Archive
Friends,
below are some great events coming up at the Book Smith at 1644 Haight St. between Clayton & Cole (863-8688)
Monday, November 15
7:30 PM
SAID SAYRAFIEZADEH
When Skateboards Will Be Free
"When Skateboards Will Be Free is a brave, honest and elegant book. It felt like the story was being whispered in my ear. I haven’t read a memoir in quite a while that has so skillfully made sense of an American childhood." -- Colum McCann, author ofLet the Great World Spin
“The revolution is not only inevitable, it is imminent. It is not only imminent, it is quite imminent. And when the time comes, my father will lead it.”With a profound gift for capturing the absurd in life, and a deadpan wisdom that comes from surviving a surreal childhood in the Socialist Workers Party, Saïd Sayrafiezadeh has crafted an unsentimental, funny, heartbreaking memoir.
Saïd’s Iranian-born father and American Jewish mother had one thing in common: their unshakable conviction that the workers’ revolution was coming. Separated since their son was nine months old, they each pursued a dream of the perfect socialist society. Pinballing with his mother between makeshift Pittsburgh apartments, falling asleep at party meetings, longing for the luxuries he’s taught to despise, Said waits for the revolution that never, ever arrives. “Soon,” his mother assures him, while his long-absent father quixotically runs as a socialist candidate for president in an Iran about to fall under the ayatollahs. Then comes the hostage crisis. The uproar that follows is the first time Saïd hears the word “Iran” in school. There he is suddenly forced to confront the combustible stew of his identity: as an American, an Iranian, a Jew, a socialist... and a middle-school kid who loves football and video games.
Poised perfectly between tragedy and farce, here is a story by a brilliant young writer struggling to break away from the powerful mythologies of his upbringing and create a life—and a voice—of his own. Saïd Sayrafiezadeh’s memoir is unforgettable.
“[Saïd Sayrafiezadeh is a name] that you may want to remember…if this exacting and finely made first book is any indication…[He] writes with extraordinary power and restraint…[His] prose has some of [Isaac Bashevis] Singer’s wistful comedy, and good deal of that writer’s curiosity about the places where desire, self-sacrifice and societal obligation intersect and collide.” -- New York Times
When Skateboards Will Be Free was selected as one of the ten best books of 2009 by Dwight Garner of The New York Times. His short stories and essays have appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Granta, The New York Times Book Review, and numerous other publications. Born in Brooklyn to a Jewish American mother and an Iranian father, raised in Pittsburgh, Saïd lives in New York City with his wife Karen Mainenti.
Tuesday, November 16
7:30 PM
KEVIN KELLY
What Technology Wants
Most of us have a love / hate relationship with new inventions—take the “crackberry,” for example. In WHAT TECHNOLOGY WANTS, Kevin Kelly declares this conflict as inherent to all technology. But he also argues that technology is an extension of life -- and an acceleration of the mind. Technology is not anti-nature, but rather the “seventh kingdom” of life: it now shares with life certain biases, urges, needs and tendencies.The system of technology, which Kelly dubs the “technium,” “wants” in an unconscious way to head in certain directions, just as do life and evolution. The technium functions as a living, natural system. Just as evolution has tendencies, urges, trajectories, established forms, and a direction, so too does the technium.
So what is technology’s agenda? Where is it headed? What is the true nature of its increasing presence in our society? And how do the goals of the technological agenda relate to humanity’s goals? These are the questions Kelly examines as he uncovers three practical lessons: 1) by listening to what technology wants we can better prepare ourselves and our children for the inevitable technologies to come. 2) by adopting the principles of pro-action and engagement, we can steer technologies into their best roles. 3) and by aligning ourselves with the long-term imperatives of this near-living system, we can capture its full gifts.
Kevin Kelly is one of the true visionaries of our time. He was editor and publisher ofWhole Earth Review, helped launch Wired magazine and was its editor for nearly six years, and has been involved in such cultural innovations as The Hacker’s Conference, the early online community The Well, and the All Species Inventory. His last book, New Rules for the New Economy, sold over 100,000 copies in hardcover and paperback and hit the New York Times Business, Wall Street Journal, andBusiness Week bestseller lists. Kelly writes for publications including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Time, Harpers, Science, GQ, andEsquire, and he is currently editor and publisher of the popular Cool Tools, True Films, and Street Use websites.
Thursday, November 18
7:30 PM
SHAUGNESSY BISHOP-STALL
Ghosted
Growing up, Mason Dubisee had a hundred future selves: Jedi. Cowboy. Jedi-cowboy. Explorer. Rock star. Sandinista-Gandhi-Hemingway-Indiana-Jones type thing. But at thirty, he must finally face the truth: He’s a drug-addled drifter, an aspiring novelist unable to move beyond lists of titles and themes.Desperate, he takes a job as “The Dogfather”—a downtown hot dog vendor. When a mysterious customer hires him to write a very personal letter, he stumbles into a shadow career, ghostwriting suicide notes for the despondent. The gig helps cover his gambling debts but takes an emotional toll. The trouble is, Mason is hardwired to rescue people, and no one needs rescuing more than the suicidal. Except maybe Willy, the heroin-addicted beauty he’s falling for.
What happens when someone wrestling with his own demons immerses himself in other people’s tragedies? Quite a lot: A hotdog cart is totaled, a convict sprung, a funeral faked, a head scalped, a horse stolen. As Mason’s professional and personal lives become entangled, his sanity is tested -- as is the line between suicide and murder.
Ghosted is a gritty literary thriller, a black comedy, a high-stakes poker caper, an urban cowboy adventure, and a love story. Bishop-Stall plunges fearlessly into the perilous terrain of drugs, love, and death in this ambitious debut.
Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall left Vancouver at seventeen to hitchhike to Costa Rica. After teaching English, painting houses, and picking olives in Mexico, Italy, and Spain, he worked as an actor and journalist and currently teaches writing at the University of Toronto. His book Down to This chronicles his year living with the homeless in the continent’s largest shantytown. He lives in Toronto.
Friday, November 19
6:00 PM – 7:30 PM
GREG GRAFFIN
Anarchy Evolution:
Faith, Science, and Bad Religion in a World Without God
“Take one man who rejects authority and religion, and leads a punk band. Take another man who wonders whether vertebrates arose in rivers or in the ocean, is fascinated by evolution, creativity, and Ice Age animals. Put them together, what do you get? Greg Graffin, and this uniquely fascinating book.”
— Jared Diamond, author of Guns, Germs, and Steel and Collapse
Most people recognize Greg as a punk icon, the lead singer of the legendary punk band Bad Religion, though many people don’t know is that he is a professor of Life Sciences and Evolution at UCLA. In Anarchy Evolution, Graffin weds his experiences in punk culture and the academic world, and explores the deep connection between art, religion, and science. Early this evening, Greg offers “Office Hours”, when you’ll have a chance to ask him questions about the book, his teaching work, and how his experiences in punk culture tie in with his academic pursuits
“I’ve always had a problem with authority.”
—Greg Graffin
As an adolescent growing up when “drugs, sex, and trouble could be had on any given night,” Graffin discovered that the study of evolution provided a framework through which he could make sense of the world. In this provocative and personal book, Graffin describes his own coming of age as an artist, as well as the formation of his naturalist worldview on questions involving God, science, and human meaning.
“Humble, challenging, and inspiring....For Graffin, the appeal of both worlds was that, at their best, they challenged authority, dogma and given truths and opened up space for the anarchic process of creativity.” -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Graffin is one of those rare people who seem to have combined two lives into one. He’s one of a small but growing number of atheists in the United States willing to talk about the damage they believe religion can do.” -- Paste
Greg Graffin, born in Madison, Wisconsin, obtained his Ph.D. at Cornell University in zoology, and his master's degree at UCLA in geology. He has served as a lecturer in life sciences and paleontology at UCLA. 2010 marks the 30th anniversary of quintessential Los Angeles punk rock pioneers Bad Religion, and to kick off the yearlong celebration the band performed music spanning their storied career at multiple-night shows at House of Blues in Los Angeles, Anaheim, San Diego and Las Vegas. Having just completed their 15th studio album, they’ve finished a tour of Europe, and are now on tour in the US and Canada. Formed in 1980 in the suburbs of Los Angeles by teenage friends, Bad Religion have become synonymous with intelligent and provocative West Coast punk rock and are considered one of the most influential and important bands in the genre. Over the past three decades the band has continually pushed social boundaries and questioned authority and beliefs armed only with propulsive guitars, charging drumbeats, thoughtful lyrics and an undying will to inspire and provoke anyone who will listen.
Graffin’s co-author, who can’t be with us this evening, is Steve Olson, the author ofMapping Human History: Genes, Race, and Our Common Origins, which was one of five finalists for the 2002 nonfiction National Book Award and received the Science-in-Society Award from the National Association of Science Writers. He has been a consultant writer for the National Academy of Sciences as well as other organizations, and his writing has been featured in Atlantic Monthly, the Washington Post, Scientific American, and Wired, among other publications.
Preferred seating ticket available with the purchase of Anarchy Evolution at The Booksmith, while supplies last. This is Graffin’s only Bay Area signing.
KIDS @ THE BOOKSMITH:
Saturday, November 20
11:00 AM
How to Care for the Earth
with TODD PARR and the Rainforest Action Network
Bring the kids and join children’s author Todd Parr and Rainforest Action Network for a program on caring for rainforests and a reading of New York Times’ best-seller The Earth Book. The program will be followed by book signing and plenty of time for holiday shopping with The Earth Book and other Rainforest Safe titles available.
Todd Parr is the author and illustrator of more than 35 books. He is the creator of ToddWorld, an award winning, 3-time Emmy-nominated TV show for pre-school that airs around the world. Todd also recently partnered with Sesame Street Workshop to create short films, with the first one titled “Fears” airing in September during the premier episode of Season 41.
Rainforest Action Network is a San Francisco based environmental organization that campaigns for the forests, their inhabitants and the natural systems that sustain life by transforming the global marketplace through education, grassroots organizing, and non-violent direct action.