Presentation by Dr. Melissa Johnson from the Institute for Girl's Development

The social world of children is complex!  The media tells us about “mean girls,” “bullying,”  “harassment” and “odd girls out.”  Our children tell us about conflicts, mean kids, cliques, sometimes belonging, and sometimes getting left out.  What can parents do to help children navigate the complicated world of friendship and social relationships?
Dr. Melissa Johnson, psychologist, founder and CEO of the Institute for Girls' Development, will address this important question in her presentation. Dr. Johnson is an expert on child development and the social world of children.  Her engaging presentations provide information, practical strategies, and resources to empower parents.

From bestselling author Bohjalian (Midwives, The Law of Similars) comes an elegant meditation on domestic violence.  While social issues are at the heart of many of Bohjalian's novels, this is his first to come directly from reader feedback to his previous work.  Drawn from stories readers told him of their own lives, Secrets of Eden is a literary thriller and a haunting testimony to the inner complexities of life.  

Literaries Who Lunch is free and open to the public. You are welcome to bring your lunch or delicious box lunches are available from Europane bakery for $13.95 + tax. If you would like a box lunch, please call Vroman's customer service at (626) 449-5320 no later than 2/8/10 to place your order.

Cecilia Walker, Community Outreach Coordinator for Haven House, will be on hand for this event as well.  Haven House  was founded in 1964 by a local Alcoholics Anonymous group to shelter families of violent alcoholics, making it the oldest domestic violence shelter in the country. Haven House pioneered the first in-shelter counseling programs for adults and children, first shelter follow-up program, first police training by a shelter and has been active in the Los Angeles Domestic Violence Council since its inception.  Its mission is to help battered women and their children recover from the effects of domestic violence by providing a safe haven, counseling, and advocacy and assistance with safely relocating in a non-abusive environment.  For more information, please visit http://havenhousela.com/. 

In her charming debut novel, Hoffman tells the tale of Cecelia Rose (CeeCee) Honeycutt's tragic life.  Honeycutt realizes at an early age that her mother is crazy and the laughingstock of their small Ohio town, while her father is an absentee parent at best.  All of this changes, though, after her mother's sudden and tragic death.  A book that draws comparison's to Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees, this is a great book club novel and a classic Southern tale.

For the past ten years, Rosen has worked as a medium, connecting clients with their deceased loved ones.  She has helped thousands of people - including celebrities like Jennifer Aniston and Courtney Cox-Arquette -- deal with a variety of issues including depression, financial woes and body issues.  The wait list for a reading from her is more than two years long.  By using the exercises and meditations in Spirited, readers will learn how to use the power of their intuitive gifts - Rebecca says that we all have them -- to find clarity and to move beyond the psychological roadblocks holding them back.

The newest books in this Mandarin Bilingual series include Gordon & Li Li: Learn Animals in Mandarin and Gordon & Li Li: Count in Mandarin. The colorful and simplified pages of these board books entice young readers and make it easy for parents and children to read and recite.

Valentine's Day Floral Event
$35.00 per person (plus tax)
Why wait for your love to give you flowers? Make yourself something that conveys your passionate nature. Join us in the DIY spirit and make your own Valentines arrangement. Participants will make arrangements out of Spring flower choices, colors, and accents. We will utilize different colors, texture, and shapes to make your bouquet come to life. Come and let loose your floral creativity!
Instructor: Kit Kan

From bestselling author Brewer comes the fourth installment in her popular Chronicles of Vladimir Tod seris.  It’s another sucky year at high school for Vlad Tod, and it looks like things have taken a more serious turn for the teenage vampire who is trying to keep his secret from the world.  Joss, a professional vampire slayer and Vlad’s former friend, has moved back to town.  A mysterious and very powerful new vampire, Dorian, has arrived on the scene, and he has an overwhelming desire to drink Vlad’s blood.  And if things aren’t bad enough, Vlad’s arch enemy, D’Ablo, has brought his uncle Otis to trial for crimes against vampires.  So much for Junior Prom! When the tables turn on Vlad, he has just enough time to return to Bathory for his final goodbyes.

Publisher's Weekly calls the series "something fresh in the vampire lit genre."  Don't miss this wildly popular author at Vroman's Bookstore.

Valentine's Day does not have to be the most dreaded holiday of your year anymore. Stop by after 7pm and join us for our Anti-Valentine's Day party. Make your own voodoo doll, swap stories of dates gone wrong, and enjoy a little food and drink!

What happens when you mix modern medical entrepreneurship with one of the most ancient of human desires: the desire to live forever? The answer is today's multibillion dollar anti-aging industry, which promises everything from restoring lost vitality to actually turning back the hands of time for aging boomers. This book is a fascinating and, at times, hilarious journey through the strange and wondrous world of longevity science and anti-aging medicine, two fields that promise to reshape human life expectancy and transform modern clinical medicine.

This book is the first to examine the brilliant gathering of composers, conductors, and other musicians who fled Nazi Germany and arrived in the Los Angeles area.  Crawford examines the lives, creative work, and influences of 16 performers, 14 musicians (such as Igor Stravinsky), and an opera stage director, while emphasizing their individual voices and their impact on the film industry, music institutions, and as teachers of the next generation.

Gilbert Gaeta, a forklift operator at a dairy, is struggling to make ends meet with his 13-year-old daughter Ana.  With a month of overtime shifts in his sight, he begins to envision a new life, one where he can finally propose to his girlfriend Joyce. As Gilbert struggles to meet the needs of his troubled daughter, his relationship with Joyce suffers.  Writing from three distinct and equally moving perspectives, Jaime-Becerra tells a story about the painful balance between love and responsibility.

For more than ten years, acclaimed chef Mark Peel has used his Campanile Restaurant's Monday night dinner menus to present his own special takes on popular comfort food dishes. In New Classic Family Dinners, he shares recipes for more than 200 of his best-ever versions of family favorites such as Macaroni and Cheese with Wild Mushrooms, Steak with Anchovy Butter, and Monkfish Osso Bucco. Peel's explanations and excellent guidance make it easy to follow the recipes, both for those relatively new in the kitchen as well as for more experienced cooks. He will also be bringing delicious treats to share!

From the author/illustrator of Knuffle Bunny, Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, and The Elephant & Piggie Series comes a new series surrounding a cat.    Who is that? you ask. Well, you will just have to join us to find out!

Mo will sign all books purchased at the event and one book brought from home.

By the year 2050 the population of the United States will reach four hundred million people, roughly one hundred million more people than live here today, transforming how we all live, work, and prosper.  From “greenurbias” to a resurgence of the American Heartland, this addition will not only physically change America, but will also help us to emerge as the most affluent, culturally rich, and successful nation in history.

Another Hannah Swenson Mystery from Fluke, complete with cookie and dessert recipes! It's June in Lake Eden, Minnesota, and for Hannah Swensen, that means bridal showers galore, plus a massive fundraising event in need of confections, not to mention a killer who never learned that charity begins at home.

A former PR executive, Rosenbloom dropped out of the corporate world in 1990 and became a self-taught custom furniture designer and craftsman. For the last eight years, he has battled kidney disease, finally receiving a successful transplant in August 2008.  In March 2009, he closed his woodworking business to devote himself to full-time work as a consultant on kidney patient education and compliance issues.  His memoir, Becoming Me, vividly details his experiences with end-stage kidney disease, dialysis and transplantation, and how it dramatically changed his life and philosophy.  He had formal training in mentoring both pre- and post-kidney transplant patients at the Mendez National Institute of Transplantation in Los Angeles, and has mentored patients through DaVita at Home at UCLA for several years. He is currently working with the kidney transplant team at the USC University Hospital in Los Angeles to establish a formal patient education and mentoring program.  He has also lectured to 2nd year medical students at the USC Keck School of Medicine. For more info on his kidney consulting go to http://www.uarts.com/kidney.

Growing up in a deeply religious family, Dani Shapiro felt no real connection to any personal sense of faith. Her parents followed traditions in lieu of subscribing to beliefs.  Now, as she enters her forties and settles into being a wife, a mother, a daughter no more, Dani finds herself coming of age again, and once again asking: What does she believe?

After coming across an old photo, Peter Force must revisit the history he has struggled to deny. The photo depicts him, a young frontier adventurer who arrived in New York in 1901, and a young girl: Cheri- Anne Toledo, a beautiful mathematical prodigy whose memories appear to come from another world.  Upon their chance meeting Peter believes her to be crazy, but as they are drawn into a tangle of overlapping intrigues, he must reexamine her secret. Did she indeed stumble across the key to time travel?

Kathleen Norris reveals that the gap in her career, following the phenomenal impact of The Cloister Walk and Amazing Grace, was due to the death of her husband and to acedia, a profound form of apathy. Similar to depression, but different in that depression is a medical condition, acedia was originally counted among the “eight bad thoughts,” but the term fell out of use. Norris believes it is time to reclaim it. Delving into early Christian texts and illuminating the wisdom of the monastic tradition, she presents the history of acedia and chronicles her own battles with this particular ailment.

More than 30 million people suffer from migraines, yet our understanding of the science behind these debilitating headaches is still in its infancy. At the Keeler Center for the Study of Headache, Dr. Robert Cowan and his team of specialists conduct some of the most cutting-edge research in the field, which has helped thousands of sufferers feel better.  In the Keeler Migraine Method, Dr. Cowan shares a step-by-step program and expert advice, making it one of the most comprehensive guides to migraine management available.

Blood Hina is the fourth installment of Naomi Hirahara's highly acclaimed "Mas Arai" mystery series, which also include Summer of the Big Bachi, Gasa-Gasa Girl, and Snakeskin Shamisen. Mas' best friend Haruo is getting married, and prickly, stubborn Mas has grudgingly agreed to serve as best man. But then an ancient Japanese doll display of Haruo's fiancee goes missing, and the wedding is called off with fingers pointed at Haruo. To clear his friend's name, Mas must first uncover a world of heartbreaking memories, deception, and murder.

Willard School presents a night of poetry

Friday, March 5, 5:30pm

Students from the Willard International Baccalaureate Magnet School in Pasadena will read their poetry.

The Salwen family was a fairly typical American foursome: baby boomer parents and teenage kids, always busy with school and extracurricular activities, living in a big, beautiful Atlanta home. Then, fourteen-year-old Hannah had a revelation. Seeing a homeless man in her neighborhood alongside a glistening Mercedes, she said, “You know, Dad, if that man had a less nice car, that man there could have a meal.” What followed was an extraordinary decision: motivated by Hannah, the Salwens decided to sell their spacious home and give half of their profits to a worthy charity. Little did they know how much they would get in return.

The name “Cro-Magnon” inspires images of a snowbound world, mammoth hunting, and eerily alluring cave paintings. But who were these ancient people? In a word, they were us: the first anatomically modern humans. Cro-Magnon reveals human society in its infancy, facing enormous environmental challenges including a rival species of humans, harsh conditions and limited technology. Despite these challenges, which bestselling author Brian Fagan fills with drama, ice age humans survived and thrived to become an unmatched success. In Cro-Magnon, Fagan brings these early humans out of the deep freeze with his trademark mix of erudition, cutting-edge science, and vivid storytelling.

In this all-new edition of the 2009 bestseller, you can find more than 1,100 listings of the resources that every food lover needs. From restaurants to Korean markets, bakeries to wine shops, artisanal coffeehouses to gastropubs, caterers to cheesemongers, discover some of the best food all across Los Angeles County. Including in-depth profiles of 14 Good Food Neighborhoods, EAT: Los Angeles celebrates the local, the passionate, the mom 'n' pop, the sustainable, the affordable and, most of all, the delicious.

Participants include: Colleen Dunn Bates, editor and publisher; Pat Saperstein, also of EatingLA.com and Daily Variety; Jean T. Barrett, who writes for Westways and others; Linda Burum, Los Angeles Magazine and Los Angeles Times; and Miles Clements, who writes for the Los Angeles Times and the Long Beach District Weekly.

Unfortunately, this event has been cancelled. Thank you for your interest. 

Meet Daisy Martinez, the host of ¡Viva Daisy!

Wednesday, March 10, 12:30pm

Vroman's Bookstore and Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts present Lunch with Daisy Martinez @ Bistro 561

Daisy Martinez, host of Food Network's ¡Viva Daisy! offers delicious new recipes in Daisy: Morning, Noon & Night. Drawing from her Puerto Rican roots and her annual trips to Spanish-speaking countries, she presents delicious, easy recipes for everyday cooking.

Bistro 561 will offer the following menu for lunch:

Amuse bouche - Fried quail egg, chorizo and fried plantain
First course - Octopus salad with grilled bread
Second course - Yellow rice with serrano ham, Asparagus with brown butter & pecans
Third course - Dulce de leche crepes with pecans

This event is $52.00 (plus tax) per person and includes lunch and a copy of Daisy: Morning, Noon & Night: Bringing Your Family Together with Everyday Latin Dishes.

Bistro 561 is located at 561 E. Green St. Pasadena, CA 91101.

Call Vroman's at (626) 449-5320 to sign up!

Clara, Elissa, Yadira and Marisela are the closest of friends; however, while Clara and Elissa are legal immigrants, Yadira and Marisela are not. Although Yadira and Marisela have grown used to the prickly inconveniences of being illegal, it becomes increasingly clear as they grow up that their different legal statuses have profound implications for their futures. Without the prospect of a professional career, unable to travel by plane and with the threat of deportation continually over their heads, life is a constant struggle for the girls to do what their legal friends seem to do with ease. Just Like Us is well-timed and powerful account of four young Mexican women coming of age in Denver and the challenges they face as they attempt to pursue the American dream.

Peterson's memoir of growing up with Southern Baptists is told through a series of vignettes, tied together by two themes: faith and the environment. She looks back at her childhood, college, and then adulthood, selecting scenes from her life that show why she finds God outdoors, and why the rapture-obsessed family and community of her youth quickly loses its appeal.