About Amicus Books Literary Arts People

	Kara and James Davis, Amicus Books Directors Founded Amicus Books in 2005. Their vision for their own personal relationship led them to the idea of "sphere of influence," which says in essence: the best way to have a joyful world is to create a joyful self. We achieve a joyful self when we realize that other people (our family, our friends, our community members) enter our lives as teachers, reflecting for us our greatest strengths and weaknesses. From this, using the power of writing as a tool to integrate and foster community, James and Kara have developed the model of Amicus Books, Community Bookstore and Literary Arts Center.
	Desiree Tatarazuk, Gratitude Representative Sincere thankfulness is the current through which all great and wonderful things flow. That is why once a week, Desiree sends out gratitude cards to people who are committed to making the community a better place to live. In addition, once a month, she hand delivers flowers to a selected group of people, all of whom have made significant contributions to seeing Amicus Books and its programs flourish. Organizing gratitude evenings, thankfulness parties and making people aware of the power of their contributions is all in a days' work for Amicus' Gratitude Rep .
	Bill Crocker, Literary Lounge Administrator The Literary Lounge is a local authors' and writers' co-op, created by Amicus Books to encourage a healthy respect for the literary arts and the pursuit of self-expression through freedom of speech. Bill has made a commitment to foster ongoing involvement and support for our local authors and to create a successful environment for writers and future authors. His attention to the program has brought a positive new dynamic and involvement to the literary community.
	D.J. (Deborah) Nold, Literary Goddess Yes, Literary Goddess sounds like a pretentious title, but we are dealing with pure fact here. D.J. flashed onto the Literary Scene; became the first author to join the Literary Lounge, the first instructor to teach a WordShop and sponsor of the Green Chair WordColors project. Whatever the center (or James & Kara) have need of, she causes it to materialize. She makes sure we are Feng Shui (providing the best crystals available from Greenman Gifts), well fed and surrounded by beauty. Her continual commitment to Amicus can turn even the staunchest skeptic into a bookwaving Amicus Fan.

• What's a literary arts center?
• Who can participate?
• What kind of books do you have?
• Do you buy or trade books?
• Can I carry my drink around inside the store?
• Do you do special orders?
• Is there some way to tell if you had a book in stock?
• Are the books on the shelf arranged in any order?
• What does Amicus mean?
• How did you get started?
• Are you a non-profit?
• Do you give discounts to educators?

What's a literary arts center?
Generally, a literary arts center encompasses and promotes the world of language in all its uses and forms, both artistic and purely functional. It is a resource that provides opportunities to better our writing skills, initiates and sustains a community network of writers and literary promoters, recognizes and supports every level of writing from the resume' to the epic poem, and makes available, in the form of a bookstore, the supporting words of the world's many writers.

The most powerful mastery we can achieve is our ability to communicate our experiences and connect the events of human activity. In this act of self-discovery we deliver ourselves from mis-truth and blind assumption, moving with greater freedom through the realms of human affairs. A literary arts center recognizes that writing and reading has the power to transform our individual levels of awareness, our self-respect, and therefore moves our entire community forward.
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Who can participate?
There are many ways to participate in the literary arts center. Merely through buying a book you are helping our programs move in a positive direction. More to the question however, Amicus is focused firstly on those who live in the Yuba Sutter Area (Marysville, Yuba City, and surrounding communities) and who have an interest in writing at some level. Whether you are an author, an aspiring author, a poet, a journaler, a journalist, a genealogist, or simply curious and have always wanted to write something, anything, for any reason, we can help each other build a strong literary community.
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What kind of books do you have?
Like many of you, we appreciate books that reveal to us our world, that teach us about our past and inspire us toward a better future. For this reason, we pride ourselves on having a diverse selection of used and out-of-print books, focusing on non-fiction, classics and contemporary literature. Please see our store map for a complete list of subjects and subject locations.
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Do you buy or trade books?
As a community Literary Arts Center, Amicus Books relies on the generous support of people who want to see the Literary Arts flourish in our area. The Literary Arts Center and the ongoing projects are funded through book donations, and the sales of the donated books. In addition to applying the funds to the literary arts, we also "pay them forward" to some of our community's most outstanding services such as: Middle Mountain Foundation, YS Arts Council, Friday Night Live, Dobbins Oregon House Fire Auxiliary. For more information on our donations program please visit the Book Donations Program.
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Can I carry my drink around inside the store?
Unfortunately no; as many of our books are out-of-print and difficult if not impossible to insure, we ask that your drinks be left at the front desk or discarded in the street trash receptacle. However, knowing the comfort of a good book and a hot cup of coffee, Amicus Books provides coffee and tea (complementary to our customers and writers), to be consumed ONLY in the very back Literary Lounge.
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Is there some way to tell if you had a book in stock?
To the delight of our very busy community, all our books are catalogued on a database system, quickly accessible and easily found in the store.
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Do you do special orders?
Yes. We pride ourselves on being able to find even the scarcest of books. All book orders may be placed in-store or over the phone using a major credit card. A minimum 50% deposit is required at the time of ordering, however, if the book received is not as you expected, a full refund will be issued. You will never get stuck with something you don't want or are not happy with.
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Are the books on the shelf arranged in any order?
The bookstore is arranged much like a library, in that every book has an exact place so it can be found easily. We request that all removed books be returned NOT to the place it was found (Mom, we know this is killing you) but to the bottom shelves marked "PLEASE RETURN HERE." Customers who follow our request help us circulate through our books and will be rewarded an automatic 5% discount on all used book purchases. To answer the question, however, our books are arranged in various ways, depending on the subject, and in most cases by author's last name.
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What does Amicus mean?
What we wanted in a name is something that could both describe what we valued about life, and what we valued about books and writing. The name Amicus is a latin word, from which our english words "amicable" and "amiable" are derived. Also very similar in origin is the extremely popular spanish word, "amigos." In short, Amicus represents our goal of offering the spirit of friendship and interaction through reading and writing, through our attitudes and actions toward the Yuba City, Marysville community.
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How did you get started?
The impetus of the Literary Arts Center came from our own understanding of human community - that writing as well as reading offers people a greater chance of success in the world. Credit must be given to David Glines and Sean Hamby, who in 2005 reaffirmed our ambitions. With their participation and enthusiasm, we founded the first Amicus literary program, Poetry From The Green Chair. From this group came an immensely valuable publication, a community poetry anthology aptly titled, WordColors.
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Are you a non-profit?
No. The best description of Amicus, although unconventional, is 'private community center, open to the public.' The bookstore is the fund-raising arm of the Literary Arts Center and all the programs provided. Although community orientated, artistically and culturally related undertakings usually fall under the auspices of 'non-profit status', we allow people to wrestle with the idea that capitalists can also nurture a community in a powerful way. Our 'selfishness' comes with the understanding that the truly wealthy surround themselves with brilliant people - what a better business then, but to provide one's entire community with opportunities to exercise their brilliance.
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Do you give discounts to educators?
Yes. We want to thank our educators emphatically for their contributions to our community. We applaud their willingness to champion the joy of learning and knowledge in our young people. We respect the time and energy they've invested into our community's developmentally and physically disabled. We honor the skills and trades that they've passed on to our workers and craftswomen. For those of you whom continue to encourage our community, challenge our minds, and help us achieve our ambitions, we would like to show our humble appreciation: we welcome our community's educators to 15% off every used book purchase, with the exception of special orders.
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