4/29 Independent Bookstore Day 2017

When: Saturday, 29 April 2017. The fun lasts all day!

Where: Rakestraw Books (and indie bookstores around the Bay Area!).

Independent bookstores -- like Rakestraw Books! -- are not just stores, they’re community centers and local anchors run by passionate readers. They are entire universes of ideas that contain the possibility of real serendipity. They are lively performance spaces and quiet places where aimless perusal is a day well spent.

There will be more than a dozen products available, including signed copies of a short story by Michael Chabon, literary tea towels, a canvas pouch featuring images of dogs of famous authors, an Elephant and Piggie onesie, and more. Click HERE to check out some the unique items for IBD-2017!

UPDATE: We are offering a variety of special elements to our celebration of Independent Bookstore Day 2017.

1. Every purchase is eligible for a raffle ticket. We will draw the raffle at the end of the day. You need not to be present to win;

2. Every purchase over $50 will receive a lovely bonus gift;

3. We have gift wrapped an interesting variety of books. Purchase one of these "blind dates" for $5. All the proceeds on these "blind dates" will go to charity;

4. At 1 PM we are going to offer samples of "The Sophia Lorenzo": a cocktail recipe from novelist Edan Lepucki which is drawn from A Literary Cocktail Party -- one of the special IBD-2017 items.

And, of course, we have a lovely selection of the special items. Come help us celebrate!

5/13 Paula Hawkins

Who: Bestselling novelist Paula Hawkins.

What: Discussing her long-awaited second novel, Into the Water.

When: Saturday, 13 May 2017 at 7 PM.

Where: Bentley School, 1000 Upper Happy Valley Road, Lafayette.

How much: $40/person. Tickets include a signed first edition of Into the Water. Purchase tickets HERE.

Why you should care: The author of the #1 New York Times bestseller and global phenomenon The Girl on the Train returns with Into the Water, her addictive new novel of psychological suspense.

A single mother turns up dead at the bottom of the river that runs through town. Earlier in the summer, a vulnerable teenage girl met the same fate. They are not the first women lost to these dark waters, but their deaths disturb the river and its history, dredging up secrets long submerged. Left behind is a lonely fifteen-year-old girl. Parentless and friendless, she now finds herself in the care of her mother's sister, a fearful stranger who has been dragged back to the place she deliberately ran from--a place to which she vowed she'd never return.

With the same propulsive writing and acute understanding of human instincts that captivated millions of readers around the world in her explosive debut thriller, The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins delivers an urgent, twisting, deeply satisfying read that hinges on the deceptiveness of emotion and memory, as well as the devastating ways that the past can reach a long arm into the present. Beware a calm surface--you never know what lies beneath.

Rakestraw Books is delighted to be presenting a special evening with bestselling author Paula Hawkins in a special co-sponsorship with our friends at Orinda Books and in cooperation with Bentley School. Please buy your tickets early to join us for this great event.

Beware a calm surface--you never know what lies beneath.