Our Sign Towne Center Books
555 Main Street   •   Pleasanton, California
925-846-8826



  • Home


  • Events


  • Book Groups


  • Back to
    Staff Picks



  • About Us


  • Orders


  • Coupon

Nancy's Picks

Here are some great picks from Towne Center's resident speed reader!


The River King
by Alice Hoffman

Trade Paperback
$14.00
Berkley Publishing Group     2001

People tend to stay in their place in the town of Haddan. The students at the prestigious prep school don't mix with locals; even within the school, hierarchy rules, as freshman and faculty members find out where they fit in and what is expected of them. But when a body is found in the river behind the school, a local policeman will walk into this enclosed world and upset it entirely. A story of surface appearances and the truths submerged below, The River King confirms Alice Hoffman as "one of our quirkiest and most interesting novelists" (Jane Smiley, USA Today).


The Pearl Diver
by Jeff Talarigo

Hardcover (cloth)
$18.95
Nan A. Talese     2004

In 1948, a 19-year-old Japanese pearl diver is in her fourth season of working hard to perfect the techniques of her age-old occupation. But her dreams of spending her life diving in the waters of the Seto Inland Sea are shattered when she discovers that she has leprosy.


The Sex Life of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific
by Maarten J. Troose

Trade Paperback
$12.95
Broadway Books     2004

After racking up useless graduate degrees and muddling through a series of temp jobs, author Troost decided the idea of dropping everything and moving to the ends of the Earth was irresistibly romantic. He should have known better. This is his hilarious story.


The Romanov Prophecy
by Steve Berry

Hardcover (cloth)
$12.95
Ballantine Books     2004

The author of The Amber Room returns with a thriller predicated on Rasputin's cryptic prophecy that the 1918 murder of the Romanovs was not the final chapter in their story.


He's Just Not That Into You: The No-Excuses Truth to Understanding Guys
by Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo

Hardcover (cloth)
$21.95
Simon Spotlight Entertainment     2004

He says:
Oh sure, they say they're busy. They say that they didn't have even a moment in their insanely busy day to pick up the phone. It was just "that crazy." All lies. With the advent of cell phones and speed dialing, it is almost impossible not to call you. Sometimes I call people from my pants pocket when I don't even mean to. If I were into you, you would be the bright spot in my horribly busy day. Which would be a day that I would never be too busy to call you.

She says:
There is something great about knowing that my only job is to be as happy as I can be about my life, and feel as good as I can about myself, and to lead as full and eventful a life as I can, so that it doesn't ever feel like I'm just waiting around for some guy to ask me out. And most importantly, it's good for us all to remember that we don't need to scheme and plot, or beg anyone to ask us out. We're fantastic.

For ages women have come together over coffee, cocktails, or late-night phone chats to analyze the puzzling behavior of men.

"He's afraid to get hurt again.

Maybe he doesn't want to ruin the friendship.

Maybe he's intimidated by me.

He just got out of a relationship."

Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo are here to say that -- despite good intentions -- you're wasting your time. Men are not complicated, although they'd like you to think they are. And there are no mixed messages.

The truth may be "He's just not that into you."

Unfortunately guys are too terrified to ever directly tell a woman, "You're not the one." But their actions absolutely show how they feel.

"He's Just Not That Into You" -- based on a popular episode of "Sex and the City" -- educates otherwise smart women on how to tell when a guy just doesn't like them enough, so they can stop wasting time making excuses for a dead-end relationship.

Reexamining familiar scenarios and classic mindsets that keep us in unsatisfying relationships, Behrendt and Tuccillo's wise and wry understanding of the sexes spares women hours of waiting by the phone, obsessing over the details with sympathetic girlfriends, and hoping his mixed messages really mean "I'm in love with you and want to be with you."

"He's Just Not That Into You" is provocative, hilarious, and, above all, intoxicatingly liberating. It deserves a place on every woman's night table. It knows you're a beautiful, smart, funny woman who deserves better. The next time you feel the need to start "figuring him out," consider the glorious thought that maybe "He's just not that into you." And then set yourself loose to go find the one who is.