Archive
Friends,
below are some great events coming up at the Book Smith at 1644 Haight St. between Clayton & Cole (863-8688)
Thursday, November 3
7:30 PM
STEPHEN BEACHY
BONEYARD
Jake Yoder, a precocious boy caught between Amish culture and the modern world, sits in his sixth-grade classroom writing stories at the behest of a stern but charismatic teacher. Jake’s stories feature children who are crushed, imprisoned, and distorted, yet somehow flailing around with a kind of bedazzled awe, trying to find a way out. His characters wander through Amish farms, one-room schoolhouses, South American plains, mental institutions, exotic cities, and prisons; his often haunting and beautiful sentences seem constructed to the beat of an obsessive internal rhythm.
The strange logic and disturbing shifts in Jake’s tales reveal a young boy processing intense emotional experiences in the wake of his mother’s suicide and his own proximity to the schoolroom shootings at Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, in 2006. Jake imagines fantastic journeys, magical transformations, and rock stardom as alternatives, it seems, to his own grim reality and the limitations of his life among the Amish.
Novelist Stephen Beachy frames Jake’s work with commentary from both himself and his editor, in which they offer their very different views on Amish culture, literary context, the use of psychoactive medications for children, Stephen’s own mental health, and the reality of Jake Yoder’s unverified existence.
“Intelligent cultural critique wrapped in a twisty, turny, funny, damning fairy tale that happened neither long ago nor far away but every day and here.” -- Rebecca Brown
Stephen Beachy’s previous books are Distortion, The Whistling Song, and Some Phantom/No Time Flat. His article in New York Magazine in 2005 exposing JT LeRoy as a fake gained him a cult following of sorts. Beach teaches in the MFA program at USF.
Friday, November 4
6:30 PM
BOOKSWAP: SCIENCE EDITION!
Our last bookswap of 2011 happens November 4th, and we're ready to go out with a Big Bang. That's right - a bookswap with a science theme, because nerds are cool now (thanks, Steve Jobs).
Docents from Night Life at the California Academy of Sciences will be on hand to make sure this month's 'swap is not only fun, but educational. And, as always, kilos of delicious food (metric - for science!), 20% discount for bookswappers, and wine that flows like... well, wine.
Bring any book that tickles your neurons (science fiction counts!), provided you can still talk about it after three drinks, and then be prepared to bittersweetly part with it. Don't fret about giving it up! Most patrons leave with armfuls of free books.
Tickets are $25, and this event ALWAYS sells out. Tickets must be purchased in advance, in the store, or at Brown Paper Tickets (or phone 800-838-3006).
Tuesday, November 8
7:30 PM
FARIBA NAWA
OPIUM NATION:
Child Brides, Drug Lords, and One Woman’s Journey Through Afghanistan
Afghan-American journalist Fariba Nawa delivers a revealing and deeply personal exploration of Afghanistan and the drug trade which rules the country, from corrupt officials to warlords and child brides and beyond. Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner and AThousand Splendid Suns calls OPIUM NATION “an insightful and informative look at the global challenge of Afghan drug trade.
Nawa weaves her personal story of reconnecting with her homeland after 9/11 with a very engaging narrative that chronicles Afghanistan’s dangerous descent into opium trafficking…and most revealingly, how the drug trade has damaged the lives of ordinary Afghan people.” Readers of Gayle Lemmon Tzemach’s The Dressmaker of Khair Khana and Rory Stewart’s The Places Between will find Nawa’s personal, piercing, journalistic tale to be an indispensable addition to the cultural criticism covering this dire global crisis.
Sharing remarkable stories of poppy farmers, corrupt officials, expats, drug lords, and addicts, including her haunting encounter with a twelve-year-old child bride who was bartered to pay off her father’s opium debts, Nawa offers a revealing and provocative narrative of a homecoming more difficult than she ever imagined as she courageously explores her own Afghan American identity and unveils a startling portrait of a land in turmoil.
Fariba Nawa has written for the San Francisco Chronicle, the Christian Science Monitor, Mother Jones, The Sunday Times Magazine(London), Newsday, and the Village Voice. She has been a guest on NPR, the BBC, MTV, NBC, and CBS’s 48 Hours.
“Opium Nation brings much needed depth and complexity to any conversation involving Afghanistan and its future. Fariba Nawa writes with the detailed eye of a journalist, the warmth of a proud Afghan and the nuanced perspective of someone effortlessly straddling the East and the West.”
— Firoozeh Dumas, author of Laughing Without an Accent and Funny in Farsi
Wednesday, November 9
7:30 PM
PETER ORNER
LOVE AND SHAME AND LOVE
Covering four generations of the Popper family, Peter Orner illuminates the countless ways that love both makes us whole and completely unravels us. Alternately comic and sorrowful, LOVE AND SHAME AND LOVE: A Novel explores the universals with stunning originality and wisdom.
Alexander Popper can’t stop remembering. Four years old when his father tossed him into Lake Michigan, he was told, Sink or swim, kid. In his mind, he’s still bobbing in that frigid water. The rest of this novel’s vivid cast of characters also struggle to remain afloat: Popper’s mother, stymied by an unhappy marriage, seeks solace in the relentless energy of Chicago; his brother, Leo, shadow boss of the family, retreats into books; paternal grandparents, Seymour and Bernice, once high fliers, now mourn for long-lost days; his father, a lawyer and would-be politician obsessed with his own success, fails to see that the family is falling apart; and his college girlfriend, the fiercely independent Kat, wrestles with impossible choices.
Peter Orner was born in Chicago and is the author of two widely praised books, Esther Stories and The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo. Orner is also the editor of two books of oral history, Underground America and Hope Deferred: Narratives of Zimbabwean Lives. His work has appeared in the Atlantic Monthly and The Best American Short Stories, and has been awarded two Pushcart Prizes. A 2006 Guggenheim Fellow, Orner has taught at the University of Montana and the Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa and is a permanent faculty member at San Francisco State University. He lives with his family in San Francisco.
Thursday, November 10
7:30 PM
GERALD NICOSIA
ONE AND ONLY: The Untold Story of On the Road
Beat historian Gerald Nicosia spent years looking for Lu Anne Henderson, the woman who started Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady on their journey, because he knew that if not for her, the two men wouldn’t have taken the road trip that became On the Road. With the help of Lu Anne’s daughter Anne Marie Santos, Nicosia tells the story of the beautiful 15-year-old girl who loved both men, and taught them how to love each other, in ONE AND ONLY: The Untold Story of On The Road.
Nicosia had interviewed Henderson in 1978, when she was 47 and he was just in his early 20s, and though he said “a lot of Lu Anne was beyond me then,” he understood what a great gift she had given him. She had long strenuously avoided the spotlight—Nicosia only found her through an off-hand comment from a fellow Beat aficionado—and she quickly dropped out of sight again after they spoke. As the author of Memory Babe, widely regarded as the definitive work on Jack Kerouac, he alone recognized her secret impact on 20th century literature. ONE AND ONLY includes the never-before-published transcription of the 34,000-word taped interview and is illustrated with fifty-five rare archival black-and-white photographs, including priceless pictures of Neil Cassady and Jack Kerouac, Alan Ginsberg and others, many of which have never before been seen.
Nicosia’s book coincides with the release of the long-awaited Walter Salles movie of On the Road later this fall, in which Kristen Stewart will portray Marylou, the character based on Lu Anne Henderson. The actors starring in the film weren’t born when On the Road was published. To educate them, Director Salles created “Beat boot camp,” enlisting ONE AND ONLY author Gerald Nicosia as the first instructor.
Lu Anne has routinely been portrayed as a teenage slut, which is how she came off in Carolyn Cassady’s memoir Heart Beat, made into a major movie in 1980. Finally, in ONE AND ONLY, we see Henderson as astutely sensitive and keenly observant about her own life, that of her friends, and the human condition. In preparing for her role, Kristen Stewart was having a hard time making sense of how Lu Anne could still love Neal, despite his endless cheating on her. After listening to the taped interview that is at the heart of this book, Kristen said she found the key to playing Marylou in the movie “as her own woman, not Neal’s.”
Gerald Nicosia is a biographer, historian, poet, playwright and novelist. His biography of Jack Kerouac won the Distinguished Young Writer Award from the National Society of Arts and Letters and was called a “great book” by Allen Ginsberg and “by far the best of the many books published about Jack Kerouac’s life and work” by William Burroughs. His book Home to War: A History of the Vietnam Veterans' Movement won numerous honors and was named one of the Los Angeles Times “Best Books of the Year” in 2001. He is currently at work on a biography of Ntozake Shange.
A SPECIAL BOOKSIGNING WITH A MASTER OF URBAN ART
Friday, November 11
6:30 PM
JUSTIN BUA
With DJ QBERT
THE LEGENDS OF HIP HOP:
Honoring the Greatest Names in Hip Hop History and Culture
A collection of portraits and personal essays by pop iconic artist and author Justin BUA, internationally known for his bestselling collection of fine-art posters, THE LEGENDS OF HIP HOP pays homage to 50 of the greatest names in hip hop history, using portraiture to celebrate each individual's revolutionary contribution to the global phenomenon known as hip hop. From Afrika Bambaataa, Queen Latifah, and LL Cool J to Snoop Dogg, Jay-Z, and Eminem, BUA captures the spirit of both the unsung and iconic heroes who have shaped music, art, dance, fashion, even language and politics. Each portrait is accompanied by a personal essay that details each individual's impact—not only on cultural history, but on BUA’s own life and work. THE LEGENDS OF HIP HOP comes not from an investigative academic, but from an authentic source who—as a native New Yorker and young artist—witnessed the birth and development of hip hop from a community movement to its explosion into a global industry.
Justin BUA attended NY's LaGuardia High School of Music & Performing Arts and Art Center College in CA, where he received a BFA.The Beat of Urban Art was his first book. BUA has created art for the music, film, fashion, and entertainment industries, with clients like Warner Brothers, Comedy Central, MTV, Sony, and EA Sports. BUA's art sells at galleries worldwide as well as at retail giants like Target. Recent credits include art direction for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's acclaimed film "On the Shoulders of Giants," as well as the direction and hosting of Ovation TV's hit documentary "Walk this Way," about rapper DMC of RUN-D.M.C. BUA lives in Los Angeles.
Please note: copies of BUA’s book must be purchased from The Booksmith in order to be signed. Advance orders may be placed in the store, by email (orders@booksmith.com), by phone (415-863-8688), and online (Booksmith.com). The Legends of Hip Hop will be available from the beginning of November on.