Upcoming Events

Guy Gavriel Kay, A BRIGHTNESS LONG AGO (Berkeley, Hardcover, $27.00) Saturday, March 18th at 3:00 pm

SF in SF (at The American Bookbinders Museum, 355 Clementina St. San Francisco) with guests Guy Gavriel Kay, Ransom Stephens, and Simon Vance, moderated by Terry Bisson, Sunday, March 19th at 6:30 pm

SF in SF (at The American Bookbinders Museum, 355 Clementina St. San Francisco) with guests Nancy Etchemendy and Loren Rhoads, Sunday, June 9th at 6:30 pm

Megan E. O'Keefe, VELOCITY WEAPON (Orbit, Trade Paperback, $15.99) Thursday, June 13th at 6:00 pm

Sarah Gailey, MAGIC FOR LIARS (Tor, Hardcover, $25.99) Saturday, June 15th at 3:00 pm

Ferrett Steinmetz, THE SOL MAJESTIC (Tor, Trade Paperback, $16.99) Saturday, June 22nd at 3:00 pm

May Building Update

Hi Everyone,

This is going to be a very short update on our building process.  I've been very busy this month getting all the work done to shut down the cafe and so time (and sleep) has been in very short supply.  Despite that, we've made some very good progress at Haight Street.  Milestones have been:

Revised bathroom layout approved.  It's a much better arrangement than the original design and also takes up less floor space.  Kevin Short, our architect, really outdid himself getting it worked out and permitted.

Floor framing for bathroom and lightwell completed.  Since we know the layout for sure now, we were able to finalize the floor framing layout and get it done.  I'm very pleased with how it all came out.  And perhaps the most impressive part of the job was that it was almost completely done by our volunteers with only oversight from me.  It was a difficult and demanding job (the bathroom floor especially so, since it had to be just about dead level) and, personally, I think they produced a better and more precise piece of work than the average professional crew would have.

Trench and conduit for new electrical completed.  The schedules all lined up for both our trenching contractor and our electrician so that job was completed in less than a week.  Now we're just waiting for a second inspection of the panels (because, really, the inspector was kind of unreasonable).  After that, there are two inspections from PG&E (both scheduled for this month) and then we wait for them to connect the power (which is scheduled for the beginning of July . . . because PG&E is a little slow).  But, at this point, the job is moving forward and quickly too.  Which is damn nice since we first applied for the permits well over a _year_ ago.

Aside from that, the garden is coming along beautifully now that spring is here, and many smaller jobs have been knocked out.

That's about it.  Goodnight.

All Best,
Alan

April Bestsellers

Hardcovers
1. Tiamat's Wrath by James S.A. Corey
2. A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
3. The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders
4.  The Book of M by Peng Shepherd
5. The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie
6. Here and Now and Then by Mike Chen
7. How Long 'Til Black Future Month? by N.K. Jemisin
8. Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James
9. In an Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire
10. Radicalized by Cory Doctorow

Trade Paperbacks
1. The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
2. The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin, translated by Ken Liu
3. A People's Future of the United States edited by Victor LaValle and John Joseph Adams
4. All Systems Red by Martha Wells
5. Fault Lines edited by Margaret Lucke
6. The Power by Naomi Alderman
7. Blood Ink by Dana Fredsti
8. All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders
9. New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color edited by Nisi Shawl
10. Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin

Mass Market Paperbacks
1. Dune by Frank Herbert
2. Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
3. Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
4. Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
5. Spawn of Lilith by Dana Fredsti
6. Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson
7. Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
8. Who Fears Death? By Nnedi Okorafor
9. Old Man's War by John Scalzi
10. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

May News

* Overheard in the Store:

"Receipt? Oh, no, no, thank you. I don't want to be reminded how much I've spent on books."

"That’s adorable! The Prius had a bumper sticker that said 'Cool Prius! - Nobody'."

"But the paper ones are _meant_ to be edited"

"Space said 'we have black holes' and scientists just replied with, 'pics or it didn't happen'."

"You measure the cinnamon in parsecs?"

* ICYMI: Yes, we have permanently closed Borderlands Cafe (JUST THE CAFE), and we will be moving the bookstore (only) to the building that we purchased on Haight Street at some point in the future, when the construction work on the Haight Street building is complete.  Alan Beatts, the business' owner, on closing the Cafe: http://borderlands-books.blogspot.com/2019/04/borderlands-cafe-to-close.html

* Because we've closed the Cafe, we'll be selling all the Cafe furniture, fixtures, and equipment, plus some extra bookshelves and other things while we're at it.  The sale starts Sunday, May 19th at 12:00 pm.  Come check out many tables, chairs, a variety of bookshelves, and a mind-boggling array of mugs, glasses, teapots, and such!  We also have some really beautiful furniture  -- would you like an amazing Chinese-style armoire, or a church pew for your place?  This is a really cool opportunity to take home a little bit of Borderlands' history.  We'd love to know that these items will live on with people who appreciate them.  (Regrettably, it won't be possible for us to hold anything.  And not to sound too salesman-y, but. . . prices will be dropping as we get closer to the cafe's must-be-vacant date of June 1st, but if you wait you'll risk missing out!)

* R.I.P. celebrated author and science fiction Grand Master Gene Wolfe: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/gene-wolfe-science-fiction-writer-with-a-literary-touch-dies-at-87/2019/04/28/9bf76226-69c1-11e9-a66d-a82d3f3d96d5_story.html