Albuquerque consultant and author of the bestselling The Small Business Start-Up Kit Peri Pakroo discusses & signs her new book The Women's Small Business Start-Up Kit (Nolo, $29.99), which retains its focus on women's business-related issues and includes interviews with successful women who have started businesses.  Approximately ten million US businesses are currently women-owned, and the number is growing at twice the national average for all businesses, and this book specifically emphasizes concerns for female entrepreneurs.

Peri Pakroo manages P-Brain media, consults for businesses and nonprofits, teaches adult education courses at the Women's Economic Self-Sufficiency Team (WESST), a nonprofit whose mission is to facilitate entrepreneurship among women and inorities in the state of New Mexico, and Peri is active in supporting local, independent businesses and is a co-founder of the Albuquerque Independent Business Alliance.

On the eve of the 50th anniversary of To Kill a Mockingbird comes The Queen of Palmyra(Harper, $14.99), a debut novel from Minrose Gwin about a young girl in Civil Rights-era Mississippi and the horrosrs she witnesses one summer.  Gwin will discuss and sign her new novel, which has been called "The most powerful and also the most lyrical novel about race, racism, and denial in the American South since To Kill a Mockingbird" (Lee Smith, author of On Agate Hill).

Like Kathryn Stockett's breakout novel The Help, The Queen of Palmyra is set in 1960s Mississippi and deals with a segregated society in which black women are paid poorly to raise white people's children - this book will appeal to fans of Stockett and book clubs alike.

Gwin teaches contemporary fiction at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and creative writing workshops at the University of New Mexico Taos Writers Conference.  Her previous memoir, Wishing for Snow, a memoir that traces her mother's unraveling from a young parent to an emotionally unstable, even dangerous, older woman.

"Divert your reader and then "clobber" them, advised Flannery O'Connor.  In this bold and brilliant book, Minrose Gwin diverts us with the affecting voice of a child and then clobbers us with the ugly truths of our collective past.  I can almost hear O'Connor cheering."
--Sharon Oard Warner, author of Deep in the Heart.

At a time when Arizona's new immigration law has created an intensified national controversy over the value and worth of the people of our border regions, Steven and Reefka Schneider's new collection of poetry and art Borderlines: Drawing Border Lives (Wings Press, $19.95) has the power to make us pause to reflect on the stories and conditions of their lives.  Steven and Reefka will sign and present drawings and poetry from the book, a series of 25 moving vignettes of border people and their lives expressed as a page of poetry in English and Spanish opposite its related portrait.

Steven P. Schneider is a professor in the Department of English at the University of Texas-Pan American, and is a founding member of the South Texas Literacy Coalition in the Rio Grande Valley.  he is the recipient of two Big Read grants from the NEA, and has used Borderlines: Drawing Border Lives traveling exhibit to promote the teaching of culturally relevant literature and creativity.  His poems and essays have been published in journals including Tikkun, Prairie Schooner, and Critical Quarterly, and his books include A.R. Ammons and the Poetics of Widening Scope and poetry collections Prairie Air Show and Unexpected Guests.

Ken Stewart discusses and signs The Smell of Blood ($12.95), a memoir in poetry of his experiences during the Vietnam War. He discusses in honest, visceral language the immediate experience of watching friends die, as well as his later reactions to the political and social ramifications. Stewart is donating all proceeds from the book to Veterans for Peace. 

Few places in the US boast as rich a diversity of landscape and public lands as northern New Mexico.  L.

Finalist for the John B Oakes Award for Distinguished Environmental Journalism, Arizona journalist Mitch Tobin presents a slideshow, discusses, and signs his new book Endangered: Biodiversity on the Brink (Fulcrum, $27.95), which uses wildlife of the Southwest to provide a snapshot of the issues facing species throughout the world.  

Since 1973, the Endangered Species Act has served as our nation's legislative ark for imperiled wildlife, but has only recovered a handful of the more than 1,300 species under its protection.  In Endangered, Tobin uses firsthand accounts to show why so many species are at risk of extinction.  For nearly seven years, Tobin criscrossed the Southwest - our hottest, driest, fastest-growing region - in search of wildlife driven to the brink of extinction and solutions to the crisis.  Tobin discovered that this region, with its urban sprawl, wasteful water use, and vulnerability to climate change, is one of the continent's hot spots for biodiversity - and contains compelling examples of collaboration.  With these examples in mind, he advocates for a set of innovative policies that can preserve the species and wild places that sustain us all.

Mitch Tobin worked as a journalist from 1999 to 2006, covering wildlife, wildfires, and other environmental issues for the Tucson Citizen, Arizona Daily Star, and High Country News.  Endangered grew out of Tobin's yearlong series on Arizona's endangered species.  Tobin's work was honored in the Best of the West competition and received first prizes from the Arizona Press Club and Arizona Associated Press Managing Editors.  Today, Tobin serves as a consultant to leading conservation groups and foundations.

Art of the Song host John Dillon presents a creativity workshop and concert and signs his new book The 20-20 Creativity Solution. John says, "In The 20-20 Creativity Solution, I show you how - through finding and focusing your own natural creativity - you can be more effective at work, improve your relationships, and live a life full of purpose and meaning."

John Dillon has had a fascination with creativity all his life, and has built over 80 acoustic guitars, including custom instruments for Steve Earle, Michael Murphey, Trisha Yearwood and the Mavericks.  In 2004, he and his wife Vivian created Art of the Song Creativity Radio, which is now aired on 200 public and community stations across the country each week, and his second cd received seven New Mexico Music Award nominations and one win.

Mark Rudd, former chairman of the Columbia chapter of Students for a Democratic Society and co-founder of the Weather Underground discusses and signs his memoir Underground (Harper, $13.99), now released in paperback.

Rudd and his friends sought to end war, racism, and injustice - by any means necessary.  In this gripping narrative, Rudd speaks out about this tumultuous period, the role he played in its crucial events, and its aftermath, revealing the drama and tension as well as the naivete of young activists.

From 1980 to 2006 Rudd was a math instructor at CNM, and a perennial organizer and nonviolent activist locally on issues of Native American land rights, nuclear, US military interventions, Palestine solidarity, unionization, environmental justice, and war and militarization.

Carrie Vaughn, New York Times bestselling author of the Kitty Norville series discusses and signs her new addition to this series Kitty Goes to War (Tor, $7.99) and her new fantasyDiscord's Apple (Tor, $23.99), which melds a near-future world torn by war with the legend of the fall of Troy.

Kitty Norville is a werewolf and talk radio host, and Kitty Goes to War is the eighth in the popular series.

Discord's Apple takes a page from The Lion, the With and the Wardrobe or - more recently - Neil Gaiman's American Gods, and invents a tale in which a family storeroom is a gateway to another realm that contains fantastical items including Excalibur, Cinderella's glass slippers, and the Apple of Discord that began the Trojan War.  Set against a backdrop of coming apocalypse, the story jumps from glimpses of the ancient Greek past to a world that is being torn apart by politics and war, and collects old heroes and notorious villains from all of mythology to fight for the fate of the world.

"Enough excitement, astonishment, pathos, and victory to satisfy any reader."
--Charlaine Harris on the Kitty Norville series

"Carrie Vaughn masterfully weaves together comic books, Greek gods, King Arthur, and a world on the brink of nuclear war.  Discord's Apple is phenomenal!"
--Jackie Kessler, co-author of Shades of Gray

No book has ever before specifically focused on the birds of prey of New Mexico. Both Florence Bailey (1928) and J. Stokley Ligon (1961) published volumes on the birds of New Mexico, but their coverage of raptors was somewhat limited. In the ensuing years a great deal of new information has been collected on these mighty hunters' distribution, ecology, and conservation, including in New Mexico. The book begins with a history of the word 'raptor'. The order of Raptatores, or Raptores, was first used to classify birds of prey in the early nineteenth century, derived from the Latin word raptor, one who seizes by force. The text then includes the writings of thirty-seven contributing authors who relate their observations on these regal species. For example, Joe Truett recounts the following in the chapter on the Swainson's Hawk: 'From spring to fall each year at the Jornada Caves in the Jornada del Muerto, Swainson's hawks assemble daily to catch bats. The bats exit the caves - actually lava tubes - near sundown.

Great blog post from Molly on the coauthorship of this book here. 

Photographer David Grant Noble presents a slideshow and signs In the Places of the Spirits(SAR Press, $$30 paper & 60.00 cloth), a collection of photography interwoven with personal reflections and historical and anthropological information that represents the culmination of Noble's forty-year career as a fine arts photographer and writer.  It features images of the land, people, and deep past of the Southwest, most published here for the first time.

"Explorer, writer, and photographer extraordinaire David Grant Noble leads us on an archaeological odyssey through the Southwestern landscape.  The spirituality of the places and the Native American inhabitants, both contemporary and ancient, are splendidly captured by Noble's elegant prose and vivid photographs.  In the Places of the Spirits is a very personal chronicle by one of the Southwest's most sensitive and insightful observers."

5:30pm Sunday, July 25International Teacher of Toltec Wisdom don Jose Ruiz: The Fifth Agreement

A New York Times bestseller for over seven years, The Four Agreements provides the foundation for breaking thousands of agreements that create needless suffering. International bestselling author and teacher don Miguel Ruiz has a new book, written in collaboration with his son don Jose Ruiz, who will discuss the new lesson at Bookworks. Incorporating a new agreement, "Be skeptical, but learn to listen," The Fifth Agreement (Amber Allen, $19.95) prepares us to return to our innate wisdom, and live our lives based on truth.

Don Jose Ruiz was born in Mexico City, Mexico and was raised in Tijuana, Mexico. When he was 21 he came to live in the U.S. with his father, don Miguel Ruiz. In his early twenties, don Jose lost his eyesight, and through surrender and faith in concert with modern medicine, Jose recovered his vision.

Melanie Sumner discusses and signs her new novel The Ghost of Milagro Creek (Algonquin, $13.95), a convincing, despairing portrait of Taos, NM that is reminiscent of Rudolfo Anaya'sBless Me, Ultima.

The story of Ignacia Vigil Romero, a full Jacarilla Apache, and the two boys she raised to adulthood, Mister and Tomas, unfolds in a barrio of Taos, NM - a mixed community of Native Americans, Hispanics, and whites.  Now deceased, Ignacia, a curandera - a medicine woman - begins this tale of starcrossed lovers.  Sumner's cast and a strong sense of Native American and Latino spirituality create a fascinating portrait of a community, wrapping issues of alcoholism, friendship, parental neglect, and conflicted identity around a miltidimensional tragedy, and Sumner captures the pain - and the humor - of a particular hardscrabble life and the voices of people who do not ordinarily frequent the pages of American fiction.

Sumner received an NEA grant this year and her short stories have appeared in the New Yorker and Harper's.  Her previous books include The School of Beauty and Charm, a novel, andPolite Society, stories.  In 1995 she received a Whiting award for fiction, and she teaches creative writing at Kennesaw State University in Georgia.  On writing The Ghost of Milagro Creek, she says:

Naseem Rakha, who as a reporter covered state run executions, discussess and signs her debut novel The Crying Tree (Broadway, $22.95), which has been praised as this year's Lovely Bonesand won the 2010 Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Book Award.

Rakha tells a story of a mother who must overcome the hate, grief, and secrets that surround the murder of her 15 year old son, and defy church and family as she attempts to stop the execution of the man who killed her boy.  Naseem explores the death penalty and forgiveness with her audience through the lens of our justice system, her experiences as a reporter for public radio, as well as subsequent interviews with crime victims, inmates, corrections officials and exonerated death row prisoners.  

Rakha is an award winning broadcast journalist who is intrigued by the capacity to forgive the unforgiveable - a quality she has witnessed in her work as a teacher and consultant for Native American tribes, as a mediator in the clean up of the nuclear site that created the Nagasaki bomb, and as a reporter covering state run executions.  Prior to journalism Naseem taught Holistic Resource Management to farmers, ranchers and tribes throughout the US and Canada.  Her stories have been heard on NPR's All Things Considered, Morning Edition, Marketplace Radio, Christian Science Monitor, and Living on Earth.

Canning, fermenting, freezing, drying - just a few of the many ways eaters can preserve the fantastic flavors of locally grown foods.  Whether you're a canning novice or preservation pro, this book gives eaters all the information they need to put 'em up.  Eating locally is on everybodys mind, and nothing is more local than Heirloom Salsa made from vine-fresh tomatoes or a quick batch of Ice-Box Berry Jam saved from the seasons last berries.

Real food advocate Sherri Brooks Vinton offers recipes with exciting flavor combinations to please contemporary palates and put preserved fruits and vegetables on dinner-party menus everywhere. Pickled Asparagus and Wasabi Beans are delicious additions to holiday relish trays; Sweet Pepper Marmalade perks up cool-weather roasts; and Berry Bourbon is an unexpected base for a warming cocktail - and the best versions of tried-and-true favorites are all here too!

"Sherri Brooks Vinton's new book Put 'em Up is exactly what a lot of us need right now - some good guidance on how to preserve that summer harvest we've grown to love and want to experience throughout the year.  What a delicious way to eat locally even when the snow is falling."
--Chef Deborah Madison, author of Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating from America's Farmers Markets

Sherri's first book The Real Food Revival: Aisle by Aisle, Morsel by Morsel offers practical tips for eaters who want a more delicious sustainable future.  She is a member of Women Chefs and Restaurateurs, the International Association of Culinary Professionals, the Northeast Organic Farmers Association, and Chefs Collaborative.

Outside magazine editor Alex Hearddiscusses & signs his new book TheEyes of Willie McGee, the true story of an iconic criminal case thatlaunched the civil rights movement and became the basis for Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird. 

7pm Tuesday, August 3

Santa Fe Author Tom Ireland’s The Man Who Gave His Wife Away

The Bookworks Knitting Circle meets the first Thursday of each month.  We always have treats, and sometimes have featured books or speakers - and our regular knitters are great company!

The group is open to the public, so feel free to drop by! 

Benjamin Radford Investigates the Santa Fe Courthouse Ghost & Chupacabra

New Mexico author of The Last Snake Runner KimberleyGriffiths Little discusses & signs her new young adult novel The Healing Spell, and we’ll serve Cajuncakes and éclairs for our Bayou Party!

Virginia Barrett spent six months living with Shona musicians in Zimbabwe, and she will discuss and sign her new book Mbira Maker Blues: a Healing Journey to Zimbabwe (Studio Saraswati - $17.00), a travel memoir recounting her study of the mbira and experiences.  Virginia will demonstrate performance of the mbira, a xyloihone like instrument o

Barbecue Tips, Tricks & Recipes with BBQ Judge ArdieDavis

 AND Sample some of our favorite BBQ from Johndhi's!

Summer is a great time for backyard barbecues, andif you’re looking for tips, tricks, and great new recipes from experts on thecompetitive barbecue circuit, Ardie Davis, well known judge and founder of Greasehouse University (the institution behind thefabled doctorate of barbecue philosophy) discusses & signs new books The Kansas City Barbecue Society Cookbook andAmerica’s Best BBQ. 

When twelve-year-old Izzy discovers a beat-up baseball marked with the words "Because magic" while unpacking in yet another new apartment, she is determined to figure out what it means. What secrets does this old ball have to tell? Her mom certainly isn't sharing any especially when it comes to Izzy's father, who died before Izzy was born. But when she spends the summer in her Nana's remote New Mexico village, Izzy discovers long-buried secrets that come alive in an enchanted landscape of watermelon mountains, whispering winds, and tortilla suns. Infused with the flavor of the southwest and sprinkled with just a pinch of magic, this heartfelt middle grade debut is as rich and satisfying as Nana's homemade enchiladas.

UNM Professor Michael Trujillo discusses and signs his new book The Land of Disenchantment: Latina/o Identities And Transformations In Northern New Mexico (UNM Press, $29.95), in which Trujillo explores the cultural heritage of New Mexico's Espanola Valley, situated in the northern part of the state between the Sangre de Cristo and Jemez Mountains. Many of the Valley's communities have roots in Spanish and Mexican colonization, while the Native American Pueblos of Ohkay Owingeh and Santa Clara are far older.