Archive
Friends,
below are some great events coming up at the Book Smith at 1644 Haight St. between Clayton & Cole (863-8688)
THE CONCLUSION OF THE WICKED YEARS:
Saturday, November 12
7:30 PM
GREGORY MAGUIRE
OUT OF OZ
In Wicked, Gregory Maguire created a rich fantasy world based on the characters and setting of The Wizard of Oz, as told from the point of view of the antagonist of L. Frank Baum’s classic tale. Offering a different look into the land of Oz, one of political and social unrest, Maguire first introduced readers to a little green-skinned girl named Elphaba, the misunderstood creature who grows up to become the infamous villain of Baum’s beloved story. That first novel in the series was followed by the hugely successful and bestselling novelsSon of a Witch, the story of Elphaba’s son Liir, and A Lion Among Men, the story of the Cowardly Lion named Brrr. With more than six million copies of the first three volumes in print, books in the Wicked Series have also been published in twenty countries and have been embraced by young and old alike.
Now in OUT OF OZ: The Final Volume in the Wicked Years, Maguire brings the world of Oz full circle, as he once again takes readers back to the marvelous land of Oz, where the Emerald City is mounting an invasion of Munchkinland, Glinda is held under house arrest, and the Cowardly Lion is on the run from the law. And Dorothy Gale of Kansas makes something more than a cameo appearance. Amidst the chaos, Elphaba’s granddaughter, Rain, comes of age to take up her broom in an Oz wracked by war.
This imaginative and stunning conclusion to one of the most beloved and bestselling series in modern American literature will assuredly please Gregory Maguire’s multitude of fans while gaining him many, many more. Please don’t miss meeting him, hearing him, and celebrating the phenomenon with us this evening!
Reserved seating available with the purchase of OUT OF OZ at The Booksmith beginning 11/1 (or advance order by phone, email, or website) while seats last.
Gregory Maguire received his Ph.D. in English and American Literature from Tufts University. His work as a consultant in creative writing for children has taken him to speaking engagements across the United States and abroad. He is a founder and codirector of Children's Literature New England, Incorporated, a non-profit educational charity established in 1987.
Monday, November 14
7:30 PM
SARAH LADIPO MANYIKA
IN DEPENDENCE
It is the early-sixties when a young Tayo Ajayi sails to England from Nigeria to take up a scholarship at Oxford University. In this city of dreaming spires, he finds himself among a generation high on visions of a new and better world.
The whole world seems ablaze with change: independence at home, the Civil Rights movement and the first tremors of cultural and sexual revolutions. It is then that Tayo meets Vanessa Richardson, the beautiful daughter of an ex-colonial officer. IN DEPENDENCE is Tayo and Vanessa's story of a brave but bittersweet love affair, a tale of two people struggling to find themselves and each other, and a story of passion and idealism, courage and betrayal, and the universal desire to fall, madly, deeply, in love.
Sarah Manyika grew up in Nigeria in Lagos and Jos, and then Nairobi, Kenya. She won ACER’s Young Black British Writers Award in 1993 and the Andrew and Mary Thompson Rocca writing scholarship in 1999 for work in advanced African Studies. She holds a Ph.D from the University of California, Berkley in Education with a focus on Africa and the African Diaspora. She currently lectures at San Francisco State University.
Wednesday, November 16
7:30 PM
JOHN JEREMIAH SULLIVAN
PULPHEAD
A sharp-eyed, uniquely humane tour of America’s cultural landscape—from high to low to lower than low—by the award-winning young star of the literary nonfiction world, PULPHEAD is an exhilarating tour of our popular, unpopular, and at times completely forgotten culture. Simultaneously channeling the gonzo energy of Hunter S. Thompson and the wit and insight of Joan Didion, Sullivan shows us—with a laidback, erudite Southern charm that’s all his own—how we really (no, really) live now.In his native Kentucky, Sullivan introduces us to Constantine Rafinesque, a nineteenth-century polymath genius who concocted a dense, fantastical prehistory of the New World. Back in modern times, Sullivan takes us to the Ozarks for a Christian rock festival; to Florida to meet the alumni and straggling refugees of MTV’s Real World, who’ve generated their own self-perpetuating economy of minor celebrity; and all across the South on the trail of the blues. He takes us to Indiana to investigate the formative years of Michael Jackson and Axl Rose and then to the Gulf Coast in the wake of Katrina—and back again as its residents confront the BP oil spill.
Gradually, a unifying narrative emerges, a story about this country that we’ve never heard told this way. It’s like a fun-house hall-of-mirrors tour: Sullivan shows us who we are in ways we’ve never imagined to be true. Of course we don’t know whether to laugh or cry when faced with this reflection—it’s our inevitable sob-guffaws that attest to the power of Sullivan’s work.
”The age-old strangeness of American pop culture gets dissected with hilarious and revelatory precision…Sullivan writes an extraordinary prose that's stuffed with off-beat insight gleaned from rapt, appalled observations and suffused with a hang-dog charm. The result is an arresting take on the American imagination.” -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)
John Jeremiah Sullivan is a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine and the southern editor of The Paris Review. He writes for GQ, Harper's Magazine, and Oxford American, and is the author of Blood Horses. Sullivan lives in Wilmington, North Carolina.
“Pulphead is upsettingly good. It’s the most inspired book of essays since David Foster Wallace's A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again. John Jeremiah Sullivan perceives the world with so much original wit and energy that when I put this book down, the roll of duct tape on my desk suddenly seemed like it might be full of funny secrets. I'm grateful that Sullivan is doing such outlandishly brilliant, enlivening stuff.” —Wells Tower“‘Skip has been and gone from places you will never get to,’ the great blues singer Skip James once told a young fan. John Jeremiah Sullivan knows how to look for those places, and he bring us close enough to touch them. ” -- Greil Marcus
Sunday, November 20
4:00 PM
PETER SIS
THE CONFERENCE OF THE BIRDS
Celebrated Caldecott Honor-winning children’s book author and illustrator Peter Sís’s first book for adults is a gorgeous and uplifting adaptation of the classic twelfth-century Sufi epic poem by the same name. THE CONFERENCE OF THE BIRDS speaks to what is meaningful and hopeful in our passage through life.
This deeply felt adaptation tells the story of an epic flight of birds in search of the true king, Simorgh. Drawn from all species, the band of birds is led by the hoopoe. He promises that the voyage to the mountain of Kaf, where Simorgh lives, will be perilous and many birds resist, afraid of what they might encounter. Others perish during the passage through the seven valleys: quest, love, understanding, friendship, unity, amazement, and death.
Those that continue reach the mountain to learn that Simorgh the king is, in fact, each of them and all of them. In this lyrical and richly illustrated story of love, faith, and the meaning of it all, Peter Sís shows the pain, and beauty, of the human journey.
Born in Brno, in the former Czechoslovakia, in 1949, Peter Sís is an internationally acclaimed illustrator, author, and filmmaker. Most recently he published The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain, which was awarded the Robert F. Sibert Medal and was also named a Caldecott Honor Book. His other books are numerous and include Tibet Through the Red Box, Starry Messenger, The Tree of Life, and the three Madlenka tales. Sís was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2003. He is the author of twenty children’s books and a seven-time winner of the The New York Times Book Review Best Illustrated Book of the Year.
In THE CONFERENCE OF THE BIRDS, Peter Sís breathes new life into this foundational Sufi poem, revealing its profound lessons. Welcoming him to The Booksmith is a particular pleasure, and one we hope you won’t miss, along with the opportunity to have copies of this gorgeous book signed for all on your holiday list.
Reserved seating available with the purchase of THE CONFERENCE OF THE BIRDS at The Booksmith beginning 10/27 (or advance order by phone, email, or website) while seats last.Saturday, December 3
11:00 AM
JON AGEE takes over Storytime with MY RHINOCEROS
"Jon Agee's My Rhinoceros is a genuine masterpiece. Even better, every kid will love it." -- Maurice Sendak
If you should ever get a rhinoceros for a pet, you're in for a surprise. It won't chase a ball. Or a stick. Or a frisbie. In fact, according to the experts, a rhinoceros does only two things: pop balloons and poke holes in kites.
But don't be discouraged. As you'll discover in Jon Agee's hilarious picture book, rhinoceroses can do more -- so much more -- than that!
Jon Agee is the author/illustrator of many books for children, including Terrific, Milo's Hat Trick, and The Incredible Painting of Felix Clousseau, along with a series of popular wordplay books, among them, Go Hang a Salami! I'm a Lasagna Hog!
He grew up along the Hudson River in Nyack, New York, and went to college at The Cooper Union School of Art in New York City, where he studied painting and filmmaking. His stories — of mysterious painters, hard luck magicians, guffawing grumps, and forgotten astronauts — have been called quirky, absurdist, and above all, humorous. His sophisticated wit appeals to children and adults alike.Tuesday, December 6
7:30 PM
JULIA SCHEERES
A THOUSAND LIVES:
The Untold Story of Hope, Deception, and Survival at Jonestown
"I love socialism, and I'm willing to die to bring it about, but if I did, I'd take a thousand with me." -- Jim Jones, September 6, 1975In 1954, a pastor named Jim Jones opened a church in Indianapolis called Peoples Temple Full Gospel Church. He was a charismatic preacher with idealistic beliefs, and he quickly filled his pews with an audience eager to hear his sermons on social justice. After Jones moved his church to Northern California in 1965, he became a major player in Northern California politics; he provided vital support in electing friendly political candidates to office, and they in turn offered him a protective shield that kept stories of abuse and fraud out of the papers. Even as Jones's behavior became erratic and his message more ominous, his followers found it increasingly difficult to pull away from the church. By the time Jones relocated the Peoples Temple a final time to a remote jungle in Guyana and the U.S. Government decided to investigate allegations of abuse and false imprisonment in Jonestown, it was too late.
A Thousand Lives follows the experiences of five Peoples Temple members who went to Jonestown: a middle-class English teacher from Colorado, an elderly African American woman raised in Jim Crow Alabama, a troubled young black man from Oakland, and a working-class father and his teenage son. These people joined Jones's church for vastly different reasons. Some, such as eighteen-year-old Stanley Clayton, appreciated Jones's message of racial equality and empowering the dispossessed. Others, like Hyacinth Thrash and her sister Zipporah, were dazzled by his claims of being a faith healer—Hyacinth believed Jones had healed a cancerous tumor in her breast. Edith Roller, a well-educated white progressive, joined Peoples Temple because she wanted to help the less fortunate. Tommy Bogue, a teen, hated Jones's church, but was forced to attend services—and move to Jonestown—because his parents were members.
A Thousand Lives is the story of Jonestown as it has never been told before. New York Times bestselling author Julia Scheeres drew from thousands of recently declassified FBI documents and audiotapes, as well as rare videos and interviews, to piece together an unprecedented and compelling history of the doomed camp, focusing on the people who lived there. Her own experiences at an oppressive reform school in the Dominican Republic, detailed in her unforgettable debut memoir Jesus Land, gave her unusual insight into this story.
Vividly written and impossible to forget, A Thousand Lives is a story of blind loyalty and daring escapes, of corrupted ideals and senseless, haunting loss.
Julia Scheeres is the author of Jesus Land. She lives in Berkeley with her husband and two daughters and is a member of the San Francisco Writers' Grotto.
"Jonestown has become a grim metaphor for blind obedience--for fanaticism without regard to consequences. In the aptly titled A Thousand Lives, Julia Scheeres captures the humanity within this terrible story, vividly depicting individuals trapped in a vortex of hope and fear, faith and loss of faith, not to mention the changes sweeping America in the 1960s and '70s. She makes their journeys to that unfathomable tragedy all too real; what was truly incredible, she shows, was the escape from death by a tiny handful of survivors. Drawing on a mountain of sources compiled and recently released by the FBI, she changes forever the way we think about this dark chapter of our history." -- -- T.J. Stiles, author of The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt
“This the best book in a good long time on the dangers of fanatical faith, the power of group belief and lure of deep certainties. These demons that haunt the human mind can only be countered by facing them with courage and honesty -- this is precisely what Scheeres has done." -- Ethan Watters, author of Crazy Like Us