Upcoming Events

Tori Eldridge, NINJA DAUGHTER (Agora Books, Trade Paperback, $16.95) Sunday, November 24th at 3:00 pm

Sisters in Crime / Mystery Writers' of America Holiday Party, Saturday, December 7th from 2:00 - 4:00 pm

Writers With Drinks with authors Megan E. O'Keefe, Alvin Orloff, and Olga Zilberbourg, and fabulous guest host Maggie Tokuda-Hall! (At the Make-Out Room, 3225 22nd Street, San Francisco)  Saturday, December 14th at 7:30 pm

November Building Update

by Alan Beatts

The last month has been a good one for the construction but not particularly exciting, so this update is going to be kind of short.  The rough plumbing is completed and passed inspection. Other than some less-than-esthetically-pleasing work in the lightwell, it's a really nice, clean job.  And, it'll be easy enough for me to re-route the stuff in the lightwell so that it's not quite so . . . industrial . . . looking.  Granted, I can understand why a plumber would want to run all the piping between waist and shoulder height -- it's easy to work at that level.  But it doesn't really make for the best look, if you know what I mean.

Antonius and Juan, our electricians, were in last week and the rough electrical for the bathroom is finished.  We just need to get that inspected and then we can get to closing up the walls. With a little luck, I hope to have the bathroom completed by the end of next month.

The framing for the front wall is also finished (big thanks to Zach for getting the last bits completed) and it passed inspection yesterday.  We need to put a little bit of electrical in that wall and then we can start closing it as well.  That job is going to be a bit long because of the complexity.  Instead of just simple sheetrock like the bathroom, there's tile on the outside to do, plus an awful lot of windows to build.  On the other hand, because that wall is mostly windows, once they are built and installed, most of the wall will be completed, both outside and in.

October Bestsellers

Hardcovers

1. Burning White by Brent Weeks
2. Angel Mage by Garth Nix
3. The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman
4. The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz
5. Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
6. Turning Darkness Into Light by Marie Brennan
7. A Little Hatred by Joe Abercrombie
8. The Institute by Stephen King
9. Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
10. The Grand Dark by Richard Kadrey

Trade Paperbacks

1. To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers
2. The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
3. The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin, translated by Ken Liu
4. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
5. Perfect Specimen by M. Luke McDonell
6. Million Mile Road Trip by Rudy Rucker
7. Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin
8. Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
9. A People's Future of the United States edited by Victor LaValle and John Joseph Adams
10. In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan

Mass Market Paperbacks

1. The Consuming Fire by John Scalzi
2. Dune by Frank Herbert
3. Fallen by Benedict Jacka
4. The Forbidden Stars by Tim Pratt
5. The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi
6. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
7. Old Man's War by John Scalzi
8. American Gods by Neil Gaiman
9. Neuromancer by William Gibson
10. Empire of Silence by Christopher Ruocchio

November News

* Overheard in the Store:

"Pokemon should not make you feel funny in your pants-parts."

"Finally, a bookstore with the _correct_ smell!"

"Some fungi are only edible once."

"If all else fails, use the parallel world."

"The highest villain in the book is a giant bagpipe. Nothing could be more evil than a bagpipe."

"I was ambushed, and she forcibly read her poetry at me."

"If you're not pissing someone off, you're probably in PR."

"Joel Selvin has covered pop music for the San Francisco Chronicle since shortly after the Civil War."

"It's a book title - 'Consensual Cannibalism: An Atheist's Primer for Surviving the Apocalypse'."

"Apparently it's the day of Hyper Aggressive Authors."

* Big congratulations to all the nominees and winners of this year's World Fantasy Awards!  https://locusmag.com/2019/11/2019-world-fantasy-awards-winners/

* We are very sad to share news of the death of the incomparable Michael Blumlein.  Michael was a Borderlands sponsor, a retired doctor, and an extremely talented genre author, but more importantly he was a brilliant, humorous, generous, and tremendously good human being with an enduring sense of wonder.  He will be fiercely missed. https://www.tor.com/2019/10/28/michael-blumlein-1948-2019/