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ABOUT THE STORE : NEWSLETTER

DISPATCHES FROM THE BORDER

Events and News from Borderlands Books

December, 2012

Chapter One - Event Information, News, and Special Features

Upcoming Author Events

Drop-By Signing with Nalo Hopkinson, Saturday, December 8th at 3:00 pm

Cassie Alexander, MOONSHIFTED, (St. Martin's, Mass Market, $7.99) Saturday, January 5th at 3:00 pm

Rudy Rucker, TURING AND BURROUGHS: A BEATNIK SF NOVEL (Transreal Books, Trade Paperback, $16.00) Saturday, January 12th at 3:00 pm

SF in SF with authors Steven Gould and Laura Mixon, at the Variety Preview Room in the Hobart Building (582 Market St.) Saturday, January 19th at 7:00 pm

(for more information check the end of this section)

We take an event hiatus between Thanksgiving and New Year's, but stay tuned for the awesome authors above and many, many more in 2013, including Peter Brett, Cory Doctorow, and Brandon Sanderson!

News

* 100 Things You Didn't Know About the "Lord of the Rings" Movies: http://www.empireonline.com/features/lord-of-the-rings-100-facts/default.asp

* Does someone you know need a map of John Carter's Mars? http://mythicimages.com/product.php?product_id=145  Thanks to Amanda for the link!

* This isn't science fiction now, but it was just a short time ago.  Mind-controlled artificial limbs coming soon: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/11/mind-controlled-robotic-arm/

* Congrats to Borderlands Cafe employee Cole Kelly, who placed third in the recent local Star Trek Convention's costume contest!  Cole was dressed as the 10th Doctor from "Dr. Who". http://www.sfweekly.com/slideshow/great-costumes-of-the-official-star-trek-convention-38202868/#37

* I wish we'd thought of this first!  The Monkey's Paw, a used bookstore in Toronto, has created an incredibly cool random book-vending machine: http://www.npr.org/2012/11/18/165219956/book-vending-machine-dispenses-suspense?utm_source=NPR&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=20121118

* Read Local asked 10 local booksellers (including us!) for a holiday recommendation for their gift guide: http://blogs.sfweekly.com/exhibitionist/2012/12/holiday_gift_guide_10_local_books.php

* Holiday Hours:
Borderlands Books will be closed on Thanksgiving (November 22nd), Christmas Day (December 25th) and New Year's Day (January 1st, 2013).  We will  close early, at 6 pm, on Christmas Eve (December 24th) and New Year's Eve (December 31st).  We will be open late, until 10 pm, the week before Christmas (December 17th - 23rd).

Borderlands Cafe will be open from 8 am to 6 pm on Thanksgiving Day.  On Christmas and New Years Eve we'll be open from 8 am to 5 pm and on Christmas and New Years day we'll be open from 10 am to 5 pm.

Holiday Gift Guide

Happy holidays, everyone!  I'd like to start the annual Gift Guide with a big ol' THANK YOU to all of you who have kept us going 15 years and beyond.  We are grateful for your support, and humbled to be part of such a vibrant, cheerful, and important community.  So, thanks.

The gift-giving season is quickly swooping down upon us with its great shadowy black wings, and Borderlands is here to help you find the perfect gift for every elf, fairy, shoggoth, and wizard on your list.  (And the plain-old human readers on that list will probably be very happy, too.)

Let me first mention that we have a whole bunch of amazing local authors who are happy to personalize their books for your gift-giving pleasure. Terry Bisson, Chaz Brenchley, S.G. Browne, Gail Carriger, Richard Kadrey, Seanan McGuire, Rudy Rucker, and Scott Sigler have all volunteered to inscribe books.  You can purchase and pick up personalized books here,  or if the recipients are far away, we're happy to do mail orders, so consider which of the fans in your life would be most tickled by having their name actually written in a book by the author! The deadline to order inscribed books to be shipped in time for Christmas is December 14th; the deadline to request inscribed books for in-store pickup is December 19th.

Unless you've been hiding under a hill, you know it's Hobbit Season.  Borderlands is your One-Stop Hobbit Shop, (say that three times, quickly) with gorgeous editions of THE HOBBIT to fit every taste and budget.  We have more than a dozen different formats; everything from the pocket-sized paperback ($8.99), to the 75th Anniversary edition (Trade Paperback, $13.95) to the hardcover with Tolkien's original intended cover art ($25), to THE ANNOTATED HOBBIT (Oversized Hardcover, $30).  With the movie coming out, this is the perfect time to either revisit this classic or take a new generation "there and back again".

Speaking of classics, we have beautiful, hardcover, gift-worthy volumes of all of your old favorites: DUNE ($29.95), ENDER'S GAME ($27.95), THE PRINCESS BRIDE ($25), GOOD OMENS ($29.99), THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH 50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION ($24), THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS ($21.99), and far too many others to mention.  We also have a special price for one of my favorite anthologies of all time: SHELF LIFE: FANTASTIC STORIES CELEBRATING BOOKSTORES, edited by Greg Ketter of the venerable Dreamhaven Books in Minneapolis.  SHELF LIFE has stories by Ramsey Campbell, Charles de Lint, Harlan Ellison, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Jack Williamson, Gene Wolfe, and many more, with an introduction by Neil Gaiman, and right now it's only $10!

If your gift-ee just has to have the newest and the latest, we recommend RED COUNTRY by Joe Abercrombie (Hardcover, $25.99) (my favorite in his series so far, and a classic Western despite its fantasy trappings), THE HYDROGEN SONATA (the new culture novel!) by Iain M. Banks (Hardcover, $25.99), THE TWELVE (follow-up to THE PASSAGE) by Justin Cronin (Hardcover, $28),  CAPTAIN VORPATRIL'S ALLIANCE by Lois McMaster Bujold and Ryan Sear (Hardcover, $26), THE FIFTY-YEAR SWORD by Mark Z. Danielewski (Hardcover, $26), THE CASUAL VACANCY by J.K. Rowling ($35),  or signed copies of PIRATE CINEMA by Cory Doctorow (Hardcover, $19.99).  I'd also like to call your attention specially to THE EMPEROR'S SOUL by Brandon Sanderson (Tachyon Publications, Trade Paperback, $14.95), a short stand-alone novel set in the world of ELANTRIS, and a really gorgeous new 2-volume Ursula K. LeGuin story collection called THE UNREAL AND THE REAL from Small Beer Press (Hardcover, each volume $24).

We've got calendars galore, from A Calendar of Bunny Suicides ($13.99) to Views From the Hubble Telescope ($14.99) and pretty much everything in between, BUT you should particularly hear about the perfect one for the racy reader in your life: this is the Literary Pin-up Calendar (Worldbuilders, $20)!  It's a calendar of fantasy pin-ups from artist Lee Moyer, immortalizing characters from works by Peter S. Beagle, Ray Bradbury, Patricia Briggs, Jacqueline Carey, Neil Gaiman, Patrick Rothfuss and many others.  This calendar is a win-win, because it's a super-cool gift and all the proceeds go to support Worldbuilders, the charity Patrick Rothfuss founded. <http://thetinkerspacks.bigcartel.com/about-us>  (Worldbuilders is a not-for-profit organization of geeks and writers and artists and readers interested in making the world a better place.  Once a year they run a fundraiser to raise money for Heifer International: "Heifer International's mission is to work with communities to end hunger and poverty and care for the Earth." <http://www.heifer.org/ourwork/mission> They provide cows and chickens and goats and many, many other animals to help make poor and hungry people all over the world self-sufficient.) We've even got just a few copies left that were signed by Mr. Rothfuss himself, so this calendar makes a perfect present both for someone you know, and someone you'll never meet.

Super-popular books at the moment are David Mitchell's CLOUD ATLAS (Hardcover, $23, and Trade Paperback, $15), Ernest Cline's READY PLAYER ONE (Trade Paperback, $14), and THE NIGHT CIRCUS by Erin Morgenstern, (Trade paperback, $15).  I'd also suggest Charles Yu's meta HOW TO LIVE SAFELY IN A SCIENCE FICTIONAL UNIVERSE (Trade Paperback, $14.95) and the simply amazing short story collection STORIES OF YOUR LIFE AND OTHERS by Ted Chiang (Trade Paperback, $16).

Old and new favorites that will work for almost anyone: THE RHINOCEROS WHO QUOTED NIETZSCHE by Peter S. Beagle (Trade Paperback, $15.95), THE SCIENCE FICTION HALL OF FAME edited by Robert Silverberg (Trade Paperback, $19.99), and MISS PEREGRINE'S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN by Ransom Riggs (Hardcover, $17.99).

For the George R.R. Martin fan in your life, there's the absolutely breathtaking LANDS OF ICE AND FIRE: MAPS FROM KING'S LANDING TO ACROSS THE NARROW SEA by illustrator and cartographer Jonathan Roberts, (Bantam, $40). You really must see these to believe them, and they will enrich the experience of any fan of the Ice and Fire books.  Jeremy Lassen, Borderlands' first employee, who introduced us all to the Song of Ice and Fire books way back in 1998, was so taken with the maps that he had the map of Westeros gorgeously framed for his house.

As usual, we wish you a Gorey Christmas with a plethora of Edward Gorey-themed items.  From the classic Gashlycrumb Tinies (Undersized Hardcover, $10) to the brand-new Bibliophile With Cats Puzzle ($10.95), we have a little bit of Gorey to suit anyone.  My personal favorite is the "Fruitcake" holiday card ($2.95) that shows the solemn ritual of everyone gathering after dark to throw their fruitcakes into a hole in the ice!

In (hopefully) unrelated news, zombies are also The In Thing this year.  Check out S.G. Browne's I SAW ZOMBIES EATING SANTA CLAUS (Hardcover, $14.99), for example.  We've also got copies of the soon-to-be-a-movie WORLD WAR Z  (Trade Paperback, $14.95) and THE ZOMBIE SURVIVAL GUIDE (Trade Paperback, $14.99) by Max Brooks, pretty much guaranteed to keep you up until New Year's.  For fans of Mira Grant's FEED (Mass Market, $9.99), we have the brand-new WHEN WILL YOU RISE? (Signed, Limited Edition (1000 copies) Hardcover, $38), a trio of short stories set in FEED's zombie-plagued world, including the origin of the entire mess. There's also PAT THE ZOMBIE by Aaron Ximm ($11.99), a sick & twisted take on the children's book PAT THE BUNNY, and THE LIVING DEAD vols. 1 and 2 edited by John Joseph Adams (Trade Paperbacks, $15.99 each).

As always, we're happy to make personalized recommendations and practice our Psychic Bookseller Skills when you're stumped.  If you just can't decide, we also offer gift certificates in any amount.

Happy holidays to all!  We wish you a safe, peaceful, and bright 2013.

-Jude Feldman

Top Sellers At Borderlands

Hardcovers
1. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
2. Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss
3. I Saw Zombies Eating Santa Claus by S.G. Browne
4. The Hydrogen Sonata by Iain M. Banks
5. Captain Vorpatril's Alliance by Lois McMaster Bujold
6. The Rapture of the Nerds by Cory Doctorow and Charles Stross
7. Red Country by Joe Abercrombie
8. Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone
9. Cold Days by Jim Butcher tied with Pirate Cinema by Cory Doctorow
10. Velveteen vs. the Junior Super Patriots by Seanan McGuire

Mass Market Paperbacks
1. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
2. Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
3. Pandaemonium by Ben Macallan
4. Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin
5. Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin
6. Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin
7. Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan
8. Stone Spring by Stephen Baxter
9. Seeds of Earth by Michael Cobley
10. Feed by Mira Grant

Trade Paperbacks
1. The Adventures of the Princess and Mr. Whiffle by Patrick Rothfuss
2. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
3. The Emperor's Soul by Brandon Sanderson
4. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
5. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Book Club Info

The QSF&F Book Club will meet on Sunday, December 9th, at 5 pm to discuss SIGNAL TO NOISE by Eric Nylund.  Please contact the group leader, Christopher Rodriguez, at cobalt555@earthlink.net, for more information.

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Club is taking a hiatus for the month of December.  The book for January 20th is THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO by Junot Diaz.  Please contact bookclub@borderlands-books.com for more information.

Upcoming Event Details

Drop-By Signing with Nalo Hopkinson, Saturday, December 8th at 3:00 pm - Stop by to meet Ms. Hopkinson informally before her Writers With Drinks appearance at the Make-Out Room at 7 pm!  Feel free to bring your questions and books to be signed.

Cassie Alexander, MOONSHIFTED, (St. Martin's, Mass Market, $7.99) Saturday, January 5th at 3:00 pm - We loved Cassie's atypical urban fantasy debut NIGHTSHIFTED, about a brand-new nurse on the supernatural night shift, and we're happy to welcome her back for the sequel!  This time beleaguered Edie Spence's skills are put to the test when she witnesses a hit-and-run accident involving a werewolf pack leader.  Edie's just trying to do her job, but suddenly she's stuck in the middle of an all-out were-war.  We hope you'll join us to check out this soon-to-be-famous author!

Rudy Rucker, TURING AND BURROUGHS: A BEATNIK SF NOVEL (Transreal Books, Trade Paperback, $16.00) Saturday, January 12th at 3:00 pm - It's always a joy to welcome Rudy, one of the godfathers of cyberpunk: he's a professor, a genius, an artist, and of course a very prolific author!  TURING AND BURROUGHS is a wild beatnik ride.  Here's the summary from Rudy's site: "TURING AND BURROUGHS is an SF novel set in style of a 1950s-movie "alien invasion" story.  Computer pioneer Alan Turing and the Beat author William Burroughs connect in Tangier and begin a love affair. The novel fuses SF themes with beatnik styles and attitudes, switching between Turing's and Burroughs's points of view.  Turing and Burroughs find a way to shapeshift into telepathic slugs, and society's reaction serves as a symbol of the 1950's horror of artists, intellectuals and political outsiders.  As our heroes flee the feds, the story becomes a road novel. In traditional 1950's SF style, they head for a nuclear test site in Los Alamos, New Mexico.  En route, Turing and Burroughs visit Mexico City and have a heavy encounter with Burroughs's murdered wife.  The story comes to a head with a thermonuclear blast and a final transcendence."  You'll also be able to check out a show of Rudy's trippy, trans-real art, which will be hanging in the Cafe starting January 11th, and we'll have prints available for sale.

SF in SF with authors Steven Gould and Laura Mixon, at the Variety Preview Room in the Hobart Building (582 Market St.) Saturday, January 19th at 7:00 pm - We are happy to help SF in SF welcome these authors!  Each author will read a selection from their work, followed by Q&A from the audience moderated by author Terry Bisson.  Authors will schmooze & sign books after in the lounge. Books available for sale courtesy of Borderlands Books.  Seating is limited, so first come, first seated.  Bar proceeds benefit Variety Childrens Charity - learn more at <http://www.varietync.org/>.  We REALLY encourage you to take BART into the City, or use MUNI to get here - parking can be problematic in San Francisco, to say the least.  We are less than one block away from the Montgomery St. station.  Trust us - you don't want to be looking for parking and be late for the event!  Phone (night of event) 415-572-1015.  Questions? Email sfinsfevents@gmail.com.

Borderlands event policy - all events are free of charge.  You are welcome to bring copies of an author's books purchased elsewhere to be autographed (but we do appreciate it if you purchase something while at the event).  For most events you are welcome to bring as many books as you wish for autographs.  If you are unable to attend the event we will be happy to have a copy of any of the author's available books signed or inscribed for you.  We can then either hold the book(s) until you can come in to pick them up or we can ship to you.  Just give us a call or drop us an email.  If you live out of town, you can also ship us books from your collection to be signed for a nominal fee.  Call or email for details.

Dispatches from the Border
Editor - Jude Feldman
Assistant Editor - Alan Beatts

All contents unless otherwise noted are the property of

Borderlands Books
866 Valencia St.
San Francisco, CA  94110
415-824-8203
http://www.borderlands-books.com

Comments and suggestions should be directed to editor@borderlands-books.com

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