January 3 meeting:
• DEATH WITHOUT COMPANY (Pol Proc-Walt Longmire-Wyoming-Cont) – 2nd in series – by Craig Johnson
  When Mari Baroja is found poisoned at the Durant Home for Assisted Living, Sheriff Longmire is drawn into an investigation of her death that proves to be as dramatic as her life. Her connections to the Basque community, the lucrative coal-bed methane industry, and the personal life of the previous sheriff, Lucian Connally, lead to a complex web of half-truths and assumed allegiances. As the specter of Mari's abusive husband arises, Sheriff Longmire, aided by his friend Henry Standing Bear, Deputy Victoria Moretti, and newcomer Santiago Saizarbitoria, must connect the past to the present to find the killer among them.
• THE BAKER-STREET LETTERS (Mys-Nigel and Reggie Heath-London/California-Cont) – 1st in series – by Michael Robertson
  In Los Angeles, a geological surveyor maps out a proposed subway route--and then goes missing. His eight-year-old daughter, in her desperation, turns to the one person she thinks might help--she writes a letter to Sherlock Holmes. That letter creates an uproar at 221b Baker Street, which now houses the law offices of attorney and man about town Reggie Heath and his hapless brother, Nigel. Instead of filing the letter like he's supposed to, Nigel decides to investigate. Soon he's flying off to Los Angeles, inconsiderately leaving a very dead body on the floor in his office. Big brother Reggie follows Nigel to California, as does Reggie's sometime lover, Laura---a quick-witted stage actress who's captured the hearts of both brothers. When Nigel is arrested, Reggie must use all his wits to solve a case that Sherlock Holmes would have savored
• THE MESSENGER OF ATHENS (Mys-Hermes Diaktoros-Thiminos, Greece-Cont) – 1st in series – by Anne Zouroudi
  When the battered body of a young woman is discovered on a remote Greek island, the local police are quick to dismiss her death as an accident. Then a stranger arrives, uninvited, from Athens, announcing his intention to investigate further. His methods are unorthodox, and he brings his own mystery into the web of dark secrets and lies. Who has sent him, on whose authority is he acting, and how does he know of dramas played out decades ago?

New members, both local and remote, are welcome.
Questions? E-mail LJ Roberts, coordinator of the East Bay Mystery Readers Group.
Visit the East Bay Mystery Readers' Group web site.