Title of Event: Laura and Leo Espinosa, Otis and Rae and the Grumbling Splunk Launch Party
When: Friday, May 9, 2008 6:30 PM
Location: Porter Square Books
Description:

"[T]he Espinosas bring graphic innovation to the familiar best-friend story...With elements of comic strips, a retro color scheme, and a winning sense of humor, they tell a story that will draw readers and listeners alike." Horn Book Laura Jaffe Espinosa grew up in Newton, Massachusetts, and moved to New York to work in advertising and design. She met Leo at a graphic design seminar and they married a few years later. Leo Espinosa was born in Bogotá, Colombia. He studied graphic design and worked as an art director by day and moonlighted as a comic book artist. Later he moved to New York and began working as an illustrator. After living in New York City and Barcelona, the Espinosas moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where they opened their own design studio. Visit them at www.studioespinosa.com.

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We're lucky to have an eclectic bunch of readers on staff. We've got mystery mavens, nonfiction purists, fiction fanatics, the young at heart (aka children's literature devotees), and everything in between. Check out our monthly picks or browse through what your favorite staff member has been reading. (Read More!)

Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions by Ariely, Dan Thirty years ago I lasted one day in an Economics 101 class. Having retail experience already by then I saw the fundamental premises of the discipline described that day as absurd. I knew from experience that people generally do not act rationally when it comes to decisions involving money. By designing clever and quirky experiments, Dan Ariely very entertainingly shows us how and why human beings act in so irrational yet surprisingly predictable ways and by knowing this about ourselves how we can make better decisions. Dale

The Plague of Doves by Erdrich, Louise Louise Erdrich's complex history of the families in a North Dakota, mixed-blood reservation town reveals its secrets slowly through the unique voices of the community. These characters require us to pay attention and to move from psychological and philosophical musing to delightful storytelling full of magic and intrigue. Thoroughly enjoyable.--Kathleen Costello, Maria's Bookshop (Durango, CO)

The Outlander by Adamson, Gil In 1903 a mysterious young woman flees alone across the West, one heart-pounding step ahead of the law. At nineteen, Mary Boulton has just become a widow--and her husband's killer. As bloodhounds track her frantic race toward the mountains, she is tormented by mad visions and by the knowledge that her two ruthless brothers-in-law are in pursuit, determined to avenge their younger brother's death. Responding to little more than the primitive fight for life, the widow retreats ever deeper into the wilderness--and into the wilds of her own mind--encountering an unforgettable cast of eccentrics along the way. With the stunning prose and captivating mood of great works like Charles Frazier's "Cold Mountain" or early Cormac McCarthy, Gil Adamson's intoxicating debut novel weds a brilliant literary style to the gripping tale of one woman's desperate escape.