Archive
Friends,
below are some great events coming up at the Book Smith at 1644 Haight St. between Clayton & Cole (863-8688)
Monday, February 28
7:30 PM
MARK HERTSGAARD
Hot: Living Through the Next 50 Years on Earth
Long before Al Gore and the rest of the world were paying any attention to the issue of global warming, The Nation’s environmental correspondent Mark Hertsgaard was travelling the world attempting to understand this largely misunderstood phenomenon and the threat it posed to our existence. Recent environmental catastrophes, including the floods in Pakistan that have left nearly a fifth of the country under water and 20 million people homeless, have only driven home the unavoidable fact that global warming has, without a doubt, arrived—more than a hundred years earlier than expected.
Considered one of the most informed and judicious journalists covering the issue of global warming today and described by Barbara Ehrenreich (Nickel and Dimed) as “one of America’s finest reporters”, Hertsgaard illuminates how our day-to-day experience is going to change in the next five, ten, and fifty years: Chicago’s climate transformed to resemble Houston’s; the loss of cherished crops and luxuries, such as California wines; the redesign of U.S. cities.
Addressing problems we'll face very soon and revealing where they'll be most serious, Hertsgaard offers "pictures" of what unbiased experts expect, and looks at who is taking wise, creative precautions. All the while, he delivers a resounding, motivating message of hope that will spur activism among parents, college students, and readers alike. Taking Bill McKibben’sEaarth to the next essential step, Hot is a call to action, not just about how we'll live, but about how we will survive.
“I know what you're thinking: The problem is so massive I can't bear to read any more about it. But you’re wrong. Mark Hertsgaard not only makes the workings of climate change clear, vivid and comprehensible but gives us some reasons for hope. Some of the ways to fight or adapt to global warming are simpler—and more unexpected—than you would think, and some of the places where these lessons are being applied you never would have guessed. Hot is a lively, personal, very human piece of reportage about an issue that will ever more be at the very center of our lives.” -- Adam Hochschild, author of King Leopold’s Ghost
“Mark Hertsgaard is the master of a kind of travelogue reporting that lets you understand possibilities and problems in a deep way. But this time, one of the places he's traveling to is the near future, and the news he brings back is equal parts scary, invigorating, and full of challenge. This is an important book.” -- Bill McKibben, author of Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet
Mark Hertsgaard has written for The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and Time, and is author of four books, including Earth Odyssey. He has traveled the world seeking answers to the question of how to keep humanity alive in the face of global warning. A Soros fellow, he recently attended the Copenhagen Conference, widely considered the most important global meeting in the history of the climate issue.Monday, March 7
7:30 PM
An Evening at the Movies with Humphrey Bogart
A Talk with Film Clips:
STEFAN KANFER
Tough without a Gun:
The Life and Extraordinary Afterlife of Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey Bogart: it’s hard to think of anyone who’s had the same lasting impact on the culture of movies. Though he died at the young age of fifty-seven more than half a century ago, his influence among actors and filmmakers, and his enduring appeal for film lovers around the world, remains as strong as ever. What is it about Bogart, with his unconventional looks and noticeable speech impediment, that has captured our collective imagination for so long? In this definitive biography, Stefan Kanfer answers that question, along the way illuminating the private man Bogart was and shining the spotlight on some of the greatest performances ever captured on celluloid.Bogart fell into show business almost by accident and worked for nearly twenty years before becoming the star we know today. Born into a life of wealth and privilege in turn-of-the-century New York, Bogart was a troublemaker throughout his youth, getting kicked out of prep school and running away to join the navy at the age of nineteen. After a short, undistinguished stint at sea, Bogart spent his early twenties drifting aimlessly from one ill-fitting career to another, until, through a childhood friend, he got his first theater job. Working first as a stagehand and then, reluctantly, as a bit-part player, Bogart cut his teeth in one forgettable role after another. But it was here he began to develop a work ethic; deciding that there were “two kinds of men: professionals and bums,” Bogart, for the first time in his life, wanted to be the former.
After the Crash of ’29, Bogart headed west to try his luck in Hollywood. That luck was scarce, and he slogged through more than thirty B-movie roles before his drinking buddy John Huston wrote him a part that would change everything; with High Sierra, Bogart finally broke through at the age of forty—being a pro had paid off.
What followed was a string of movies we have come to know as the most beloved classics of American cinema: The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, The Big Sleep, The African Queen . . . the list goes on and on. Kanfer appraises each of the films with an unfailing critical eye, weaving in lively accounts of behind-the-scenes fun and friendships, including, of course, the great love story of Bogart and Bacall. What emerges in these pages is the portrait of a great Hollywood life, and the final word on why there can only ever be one Bogie.
Stefan Kanfer’s books include Ball of Fire: The Tumultuous Life and Comic Art of Lucille Ball; Stardust Lost: The Triumph, Tragedy, and Mishugas of the Yiddish Theater in America; and Somebody: The Reckless Life and Remarkable Career of Marlon Brando. He was a writer and editor at Time for more than twenty years and was its first bylined film critic, a post he held between 1967 and 1972. He is also the primary interviewer in the Academy Award–nominated documentary The Line Kingand editor of an anthology of Groucho Marx’s comedy, The Essential Groucho. He is a Literary Lion of the New York Public Library and recipient of numerous writing awards.
Tuesday, March 8
7:30 PM
ANGELA BALCITA
Moonface:
A True Romance
From the pages of the New York Times’ Modern Love column comes one woman’s moving and uproarious story of how love and laughter rescued her from life-threatening illness. Angela Balcita’s cathartic memoir of finding love while wrestling with kidney failure will strike a chord with anyone yearning for a poignant, true-to-life romance…with a real fairy tale ending.
At the age of eighteen, Angela Balcita had reached a point in her life when her health could not keep up with her optimistic personality. After suffering kidney failure and after her body's rejection of the kidney her brother donated to her, she was in desperate need of a transplant. Lucky for Angela, she had found the ultimate partner in crime: her boyfriend, Charlie. Although they had known each other for only a short period of time, Charlie offered Angela his kidney.
The ensuing story is unforgettable, with readers following Angela and Charlie's journey through preparations for their respective surgeries; the procedures themselves, difficult yet emotionally riveting; the process of recuperation through the relapses; and the eventual healing—both inside and out—that greets this undeniably powerful duo.
Angela Balcita received her MFA in nonfiction writing from the University of Iowa. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Iowa Review, and Utne Reader, among other publications. She lives in Baltimore with her husband and daughter.
Sunday, March 13
4:00 PM
ALAN PAUL
Big in China:
My Unlikely Adventure Raising a Family, Playing the Blues, and Becoming a Star in Beijing
When Alan Paul urged his wife to accept an offer to become the Wall Street Journal’s China Bureau Chief, he looked forward to the new life they and their three young children would experience relocating from Maplewood, New Jersey to Beijing. After years as a freelance writer and stay-at-home dad, he couldn’t wait to immerse himself and his family in a completely foreign culture. Three-and-a-half years later, Paul was an award-winning columnist writing about his expat life and the front man for a Chinese-American blues band that would be voted “Beijing’s Best Band” and become a national touring sensation.
Though he didn’t speak a word of Chinese at the outset, Paul loved everything about the country: the energy, the culture, the sites and the food. “Even the pea-soup pollution didn’t give me second thoughts,” he writes. Once there, the family worked hard getting to know the “real” China while avoiding getting stuck inside the expat bubble. As part of his journey of reinvention, Paul became the leader of a band he named Woodie Alan, and was soon touring the country with his band mates, one of two non-Chinese members. The band’s success was exhilarating, and Paul would come to view his experiences with Woodie Alan as a microcosm of his entire stay in China. But it was only one part of the journey, as he learned to see what at first was an intimidating challenge as a singular opportunity to rediscover his passions and reboot his life.
Entertaining and thought-provoking, Big in China is a testament to the transformative power of the expatriate experience and to the importance of keeping your horizons wide.
Alan Paul wrote “The Expat Life” column for the Wall Street Journal Online from 2005 until June 2009, shortly after he moved back to the United States. His columns earned a wide following, and the National Society of Newspaper Columnists named him 2008 Online Columnist of the Year. He also reported from Beijing for NBC, Sports Illustrated, The Wall Street Journal, and others. Paul is a senior writer for Slam andGuitar World magazines, and his writing has also appeared in The New Yorker, Entertainment Weekly, People, ESPN.com, RollingStone.com, and many other publications and websites. He has contributed to the Rolling Stone Jazz and Blues Guide, The Insider’s Guide to Beijing and several other books.
Alan’s band, Woodie Alan, was voted Beijing Band of the Year in the 2008 City Weekend Reader’s Poll and has toured and performed throughout China. Their debut CD, “Beijing Blues” (Guitar China Records), has been praised by musical luminaries ranging from the Allman Brothers Band’s Derek Trucks and Warren Haynes to ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons. For more information about the band including music and videos, click www.alanpaul.net.
Wednesday, March 16
7:30 PM
Mystery Double-Header:
CARA BLACK
Murder in Passy
LIBBY FISCHER HELLMAN
Set the Night on Fire
Cara Black’s Aimée Leduc is back again – and encounters Basque terrorists, police corruption, and a Spanish princess as she tries to clear her godfather of murder inMurder in Passy.
The village-like neighborhood of Passy, home to many wealthy Parisians, is the
last place one would expect a murder. But when Aimée Leduc’s godfather, Morbier, a police commissaire, asks her to check on his girlfriend at her home there, that’s exactly what Aimée finds. Xavierre, a haut bourgeois matron of Basque origin, is strangled in her garden while Aimée waits inside. Circumstantial
evidence makes Morbier the prime suspect, and to vindicate him, Aimée must
identify the real killer.
“No contemporary writer of noir mysteries evokes the spirit of Paris more than Cara Black in her atmospheric series starring P.I. Aimée Leduc…. Fearless, risk-taking Aimée is constantly running, hiding, fighting and risking her life—all while dressed in vintage Chanel and Dior and Louboutin heels.” -- USA Today
Libby Fischer Hellman’s Set the Night on Fire paints an unforgettable portrait of Chicago during a turbulent time: the riots at the Democratic Convention... the struggle for power between the Black Panthers and SDS... and a group of young idealists who tried to change the world.
Someone is trying to kill Lila Hilliard. During the Christmas holidays she returns from running errands to find her family home in flames, her father and brother trapped inside. Later, she is attacked by a mysterious man on a motorcycle... and the threats don't end there.
As Lila desperately tries to piece together who is after her and why, she uncovers information about her father's past in Chicago during the volatile days of the late 1960s... information he never shared with her, but now threatens to destroy her.
"A tremendous thriller, sweeping but intimate, elegiac but urgent, subtle but intense... this story really does set the night on fire." -- Lee Child
Cara Black lives in San Francisco, when she’s not in Paris. Libby Hellman is a Washington DC transplant living in Chicago.