UPCOMING POLICY CHANGE: Please note that beginning in 2024, store credit for secondhand books taken in for trade will only be able to be applied to second-hand books.
JOIN US FOR OUR 2ND ANNUAL UTAH AUTHORS DAY WITH MIRANDA RENAE ANNA MARASCO STEVE CAPONE, JR. AND CHARLES BERNARD SATURDAY DECEMBER 2ND AT THE PRINTED GARDEN
Drop by your favorite independent bookstore on Saturday, December 2nd, and help us celebrate Utah Authors Day — a special day to encourage Utahns to share their stories and perspectives, strengthen community bonds through the written word, and continue to develop the culture of Utah through literary arts. Participating in Utah Authors Day reminded me how reading and writing provide vital personal connections within communities.
The Printed Garden will be hosting a number of local writers in the store on Utah Authors Day. Come by and visit with the writers in your community and snag have them sign a book or two for you! Authors will be posted as they're assigned to our location.
BOOKS SIGNING WITH AUTHOR MARC J. GREGSON FRIDAY JANUARY 19TH 7:00 P.M. AT THE PRINTED GARDEN
Plummet into a kill-or-be-killed competition where a scrappy underdog hell-bent on revenge must claw his way to the top in this thrilling YA fantasy debut
Exiled to live as a Low, sixteen-year-old Conrad refuses to become heir to his murderous uncle. But Meritocracy is a harsh and unforgiving rule on the floating island of Holmstead, and when his ailing mother is killed by monstrous gorgantauns, Conrad cuts a deal to save the only family he has left. To rescue his sister from his uncle's clutches, Conrad must enter the Selection of the Twelve Trades.
Hunter, the deadliest of all the Trades, gains a fresh recruit with Conrad. Now he must endure vigorous training, manipulative peers, and the Gauntlet—a brutal final test that yields riches and status to whichever skyship crew kills the most gorgantauns. Forced to serve in the lowest of stations and unseen by all, Conrad overhears whispers of rebellion in the dark. Conrad had never known anything existed below the toxic black clouds of the Skylands . . . until now.
Join us on Friday, January 19th, at The Printed Garden to grab your copy of Book One of the Above the Black trilogy today! This fast-paced series is reminiscent of Attack on Titan and will appeal to fans of Pierce Brown. This event is free and open to the public, and will begin at 7:00 p.m..
SPECIAL AUTHOR STORYTIME FOR KIDS & BOOKS SIGNING WITH MELISSA RICHARDSON SATURDAY DECEMBER 9TH 1:00 P.M. AT THE PRINTED GARDEN
A hilarious holiday tale about the highs and lows of eating one very special Three Kings Day dessert: the Rosca de Reyes, a sweet bread with a figurine of the baby Jesus hidden inside!
Marta is finally old enough for her own slice of the special, sneaky dessert she loves so much—la Rosca de Reyes.
The colorful crown of sweet bread is so tempting, but Marta knows the truth—there’s a baby hiding in the dessert: el Niño Dios. Marta can’t help but wonder what will happen if she accidentally eats the little figurine of baby Jesus.
Suddenly, Marta will do whatever it takes to avoid picking the last slice of la rosca—no matter how badly she wants a bite!
This humorous story of one girl’s journey to overcome her fears explores the traditions of Three Kings Day and the importance of family and faith.
join us in welcoming Melissa Richardson to The Printed Garden for a special author storytime for kids. Melissa will read her new book, we'll have some coloring pages for the little ones, and will finish with an author signing for anyone who wants an author signed copy of The Last Piece! This event is free, open to the public, and will begin at 1:00 p.m.
GIVE YOUR LOVED ONE THE GIFT OF AN AUTHOR SIGNED BOOK!
IN OUR STORE NOW ARE BOOKS SIGNED BY . . .
SHERMAN ALEXIE ISABEL ALLENDE MARGARET ATWOOD VICTORIA AVEYARD CLIVE BARKER GREG BEAR TOM BROKAW TERRY BROOKS JIM BUTCHER LORD RICHARD E. BYRD JIMMY CARTER MICHAEL CHABON BILLY COLLINS JUNOT DIAZ E. L. DOCTOROW ANTHONY DOERR IVAN DOIG SARAH DUNANT UMBERTO ECO DAVE EGGERS JAMES ELLROY JONATHAN EVISON CHRIS EWAN SALLY FIELD JAMIE FOXX NEIL GAIMAN AL GORE CLAUDIA GRAY JOHN GRISHAM TOM HANKS S. E. HINTON NICK HORNBY JOHN IRVING JEFF KINNEY TED KOOSER CAMILLA LACKBERG JOE LANSDALE ERIK LARSON STAN LEE WANGARI MAATHAI EMILY ST. JOHN MANDEL GEORGE R. R. MARTIN STEVE MARTIN CORMAC MCCARTHY DAVID MCCULLOUGH MARISSA MEYER LARRY NIVEN TEA OBREHT MICHAEL ONDAATJE TOMMY ORANGE CHRISTOPHER PAOLINI ROSA PARKS JAMES PATTERSON GARY PAULSEN SIDNEY POITIER RICHARD POWERS DAN RATHER JOSH RITTER MARILYN ROBINSON PATRICK ROTHFUSS RAINBOW ROWELL RICHARD RUSSO BRANDON SANDERSON JOHN SCALZI MARIA SEMPLE MARK SPRAGG KATHRYN STOCKETT MARK STRAND GRAHAM SWIFT MARGARET THATCHER COLM TOIBIN JEFF TWEEDY ANNE TYLER NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON BRADY UDALL JOHN UPDIKE ALICE WALKER COLSON WHITEHEAD JACQUELINE WINSPEAR BERNIE WRIGHTSON AND OTHERS . . .
BOOKS SIGNING WITH AUTHOR STEVE KOZAK THURSDAY DECEMBER 14TH 7:00 P.M. AT THE PRINTED GARDEN
Bea Arthur as the owner of the Mos Eisley Cantina. Long scenes entirely of Wookies bleating at each other, without subtitles. Harvey Korman, in drag, as a four-armed Space Julia Child. Six minutes of Jefferson Starship performing for Art Carney and a bored Imperial Guard. Mark Hamill, fresh from his near-fatal motorcycle accident, slathered in pancake makeup. A salacious holographic burlesque from Diahann Carroll.
Even by the standards of the 1970s, even compared to Jar-Jar Binks, the legendary 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special is a peerlessly cringeworthy pop-culture artifact. George Lucas, who completely disowned the production, reportedly has said, “If I had the time and a sledgehammer, I would track down every copy of that show and smash it.” Just how on earth did this thing ever see the light of day?
To answer that question, as Steven Kozak shows in this fascinating and often hilarious inside look into the making of the Special, you have to understand the cultural moment in which it appeared—a long, long time ago when cheesy variety shows were a staple of network television and Star Wars was not yet the billion-dollar multimedia behemoth that it is today. Kozak explains how the Special was one piece of a PR blitz undertaken by Lucas and his colleagues as they sought to protect the emerging franchise from hostile studio executives. He shows how, despite the involvement of some of the most talented people in the business, creative differences between movie and television writers led to a wildly uneven product. He gives entertaining accounts of the problems that plagued production, which included a ruinously expensive cantina set; the acrimonious departure of the director and Lucas himself; and a furious Grace Slick, just out of rehab, demanding to be included in the production. Packed with memorable anecdotes, drawing on extensive new interviews with countless people involved in the production, and told with mingled affection and bewilderment, this never-before-told story gives a fascinating look at a strange moment in pop-culture history that remains an object of fascination even today.
Please join us for what may be the most fun we have all year with author Steve Kozak, as he reads from, discusses, and signs copies of his new book, A Disturbance in the Force: How and Why the Star Wars Holiday Special Happened. This event is free and open to the public, and will begin shortly after 7 :00 p.m.
BOOKS SIGNING WITH AUTHOR STEVE CAPONE, JR. FRIDAY MARCH 8TH 7:00 P.M. AT THE PRINTED GARDEN
Max Fredericks can time travel. He doesn’t know exactly how it works—just that it does. When it happens again, Max finds himself on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain in 1965 East Berlin. Still queasy from the shock of travel, he witnesses an abduction. The victim is a girl Max later comes to know only as Elsa, and the perpetrators are the Stasi—”the sword and shield of the state” in communist East Germany. Armed with comprehensive knowledge of the Stasi only someone from the future could possess, and assuming the girl is a damsel in distress, Max decides he’s the hero of this story and sets out to rescue her. But what he doesn’t know can hurt him. The clock is ticking as Max works to outsmart the Stasi, dead-dropping and brush-passing, double-crossing and being double-crossed as he goes. Can Max infiltrate the Stasi HQ without getting himself locked up in a gulag or shot as a spy? Why was Elsa targeted? And how can Max get back across the Berlin Wall and home to the present?
Join us in welcoming author Steve Capone, Jr. to The Printed Garden to read from, answer questions about, and sign copies of his new middle-grade thriller set in Cold War East Germany, Max in the Capital of Spies. This event is free and open to the public, and will begin at 7:00 p.m.
WE STILL HAVE FELLOWSHIP OF UTAH INDIE BOOKSTORES MAPS AVAILABLE AT THE PRINTED GARDEN! THEY ARE AVAILABLE IN AN 8 1/2" x 11" VERSION FOR $4.99 AND IN AN 11" x 17" VERSION FOR $9.99, BOTH ON HEAVY STOCK.
HOLD ONTO YOUR MAP AND HAVE IT STAMPED AT EACH OF THE PARTICIPATING STORES OVER THE COMING YEAR! PRIZES WILL BE AWARDED ON INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORE DAY 2024!
IF YOU'RE LOOKING FOR AN ENTERTAINING WINTER READ, WE RECOMMEND MCU: THE REIGN OF MARVEL STUDIOS BY JOANNA ROBINSON, DAVE GONZALES, AND GAVIN EDWARDS
Marvel Entertainment was a moribund toymaker not even twenty years ago. Today, Marvel Studios is the dominant player both in Hollywood and in global pop culture. How did an upstart studio conquer the world? In MCU, beloved culture writers Joanna Robinson, Dave Gonzales, and Gavin Edwards draw on more than a hundred interviews with actors, producers, directors, and writers to present the definitive chronicle of Marvel Studios and its sole, ongoing production, the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
For all its outward success, the studio was forged by near-constant conflict, from the contentious hiring of Robert Downey Jr. for its 2008 debut, Iron Man, all the way up to the disappointment of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and shocking departures of multiple Marvel executives in 2023. Throughout, the authors demonstrate that the original genius of Marvel was its resurrection and modification of Hollywood’s old studio system. But will it survive its own spectacular achievements?
Dishy and authoritative, MCU is the first book to tell the Marvel Studios story in full—and an essential, effervescent account of American mass culture.
Even as we make our way into the busy holiday shopping season, we are, as a matter of survival, still operated by a single staff member. If you try calling during the hours above, but no one answers, we're simply working with someone who's in the store or on the other line. Please wait ten minutes and try again. We strive to give experienced and personal attention to everyone who visits us.
Thank you, so much, for your ongoing support and patience!