Closing an emotional chord with readers in San Jose, the bookstore in San Jose is closing

When I wrote in regards to the closing of a Barnes & Noble bookstore in San Jose, I didn't know the way many other people felt a way of loss. But I heard from several readers who were very sad to see the shop close its doors on January nineteenth.

“I cannot imagine how I will exist without my Almaden Barnes & Noble store,” wrote Barbara Carmichael. “Real book lovers know that you don't just order a title – you have to pick it up, turn it over, read a page or two, and then decide. I'm grieving a great loss here. “

Mary Stradner wrote a letter to the company expressing her disappointment at the loss of the only large, full-service bookstore in South San Jose. “It's sad to see another closing of a book deal, especially one in such an accessible location,” she said in an email to me. “I didn't get a very hopeful response about a new place.”

Margaret Hengel, who serves with me on the Silicon Valley-Reads Community Advisory Board, said the store is also one of her treasures. “I walked in yesterday and left with tears streaming down my face.”

Then the opposite shoe dropped when Books Inc. announced its bankruptcy bid just a few days later. (At least the “we're trying to survive” sort of bankruptcy despite the fact that the Berkeley store is closing.) Luckily, as Carol Zink jogged my memory, there are still books inc. -Locations in Campbell, Mountain View and Palo Alto.

And while I listed a few of the denizens of brick-and-mortar bookstores in bookstores that may still patronize, I didn't get all of them. Joyce Gross jogged my memory of a neighborhood treasure in Saratoga: Book go roundwhich has been around and selling books, records, CDs and DVDs since 1983. Even higher, the non-profit nonprofit store on Oak Street is the Saratoga Library (which is an excellent reminder of this one for favoritism too).

And bookstores aren’t all created equal, as Bruce Tritch identified. His Spacecat comic store shared a wall with the Barnes & Noble in Westgate Mall, until the massive store's corporate suits made it clear they didn't like having a “rival” as a neighbor. “Perhaps the lack of a giant corporate entity is good for small business bookstores in San Jose in the long run,” Tritch said.

We can all hope that that is true.

On the campaign trail: The race can be for San Jose's District 3's latest representative on the City Council, which covers downtown and areas around it. Seven candidates qualify for the April 8 election.

With just over two months to go, attending to know the candidates is more vital than ever, which is why three major San Jose organizations – the Chamber of Commerce, the San Jose Downtown Association and the Rotary Club of San Jose – have teamed up for a candidate forum on February twelfth hold off.

It is predicted The Fourth Street Parking Garage downtown. You can register to go to Participate below www.sjdowntown.com/d3.

Good deed department: Good Samaritan Hospital's success was a fantastic donation for West Valley Community Services, which received a $10,000 donation from the medical center to support its Park-It Market mobile food pantry. Patrick Rohan, CEO of Good Samaritan Hospital, said San Jose Hospital is honored to assist with Cupertino's mission to be certain that nobody in the neighborhood goes hungry.

The Good Sam Can Van, modeled on the Park-It Market for West Valley Community Services, won first place in an HCA sculpture competition featuring HCA Healthcare sculpture. Good Samaritan Hospital donated the $10,000 prize to West Valley Community Services to support the mobile food pantry. (Photo courtesy of Good Samaritan Hospital)
The Good Sam Can Van, modeled on the Park-It Market for West Valley Community Services, won first place in an HCA sculpture competition featuring HCA Healthcare sculpture. Good Samaritan Hospital donated the $10,000 prize to West Valley Community Services to support the mobile food pantry. (Photo courtesy of Good Samaritan Hospital)

How did this generosity come about? For the second yr within the series, Good Samaritan took first place in HCA Healthcare's annual sculpture competition, allowing them to donate $10,000 to a neighborhood nonprofit organization. Their winning entry, the Good Sam Can Van, was inspired by Park-It Market and created with greater than 1,500 cans of food, which may also be donated.

WVCS Executive Director Sujatha Venkatraman said the donation will make a giant difference for families facing food insecurity. “It helps us bring fresh, healthy food directly to those who need it most, removing barriers and strengthening our community,” she said.

Music to our ears: The Mission Chamber Orchestra will perform Feb. 2 on the Italian American Heritage Foundation Cultural Center on North Fourth Street in San Jose. And you possibly can bet this system “Sounds of the Motherland” can be more Italian than the Tower of Pisa. Composers include Gioachino Rossini, Alessandro Marchello and Jeremy Cavaterra – together with a reputation most of you’ll immediately hum, Vince Guaraldi.

Longtime IAHF member Ken Borelli notes that not only was Guaraldi an Italian American, but he also hailed from San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood and this yr marks the sixtieth anniversary of perhaps his best-known play, famously featured in “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” became . “” Unfortunately, the nice jazz pianist died far too young, suffering a fatal heart attack in 1976 on the age of 47 after playing a set at Butterfield's, a nightclub in Menlo Park.

Tickets for the three:30 PM concert can be found at www.missionchamber.org.

AUTHOR! AUTHOR!: Since we began with books, let's wind up with the women of the Meet the Author charity on February third. The featured author is Sam Carlino, the owner of Sam's Bar-B-Que on Bascom Avenue, who wrote about his grandfather's infamous history with organized crime in “Colorado's Carlino Brothers: A Bootlegging Empire.” I used to be lucky enough to listen to these stories from Sam just a few years ago when he was working on the book, and it's a tremendous, well-told story.

The 9:30 a.m. event can be held at St. Thomas of Canterbury Church, 1522 McCoy Ave. in San Jose. Tickets are $40 each (with proceeds going toward scholarships for middle school patrons attending Children of Sacred Heart and Our Lady of Grace schools). Go to www.ladiesofcharitySanjose.org More information.

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