Archive
Friends,
below are some great events coming up at the Book Smith at 1644 Haight St. between Clayton & Cole (863-8688)
CHILDREN'S HOLIDAY CELEBRATION
story time and booksigning
Sunday, December 14 from 10:00 am – 12 noon
The Booksmith presents a Children's Holiday Celebration of authors, illustrators, and books & you're invited! The event will include cider and muffins and superb local writers and illustrators including Lisa Brown (author of Sometimes You Get What You Want, The Latke Who Couldnt Stop Screaming, How to Be), Julie Downing (No Hugs Till Saturday, The Firekeepers Son), Jane Wattenberg (Mrs. Mustards Baby Faces, Never Cry Woof!, This is the Rain), and Dashka Slater (The Sea Serpent and Me, Baby Shoes, Firefighters in the Dark). Please join us for wonderfully fun story-telling for young and old(er) alike, as we welcome these terrific book-makers, whose books will, by the way, make terrific and lasting holiday gifts (and how cool to have them autographed and personalized!)
We especially welcome the Grattan Elementary School and New Traditions Elementary School communities, whose bookstore purchases on December 14 will benefit their schools.
ROBERT M. KNIGHT
booksigning for Rock Gods: Forty Years of Rock Photography
Monday, December 15 from 5:00 – 6:00 pm
Since 1968, Robert M. Knight's photographs have served as witness to the greatest moments in rock and roll history. Rock Gods: Forty Years of Rock Photography is a profuse collection of Knight's best work. This recently published volume features images of Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton, Elton John, Green Day and every rock colossus of the last forty years. Don't miss this just added booksigning.
Robert Knight's career spans from the 1960s to the present as one of the premier photographers for the music industry, rock publications, and music equipment manufacturers. He made his mark beginning in 1968, showing up in Seattle with a single roll of film to capture shots of Jimi Hendrix. Today, Knight is best known for his "Guitar Legend" archive, having worked with Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Stevie Ray Vaughn, and Eric Clapton as well as many contemporary performers.
JACK MARSHALL
reading & book signing for Steel Veil
Thursday, January 8 at 7:30 pm
Introspective and engaging, Jack Marshall's new book of poetry, Steel Veil, weds timely depictions of Middle Eastern widows "behind veils heavy / as the steel / veil of empire" with timeless expressions of personal grief and political outrage. Invoking visionary possibilities of being, Marshall's distinctive voice and elegant lyrics unite this muscled, multilayered collection.
Born in 1936 to Jewish parents who emigrated from Iraq and Syria, Jack Marshall grew up in New York and now lives in California. He is the author of a memoir, From Baghdad to Brooklyn, and several poetry collections that have received the PEN Center USA Award, two Northern California Book Awards, and a nomination from the National Book Critics Circle.
RODES FISHBURNE
reading & book signing for Going to See the Elephant
Tuesday, January 13 at 7:30 pm
Rodes Fishburne's debut novel centers around a wide-eyed transplant intent on becoming the best writer in the world. Opening with an adrenaline-fueled rickshaw ride down Market Street, the book traverses present-day San Francisco from end to end. The bestselling novelist James Patterson said, “Going to See the Elephant will delight anybody who has ever written a first novel, wanted to write a first novel, and especially those who cherish reading unforgettable first novels. It is both funny and wise.”
Rodes Fishburne has been published in the New Yorker, the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle Magazine, and Forbes ASAP, where he was the editor of the acclaimed “Big Issue,” an annual magazine of literary essays from leading writers and thinkers. He is a member of the Grotto, a San Francisco writers’ collective.
LAWRENCE LESSIG
talk & booksigning for Remix
Wednesday, January 14 at 7:30 pm
In Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy, Lawrence Lessig shows how we harm our children - and almost anyone who creates, enjoys, or sells any art form - with a restrictive copyright system driven by corporate interests. In this new book, the acclaimed author of Free Culture reveals the solutions to this impasse offered by a collaborative yet profitable “hybrid economy.”
Lawrence Lessig is a Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and founder of the School’s Center for Internet and Society. In addition to the aforementioned books, he is the author of The Future of Ideas, and Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace, and is a columnist at Wired. He chairs the Creative Commons project, was named one of Scientific American’s Top 50 Visionaries, and has been several times listed as one of BusinessWeek’s “eBiz 25,” the magazine’s roundup of the twenty-five most influential people in electronic business.
KATHERINE POWELL COHEN
talk & book signing for San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury
Thursday, January 15 at 7:30 pm
At the turn of the 20th century, the Haight-Ashbury gained prominence as the gateway to Golden Gate Park. Six decades later, it would anchor a worldwide cultural revolution that blossomed in the 1960s. San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury, by Katherine Powell Cohen, is a pictorial history of the world famous neighborhood that attracts throngs of people – everyone from runaways to tourists, while maintaining a community of families, young people, and long-timers.
Katherine Powell Cohen, Ph.D., compiled vintage images and stories for her book from individual sources, public collections, and from the interviews she has conducted as a columnist for the Haight Ashbury Beat newspaper. An English professor at San Francisco State and Golden Gate Universities, she has lived in the neighborhood for over 20 years.
MICHAEL CAPOZZOLA
talk & book signing for Cheap City
Friday, January 16 at 7:30 pm
Every week, the San Francisco Chronicle carries Michael Capozzola’s always quirky and always funny cartoon Cheap City. Like his comedy act, the cartoon includes creative problem solving for social ills as well as cheap solutions and quick fixes for life and city living. “San Francisco can always benefit from someone willing to point out daily life’s little absurdities, and Mike Capozzola does it in the tradition of our city’s best satirists,” says City Supervisor Aaron Peskin.
Michael Capozzola is a Bay Area based Stand Up Comedian & Cartoonist. Each year, he produces and hosts the Cartoon Art Museum's annual "Comics for Comix" fundraiser.
RAND RICHARDS
talk & book signing for for Mud, Blood, and Gold
Wednesday, January 21 at 7:30 pm
There have been many books on the Gold Rush, but Mud, Blood, and Gold is the first to focus on San Francisco as it was at the peak of the frenzy. With a “you are there” immediacy, Rand Richards brings to life what the city was like during the landmark year of 1849. Based on eyewitness accounts and previously overlooked records, the distinguished author and historian chronicles the explosive growth of a wide-open town rife with violence, gambling, and prostitution - each fueled by unbridled greed.
Rand Richards is a San Francisco-based historian, author, and lecturer. Two of his books are local bestsellers: Historic San Francisco: A Concise History and Guide and Historic Walks in San Francisco: 18 Trails Through the City's Past. He has lectured before many groups, including the California Historical Society, the San Francisco Museum and Historical Society, and the San Francisco History Association. The latter organization recently awarded him their Oscar Lewis Award for his contributions to knowledge of San Francisco history.
GERI SPIELER
talk & book signing for Taking Aim at the President
Thursday, January 22 at 7:30 pm
President Gerald Ford suffered two attempts on his life. One by a young woman in Charles Manson’s gang, and the other just 17 days later by a far more unlikely candidate - an average looking middle-aged mother of five named Sara Jane Moore. In Taking Aim at the President, journalist Geri Spieler sketches the bizarre life of Moore, the only woman to ever fire a bullet at a U.S. President, and her path to that fateful moment outside San Francisco's St. Francis Hotel. Joining us for this special event will be Tim Hettrich, one of the San Francisco police officers at the scene of the assassination attempt.
Geri Spieler is an investigative journalist and speaker. She has written for the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and Forbes. She has had a professional relationship with her subject, Sara Jane Moore, who she visited and interviewed in prison.
BLAIR KILPATRICK
talk & booksigning for Accordion Dreams
Friday, January 23 at 7:30 pm
By age thirty-nine, Blair Kilpatrick had settled into life as a practicing psychologist. Then, a chance encounter in New Orleans turned her world upside down. Accordion Dreams is a memoir filled with music set partly in the San Francisco Bay Area, home to the largest Cajun-Zydeco music scene outside the Gulf Coast. Engaging, uplifting, and illuminating a unique patch of the American cultural landscape, Accordion Dreams is also one person's account of passion, risk-taking, and change - at any age.
Blair Kilpatrick has an independent practice in psychotherapy in the San Francisco Bay Area. She also performs and records with Sauce Piquante, a traditional Cajun-Creole band she founded in the late 1990s.