Archive
Friends,
below are some great events coming up at the Book Smith at 1644 Haight St. between Clayton & Cole (863-8688)
Tuesday, October 20
VICTORIA ZACKHEIM & Contributors KATHI KAMEN GOLDMARK and MARGOT DUXLER
The Face in the Mirror: Writers Reflect on Their Dreams of Youth & The Reality of Aging
7:30 PMWhen you were young and idealistic and you looked in mirror, who did you see? What were your expectations for your future? What was expected of you by your family and your community? And now that you're older and have attained such prominence as a writer, activist, celebrity, how do you feel about the person you've become and the direction your life has actually taken? Are you contented or disappointed? Do you see exciting possibilities in your future, or do you believe that you've gone as far as you can go? These are the questions posed to some of our country's most gifted authors in preparation for The Face in the Mirror. Twenty celebrated writers tackled these questions, sharing with readers the heart of soul of their lives, and a book was born. In these reflective essays, the writers explore the person they expected to become or perhaps desperately wanted to be (or feared they might be), and the person they are today. How does all of this knowledge and insight affect their writing? Their responses, which range from surprising to heart-wrenching to comical (and often hilarious) to inspiring, reflect back on the reader, who is left with the same question that these eminent writers asked themselves: "When I look in that mirror, who do I see?" Each eloquent piece is certain to captivate, and make you see the world and yourself in an entirely new way.
Victoria Zackheim spent her childhood in Los Angeles, received her BA from UCLA and MA from California State University, San Francisco. In 1990, she fulfilled a lifelong dream and went to Paris, with the intention of remaining for three months. Five years later, she returned to the San Francisco area and completed her first novel, The Bone Weaver. She is now a freelance editor and creative writing instructor in the UCLA Extension Writers' Program, and the editor of three anthologies: The Other Woman: 21 Wives, Lovers, and Others Talk Openly About Sex, Deception, Love, and Betrayal, For Keeps: Women Tell the Truth About Their Bodies, Growing Older, and Acceptance, and Face in the Mirror.
Wednesday, October 21
TAMIM ANSARY
The Widow’s Husband
7:30 PMIt’s 1841: the British have invaded Afghanistan.. A hundred miles north of the capital, a mysterious beggar enters a tiny village…
The Widow’s Husband, an epic work of historical fiction, is the first novel to tell the story of British imperialism from the Afghan side. Three years after the British occupation of Kabul, news of the invasion still hasn’t reached the village of Char Bagh. Here, the biggest excitement of the season is a mysterious vagabond who has wandered onto a nearby hillside. Is he a madman? Perhaps. But he just might be a God-crazed madman, a malang, a man with the power to channel miracles. And indeed, he does soon begin to transform the lives of the villagers -- the brooding headman Ibrahim, his djinn-haunted wife Soraya, the headman’s charismatic sister-in-law, the widowed Khadija. But the isolation of Char Bagh is about to end. British officials are scouring the countryside for conspirators. They dispatch a priapic young officer to study the pilgrims streaming in and out of Char Bagh.. History is about to reach its long fingers into the heart of this remote hamlet.
From the soot-blackened kitchens of Afghan village compounds to the battle-choked streets of Kabul, from the gorgeous fortresses of Afghan tribal lords to the walled British cantonments where the chandeliers kept glowing and the proper memsahibs kept on hosting dinner parties almost to the very end, this extraordinary novel takes readers into a historical drama that eerily foreshadows events of our own time.
Tamim Ansary is the author of the memoir West of Kabul, East of New York, co-author with Farah Ahmadi of the New York Times bestseller The Other Side of the Sky, and has been a major contributing writer to several secondary school history textbooks. Ansary is director of the San Francisco Writers Workshop. He writes for Encarta.com, the San Francisco Chronicle, Salon, Alternet, Edutopia, Parade, the Los Angeles Times, and other publications. His sweeping narrative history Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes illuminates how Muslims have seen the history of the world— and what western world history leaves out
SOCIAL MEDIA PHENOM NIGHT!
Friday, October 23
GARY VAYNERCHUK
Crush It! Why Now is the Time to Cash in on Your Passion
7:30 PMTickets $22 (includes admission and copy of book) at Brown Paper Tickets or 800-838-3006 or in the store (The Booksmith will be closed this evening at 7:00 PM; tickets are required for this event.)
Do you have a hobby you wish you could do all day? An obsession that keeps you up at night?
Meet Gary Vaynerchuk, a 33-year-old self-trained wine and social media expert who has revolutionized the wine industry. Gary’s cult-like following is the result of his unconventional, often irreverent commentary on wine, combined with his business acumen and foresight to use social media tools like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube to reach an untapped audience. He hosts a daily webcast called “The Thunder Show” on tv.winelibrary.com that attracts over 90,000 viewers each day. Recently, his podcast become the most downloaded show on iTunes in the food category, beating out venerable names in the industry including Martha Stewart and Jamie Oliver. Called the “king of social media’, Gary is one of the first Facebook users to max out his friend limit, with over 17,000 pending friend requests. He is in the top 100 people followed on Twitter and was the keynote speaker at events like the 2009 South of Southwest Interactive conference and the New Media and Web 2.0 expos.
With Crush It! he shows how to use the power of the Internet to turn your real interests into real businesses. Gary spent years building his family business from a local wine shop into a national industry leader. Then one day he turned on a video camera, and by using the secrets revealed in this book, transformed his entire life and earning potential by building his personal brand. Step-by-step, Crush It! Is the ultimate driver’s manual for modern business.
The Crush It! Tour Contest - Win a Trip on the Crush It! Cruise
At every book signing location, turn in your receipt to be entered for a chance to win a cabin for two on the Crush It! Cruise. Sailing from Ft Lauderdale, FL throughout the Caribbean from March 20 - 27, 2010, the cruise will allow you to go "beyond the book" with a week's worth of interactive business seminars led by Gary, plus entertaining wine events and much, much more! Learn more at http://crushitcruise.com.
At the conclusion of the book tour, Gary will draw one receipt for the grand prize winner
who will accompany Gary on the cruise. Drawing to be conducted live on ustream.tv
on Thursday, November 19th!
*Please note, you must purchase a book at a book tour location and give your receipt to Gary during a book signing event to be entered in the contest. One entry per receipt. Prize winner receives a standard interior stateroom for 2 valued at $899 per person. Winner is responsible for travel to and from Fort Lauderdale and any and all taxes, fees, on-board expenses, and gratuity. **We will have a special and easy sign up list for everyone who purchases a copy of Crush It! at Swig during this event; that list will suffice for purchase receipts and thus for contest entries.
Tuesday, October 27
JAMES WORKMAN
Heart of Dryness: How the Last Bushmen Can Help Us Endure the Coming Age of Permanent Drought
7:30 PMIn the growing consensus over global warming, we are overlooking one of the most serious consequences of all: the depletion of potable water. Journalist and water expert James Workman travels to one of the driest places on earth to see how, against all odds and under brutal government repression, an indigenous people draws on ancient wisdom to survive the extreme scarcity of life’s essential resource.
In 2002, the government of Botswana decided to clear the Kalahari Desert of its Bushmen. Tribes that had been living for centuries in some of the world’s harshest conditions were told they had to assimilate to modernity or die. Government convoys raided desert villages, destroyed water pumps that pulled water from underground aquifers, and violently put down any protests that erupted. Yet instead of leaving, the Bushmen stayed. And survived. The forced scarcity of water for them suggests the potential disaster in store for all of us. In Heart of Dryness, Jamie Workman shows us that we would do well to emulate the Bushmen.
Workman has written for the New Republic, Washington Monthly, Utne Reader, Orion, and other publications. He was a speechwriter in the Clinton administration, working closely with Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, and steering the ‘dambuster’ campaign to tear down river-killing dams. Having spent two years filing monthly dispatches on water scarcity in Africa, work which formed the basis of an NPR show and documentary, he is now a water consultant to politicians, businesses, aid agencies, development institutions, and conservation organizations on four continents. He lives in the Haight Ashbury with his wife and children.
FIRST FRIDAYS: SPECIAL EVENT FOR TEEN INDIE GIRLS
Friday, November 6
KAREN MACKLIN and ARNE JOHNSONINDIE GIRL: From Starting a Band to Launching a Fashion Company, Nine Ways to Turn Your Creative Talent Into Reality - Please note early time: - 6:00 to 7:30 PM
Are you a girl who's tired of letting the world decide what constitutes art? Want to take matters into your own hands? A fun and comprehensive guide for teenage girls (and anyone who thinks like one!), Zest Books' Indie Girl contains all of the information you'll need to start 9 independent creative ventures, from forming a rock band to creating a fashion company to making your own TV show.
At this event, local authors Arne Johnson (documentary film maker of Girls Rock!) and Karen Macklin (magazine writer and editorial director of Zest Books) will take attendees through the process of making a real, DIY zine. Participants will actually create their own zine, which will be available for collaborators to retrieve at Booksmith in the coming weeks! All supplies (and pizza) included .
FIRST FRIDAYS: SPECIAL COMEDY EVENT!
Friday, November 6
Producer of The Daily Show DAVID JAVERBAUM, G.E.D.What to Expect When You're Expected: A Fetus's Guide to the First Three Trimesters (A Parody - ) - 8:00 PM
Written specifically for the prenatal reader, David Javerbaum's self-help guide to gestation takes its naïve readers -- many of whom weren't even born yesterday -- through the whole process, from conception until their triumphant zeroth birthday. By the last chapter, a panel discussion about birth among four newborns moderated by Regis Philbin, the reader is relaxed, focused, and ready to calmly go through the first (and some would say best) first three trimesters of their lives.
David Javerbaum, G.E.D., is an eleven-time Emmy Award-winning writer and producer of The Daily How with Jon Stewart and one of the principal authors of America: The Book. He is a former contributor to The Onionand writer for The Late Show with David Letterman. Recently he was nominated for a 2009 Tony award for his original score of the Broadway show Cry-Baby and he wrote the lyrics for Stephen Colbert's Christmas special, A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All. He has won the James Thurber Award for American Humor, two Peabody Awards, and the Television Critics Awards for both Best Comedy and Best News Show. He lives in New York.
Monday, November 9
THRILLER NIGHT!
MICHELLE GAGNON, The Gatekeeper - MARK COGGINS, The Big Wakeup - 7:30 PMSpecial Agent Kelly Jones returns in Michelle Gagnon's new novel. Drugged then kidnapped, a young girl wakes up to a nightmare. From the moment sixteen-year-old Madison is abducted, an unthinkable terrorist plot is set in motion, pitting Special Agent Jones against her most powerful adversary yet.
Mark Coggins, the award-winning author of The Immortal Game and Runoff and two other books featuring August Riordan, delivers The Big Wakeup, plunging PI Riordan and his sidekick Chris Duckworth into their most terrifying and anguishing case ever.
The odyssey of Eva Perón was as remarkable in death as it was in life. A few years after she succumbed to cervical cancer, her specially preserved body was taken by the military dictatorship that succeeded her deposed husband Juan. Hidden for sixteen years in Italy in a crypt under a false name, she was eventually exhumed and returned to Buenos Aires to be buried in an underground tomb said to be secure enough to withstand a nuclear attack. Or was she?