Join Portfolio Coffeehouse for a weekly series in December featuring local authors reading, answering questions and selling copies of their recently published works. The series will run from 7-8:30 pm on consecutive Mondays: December 5, 12 and 19th, 2011.

December 5
Jack Grisham: “An American Demon: A Memoir”
Depravity, redemption, terror, and spiritual deliverance abound in this physically and psychologically complex memoir from Jack Grisham, front man of the pioneer punk band True Sounds of Liberty (TSOL). Spanning the extremes between hard-core punk memoir and handbook for recovery and survival, this narrative documents a youth rebellion that changed the world and offered life lessons rooted in 1980s punk culture. At times unsettling and violent, this book is doused in aggression, rebellion, alcoholism, and drug abuse, culminating in tough lessons of sobriety and absolution. This captivating, dark, and ultimately redemptive life story will fascinate fans of punk and resonate with those who have suffered from addiction issues.

December 12
Carl Lipo: “The Statues That Walked: Unraveling the Mystery of Easter Island”
CSULB Archeology Professor Carl Lipo co-authored this non-fiction tome that’s shaking up the world of science and anthropology, shattering previous theories about the mysterious island and its people. “Statues” explains why the inhabitants of Easter Island built hundreds of eerie monumental stone sculptures and what caused the dramatic collapse of their society. Both Lipo and co-author Terry Hunt will be featured in a forthcoming National Geographic/NOVA Series airing on PBS in the spring of 2012.

December 19
Barbara Ardinger: “Secret Lives”
Secret Lives is a big novel about big issues—aging and death, the way our society treats its senior citizens, women’s friendships, the powers of love, the theory and practice of magic, the rebirth of the Goddess and Her ancient religion. It’s about the untidy mysteries of human life. Secret Lives is set in Long Beach's historical neighborhood of Rose Park in the late 1980s between 1989-90 and many of the incidents, places, and people are drawn from real life. Barbara Ardinger’s earlier books include Goddess Meditations, Finding New Goddesses (a parody of goddess encyclopedias), and Quicksilver Moon (a realistic novel… except for the vampire). Her day job is as a freelance editor with more than 250 books, both fiction and nonfiction, on a wide range of topics to her credit.