Archive
Friends,
below are some great events coming up at the Book Smith at 1644 Haight St. between Clayton & Cole (863-8688)
Wednesday, January 25
7:30 PM
RYAN BOUDINOT
BLUEPRINTS OF THE AFTERLIFE
Ryan Boudinot’s daring and wildly imaginative novel BLUEPRINTS OF THE AFTERLIFE takes place in a future where the distinctions between nature, humanity, and technology have become indistinguishable, and the end of the world is no more than a distorted memory called “the Age of F***ed Up Shit.”
Boudinot, called “some kind of new and dangerous cross between Vonnegut and Barthelme” by Dave Eggers, deftly combines absurdism and satire with the outrageous high-concept storytelling of slipstream sci-fi to offer a novel that is rich in riddles, ideas, and secret treasures.
We enter a world where a sentient glacier has wiped out most of North America’s cities, and telepathy has become a reality. Medical care is supplied by open-source nanotechology, human nervous systems can be hacked, and the Web is interfaced with the collective unconscious. Abby Fogg is a film archivist with a niggling feeling that her life is not really her own. And she’s right. Al Skinner is a former mercenary for the Boeing Army, who’s dragged his war baggage behind him for nearly a century. Woo-jin Kan is a virtuoso dishwasher with the Hotel and Restaurant Management Olympics medals to prove it. Over them all hovers a mysterious man named Dirk Bickle, who puts the right people in the right places at the right times—and it all culminates in a full-scale replica of Manhattan under construction in Puget Sound.
BLUEPRINTS OF THE AFTERLIFE is a compelling novel of future shock, overconsumption, social control, and human nature by one of the most promising young novelists of his generation.
Ryan Boudinot’s work has appeared in The Best American Non-Required Reading twice, and in Best American Fantasy, McSweeney’s,BlackBook, and Nerve. He blogs about film on The Rumpus and teaches in Goddard College’s MFA program.
Thursday, January 26
7:30 PM
HEATHER DONAHUE
GROWGIRL: How My Life After the Blair Witch Project Went to Pot
Over the decades, marijuana has entrenched itself into our culture – from Up in Smoke to Reefer Madness, The Big Lebowski to Weeds, from criminalizing it to legalizing it – it’s a passionately debated issue that won’t lose steam anytime soon. In fact, it’s currently one of the biggest topics in national discourse. The referendums on legalization have sparked a new conversation with huge implications for our country, both politically and economically, particularly as we enter a major election year. What better way to find out more about the ins and outs of cannabis than from the source – a weed farmer? This New Year, the go-to-girl for ganja is Heather Donahue.
After starring in a little film called The Blair Witch Project, Donahue’s career stalled and, after meeting a strange and enigmatic grower named Judah, she decided to start a new life in the cannabusiness. GROW GIRL submerges readers in an insular subculture that few get to see, but whose tender nuggets touch the lips and minds of 20 million domestic and 160 million international imbibers. And though her relationship with Judah crumbles, Heather’s new life brings unexpected solace, and she’s surprised to finally find normalcy in the least likely of places.
Heather Donahue has a fresh take on the fourteen billion dollar a year weed industry, and her year spent as a pot grower in Nuggettown, CA is voyeurism at its best. Donahue has been featured on the cover of Newsweek, People, and on The Tonight Show, The Today Show, The Daily Show, and CNN. She lives in San Francisco.
GROW GIRL is part exposé, part fish-out-of-water memoir, and all raucous fun. Come talk with Heather Donahue about the book, the weed industry, the ongoing marijuana debates, and more – because she’s not afraid to hold back. After all, she just wrote a book detailing a year of federally illegal activities, so why would she?
Friday, January 27
6:30 – 9:30 PM
BOOKSMITH BOOKSWAP
The Great American Family Edition
Bookswap is back, fresh for 2012!
We are very excited to have Peter Orner join us for January's installation of Bookswap! His literary mosaic Love and Shame and Love paints a beautiful and intimate portrait of a Chicago family across four generations. With Love and Shame and Love on our minds, and the holidays fresh on our heels, let's dedicate this Bookswap the Great American Family.As always, we'll have several rounds of cozy conversation, an open bar and unlimited food, discounts on books for swappers, and the faithful Booksmith staff on hand to keep things lively. The evening will culminate in a rowdy white-elephant swap, so everyone's sure to leave with something they love.
Tolstoy said it best in Anna Karenina: "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Bring a book to swap that best depicts the American Family inside your heart. Fiction or nonfiction; anything goes!
Tickets $25, in the store, or online at Brown Paper Tickets.
Tuesday, January 31
7:30 PM
VICTORIA COSTELLO
A LETHAL INHERITANCE: A Mother Uncovers the Science Behind Three Generations of Mental Illness
In conversation with Dr. Demian Rose, UCSF Psychiatrist, Medical Director of PREP SF
Co-presented by the Mental Health Association of San Francisco
Part memoir, part scientific detective story, A LETHAL INHERITANCE is Emmy Award-winning science writer Victoria Costello’s harrowing account of her son’s descent into schizophrenia, which, at its worst had him wandering the streets of Los Angeles shoeless, muttering incoherently; and her exploration into her family’s history of depression, drug addiction, and secrets that stretches back
at least three generations.
She shares the story of her younger sister, who by sixteen had a full-blown heroin habit, recalls her loving, but alcoholic father, and re-examines the tragic “accident” that left her grandfather dead on a New York City railroad track in 1913. She also shares how she had to address her own history of depression and cope when a second son developed an anxiety disorder.
Artfully weaving the scientific into the personal, Costello takes a journey to the far reaches of neuroscience and reports back on the startling findings it is yielding about the complex interplay between genes and environment that drives mental
illness and what it now tells us about how parents can trump a lethal inheritance.
“This honest, lucid book examines the urgent problems of family history and early diagnosis in mental illness from a personal and scientific standpoint. It will be invaluable to families trying to understand their own history, and to those who have been blind to such history.” – Andrew Solomon, National Book Award- winning author of The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression
Victoria Costello is a science writer, journalist, and TV producer. Originally from suburban New York, Costello launched her investigative journalism career by weighing in on the Vietnam War and the rights of farm workers in her high school’s “underground newspaper.” She studied journalism at American University in Washington, DC and became an independent video journalist covering such hot button issues as abortion, the Equal Rights Amendment, nuclear power, the environment, and social justice for PBS. She was the first Director of the TV/Video Program at The American Film Institute; a TV producer of documentaries; a web content writer and editor; and the author of four books on mental health topics. Currently, she helps train social workers in strength-based recovery at Family Services Agency in San Francisco.Friday, February 3
5:30 PM
Come and celebrate the release of Full Stop. SF Waldorf High School's biannual literary magazine!
Students from the SF Waldorf High School will celebrate the release of the Winter issue of their literary magazine - Full Stop. with music, readings and refreshments. Contributors Noam Baruch, Jules Christeson, Owen Christofferson, Rebecca Cohen, William Donovan-Seid, Jessie Ferguson, Alana Gurewitz, Annie Hughes-White, Caroline Kaufman, Davia Schendel, Manette Stamm, andThea Wong will read their work with musical accompaniment by Owen Christofferson and Leanna Vandlen.Thursday, February 9
7:30 PM
LOVE, INSHALLAH: The Secret Love Lives of American Muslim Women
With co-editors Ayesha Mattu and Nura Maznavi, and contributors Leila Khan and Zahra Noorbakhsh
Co-hosted by the International Museum of Women
Love, Inshallah [goes] to a place where few, if any, books have gone before. Lesbians, co-‐wives, converts to Islam, Shia, Sunni, black, brown and white: Every voice is unique. Collectively, they sing of strength, passion and love. One can’t help but sit back and listen, captivated. – Samina Ali, award-winning author of Madras on Rainy Days
Romance, dating, sex and – Muslim women? In this groundbreaking collection, 25 writers sweep aside stereotypes to share their search for love and reveal what it means to be a Muslim woman in America today. The writers represent a broad spectrum of ethnicities, races and religious practice and speak openly for the first time about love, relationships, sexuality, gender, identity, homophobia, and racism. Come hear from the editors of this collection, Ayesha Mattu and Nura Maznavi, about their intentions and purpose of the book and the road to publication, and meet two of the contributors reading excerpts from their stories. Plus: a spirited question and answer session where audience members can pose the questions they've always wanted to ask a Muslim woman -- but were too afraid to ask!
Everyone seems to have an opinion about Muslim women, even (especially!) those who have never met one. Co-‐editors Ayesha Mattu and Nura Maznavi thought it was about time we heard directly from Muslim women themselves. You’ll be captivated by these moving, funny, provocative and surprising stories, each as individual as the writers themselves.
A beautiful collection that reminds us all not only of the diversity of the American Muslim community, but the universality of the human condition, especially when it comes to something as magical and complicated as love. – Reza Aslan, bestselling author of No god but God
Hats off to Maznavi and Mattu, who were the winners of the first of last year’s Pitchapaloozas created and hosted by our favorite Book Doctors, David Henry Sterry and Arielle Eckstut!
Muslim women…and Jon Stewart? Check out a recent Huff Po article.
Ayesha Mattu is a writer, editor and international development consultant. Her writing has appeared in the International Museum of Women, Religion Dispatches, and The Huffington Post. She was selected a Muslim Leader of Tomorrow by the UN Alliance of Civilizations and the ASMA Society in 2009. Ayesha is working on a memoir about losing faith and finding love, which is excerpted inLove, InshAllah. She lives with her husband and son in Northern California.
Nura Maznavi is a civil rights attorney. She has worked with migrant workers in Sri Lanka, on behalf of prisoners in California, and with a national legal advocacy organization leading a program to end racial and religious profiling. She is working on a screenplay and several short stories. Nura’s third love—after food and traveling—is California, where she was raised and currently lives.
Leila N. Khan (pen name) lives and works in Northern California. She enjoys Italian films, classical music, and spending time in her kitchen. Her favorite places in the world are Strasbourg, Dubrovnik, and Maui.
Zahra Noorbakhsh is a writer, actor and stand-up comedian, whose one-woman shows All Atheists Are Muslim and Hijab and Hammerpants have appeared at the New York International Fringe Theater Festival, San Francisco Theater Festival, and Solo Performance Workshop Festival, with widespread critical acclaim. She is a graduate of the UC Berkeley in Theatre & Performance Studies. Though she began as a stand-up comic, her love of storytelling drew her into the world of theater and ultimately the art of short story writing.