Archive
Friends,
below are some great events coming up at the Book Smith at 1644 Haight St. between Clayton & Cole (863-8688)
Amoeba Records joins The Booksmith in presenting Thursday, February 18 7:30 PM
Yvonne Prinz THE VINYL PRINCESS with live music from Matthew Edwards
Sixteen-year-old Allie, a self-professed music geek, has her dream job working at Berkeley’s independent record store, Bob and Bob’s Records. It’s shaping up to be a summer like never before, what with her mother starting to date again after the divorce, business at Bob and Bob’s getting dangerously slow, Allie crushing on a handsome stranger and, biggest of all, her new blog, The Vinyl Princess, which seems to be gaining interest one vinyl junkie at a time…
THE VINYL PRINCESS is a love letter to music, and the perfect companion for readers who walk through life with their earphones in, heads nodding to the rhythm of song, dreaming of all the great things that are to come.
Yvonne Prinz has written three books in the Clare series; Still There, Clare was was nominated for an IPPY Award (an Independent Publisher Award) and a Red Cedar Award. Not Fair, Clare was recently shortlisted for the Red Maple Award. A Canadian living in San Francisco, Prinz founded the famed independent music store Amoeba Records (our neighbor!) with her husband. There, she keeps her finger on the pulse of hip teen culture. You can read the blog of The Vinyl Princess at www.thevinylprincess.com
Matthew Edwards, the driving force behind The Music Lovers, will play a short acoustic set this evening; his song, “The Former Miss Ontario” is on the CD mix that accompanies Yvonne’s book. Be prepared for some cool giveaways, too!
Monday, February 22 7:30 PM Tara Austen Weaver
THE BUTCHER & THE VEGETARIAN: One Woman’s Romp Through a World of Men, Meat, and Moral Crisis
Food writer and blogger Tara Austen Weaver shares her uproarious, firsthand account of what happens when a lifelong vegetarian enters the mysterious world of Chateaubriands, London Broils, and osso buco style cuts... and the men who spend their days working with them.
Growing up in a family that kept jars of bean sprouts on its windowsill before such things were desirable or hip, Weaver never thought she'd stray from vegetarianism. But as an adult, she found herself in poor health, and, having tried cures of every kind, a doctor finally ordered her to eat meat. Warily, she ventured into the butcher shop, and as the man behind the counter wrapped up her first-ever chicken, she found herself charmed. Eventually, he dared her to cook her way through his meat counter. As Tara navigates through this new world -- grass-fed beef vs. grain-fed beef; finding chickens that are truly free-range -- she's tempted to give up and go back to eating tempeh. The more she learns about meat and how it's produced, and the effects eating it has on the human body and the planet, the less she feels she knows. She embarks upon a sometimes hilarious, sometimes frightening whirlwind tour that takes her from slaughterhouse to chef's table, from urban farm to the hearthside of cow wranglers. Along the way, she meets an unforgettable cast of characters who all seem to take a vested interest in whether she opts for turnips or T-bones.
Tara Austen Weaver is an award-winning writer whose work focuses on the themes of food, travel, art, and adventure. Her writing has been published in Edible San Francisco, on Chow.com, and in numerous anthologies. Her food blog, Tea and Cookies, was selected by the Times of London as one of the top food blogs in the world.
Tuesday, February 23 7:00 PM Found in Translation Book Group Meeting: Elias Khoury’s YALO
Everyone wants to know more about the Middle East, and Yalo is an excellent chance to find out.. Set in Beirut during Lebanon's civil war, this is the bracing story of a man falsely picked up by the police for terrorism and tortured into a false confession. Written by one of the Arab world's leading authors, Yalo is a great book for discussion. We'll try to unwind this complex plot and see what we can learn from this book about the Middle East world.
Join us on the fourth Tuesday of every month at 7:00 PM in the bookstore for spirited conversation about some of the newest writing hitting the U.S. from all over the globe. No foreign language knowledge necessary and no continental savvy required (but will be appreciated!) -- just bring your desire to read some excellent new books, hand-selected for you by the Booksmith's knowledgeable booksellers. You'll also meet some great new people (including Scott Esposito and Annie Janusch, who will guide each monthly conversation. Scott and Annie's work with both The Quarterly Conversation and the Center for the Art of Translation keeps them apprised on a day-to-day basis of what's new in world lit, and they're excited to act as your "interpreters" through these uncharted literary landscapes) and chat with them about the best new fiction from around the world.
Thursday, February 25 7:30 PM Marisa Matarazzo DRENCHED: Stories of Love and Other Deliriums
Two lovers accidentally create a love potion while making a batch of Jell-O. An apartment is filled with water as an act of gravity-defying devotion to an acrobat. At turns blissful, absurd, sexy, and devastating, Marisa Matarazzo’s stories don’t just push the boundaries of love – they show how very boundless it is.
These interconnected shorts take love to a new level, another world, where a sex fever can sweep a town and where sex acts are performed while tied to the raised mast of a sailboat. Falling into love, swimming, and drowning in it, Matarazzo’s characters often exist in places where land and water collide: a girl without hands is rescued from the sea by an oil-rig worker; a boy transplants a fish into the body of a menacing neighbor; a woman on the rebound has an unexpected encounter with an otherworldly water engineer…
Fusing magical realism and fantastical elements with the heart of here and now, Drenched is a celebration of the fluid sorcery of love – in its ardor, its ugliness, all of its uncanny and magnificent manifestations.
Saturday, February 27 1:00 – 7:30 PM MAGAZINE DAY
Piles of unread magazines falling to the floor and tormenting you?
Never again!
Join Booksmith and local writer Kevin Smokler for the First Ever celebration of Magazine Day, a nationwide holiday dedicated to magazines and catching up on the ones you haven't read yet. On the afternoon of February 27, Booksmith will convert itself into a giant magazine reading room. Bring your own unread magazines, share then with others when you’re done with them, and pick over Booksmith's magazine racks with impunity (but without coffee stains…)
At 6 PM, we’ll convene a group of magazine publishers and aficionados to talk about the state of magazine publishing today. All speakers will be announced soon; the group will include Derek Powazek (Fray) and Jen Angel (formerly of clamour)
$5 gets you an all-afternoon reading pass, wine and snacks, and take-home mags from the communal already-read pile. And more: presentations and giveaways by local magazine publishers and discussion groups will happen throughout the day. Tickets are available at Brown Paper Tickets or 800-838-3006 and in the store.
Magazine Day: Because the unread deserve a day too.
Tuesday, March 2 7:30 PM ERIC PUCHNER
Model Home: A Novel
"Eric Puchner's Model Home is 1980s California in a nutshell: bright and frantic, giddy and broke, desperate and strong and always, always moving." – Daniel Handler, author of Adverbs
Eric Puchner’s Music Through the Floor was one of the best-received story collections in years. His debut novel, a sweeping yet intimate story of the American dream in remission, viewed through the microscope of a single family, proves yet again just “how exhilarating it is to come across a young writer as technically gifted and emotionally insightful as Eric Puchner” (The New York Times Book Review)
The Zillers – Warren, Camille, and their three children – live the good life in a gated Southern California neighborhood, but the sun-bright veneer hides a starker reality. As Warren desperately tries to conceal a failing real estate venture, his family falls prey to secrets and misunderstandings, both hilarious and painful that open fault lines in their intimacy. Their misguided attempts to recover their former closeness, or find it elsewhere, lead them into late-night burglary, improbably romance, and strange acts of betrayal. When tragedy strikes, the Zillers are forced to move to one of the houses in Warren’s abandoned development in the desert. By turns tender and disturbing, irreverent and profound, Model Home is a masterful display of Eric Puchner’s prodigious gifts and penetrating insight – both into the American family and into the imperfect ways we try to connect.
Check out Puchner’s Living with Music piece in the New York Times.
Eric Puchner’s short stories have appeared in Zoetrope: All Story, Chicago Tribune, The Sun, The Missouri Review, Best New American Voices, and many other journals and anthologies. A recipient of a Pushcart Prize, a Wallace Stegner Fellowship, and a National Endowment for the Arts grant, he is an assistant professor of literature at Claremont McKenna College. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, novelist Katharine Noel, and their daughter.
Wednesday, March 3 7:30 PM HELENE JORGENSEN
Sick and Tired: How America’s Health Care System Fails Its Patients
As an active person, Helene Jorgensen decided to enjoy a hike in the mountains one afternoon while attending a conference in Montana. Warned by friends to beware of bears, Jorgensen was attacked by a creature much more menacing -- the Rocky Mountain wood tick. SICK AND TIRED is the story of Jorgensen’s subsequent illness and her descent into the quagmire that is the American health care system.
Returning home from her trip, Jorgensen is quickly debilitated by a mysterious illness and sets out to find a diagnosis and cure. Along the way, she is seen by countless doctors, none of whom seems to be able to diagnose her accurately. She undergoes two surgeries, is forced to quit her job as a labor economist, and is saddled with countless bills and denied payment for claims. Jorgensen quickly learns that the health care system does not work; finally diagnosed with Lyme disease, she struggles for years to receive proper medical treatment.
Based on the author’s notes and observations, statistics, and survey data, SICK AND TIRED details the health care system’s failings and lays out arguments to fix it. As an economist, Jorgensen takes a critical look at conflicts of interest between doctors, pharmaceutical companies, diagnostic laboratories, and insurance companies that restrict treatment options and increase patient charges.
While millions of Americans negotiate the health care system, and try to make sense of health care reform, Helene Jorgensen’s saga will prove an important consideration in the national debate. Her voice will bring hope as she provides advice about how to seek better and more affordable medical care from physicians, health plans, and elected officials.