Friends,
San Francisco (1955 Cinemascope film) [Free Download]
Keith Olbermann Special Comment On Gabrielle Giffords ShootingVIDEO: In Performance at the White House: Red, White and Blues
Below are some great events coming up at the Book Smith at 1644 Haight St. between Clayton & Cole (863-8688)
Thursday, March 1
7:30 PM
DAVID WOLMAN
THE END OF MONEY:
Counterfeiters, Preachers, Techies, Dreamers -- and the Coming Cashless Society
In today’s tough economic climate many of us have money on our mind. But in our efforts to put away a nest egg or at least earn a living, rarely do we take the time to think about how money actually works. We put our faith in the system, trusting the currency of the land—and especially our cash in hand—to retain value now and forever. Is our trust misplaced? Does this commitment to cash in particular make sense in the 21st century? Might there be a better way to transact—even more convenient than checks, credit cards, and PayPal? What if someone told you those better ways could also save lives and help countries pay their debts?
In The End of Money, David Wolman dares to take a critical look at cash, considering its liabilities and what our world would be like without those trillions of little numbered bits of paper and tiny metal disks. He starts by giving us a crash course in the rise and fall of physical money, beginning with Marco Polo’s fascination with the paper notes he saw circulating in China, then zooming through the ages to the end of the gold standard and the ascent of national currencies. Next, we follow him around the globe as he pieces together a cross-cultural picture of cash today. He takes us to Iceland, where he examines the connection between cash, cultural heritage, and emotional value; to India, where he explores a growing trend people in developing countries seem to be embracing faster than people in wealthy ones: using cell phones as replacements for both bank branches and cash; and to Tokyo, where he delves into the parallel worlds of counterfeiting and anti-counterfeiting technology.
With input from characters such as a Georgia pastor who sees the end of cash as the start of Armageddon, a convicted counterfeiter whom the Feds have labeled a “domestic terrorist,” a coin collector who seems to loathe his merchandise, and a British technologist who views cash as a “menace,” Wolman weaves a well-rounded analysis of tactile money and our relationship to it. He even explores the topic from health, environmental, and psychological angles, looking at cash as a host for bacteria, a contributor to everyone’s carbon footprint, and an elixir that makes people more confident and happy. Wolman’s journey ends with a glimpse of a future in which he (and others) see a rainbow of currencies—national, virtual, and alternative—being exchanged, and a reflection on his own (mostly successful) attempt to go a full year without using coins or bills.
David Wolman is a contributing editor at Wired. He has written for such publications as Outside, Mother Jones, Newsweek, Discover, Forbes, and Salon, and his work appeared in Best American Science Writing 2009. A former Fulbright journalism fellow in Japan and a graduate of Stanford University’s journalism program, he now lives in Portland, Oregon, where he received a 2011 Oregon Arts Commission Individual Artist Fellowship. His previous books are A Left-Hand Turn Around the World and Righting the Mother Tongue.
Friday, March 2
6:30 - 9:30 PM
BOOKSMITH BOOKSWAP: MURDER MYSTERY EDITION!
Calling all crime buffs: March means murder at the Booksmith.
Bring a Thriller - Eat Great Food
Drink Unlimited Wine - Leave With Swag
Meet Local Authors - Make New Friends
Parlor Games - Noir - Prizes
We invite you to come get a clue and a drink at our first-ever Murder Mystery Bookswap! Bring your favorite page-turner, and get ready to mingle with other voracious crime enthusiasts. And our special guests, Michelle Gagnon, the author of Kidnap & Ransom, and other super mysteries/thrillers, and Cara Black, creator of the Aimee Leduc Parisian mysteries!
Trenchcoat not required.
Now in its third year, Bookswap is the most fun you'll ever have in a Bookstore. Quoth the believers:
The Examiner: "The Bookswap embodies the spirit both of innovation and community and is proof that there is a strong desire for "and much to be learned from" independent bookstores in the 21st century."
Author Holly Payne: Bookswap is "The most unique book event I’ve ever participated in."
Litquake: "...rowdy and always entertaining. Think cocktail party, with a bookish twist."
Conversational Reading calls Bookswap, "An idea every Independent Bookstore should steal."
Tickets $25 in the store, or at Brown Paper Tickets (800-838-3006)
Monday, March 5
7:30 PM
JOSHUA FOER
MOONWALKING WITH EINSTEIN:
The Art and Science of Remembering Everything
In Moonwalking with Einstein, now available in paperback, Joshua Foer. explores – with humor and irresistible curiosity -- the fascinating ways in which our brains are wired to remember, or forget, the vast array of information and experiences that make up life. “Captivating” (The New York Times) and “entertaining” (Wall Street Journal), Foer’s work charts an amazing journey of the mind while revolutionizing our concept of memory.
Moonwalking with Einstein draws on cutting-edge research, a surprising cultural history of memory, and venerable tricks of the mentalist’s trade to transform our understanding of human remembering. Under the tutelage of top “mental athletes,” Foer immerses himself obsessively in the fascinating subculture of competitive memorizers and learns to apply techniques that call on imagination as much as determination. Using methods that have been largely forgotten, he discovers that we can all dramatically improve our memories.
Foer also takes his inquiry well beyond the arena of competitive memorization—across the country and deep into his own mind. In San Diego, he meets an affable old man with one of the most severe cases of amnesia on record, where he learns that memory is at once more elusive and more reliable than we might think. In Salt Lake City, he swaps secrets with a savant who claims to have memorized more than nine thousand books. At a high school in the South Bronx, he finds a history teacher using twenty-five-hundred-year old memory techniques to give his students an edge in the state Regents exam.
This vastly intriguing book tells the unlikely story of how Foer eventually became the United States Memory Champion, but it also marks the debut of an abundantly talented storyteller; it is an electrifying work of journalism that reminds us that, in every way that matters, we are the sum of our memories.
Joshua Foer was born in Washington, DC in 1982 and lives in New Haven, CT with his wife Dinah. His writing has appeared in National Geographic, Esquire, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Slate, and other publications. He is the co-founder of the Atlas Obscura, an online guide to the world’s wonders and curiosities, and the co-founder of the architectural design competition, Sukkah City.
Tuesday, March 6
7:30 PM
TERRY BISSON
ANY DAY NOW
“An unsettling, funny, freaky reimagining of America, impeccably written, by one of our most consistently interesting transgressors of literary boundaries” —Michael Chabon
From award-winning author Terry Bisson, hailed by Publishers Weekly as "a wonder of seemingly effortless control and precision," comes a new novel, Any Day Now -- a literary tour de force, transcending the fundamental coming of age story to become a social commentary on the history and politics of a post Vietnam War society.
Growing up in the 1950s, a small town boy from Middle America makes his way to New York City amid the radicalized culture of the 1960s where he is torn between the antiwar movement and the hippie counterculture. When tragedy strikes, he flees to a utopian commune in the Southwest as a disputed presidential election brings the U.S. to the brink of a second world war.
Any Day Now is a reimaging of America, an alternate history to the unfolding of our society and culture, as we know it today. Testing the boundaries of fact and fiction in literature, Terry Bisson describes his debut literary novel as "not exactly science fiction, but not exactly not." The resulting story has been called “the masterpiece” by Jonathan Lethem.
Traveling from Kentucky to New York City to the Southwest, Bisson brings this road movie of a novel to life with an original, captivating voice and vivid prose, providing a transcendent commentary on America’s civil liberties and on the perils of growing up—then and now.
"In this version of the Sixties we don't know what's going to happen next. Little changes quickly add up to big surprises, which is exactly how it felt at the time, and so by paradox Bisson makes that most dramatic era pop to life in a most startling way. This is the great novel of the Sixties."
--Kim Stanley Robinson, author of Red Mars
Terry Bisson is an award-winning writer and the author of seven novels. His short fiction has appeared in Playboy and Harper’s, among other magazines. He previously worked as an auto mechanic and as a magazine and book editor.
Bisson lives in Oakland.
Wednesday, March 7
7:30 PM
MATT RUFF
THE MIRAGE
11/9/2001: Christian fundamentalists hijack four jetliners. They fly two into the Tigris & Euphrates World Trade Towers in Baghdad, and a third into the Arab Defense Ministry in Riyadh. The fourth plane, believed to be bound for Mecca, is brought down by its passengers.
The United Arab States declares a War on Terror. Arabian and Persian troops invade the Eastern Seaboard and establish a Green Zone in Washington, D.C.
Summer, 2009: Arab Homeland Security agent Mustafa al Baghdadi interrogates a captured suicide bomber. The prisoner claims that the world they are living in is a mirage—in the real world, America is a superpower, and the Arab states are just a collection of "backward third-world countries." A search of the bomber's apartment turns up a copy of The New York Times, dated September 12, 2001, that appears to support his claim. Other captured terrorists have been telling the same story. The president wants answers, but Mustafa soon discovers he's not the only interested party.
The gangster Saddam Hussein is conducting his own investigation. And the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee—a war hero named Osama bin Laden—will stop at nothing to hide the truth. As Mustafa and his colleagues venture deeper into the unsettling world of terrorism, politics, and espionage, they are confronted with questions without any rational answers, and the terrifying possibility that their world is not what it seems.
Acclaimed novelist Matt Ruff has created a shadow world that is eerily recognizable but, at the same time, almost unimaginable. Gripping, subversive, and unexpectedly moving, The Mirage probes our deepest convictions and most arresting fears. It’s the most original 9/11 tale that we have yet seen, a unique and mesmerizing literary entertainment.
Booklist writes, “Cult favorite Ruff's past novels… are all wildly, thrillingly different, but they do share one recurring characteristic: they are total brain-twisters but in a good way…Like Robert Ferrigno in his Assassin trilogy, Ruff enthusiastically upends world history, offering provocative commentary while grounding his story with a highly appealing Muslim cast.”
Matt Ruff is the author of the award-winning novels Bad Monkeys and Set This House in Order, as well as the cult classics Fool on the Hill and Sewer, Gas & Electric: The Public Works Trilogy. He is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. He lives in Seattle with his wife, Lisa Gold.
Thursday, March 8
7:30 PM
LARRY SMITH and Co.
THE MOMENT:
Wild, Poignant, Life-Changing Stories
from 125 Writers and Artists Famous & Obscure
SMITH Magazine celebrates the release of The Moment with its first book reading. You'll hear some talented authors share their MOMENTS with us -- and anyone from the audience is invited to share a "first line" from a Moment in his or her life.
Many of us think our lives follow a fated path, or one that comes from a route we engaged and strive to follow. But in fact so much of our existence—where we find ourselves in life, love, work, and at home, and where we might end up later—results from a single moment or decision that was made on a whim, even randomly. The stories in The Moment take all shapes and sizes— from written narratives ranging from six to a thousand words, to photographs, comics, illustrations, handwritten letters, tweets, and more.
Read more
The amazing cast of readers:
CAROLINE PAUL is a journalist and author of Fighting Fire, a memoir of her time as a San Francisco firefighter, and East Wind, Rain, about the villagers of an isolated Hawaiian island whose lives are forever changed when a plane crash-lands nearby.
AARON HUEY is a contributing editor (photographer) for Harper’s Magazine and a photojournalist who freelances regularly for National Geographic, Harper’s, the New Yorker, Smithsonian Magazine, and the New York Times.
STEVE SILBERMAN is a science writer for Wired and other national magazines.
MATTHEW ZAPRUDER is an editor for Wave Books and teaches as a member of the core faculty of UCR-Palm Desert’s Low Residency MFA in Creative Writing. His most recent book is Come On All You Ghosts.
KIRK CITRON is the founder of the digital advertising agency AKQA. He edits The Long News, and lives in San Francisco and New York City.
MO CLANCY was once a trend forecaster for Fortune 500 fashion and consumer brands. He now focuses on modern artifacts and Mayan culture.
ELLEN SUSSMAN is the author of the novels French Lessons and On a Night Like This. She is the editor of two anthologies, Bad Girls: 26 Writers Misbehave and Dirty Words: A Literary Encyclopedia of Sex.
MICHAEL CASTLEMAN is the author of twelve consumer health guides, among them Building Bone Vitality and The New Healing Herbs, and three mystery novels, most recently, A Killing in Real Estate.
JULIA HALPRIN JACKSON has written fiction, nonfiction, and poetry that has appeared in anthologies from Flatmancrooked and the American Diabetes Association, as well as the literary magazines .Fourteen Hills, Spectrum and Catalyst.
CHRISTINE MACDONALD is a writer and dancer based in her hometown of Waikiki, Hawaii. She is currently working on a memoir about her life as an exotic dancer.
Larry Smith is also the editor of numerous Six Word Memoir books, and the originator of the Six Word Memoir game.
Friday, March 9
8:00 PM
LITERARY CLOWN FOOLERY
An Evening of Cabaret and Satire
Details TK
THRILLER NIGHT!
Monday, March 12
7:30 PM
KIRA PEIKOFF
LIVING PROOF
In 2027, destroying any viable embryo is considered first-degree murder. Fertility clinics still exist, giving hope and new life to thousands of infertile families, but they have to pass rigorous inspections by the U.S. Department of Embryo Preservation. Fail an inspection, and you will be prosecuted.
Brilliant young doctor Arianna Drake is thriving in the spotlight. Her clinic surpasses every DEP requirement and its growing reputation attracts more clients every day. But when the DEP chief discovers Arianna’s radical past as a supporter of an infamous scientist, he sends undercover agent Trent Rowe to investigate her for possible illegal activity.
As the agent gleans clues about Arianna’s enigmatic operation, his own faith in the mission unravels. Split between the traditions he knows and the truth he fears, his life implodes just as he gains power over Arianna’s chances for survival. But with the clock ticking, neither realizes just how deep their closest colleagues are invested in the outcome, and how desperate they might become. Nothing less than human life—and profound scientific progress—hang in the balance.
A thought-provoking thriller, Living Proof is a celebration of love and life that cuts to the core of a major cultural debate of our time.
“Makes you think, makes you sweat, leaves you happy – everything a good book should.” -- Lee Child
"A tremendous debut, Living Proof is smart, savvy, and suspenseful. Kira Peikoff is a writer to watch." -- Alafair Burke
Kira Peikoff has written for The Daily News, Newsday, The Orange County Register, and New York magazine. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from NYU and has worked in the editorial departments of Random House and Henry Holt. She lives in New York City, where she teaches creative writing and is working on her second thriller.
Tuesday, March 13
7:30 PM
ERICKA LUTZ
THE EDGE OF MAYBE
What makes a family a family? What do we owe the people in our lives?
Adam and Kira Glazer live a quirky, Northern California liberal lifestyle, entering middle age with politically correct values, an obsession with gourmet organic food, and no idea what has happened to their punk rock, adventurous youth. When Amber—a young ex-con from Nevada who might be Adam's daughter—lands on their doorstep bringing with her a disabled child, Adam and Kira are forced to confront their disappointments—in each other and in themselves. Adam, Kira, and their 13-year-old daughter Polly take on freeways and yoga classes, explore truths and secrets, and ultimately go for broke in The Edge of Maybe, a novel of possibilities.
Award-winning author Ericka Lutz takes readers on a wild road trip, with a novel that is tender, witty, and entertaining and characters who are visceral, sexy, and real.
“An unflinching exploration of 21st century family life, California style—at once funny, complicated, earnest, and passionate, with an ending I cheered. The characters are full of surprises, and Amber is a gem.” -- Alix Kates Shulman, author of To Love What Is and Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen
“Ericka Lutz is a brave, honest, deeply observant writer. She deftly celebrates and lampoons Bay area culture as she exposes the dark side of a family which, on the surface, seems ideal. The Edge of Maybe is a timely, compulsive read.”
—Gayle Brandeis, author of Delta Girls and My Life with the Lincolns
Ericka Lutz is the author of seven previous books, including The Complete Idiot's Guide to Stepparenting. Her stories and essays have appeared in many literary magazines, journals, and anthologies. A long time columnist for Literary Mama magazine, she teaches writing and public speaking at the UC Berkeley, and performs her solo show A Widow's To-Do List around the Bay Area. She lives in Oakland, the city from which she draws much of her inspiration. The Edge of Maybe is her first novel.
Wednesday, March 14
7:30 PM
CHRISTINE PELOSI
Campaign Boot Camp 2.0
Basic Training for Candidates, Staffers, Volunteers, and Nonprofits
A Seven-Step Guide to Winning
“My political activism began in the stroller,” writes Christine Pelosi. As the daughter of Congresswoman and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Christine is almost literally a born campaigner. She knows politics and policy inside out: she’s served as an attorney in the Clinton-Gore administration, as a Congressional chief of staff on Capitol Hill, and as a San Francisco prosecutor. She has conducted “boot camps” in over thirty states and in three countries, working with dozens of successful candidates for office from city council to US congress. In Campaign Boot Camp 2.0, Pelosi presents leadership lessons from the campaign trail from a diverse array of over forty public figures, lending advice for anyone who wants to run for office, advocate for a cause, or win a public policy issue.
Campaign Boot Camp 2.0 is basic training for future leaders who hear a call to service—a voice of conscience that springs from vision, ideas, and values—and want to translate that call into positive change. Pelosi offers the seven essential steps to winning: identify your call to service, define your message, know your community, build your leadership teams, raise the money, connect with people, and mobilize to win..
In this edition, Pelosi updates the book’s “Call to Service” examples—profiles of current political leaders and what motivated them to enter public service; details the expanding role of social media, the Internet, and technology as message multipliers; explores challenges unique to women candidates; and expands on the power of volunteers.
“A passionate call to public service—and a practical guide for making that service more productive. Christine Pelosi is a sharp and knowledgeable drill sergeant looking to whip our democratic process back into shape.”
-- Arianna Huffington
Christine Pelosi currently serves as chair of the California Democratic Party Women’s Caucus, a vice chair of the Veterans and Military Families Council of the Democratic National Committee, and a board member of Young Democrats of America. She has been a US Department of Housing and Urban Development special counsel, chief of staff to US Congressman John F. Tierney, and assistant district attorney for the City of San Francisco.
SPECIAL BOOKSWAP EDITION!
Thursday, March 15
4:00 – 6:00 PM
AFTER SCHOOL BOOKSWAP FOR KIDS & THEIR PARENTS!
Bookswap is branching out!
Sondra Hall of Take My Word For It joins us for this junior version of our popular after-dark Bookswap for budding literati and the parents who've nurtured their book habit.
REQUIREMENTS:
Be a kid, aged 8-12.
Be a parent of a kid aged 8-12.
Bring a book. You too, parents.
Eat some delicious snacks.
Swap your book.
Make new friends, together!In addition to the swap, Sondra will lead a writing activity for kids and parents to do together!
It's good to share.
$15 Parent & Kid pair
$5 per additional kid (or parent)
Includes food and beverages, and a special discount coupon.
This event is intended to be for kids with their parents - parents must be in attendance
Tickets in the store or at Brown Paper Tickets online or 800-838-3006
Friends Don’t Let Friends Write Novels Alone!
Thursday, March 15
7:30 PM
MEREDITH MARAN
In celebration of her first novel
A THEORY OF SMALL EARTHQUAKES
talks about writing, as only friends can, with MICHELLE RICHMOND
In her ten previous nonfiction books, Meredith Maran has trained her journalistic eye on the subtle dance between the political and the personal. Now Maran brings her provocative gaze to her debut novel -- a very Berkeley family story spanning two decades, set against the social, political, and geological upheavals of the Bay Area.
Eager to escape her damaging past and chart her own future, Alison Rose is powerfully drawn to Zoe, a free-spirited artist who offers emotional stability
and a love outside the norm. After many happy years together, the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake deepens fissures in the two women’s relationship, and Alison leaves Zoe for a new, “normal” life with a man. Alison’s son is the outcome of both of these complicated relationships, and the three parents strive to create a life together that will test the boundaries of love and family in changing times.“A smart, sexy, funny, wrenching, delicious story of lust and trust and love and family." -- Anne Lamott
“A Theory Of Small Earthquakes teaches us something new about love and sex, jealousy and loyalty, and also, and perhaps most importantly, motherhood. Meredith Maran’s first novel is a powerful debut that left me waiting impatiently for her second.” -- Ayelet Waldman
"Funny, lively, political, personal, nostalgic, touching, A Theory of Small Earthquakes deftly chronicles love and its various meanings. I enjoyed it greatly." -- Meg Wolitzer,
“In this groundbreaking novel, Meredith Maran has told a story few writers, if any, have explored: of a woman drawn to two lovers and two distinct worlds, and of the unlikely family she creates, with two extraordinarily different partners, each of whom speaks to a different aspect of her desire. With rare honesty and courage, Maran asks us to consider whether sexuality can be defined by preference for one gender or the other, or if it is shifting and sometimes stormy as the tides.”
-- Joyce Maynard
Joining Meredith in conversation this evening is Michelle Richmond, friend, and the author of the award-winning story collection The Girl in the Fall-Away Dress, the novels Dream of the Blue Room and No One You Know, and the international sensation The Year of Fog. Richard was a James Michener Fellow at the University of Miami, has taught in the MFA programs in Creative Writing at USF, California College of the Arts, St. Mary’s College, and Bowling Green State University. She serves on the executive council of The Authors Guild and holds the Sister Catharine Julie Cunningham Chair at Notre Dame de Namur University.
Monday, March 19
7:30 PM
DICK EVANS and BEN FONG-TORRES
SAN FRANCISCO AND THE BAY AREA: THE HAIGHT-ASHBURY EDITION
It’s high time to celebrate the arrival of a gorgeous new photographic contemporary look of our neighborhood and its place in the Bay Area.
There’s no lack of historical books about the Haight-Ashbury, but this is the first to portray the modern Haight…with its rich mix of 60s tie-dyes, 80s Deadheads and 00s murals recalling the past…a neighborhood with history and culture intertwined with the City and with the greater Bay Area that surrounds it.
Dick Evans worked with his long-time photo editor, Yasemin Kant, with the resulting 200+ photographs marvelous in full color. Ben Fong-Torres added a Foreword and section introductions. And local guide and historian Stannous Flouride provided background research. It’s a terrific mix that culminates in a book you’ll want to give to friends and family far away.
Join us to cheer all the hard work and to celebrate the ‘hood!
Dick Evans was born and raised on a cattle ranch in Oregon, and could easily have stayed home and become a cowboy. Instead, he studied engineering and evolved into a globe-trotting CEO. Along the way, he’s lived in North America, Africa, and Europe; travelled in China, Japan, Brazil, Australia, Iceland, and India; and, while fly fishing on a stream in northern Quebec, he rediscovered his passion for photography.
LAUNCH PARTY!
Tuesday, March 20
7:30 PM
JENNIFER duBOIS
A PARTIAL HISTORY OF LOST CAUSES
“Hilarious and heartbreaking and a triumph of the imagination. Jennifer duBois is too young to be this talented. I wish I were her.” -- Gary Shteyngart
In Cambridge, Massachusetts, thirty-year-old English lecturer Irina Ellison has witnessed her father -- a brilliant, multi-lingual professor of music -- succumb to Huntington’s. After a genetic test reveals that not only is she likely to get the cruel brain-atrophying disease, but that it will arrive within two years, Irina finds herself seeking the most appropriate way to make her exit and wondering if she has actually made any mark on the world. After her father’s funeral, Irina finds a copy of an unanswered letter he wrote to Soviet chess prodigy Aleksandr Bezetov asking the profound question: How does one proceed in a lost cause? She believes her father—already aware he was entering his final declension—reached out to Bezetov because the young hero, like himself, was “a person who knew the value of his own intelligence, and the shortness of its reign.” Looking for a graceful departure from her Cambridge life and a last adventure, Irina travels to Russia to find both Bezetov and the answer to her father’s question.
In St. Petersburg, Russia, former world chess champion Bezetov is haunted by memories of a woman he loved in his youth who married a Party official and a close friend who was murdered by the KGB. Weighed down with guilt for his lack of action in those moments, Bezetov launches a dissident political movement. He decides to run for president against Vladimir Putin—a campaign he knows he will not win and that may get him killed—but his conviction to make the current regime uncomfortable drives him.
"By what exquisite strategy did duBois settle on this championship permutation of literary moves? Her debut is a chess mystery with political, historical, philosophical and emotional heft, a paean to the game and the humans who play it. DuBois probes questions of identity, death, art and love with a piercing intelligence and a questing heart." -- Heidi Julavits
Spanning two continents and the dramatic sweep of history, Jennifer duBois has crafted a beautiful novel about many things: the power of memory, the stubbornness and splendor of the human will, the endurance of love, but above all, how one proceeds in a lost cause. The result is clearly going to be one of the most notable debuts of 2012.
"An amazing achievement—a braiding of historical, political, and personal, each strand illuminating the other. Wonderful characters, glimpses of elusive wisdom, and a gripping story that accelerates to just the right ending." -- Arthur Phillips
Jennifer duBois was born in Northampton, Massachusetts in 1983. She earned a B.A. in political science and philosophy from Tufts University and an M.F.A. in fiction from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where she was a Teaching-Writing Fellow. She recently completed her Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University, where she now teaches. Jennifer's short fiction has appeared in Playboy, The Missouri Review, The Kenyon Review, The Northwest Review, The South Carolina Review and The Florida Review.
Wednesday, March 21
7:30 PM
THOMAS CHRISTENSEN
1616: The World in Motion
For some, 1616 stands out as the year Shakespeare and Cervantes died. And, while it did mark the end of an era of literature, it also marked the beginnings of a new, globalized world in which America was for the first time directly connected to Europe, Africa, and Asia. 1616: The World in Motion reveals the surprising degree of movement that took place, and the remarkable interconnectivity of distant places and cultures during this time. These connections were responsible for altering the course of humanity in ways that affect us to this day.
In his newest book, Thomas Christensen presents riveting stories and stunning color images that define what sets this year apart from the rest. From witch-hunts, astronomy, and alchemy, to the global trade of silk, silver, and slaves, Christensen presents a panoramic and colorful glimpse into a year that changed our world forever.
“A brimmingly generous intellectual feast, lavishly curated by Mr. Christensen—on every page a fresh marvel—the catalog, as it were, of a show just asking to be mounted, and the Show of the Year at that.” -- Lawrence Weschler, Pulitzer Prize Finalist for Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder
Thomas Christensen’s previous books include New World/New Words: Recent Writing from the Americas, and the best-selling translation (with Carol Christensen) of Laura Esquivel’s Like Water for Chocolate. He is Director of Creative Services at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco.
Before Downton Abbey, There was Poldark!
Thursday, March 22
7:30 PM
ROBIN ELLIS
DELICIOUS DISHES FOR DIABETICS
Downton Abbey is what millions of us have avidly, passionately watched recently. Another classic British series that captivated us thirty-five years ago was the spellbinding Poldark. Its star Robin Ellis is known worldwide for his role as Captain Ross Poldark. Theatre and film haven’t been his only passions: his life-long passion for cooking has undergone some fabulous changes since his diagnosis of Type-2 diabetes.
Robin explains the strategic changes he has had to make in what he eats and how he prepares food – the result is a food-lover’s guide to eating well with diabetes. His cookbook, based on Mediterranean cuisine, offers superb recipes for satisfying dishes like Lamb Tagine, Roast Quail in Balsamic Vinaigrette, Red Peppers Stuffed with Tomato and Goat Cheese, and Chick Peas with Tomato Sauce and Spinach.
Not only does Delicious Dishes show us how to eat well, Robin also suggests how to improve your day-to-day health. With simple daily walks and a revamped eating style, he’s managed his condition without medication for over six years – and he says he if can do it, so can you!
Robin Ellis is a British actor best known for playing the swashbuckling lead in the BBC series Poldark, based on the novels of Winston Graham. (It was voted by Masterpiece Theatre fans as one of the top 10 costume dramas of all time!) He has appeared in many other classic TV series and had a long career in British theatre, including a stint with the Royal Shakespeare Company. His most recent role was in the original Swedish version of the detective series Wallander. He also starred in the Merchant Ivory film The Europeans and can been seen in Fawlty Towers, The Good Soldier (based on the Ford Madox Ford novel) and Elizabeth R.
He now lives in Southwestern France with his American wife (a Stanford grad!) and a menagerie of animals.
Monday, March 26
7:00 PM
Christin & Praveen invite you to join them in a special Booksmith celebration and community dialogue
The debate rages on. Is there a future for brick & mortar bookstores in the digital age?
It’s not a new debate, but the latest salvos were fired by Salon writer Farhad Manjoo who wrote the obituary of bookstores the same week Amazon offered an incentive for people to walk into stores and use a price checking app to compare prices and then shop online. Bookstore lovers fired back. Richard Russo wrote an op-ed in The New York Times denouncing Amazon’s moves and Ann Patchett matched Stephen Colbert wit for wit on why she started a bookstore.
It’s a debate we have lived & breathed every day of the last five years when we quit our corporate jobs, followed our instincts, and assumed the reins at The Booksmith as the new owners. We have a lot to celebrate and we invite you to join us for the celebration. We have a lot to discuss and we invite you for a community dialogue.
Please join us to celebrate 35 years of Booksmith, 5 years of new ownership, success, growth, survival, spirit of innovation and forward thinking. Please join us to celebrate our feisty booksellers, our supportive customers, our local writer friends, and our publishing partners. Please join us to celebrate the completion of talented Sean Chiki’s artwork around the store that has helped make your bookstore the “Best Reimagined Bookstore” in San Francisco.
We will share specifics of how things are going behind the scenes at your bookstore. What are our plans for a future likely to be dominated by instantly downloadable e-books and free e-readers? What role do we see for Booksmith in this future? What opportunities and challenges do we face? We would love for you to join us and tell us what you think. How’s the new Booksmith working for you? What are we doing well? Where would you like to see us improve? We have a lot to talk about.
And we’ll have very good things to eat and drink.
-- Christin and Praveen
Monday, April 2
7:30 PM
Passionate for Poetry!
You Share, We Share Favorite Poems
in celebration of National Poetry Month
You've got a favorite poem -- we know you do! This evening is dedicated to sharing one poem -- the one with the most significance for you, the one that blows you away every time.Bring a poem of your choice -- by someone else, not you, no longer than one page.
Be prepared to tell why you chose it, in two to three sentences.
Everyone wishing to share poems this evening will be given a number on arrival; numbers will be randomly drawn and we'll strive to have all who want to speak do so within a 90-minute span.
Guest host Pireeni Sundarlingam has held national fellowships both in cognitive science and in poetry. She is co-editor of Indivisible: An Anthology of Contemporary South Asian American Poetry, winner of both the 2011 N. California Book Award and the PEN Oakland 2011 National Book Award. Her own poetry has been published in journals such as Ploughshares and The Progressive, and in a variety of anthologies Sundaralingam has spoken on the intersections between poetry and the brain at MOMA (New York), the deYoung Fine Arts Museum, and the Exploratorium. She’s just returned from a fellowship in cross-disciplinary thinking in Berlin.
Tuesday, April 3
7:30 PM
MICHAEL TUCKER with Jill Eikenberry
AFTER ANNIE
Michael Tucker’s debut novel, After Annie is a hilarious and beautifully rendered tale about a man off the rails, battling through the middle-aged wilderness days he hoped never to face alone.
Best known for his work on the Emmy-award winning television series L.A. Law, Michael Tucker is a veteran actor and author of three previous nonfiction works. In his first work of fiction, Tucker proves to be shrewd observer of human nature, as he introduces New York actor Herbie Aaron, whose universal failings he scrutinizes with a comic eye and a compassionate heart.
When his wife Annie dies suddenly from cancer, Herbie is faced with a new role – a third act - for which he is totally unprepared. Like a great theater ensemble, After Annie is filled with memorable portraits: Olive, a beautiful bartender who just might be a great actress; Candy, Herbie’s neurotic and troubled daughter; and a wise woman named Billy, a tough-talking golf pro who teaches Herbie more about his psyche than about his lousy swing. From the streets and stages of New York to the golf courses of Myrtle Beach, Herbie’s journey to find a new start after Annie is filled with unexpected moments of beauty and wisdom, pathos and humor.
“With an acerbic, sarcastic bite and a depth of honesty rare in most first novels, After Annie is a refreshing, heartwarming, and introspective read.” — Booklist
A veteran stage, film and television actor, Michael Tucker is perhaps best known for his role as Stuart Markowitz in L.A. Law. His 8-year stint on the phenomally popular drama brought him three Emmy nominations and two Golden Globe nominations. Michael’s film credits include Woody Allen’s Radio Days and The Purple Rose of Cairo, Diner, Tin Men, An Unmarried Woman, The Eyes of Laura Mars, Network, and For Love or Money. He received the Good Guys Award from the National Women’s Political Caucus for his work on women’s health issues. Tucker’s first book I Never Forget a Meal: An Indulgent Reminiscence is part memoir, part cookbook. His second book, Living in a Foreign Language, chronicles his experience, with his wife Jill Eikenberry, as homeowners in the Italian countryside. His third book, Family Meals, is an acclaimed food memoir.
Wednesday, April 4
7:30 PM
MARY ALBANESE
MIDNIGHT SUN, ARCTIC MOON:
Mapping the Wild Heart of Alaska
In 1981, Mary Albanese left the comfort of Buttercup Farm in upstate New York, where she grew up, the tomboy sister, the second of three girls with one brother on the end. She began the adventure of a lifetime to become a geological explorer in Alaska, where she maps remote wilderness areas and journeys to the depths of her own heart.
Mary Albanese tells her own engaging story, one full of rich and eccentric characters with human failings. Its remote landscape reveals the courage and sacrifice her “family” of visionary explorers, framed against the background of Alaska’s raw beauty, with humor, grace, and an abiding respect for America’s last frontier.
Framed against the backdrop of Alaska’s raw beauty, it is an inspiring story of
achievement and hope, told with gentle humor, compassionate grace, and abiding respect for America’s last frontier.
Mary Albanese is an author, artist, and scriptwriter. She lives in England.
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Thursday, April 5
7:30 PM
TERRY McDERMOTT
THE HUNT FOR KSM: Inside the Pursuit and Takedown of the
Real 9/11 Mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is the most significant terrorist in captivity. On March 1, 2003, American and Pakistani intelligence agents captured KSM, ending one of the greatest manhunts in history.Drawing on unprecedented access to key sources, many of whom have never spoken publicly—as well as jihadis and members of KSM’s family and support network—Terry McDermott and Josh Meyer give the first comprehensive account of the search for KSM and what happened after he was captured, including how his torture prompted false confessions that sent U.S. agents on a wild goose chase across four continents.
"On one level, McDermott and Meyer have given us a fact-filled inside account, in the voices of those on the job, of the failed decade-long American effort to find KSM before he could strike again. But there is a most important underlying message in this book—that the American intelligence community remains caught up in bureaucratic warfare and remains today incapable of working together...of sharing insights and information...even when all involved share the same goal. This, ultimately, is an account of an American tragedy."
-- Seymour M. Hersh, writer for The New Yorker
THE HUNT FOR KSM is a tour de force of investigative journalism as well as a gripping tale of international intrigue. It provides a window into the deep dysfunction that plagued—and continues to plague—the intelligence community in the years since 9/11.
"Terry McDermott and Josh Meyer have written a completely authoritative account … a deeply reported page-turner about the race to find the man who was the Chief Operating Officer of Al-Qaeda." -- Peter Bergen, author of The Longest War: The Enduring Conflict between America and Al-Qaeda
Terry McDermott’s work has appeared in The New Yorker, the Wilson Quarterly, the Columbia Journalism Review, the Los Angeles Times Magazine, and Pacific Magazine, ad he is the author of Perfect Soldiers and 101 Theory Drive. McDermott has worked at eight newspapers for more than thirty years, most recently for ten years at the Los Angeles Times, where he was a national correspondent.
Monday, April 9
7:30 PM
RACHEL KRAMER BUSSEL and SUSIE BRIGHT
BEST SEX WRITING 2012
Powerhouse pundits Rachel Kramer Bussel and Susie Bright have gathered the best, boldest, and brightest minds on sex and culture today
In Best Sex Writing 2012, sex columnist Rachel Kramer Bussel and noted commentator Susie Bright, this year's guest judge, collect the most challenging and provocative work on this endlessly evocative subject. Find out what's behind the latest political sex scandals in "Sex, Lies, and Hush Money", learn about how "Atheists Do It Better", and find out "Why Lying About Monogamy Matters". From an insider look at being gay in the military pre-DADT and an impassioned defense of circumcision to a dating site for people with STDs, nuanced explorations of teen sex laws, prostitution, sex at 66, SlutWalks, female orgasm workshops, and more, Best Sex Writing 2012explores the smarter side of sexuality. This is bedtime reading for erotic intellectuals and those who want to go behind the latest leering headlines for real talk about the topic of everyone's lips.
Rachel Kramer Bussel is the editor of over 35 anthologies, including Best Bondage Erotica 2011, Fast Girls, Orgasmic, Passion, Bottoms Up, Spanked, and Please, Sir and Please, Ma'am, as well as Best Sex Writing series editor. Bookslut has said about her work, "Bussel always portrays sex as delicious, wonderful, and fun." She writes the biweekly “Secrets of a Sex Writer” column for SexIs Magazine. Her writing has been published in Crushable, The Daily Beast, The Frisky, The Gloss, Jezebel, Mediabistro, New York Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Time Out New York, The Village Voice, Zink and other publications. Her books have garnered five IPPY (Independent Publisher) awards. She is the cofounding editor of the popular blog Cupcakes Take the Cake.
Susie Bright is one of the world's most respected voices on sexual politics, as well as an award-winning and best-selling writer who has edited hundreds of the finest authors working in American literature and progressive activism today. She was a screenwriting consultant on Bound, Erotique, and The Celluloid Closet, and hosts the show "In Bed with Susie Bright" on Audible.com. Her most recent book isBig Sex Little Death: A Memoir.
Tuesday, April 10
7:30 PM
PAT THOMAS
LISTEN, WHITEY!
Sights and Sounds of Black Power 1965 – 1975
Noted music producer and scholar Pat Thomas spent five years researching Listen, Whitey! While befriending members of the Black Panther Party, Thomas discovered rare recordings of speeches, interviews, and music by noted activists Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, Eldridge Cleaver, Elaine Brown, The Lumpen and many others that form the framework of this definitive retrospective.
Listen, Whitey! chronicles the forgotten history of Motown Records. From 1970 to 1973, Motown’s Black Power subsidiary label, Black Forum, released politically charged albums by Stokely Carmichael, Amiri Baraka, Langston Hughes, Bill Cosby & Ossie Davis, and many others, and explores the musical connections between Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Graham Nash, the Partridge Family (!?!) and the Black Power movement. Obscure recordings produced by SNCC, Ron Karenga’s US, the Tribe and other African-American sociopolitical organizations of the late 1960s and early ’70s are examined along with the Isley Brothers, Nina Simone, Archie Shepp, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Clifford Thornton, Watts Prophets, Last Poets, Gene McDaniels, Roland Kirk, Horace Silver, Angela Davis, H. Rap Brown, Stanley Crouch, and others that spoke out against oppression. Thomas further focuses on Black Consciousness poetry (from the likes of Jayne Cortez, wife of Ornette Coleman), inspired religious recordings that infused god and Black Nationalism, and obscure regional and privately pressed Black Power 7-inch soul singles from across America. The text is accompanied by over 200 large sized, full-color reproductions of album covers and 45 rpm singles — most of which readers will have never seen before.
“[Listen Whitey!]… is a huge contribution to our understanding of this crucial moment in our shared history, and a document that resounds with as much beauty, passion and hope as the records of that fervid time.” – Jeff Chang, author of Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of The Hip-Hop Generation and Who We Be: The Colorization of America
As a reissue producer, Pat Thomas has released vintage recordings from Elaine Brown, the Watts Prophets, Gene McDaniels, and Eddie Gale, His writing about music has appeared in Mojo, Crawdaddy, and the San Francisco Bay Guardian. During the research for this book, he lectured on the recordings contained within at UCLA, San Francisco State University, Evergreen State College and Merritt College.
Our friends at Amoeba Music, just up the street, will be on hand with the companion CD from Light in the Attic Records!
Wednesday, April 11
7:30 PM
MICHAEL MORAN
THE RECKONING:
Debt, Democracy, and the Future of American Power
“This solemn examination of the severe problems facing the U.S. today...offers a practical, useful roadmap for change if politicians will follow.”—Publishers Weekly
A leading forecaster of economic and political trends takes a sharp look at the decline of American influence in the world, and how it can prepare for the new reality.
The age of American global dominance is ending. Today, a host of forces are converging to challenge its cherished notion of exceptionalism, and risky economic and foreign policies have steadily eroded the power structure in place since the Cold War. Staggering under a huge burden of debt, the country must make some tough choices—or cede sovereignty to its creditors. In The Reckoning, Michael Moran, geostrategy analyst, explores the challenges ahead -- and what, if anything, can be prevent chaos as America loses its perch at the top of the mountain.
Covering developments like unprecedented information technologies, the growing prosperity of China, India, Brazil, and Turkey, and the diminished importance of Wall Street in the face of global markets, Moran warns that the coming shift will have serious consequences not just for the United States, but for the wider world. Countries that have traditionally depended on the United States for protection and global stability will have to fend for themselves. Moran describes how, with a bit of wise leadership, America can transition to this new world order gracefully—by managing entitlements, reigniting sustainable growth, reforming immigration policy, launching new regional dialogues that bring friend and rival together in cooperative multinational structures, and breaking the poisonous deadlock in Washington. If not, he warns, history won’t wait.
Michael Moran is Editor-in-Chief of Renaissance Insight, the thought-leadership arm of the global investment bank Renaissance Capital. Based in London and New York, Moran writes on and forecasts geopolitical and economic trends for the bank's clients and is author of "The Reckoning" blog on Slate. Moran worked directly with renowned economist Nouriel Roubini during the 2008-2009 economic crisis and, over the past 25 years, he has reported and analyzed major events for the world’s leading intellectual and newsgathering institutions, winning numerous awards for his work on behalf of the Council on Foreign Relations, the BBC, MSNBC.com, and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
Thursday, April 12
7:30 PM
ZYZZYVA: Spring Issue Celebration
with managing editor Oscar Villalon
Celebrate the release of ZYZZYVA's Spring '12 Issue (No. 94) with readings from four contributors: novelist Elena Mauli Shapiro, debut writer Benjamin T. Miller, and Lindsey Thordarson.
Elena Mauli Shapiro is the author of 13, rue Therese. She lives in the Bay Area.
Benjamin T. Miller taught writing from 2007 to 2010 at UC Irvine, from which he graduated. He lives in Los Angeles.
Lindsey Thordarson has had her work appear in California Northern Magazine and received the 2010 Doug Fir Fiction Award. She lives in Mountain View.
Tuesday, April 17
7:30 PM
S.G. BROWNE
LUCKY BASTARD
Meet Nick Monday: a private detective who’s more Columbo than Sam Spade, more Magnum P.I. than Philip Marlowe. As San Francisco’s infamous luck poacher, Nick doesn’t know whether his ability to swipe other people’s fortunes with a simple handshake is a blessing or a curse. Ever since his youth, Nick has swallowed more than a few bitter truths when it comes to wheeling and dealing in destinies. Because whether the highest bidders of Nick’s serendipitous booty are celebrities, yuppies, or douche bag vegans, the unsavory fact remains: luck is the most powerful, addictive, and dangerous drug of them all. And no amount of cappuccinos, Lucky Charms, or apple fritters can sweeten the notion that Nick might be exactly what his father once claimed—as ambitious as a fart.
That is, until Tuesday Knight, the curvy brunette who also happens to be the mayor’s daughter, approaches Nick with an irresistible offer: $100,000 to retrieve her father’s stolen luck. Could this high-stakes deal let Nick do right? Or will kowtowing to another greedmonger’s demands simply fund Nick’s addiction to corporate coffee bars while his morality drains down the toilet? Before he downs his next mocha, Nick finds himself at the mercy of a Chinese mafia kingpin and with no choice but to scour the city for the purest kind of luck, a hunt more titillating than softcore porn. All he has to do to stay ahead of the game is remember that you can’t take something from someone without eventually paying like hell for it. . .Lucky readers, discover Lucky Bastard, a radically funny and irreverent satirical tale.
“Springboarding off a traditional noir framework, Browne delivers an insightful, intriguing tale… (w)ith twists aplenty, this fast-paced adventure succeeds as both a hard-boiled homage and a paranormal romp.”
– Publishers Weekly, starred review
S.G Browne is the author of Breathers and Fated. He graduated from the University of the Pacific in Stockton, and worked for several years in Hollywood before moving to Santa Cruz to write. He currently lives in San Francisco.
Wednesday, April 18
7:30 PM
MELANIE THORNE
HAND ME DOWN
talks with
PAM HOUSTON
CONTENTS MAY HAVE SHIFTED
A tough, tender, debut novel, in the tradition of Dorothy Allison and Janet Fitch, Hand Me Down is the unforgettable story of a girl who travels between California and Utah in search of her true family, having never been loved best of all.
Fourteen-year-old Elizabeth Reid has spent her life protecting her sister, Jaime, from their parents' cruel mistakes. Their father, who'd rather work the system than a job, pours every dollar into his many vices, denying his daughters the shoes and clothing they need. Their mother, once a loving parent, is going through a post-post-adolescent rebellious streak and finds love with a dangerous ex-con. When she chooses starting a new family over raising her first-born girls, Elizabeth and Jaime are separated and forced to rely on the begrudging kindness of increasingly distant relatives.
A string of broken promises that begins with Liz's mother swearing, "I would never hurt you, Liz. You're family," propels her between guest beds in two states searching for a safe home. All the while, Liz is burdened by her stake in a bleak pact with a deceitful adult: to tell the truth about the darkest of her circumstances will cost her the ability to shelter Jaime. As Liz spirals into the abyss of fear and shame that haunts her sleepless nights, can she break free from her bonds in time to fight for her life?
Talking and reading with Melanie this evening is Pam Houston, the amazing author of Cowboys Are My Weakness, Waltzing the Cat, Sight Hound, A Little More About Me, and the new Contents May Have Shifted, and about whom Melanie writes, “In addition to being an amazing writer, Pam is also a kind and generous person and one of the best teachers I’ve ever had. I was lucky enough to work with her at UC Davis for several years and she was the chair of my graduate thesis committee, which advised me on the very first draft of Hand Me Down, though it was originally titled something less interesting that no one liked.” What a pleasure it is to welcome bothMelanie and Pam this evening!
Thursday, April 19
7:30 PM
JULIE BRUCK
MONKEY RANCH
The compassionate and precise eye for which her earlier books
The compassionate and precise eye for which her earlier books were praised is given a wider, more ambitious scope in Monkey Ranch, Julie Bruck’s third collection. What, these poems ask, is sufficient, what will suffice?
A mandrill, a middle-aged woman, a shattered Baghdad neighborhood, a long marriage and even a spoon grapple with this conundrum—sometimes with rage, or plain persistence, sometimes with the furious joy of a dog who gets to ride with his head out a truck’s passenger window.
“Monkey Ranch has all the antic sensuality and thrilling precision we’ve come to expect from Julie Bruck’s work. This volume has a pitch-perfect elegance that calms the ruckus just long enough for us to glimpse the vulnerability of everyone involved. Monkey Ranch is like the best sort of letter from a friend—full of gossip, lively observation, and serious wit.” – Sharon Thesen
“I have long considered Julie Bruck to be one of our most committed and humane voices. Bruck sees everything we do; she just seems to see it wiser. Her poems sing and roil with everything complicated and joyous we human monkeys are.” – Cornelius Eady
Julie Bruck is the author of two previous books, The End of Travel, and The Woman Downstairs. Her recent work has appeared in The New Yorker, Ploughshares, Literary Mama, Maisonneuve, The Malahat Review, Valparaiso Poetry Review and The Walrus, among other publications. A Montreal native, she lives in San Francisco with her husband and daughter, and two enormous, geriatric goldfish.Sunday, April 22
10:30 - 11:45 AMTake My Word for It! Kids' Writing Classes Begin at The Booksmith
“Take My Word For It!” is a one-of-a-kind creative writing program for enthusiastic and reluctant writers alike. We’ll thrill you and your pencil with lots of innovative activities to explore your author-self. Students have the opportunity to share their work at our reading for parents and friends at the end of the session.
For this inaugural class at Booksmith, we'll be exploring where to find inspiration and ideas for your writing, how to spice up what you put on the page, and how to get better acquainted with metaphors, similes, alliterations and more!
So if you love to write or would like to make better friends with the written word in a safe, supportive environment, come check us out!
Who: Kids 8 - 12 years old
When: 6 week session Sundays, Aril 22 - June 3 [no class 5/27]10:30 – 11:45 AM at The Booksmith
Where: The Booksmith (in the secret upstairs creative space!)
Fee: $108. Early bird discount of 10% if you register by April 11. Min. 8 kids. (1 scholarship is offered once minimum enrollment is met.)
Register and pay online!
Questions? Email usTuesday, April 24
7:30 PM
AMELIA GRAY
THREATS
Amelia Gray has a singular voice and imagination; the world of THREATS is full of psychological twists and turns that are eerie yet familiar, violent yet tender. With ability and precision far beyond her years, Gray grabs you from the first page and never loosens her grip.
The dead of winter in an unnamed Ohio town is the scene of a painful death. David has had a rough couple of years. When his dentist license was revoked, he found his equilibrium slip. When Franny, his wife, dies of incomprehensible causes, he begins to lose his grasp on reality.
As David attempts to uncover the mystery of Franny’s death, he begins finding a series of threats hidden around his home, whose quickly escalating messages delve deeply into his innermost fears:
I will lock you in a room much like your own until it begins to fill with water.
If you’re here, don’t leave. I’m here in the house. If you’re here, I will find you.
Detective Chico would also like to know the truth behind Franny’s end. A psychiatrist stations her office in David’s garage and strange occurrences proliferate, possibly imagined. As David attempts to navigate life without Franny, and uncovers more threats, a dark comedy unfolds. Our perspective is rooted in David’s mind, a place where reality and paranoid fantasy are indecipherable from one another.
“The first time I encountered Amelia Gray’s fiction, it slugged me in the jaw. The second time, too, and the third. Said jaw-slugging has ensued nearly every time I’ve read something of hers, except for when instead it whispered sad and surprising but unreliable truths about the difficulty of intimacy and sense in the wretched blastoscape of modern life. And then it made me a grilled cheese sandwich to prove that the world can be a kind place, and it waited until I had sated myself and wiped away the crumbs before slugging me in the jaw again.”
—Doug Dorst, author of Alive in Necropolis
Amelia Gray is the author of two previous books, both acclaimed by critics, AM/PM and Museum of the Weird. She financed her tour for AM/PM through Kickstarter, renting a van and travelling around the country to read in bars and indie bookstores. Building a following one stop at a time, she wowed audiences with her riveting reading, which led to appearances at the AWP Conference, the Texas Book Festival, and others.
Wednesday, April 25
7:30 PM
RAFE SAGARIN
LEARNING FROM THE OCTOPUS:
How Secrets from Nature Can Help Us Fight Terrorist Attacks, Natural Disasters, and Disease
Whether discussing responses to terrorism, natural disaster, or disease, the past decade is full of failures. Many disasters were evaded only because of slip-ups on the part of the enemy: the underwear bomber’s underwear didn’t explode; SARS just wasn’t that bad. Other disasters landed full body blows, yet the response was more of the same: add a new charade to the security checkpoint, another meter to the levee wall. This time, the argument goes, we’ll finally have the risk—suicide bomber or hurricane—beat. Inevitably, we will find, we don’t.
Ecologist Rafe Sagarin offers a revolutionary prescription for security systems in society: applying lessons from 3.5 billion years of evolution to fortify ourselves against disaster and war. More than copying what nature looks like, Sagarin argues that we must learn from how nature is organized, how it acts, and how it continually grows and diversifies on this dangerous and unpredictable planet.
Sagarin brings the abstractions of ecology to life to uncover nature’s examples of how can we detect danger, understand behavior, and defend against disaster or disease outbreaks. What can we do to avoid threats? Learn from the octopus, the picture of variability, from its ability to change color to its capacity to learn how to use coconut shells as body armor. Both traits evolved, but where one was preprogrammed, the other is open-ended, making use of whatever’s available. Within that combination of long- and short-term variability lays powerful protection.
LEARNING FROM THE OCTOPUS gathers wisdom from the hedgehog and the salmon, mangrove swamps and viral parasites, showing how nature’s lessons can transform our security systems from a series of after-the-fact, one-time interventions to proactive, holistic, and adaptable strategies that not only protect us from the threats we know about, but prepare us to respond efficiently and effectively to danger lurking around the corner. No system will ever be perfect, but that’s nature’s, and Sagarin’s, point: it’s not possible to eliminate all risk. Given how many species have been able to survive millions of years despite being under constant existential threat, learning from nature should enable us to do at least half as well. It’s all here in Sagarin’s timely, original, and totally game-changing book.
Rafe Sagarin is a marine ecologist and Environmental Policy Analyst at the University of Arizona. His research has appeared in Science, Nature, and Foreign Policy, among other publications.
Thursday, April 26
7:30 PM
DAVID VANN
DIRT
David Vann’s widely celebrated Caribou Island solidified this writer’s reputation as one of the rising stars of the literary world. Routinely compared with writers such as Cormac McCarthy and William Faulkner, Vann is being published in eighteen languages and has won fourteen prizes for his work, including France’s Prix Médicis Étranger and Spain’s Premi Llibreter. His much-anticipated new novel, DIRT, is a savagely funny tragedy that once again displays “the beautiful exactness of language, the unerring eye for detail” (New York Times Book Review) that are hallmarks of Vann’s work.Set in 1985 in a secluded house with a walnut orchard in the suburbs of Sacramento, DIRT is the story of twenty-two-year-old Galen, who lives with his emotionally dependent mother in a kind of eccentric isolation. He has no idea who his father is, his abusive grandfather is dead, and his dementia-afflicted grandmother is in a nursing home. The family inheritance is in danger from a grasping aunt and cousin. A New Age believer bent on finding transcendence, Galen is prone to manic binges. When the family visits an old cabin in the Sierras, tensions build, and Galen is shocked to discover just how far he will go to achieve that transcendence he craves.
Like Caribou Island, “I think of DIRT as a play written through landscape,” Vann says. “It’s very traditional tragedy, from the Greeks, focusing on a primary relationship (in this case a mother and son) put under pressure until the characters break and are revealed. The book ultimately is about how philosophy leads to brutality. It’s also about a family legacy of abuse, passed down through a couple generations.” Readers may be surprised to discover more humor in this book than in Vann’s previous work, as he pokes fun at New Age beliefs and practices. But, as with all his work, Vann is concerned with relationships and the enveloping landscape that provides their metaphors.David Vann’s books—Legend of a Suicide, Caribou Island, A Mile Down, and Last Day on Earth—have appeared on sixty-five best books of the year lists in a dozen countries, and he’s been shortlisted for the Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize and the Sunday TimesShort Story Award, and longlisted for the Story Prize. A current Guggenheim fellow and former Stegner fellow and NEA fellow, he is a professor at the University of San Francisco, and has written for The Atlantic, Esquire, Outside, Men’s Journal, the Sunday Times, theObserver, and many others, and appeared in documentaries with the BBC, Nova, National Geographic, and CNN.
Launch Party!
Friday, April 27
7:30 PM
VICTORIA SWEET
GOD’S HOTEL:
A Doctor, a Hospital, and a Pilgrimage to the Heart of Medicine
Twenty years ago, a brilliant doctor took what she thought was a short-term assignment at an old-fashioned charity hospital. Today, she is still there. What she found at Laguna Honda Hospital in San Francisco captivated and astonished her – not just the remarkable cases that doctors rarely see anymore, but the opportunity to practice a time-honored form of “slow medicine” that was attentive to the soul as well as the body, that often brought about stunning cures, and that offered abundant lessons for the efficiency-obsessed model of medicine that now dominates our healthcare system. Revealing her dazzling literary gifts as much as her incisive medical insights, Victoria Sweet tells the dramatic and moving stories of her patients, her hospital, and her own journey as a physician in her first book,GOD’S HOTEL
Sweet knew instantly that Laguna Honda – with its open wards, gardens, greenhouse, aviary, and barnyard – was very different from your typical modern hospital, and she quickly fell under its spell. It lacked the high-tech equipment of a state-of-the-art facility, but it also lacked the grinding emphasis on speed, bureaucratic protocol, and cost cutting. The patients had weirder and more extreme illnesses than any Sweet had ever encountered, but she got to work with them in ways that doctors hardly ever do anymore – over long periods of time that allowed her to observe them carefully, listen to their stories, and treat them as whole human beings.Her patients included Mrs. Muller, for whom a simple x-ray reversed months of suffering and disability due to a series of inappropriate diagnoses and costly treatments. Mr. Grenz’s protruding tongue and an almost-forgotten vital sign called the “paradoxical pulse” were the clues Sweet needed to save him from heart failure. Mr. Bramwell suffered from severe dementia, but his undiminished ability to dance testified to the almost miraculous persistence of his spirit.
As Sweet learned, Laguna Honda’s values were inspired by the Hôtels-Dieu, or God’s Hotels, of medieval Europe. Founded by nuns and monks, these were the first Western institutions to care for the sick. Long interested in the fascinating history of pre-modern medicine, Sweet made a pilgrimage to Switzerland and wrote her Ph.D. thesis about the most prominent medieval healer, a nun called Hildegard of Bingen. Hildegard saw the doctor more as a gardener than a mechanic, and her keenly perceptive observations of the body’s natural healing processes are still instructive today.
As Sweet chronicles, however, this unusual hospital – perhaps the last of its kind in the United States – could not remain forever beyond the reach of the bureaucrats, the politicians, and the efficiency experts. In recent years, they descended on Laguna Honda, determined to transform it into a modern health care facility, and the hospital has been completely rebuilt. But it remains an open question whether the spirit of the old institution can be transplanted into the new one. In a very real sense, the hospital is the ultimate hero of Sweet’s narrative, with a story as engaging, revelatory, and sometimes heartbreaking as those of the patients and staff.
Sweet beguiles us with tales so gripping and a voice so intimate that we barely notice that lessons are being imparted. Yet as she recounts dozens of case histories and explains how her patients at Laguna Honda have profoundly changed the way she practices medicine, she suggests steps to make healthcare not only more humane for both patients and medical professionals, but often vastly less expensive. In addition, she offers trenchant and thought-provoking commentary on the healthcare reform bill passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama in 2010, as well as other reform efforts.
“Victoria Sweet writes beautifully about the enormous richness of life at Laguna Honda, the chronic [care] hospital where she has spent the last twenty years, and the intense sense of place and community that binds patients and staff there. Such community in the medical world is vanishingly rare now, and Laguna Honda may be the last of its kind. . . . God’s Hotel is a most important book which raises fundamental questions about the nature of medicine in our time. It should be required reading for anyone interested in the “business” of health care—and especially those interested in the humanity of health care.”
-- Oliver Sacks
Victoria Sweet has been a physician at San Francisco’s Laguna Honda
Hospital for more than twenty years. An associate clinical professor
of medicine at UC San Francisco, she also holds a Ph.D. in history and social medicine.
We’re honored to have Dr. Paul Linde, Health Sciences Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry, UCSF School of Medicine, with us this evening to introduce Victoria Sweet and her book.
The girl who silenced the world for 5 minutes
http://media.causes.com/510213?p_id=44401190Tired of Talking to a Voice Robot? Want to Talk with a Human?:
Dial A Human - http://www.dialahuman.com/Women In The Arts - [Video] - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUDIoN-_Hxs
World Clock: http://www.poodwaddle.com/worldclock.swf
Dear World:
We, the United States of America, your top quality supplier of the ideals of liberty and democracy, would like to apologize for our 2001-2008 interruption in service. The technical fault that led to this eight-year service outage has been located, and the software responsible was replaced November 4.
Early tests of the newly installed program indicate that we are now operating correctly, and we believe it to be fully functional as of January 20.
We apologize for any inconvenience caused by the outage. We look forward to resuming full service and hope to improve in years to come.
We truly thank you for your patience and understanding,
Sincerely,
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICAJUKEBOX - http://www.bobforrest.com/JukeBox.htm
[HUMOR/ETC. - LOCATED NEAR BOTTOM OF PAGE]
SOME INTERESTING GEOGRAPHY
Alaska
More than half of the coastline of the entire United States is in Alaska .Amazon
The Amazon rainforest produces more than 20% the world's oxygen supply. The Amazon River pushes so much water into the Atlantic Ocean that, more than one hundred miles at sea off the mouth of the river, one can dip fresh water out of the ocean. The volume of water in the Amazon river is greater than the next eight largest rivers in the world combined and three times the flow of all rivers in the United States .Antarctica
Antarctica is the only land on our planet that is not owned by any country. Ninety percent of the world's ice covers Antarctica . This ice also represents 70% of all the fresh water in the world. As strange as it sounds, however, Antarctica is essentially a desert. The average yearly total precipitation is about two inches. Although covered with ice (all but 0.4% of it, i.e.), Antarctica is the driest place on the planet, with an absolute humidity lower than the Gobi desert.Brazil
Brazil got its name from the nut, not the other way around.Canada
Canada has more lakes than the rest of the world combined. Canada is an Indian word meaning ' Big Village .'Chicago
Next to Warsaw , Chicago has the largest Polish population in the world.Detroit
Woodward Avenue in Detroit, Michigan carries the designation M-1, so named because it was the first paved road any where.Damascus , Syria
Damascus, Syria, was flourishing a couple of thousand years before Rome was founded in 753 BC, making it the oldest continuously inhabited city in existence.Istanbul , Turkey
Istanbul (AKA Constantinople), Turkey , is the only city in the world located on two continents.Los Angeles
Los Angeles' full name is El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula -- and can be abbreviated to 3.63% of its size: L.A.New York City
The term 'The Big Apple' was coined by touring jazz musicians of the 1930's who used the slang expression 'apple' for any town or city. Therefore, to playNew York City is to play the big time - The Big Apple.
There are more Irish in New York City than in Dublin, Ireland; more Italians in New York City than in Rome, Italy; and more Jews in New York City than in Tel Aviv, Israel.Ohio
There are no natural lakes in the state of Ohio, every one is man made.Pitcairn Island
The smallest island with country status is Pitcairn in Polynesia , at just 1.75 sq. miles.Rome
The first city to reach a population of 1 million people was Rome , Italy in 133 B..C. There is a city called Rome on every continent.Siberia
Siberia contains more than 25% of the world's forests.S.M.O.M
The actual smallest sovereign entity in the world is the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (S.M. O.M.). It is located in the city of Rome, Italy, has an area of two tennis courts, and as of 2001 had a population of 80, 20 less people than the Vatican. It is a sovereign entity under international law, just as the Vaticanis.Sahara Desert
In the Sahara Desert , there is a town named Tidikelt, which did not receive a drop of rain for ten years. Technically though, the driest place on Earth is in the valleys of the Antarctic near Ross Island . There has been no rainfall there for two million years.Spain
SPAIN literally means 'the land of rabbits.'St. Paul, Minnesota
St. Paul, Minnesota , was originally called Pig's Eye after a man named Pierre 'Pig's Eye' Parrant who set up the first business there.Roads
Chances that a road is unpaved in the U.S.A: 1%, in Canada : 75%.Texas
The deepest hole ever made in the world is in Texas . It is as deep as 20 empire state buildings but only 3 inches wide.United States
The Interstate System requires that one-mile in every five must be straight. These straight sections are usable as airstrips in times of war or other emergencies.Waterfalls
The water of Angel Falls (the World's highest) in Venezuela drops 3,212 feet. IT is 15 times higher than Niagara Falls
It has been said that one should learn something new every day.
Unfortunately, many of us are at that age where what we learn today, we forget tomorrow. But, give it a shot anyway!.All My Faves - http://www.allmyfaves.com/
FactCheck.org
Recent Postings - http://www.factcheck.org/just-the-facts/index.htmlTRIVIA
A friend of a friend of mine sent me this. Some interesting bits of trivia. Cheers, Marliese
Buddy Holly's backup band, the Crickets, got their name by flipping through the 'Insects' section of an encyclopedia. One of the names they rejected was 'The Beetles'. The Beatles chose their name in honor of The Crickets. And The Hollies chose their name in honor of Buddy Holly. And Badfinger's original name, The Iveys, was in honor of The Hollies.
Led Zeppelin's original name was "The New Yardbirds". Guitarist Jimmy Page had briefly been a member of the Yardbirds, and the band sprang out of an attempt to reform the band with new members.
Lynyrd Skynyrd named themselves after their high school athletic coach, Leonard Skinner, who'd told them that they'd never amount to anything.
"Mr. Mojo Risin'" (a phrase used in The Doors' song " L.A. Woman") is an anagram for Jim Morrison.
The Aerosmith hit "Walk This Way" was inspired by a gag in Mel Brooks' "Young Frankenstein"
The band Nirvana was originally called "Skid Row", the members somehow unaware of the very popular heavy metal band by that name. When they finally heard of the band, they changed their name to "Nirvana", and were promptly sued by the members of a practically unknown sixties band that had gone by that name.
-First choice for Terry Doolittle in "Jumpin' Jack Flash" was Shelly Long. Whoopi Goldberg got the part.
-First choice for Bernie Rhodenbarr in "Burglar" was Bruce Willis. Whoopi Goldberg got the part.
-First choice for Rita Rizzoli in "Fatal Beauty" was Cher. Whoopi Goldberg got the part.
-First choice for Deloris Van Cartier in "Sister Act" was Bette Midler. Whoopi Goldberg got the part.-First choice for the title role in "Carrie" was Carrie Fisher. Sissy Spacek got the part.
-First choice for Princess Leia in "Star Wars" was Sissy Spacek. Carrie Fisher got the part.The Professor on 'Gilligan's Island' was named Roy Hinkley. The Skipper was named Jonas Grumby. Both names were used only once in the entire series. Gilligan's full name was never revealed (even Bob Denver, who played Gilligan, was never told his full name, nor was he sure if Gilligan was his first or last name), though some insiders claim his name was supposed to be Willy Gilligan. And Mary Ann's last name was Summers, and Mrs. Howell's maiden name was Wentworth.
Hot water weighs more than cold water.
If a pin was heated to the same temperature as the center of the Sun, its heat would set alight everything within 60 miles of it.
If the Sun's energy output would decreased by one-tenth, the entire Earth would be covered in ice one mile thick; if the Sun's energy increased by 30 percent, all life on Earth would be burnt to a cinder.
If something were to happen to Washington, D.C., the city of Port Angeles, WA, would become our nation's capital.
If you ever need to call someone in Antarctica, the area code is 672.
In medieval England, beer was often served with breakfast.
Beetles taste like apples, wasps like pine nuts and white worms like fried pork rinds.
John Larroquette was the narrator of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre"
Leonardo DiCaprio's acting debut was on TV's 'Romper Room'.
Roald Dahl, the children's writer who wrote "Charlie And The Chocolate Factory" and "James And The Giant Peach", wrote the screenplay for "You Only Live Twice", the fifth James Bond Movie.
Female wrestlers are called "siffleuses"
Most tropical marine fish could survive in a tank filled with human blood.
Spiders never spin webs in structures made of chestnut wood. That is why do many European chateaux were built with chestnut beams - spider webs on a 50-foot beamed ceiling can be difficult to clean.
>From the same list with my own addition:
What do Jerry Garcia, Jimi Hendrix, Kris Kristofferson, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Marvin Gaye, Michael Nesmith (of The Monkees), Bill Wyman (of The Rolling Stones), The Everly Brothers, and Gene Vincent all have in common that Rush Limbaugh, Bill Kristol, Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, Scooter Libby do not? They're veterans of course.
Underground Hour
Tuesdays 7 to 8 p.m.
http://ksfs.sfsu.edu/
MUSIC by MiKo
Paper Mill Creek Saloon, Forest Knolls, CA, - FREE - EVERY Tuesday, 8-11 PM, West on Sir Francis Drake, turn left at the Forest Knolls intersection (before Lagunitas). Thought for the day: Q What is the only food that doesn't spoil? A Honey ..via Michael Welch
