Staff Member of the Week! ~*Leigh*~

Leigh is a bookseller who just recently started at Borders Capitola a few months ago. She is a self-proclaimed Nerd Extraordinaire(TM) and will consume anything of vaguely geeky nature. She graduated from college with a History major and then went on to do a Theater graduate program, and loves to do any backstage work she can. Some of her favorite TV shows include anything and everything created by Joss Whedon (Buffy and Firefly tying for first place, naturally), Doctor Who, and Castle. She has been reading since before she could hold a book in her hands, and was known early on as that weird kid who would sit in the library during recess absorbing as much knowledge as she could, instead of playing kickball with the other kids. She loves reading sci-fi and fantasy, as was into vampires way before all this crazy Twilight nonsense (you want a great vampire book? Read Anno Dracula, by Kim Newman...amazing twist on the myth!). While sci-fi, fantasy, and graphic novels have a special place in her heart, Leigh loves to read from many different genres, whether beautifully written coming of age/self-realization stories like The Perks of Being a Wallflower (Stephen Chbosky) and Middlesex (Jeffrey Euginides), or history books like The Good War by Studs Terkel.  Any time Leigh has that isn't spent working or reading is usually spent playing some sort of video game or good card game with friends. If you see her around the store, say hi! She'd love to talk to you about some of her favorite reads, and help you find yours!

The Hunger Games

Now, we all know how much the Borders Capitola team LOVES The Hunger Games, but I thought it'd be appropriate to post an actual review of it... =)  Enjoy Jax's take.
~Aimee


Title: The Hunger Games
Author:  Suzanne Collins
Genre: Young Adult
Overall Rating: 5/5

I think it is appropriate that I begin the my reviews with this book, since it is potentially one of my favorite books of all time. I recommend this book to everyone who likes a good story, especially if they like the sci-fi or post-apocalyptic genres. The plot is sort of hard to sum up, but it's basically about this girl who sacrifices everything to save her sister in a world where the Capitol controls every aspect of her life. She ends up fighting in the Hunger Games (a book title in the book itself? OMG we are so clever!) which are gladiator games but with children who fight to the death on T.V. For entertainment. Yep, darkly delicious!

This is one of the darker young adult books I've encountered, the writing is fantastic and the world very believable. The main character, Katniss, is the most pragmatic female teenager I've ever read. She has little time for self-esteem or romantic issues, because she is too busy trying to stay alive. She's smart, tough as nails and definitely not cuddly, but she is also very real. Thanks to her father's death at a young age, she has many a trust problem, and a few other faults, but Collins gets points for having the issue not be annoyingly "girly". They are real issues, with a real person who doesn't cry every ten minutes that is trying to deal with them. This is the only book that everyone who I've met who has read it liked it, and everyone at my store loves it. Do yourself a favor this year, and pick it up.

Problems with the book include how dark the series is, because let me tell you, this stuff is DARK. It's first person POV, so the cast of characters who stick around and are interesting is not very large. I'm a big fan of secondary characters, but beyond the two boys in her life, (yes, I know, another love triangle, what will they think of next?) there isn't a lot of fleshed out characters. I'm still wrestling with how I feel about the last book in the series, but that's a discussion for another day. 

The worst thing you can feel about a book is apathy, so if you have an opinion, please feel free to share what you think!
~Jax

Staff Member of the Week! ~*James*~

James is a bookseller who just recently started at Borders Capitola and loves Taylor Swift.

Across the Universe

OMIGOSH YOU GUYS

I just finished reading this book last night and you should all

READ

IT

TOO

For realsies.

All ridiculousness aside, this was a great book. It's the first from author Beth Revis, and I truly hope to see more from her in the coming years.  I first caught wind of Across the Universe when a friend of mine sent me the link to the Epic Copntest of Epic which is long since over, but still clearly awesome. (Check out the rest of Beth's blog for more awesomeness like a snowman in a Jayne-hat and this. Go now. Then come back.)

Basically, Across the Universe is a murder/mystery set on a spaceship bound for a secondary earth. Earth (more or less as we know it) has suffered from what has taken place over the thousands of years of our existence, so a mission is undertaken to colonize other parts of the universe. The ship is to transport 100 cryogenically frozen passengers to an Earth-like planet 300 years away where they will be reanimated to carry out the terraforming process and settle it in order to carry on the human race. Also on the ship are thousands of people (and by the time of our introduction to the tale, their descendants) charged with living and working on and taking care of the ship and it's cargo.
Amy is a frozen passenger undertaking this journey with her parents, and is viciously awoken before reaching the ship's destination. She ends up joining forces with a boy named Elder, who is destined to be the ship's next leader, in order to find out why she was singled out and nearly murdered. In a world where everything is disturbingly similar yet completely different than the home she left Amy has to trust her instincts and stand up for herself, while Elder learns about the time she came from and how her version of history can help him be a better leader.

I tried so hard while waiting through December not to build up Across the Universe too much in my mind just in case I ended up being disappointed, but I wasn't. I loved this book. For those of you who have read Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games, the pacing is very similar. You. Can't. Stop. Reading. After we finally got a copy of the book in the store, I read the whole thing in a few days. (It probably would've been one if I'd had a day off in that time... =D) There are so many things I loved about it, not the least of which was all the nerdy references embedded in the story, but above all - the ending just works. It's not what I was expecting at all, but it's completely perfect. The more I think about the story as a whole, the more I love how it played out.

I realize I'm using the words 'I' and 'love' quite a bit here, but those words have been earned. Beth Revis really has done an impressive job of telling a captivating tale here. I definitely recommend that everyone give this book a try - I enjoyed it, and I hope you will too!

~Aimee

New Book Aimee's Looking Forward To!

I was fussing around on the interwebs and came across this Young Adult book coming out January 11;  I'm hoping it'll be something all of us Hunger Games fanatics might enjoy.
Across the Universe is a murder-mystery set in (from what I can tell, a futuristic [and awesome]) space.
Check out the Borders listing of it here.
And then go enter the magical Epic Contest of Epic at the author's, Beth Revis, blog.

And if I happen to receive The Big-Huge-Amazing Grand Prize, I could be convinced to share. =D
I'll write a review when I get it in January!

-Aimee

Staff Member of the Week! ~*Adriana*~

Adriana is an extraterrestrial assigned to blend in with the indigenous life here on the planet Earth. She's been at Borders Capitola for just a few months. While not plotting global domination, she spends her time working alongside her fellow booksellers, humming random melodies, and doing little jigs for her own amusement. Drawing, playing guitar, and people-watching are some activities that keep her happy and sane… Well, the sanity part is debatable. Her favorite books of all time include Un Lun Dun by China Mièville, Sabriel by Garth Nix, October Country by Ray Bradbury, Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones, and The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.

Borders Capitola goes on a field trip!

So, last night, several members of the Capitola team decided it'd be a great idea to go see Suzanne Collins on her book-tour stop at Hicklebee's in San Jose. It was a seriously great idea.

First off, if you know any of us at all, you'll know that ALL of us wanted to go. Unfortunately, somebody had to stay behind in Capitola... Secondly, you'll also know that any trip over "the Hill" requires a stop at In-N-Out Burger. Having accomplished that particular goal, we headed off to find Hicklebee's and attain parking. (Easier said than done!) Once there, we joined the already vast crowd eager to hear Ms. Collins speak and grabbed our line numbers -- 223 was the lowest number anyone in our group got! We wandered about and explored the store, and Aimee took pictures of several really cool things. Finally, we got our chance to meet our favorite author, get our books signed, and give her the music for 'The Hanging Tree' and a letter from our store.

Enough with the talking, bring on the pictures!

Amelia, Dorothy, & Kelsey waiting in line outside Hicklebee's

Aimee and Amelia practicing their serious faces while waiting in line

Jax thinks everything is silly

Chris and the music he wrote for 'The Hanging Tree'
(He blinked. And then wouldn't take another picture... Haha.)

GIANT wall decoration of 'Where The Wild Things Are'

Hamlet. In the Kids' section.  ...?

Indian in the Cupboard!

Charlotte's Web!

Most awesome clock, ever.

The following are from the back area of the store where visiting authors have signed the walls, doors, and ceiling...

David Shannon - 'No, David!'

Dav Pilkey - 'Captain Underpants' series

We're pretty sure this is 'Angelina Ballerina,'
but the signature confused us a little...

JK Rowling!!! - 'Harry Potter' series

Brian Selznick - 'The Invention of Hugo Cabret'

Dorothy getting 'The Hunger Games' signed!

Amelia, Aimee, Dorothy, Kelsey, and Suzanne Collins!