Archive
Friends,
below are some great events coming up at the Book Smith at 1644 Haight St. between Clayton & Cole (863-8688)
Thursday, April 5
7:30 PM
TERRY McDERMOTT
THE HUNT FOR KSM: Inside the Pursuit and Takedown of the
Real 9/11 Mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is the most significant terrorist in captivity. On March 1, 2003, American and Pakistani intelligence agents captured KSM, ending one of the greatest manhunts in history.Drawing on unprecedented access to key sources, many of whom have never spoken publicly—as well as jihadis and members of KSM’s family and support network—Terry McDermott and Josh Meyer give the first comprehensive account of the search for KSM and what happened after he was captured, including how his torture prompted false confessions that sent U.S. agents on a wild goose chase across four continents.
"On one level, McDermott and Meyer have given us a fact-filled inside account, in the voices of those on the job, of the failed decade-long American effort to find KSM before he could strike again. But there is a most important underlying message in this book—that the American intelligence community remains caught up in bureaucratic warfare and remains today incapable of working together...of sharing insights and information...even when all involved share the same goal. This, ultimately, is an account of an American tragedy."
-- Seymour M. Hersh, writer for The New Yorker
THE HUNT FOR KSM is a tour de force of investigative journalism as well as a gripping tale of international intrigue. It provides a window into the deep dysfunction that plagued—and continues to plague—the intelligence community in the years since 9/11.
"Terry McDermott and Josh Meyer have written a completely authoritative account … a deeply reported page-turner about the race to find the man who was the Chief Operating Officer of Al-Qaeda." -- Peter Bergen, author of The Longest War: The Enduring Conflict between America and Al-Qaeda
Terry McDermott’s work has appeared in The New Yorker, the Wilson Quarterly, the Columbia Journalism Review, the Los Angeles Times Magazine, and Pacific Magazine, ad he is the author of Perfect Soldiers and 101 Theory Drive. McDermott has worked at eight newspapers for more than thirty years, most recently for ten years at the Los Angeles Times, where he was a national correspondent.
Monday, April 9
7:30 PM
RACHEL KRAMER BUSSEL and SUSIE BRIGHT
BEST SEX WRITING 2012
Powerhouse pundits Rachel Kramer Bussel and Susie Bright have gathered the best, boldest, and brightest minds on sex and culture today
In Best Sex Writing 2012, sex columnist Rachel Kramer Bussel and noted commentator Susie Bright, this year's guest judge, collect the most challenging and provocative work on this endlessly evocative subject. Find out what's behind the latest political sex scandals in "Sex, Lies, and Hush Money", learn about how "Atheists Do It Better", and find out "Why Lying About Monogamy Matters". From an insider look at being gay in the military pre-DADT and an impassioned defense of circumcision to a dating site for people with STDs, nuanced explorations of teen sex laws, prostitution, sex at 66, SlutWalks, female orgasm workshops, and more, Best Sex Writing 2012explores the smarter side of sexuality. This is bedtime reading for erotic intellectuals and those who want to go behind the latest leering headlines for real talk about the topic of everyone's lips.
Rachel Kramer Bussel is the editor of over 35 anthologies, including Best Bondage Erotica 2011, Fast Girls, Orgasmic, Passion, Bottoms Up, Spanked, and Please, Sir and Please, Ma'am, as well as Best Sex Writing series editor. Bookslut has said about her work, "Bussel always portrays sex as delicious, wonderful, and fun." She writes the biweekly “Secrets of a Sex Writer” column for SexIs Magazine. Her writing has been published in Crushable, The Daily Beast, The Frisky, The Gloss, Jezebel, Mediabistro, New York Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Time Out New York, The Village Voice, Zink and other publications. Her books have garnered five IPPY (Independent Publisher) awards. She is the cofounding editor of the popular blog Cupcakes Take the Cake.
Susie Bright is one of the world's most respected voices on sexual politics, as well as an award-winning and best-selling writer who has edited hundreds of the finest authors working in American literature and progressive activism today. She was a screenwriting consultant on Bound, Erotique, and The Celluloid Closet, and hosts the show "In Bed with Susie Bright" on Audible.com. Her most recent book isBig Sex Little Death: A Memoir.
Tuesday, April 10
7:30 PM
PAT THOMAS
LISTEN, WHITEY!
Sights and Sounds of Black Power 1965 – 1975
Noted music producer and scholar Pat Thomas spent five years researching Listen, Whitey! While befriending members of the Black Panther Party, Thomas discovered rare recordings of speeches, interviews, and music by noted activists Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, Eldridge Cleaver, Elaine Brown, The Lumpen and many others that form the framework of this definitive retrospective.
Listen, Whitey! chronicles the forgotten history of Motown Records. From 1970 to 1973, Motown’s Black Power subsidiary label, Black Forum, released politically charged albums by Stokely Carmichael, Amiri Baraka, Langston Hughes, Bill Cosby & Ossie Davis, and many others, and explores the musical connections between Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Graham Nash, the Partridge Family (!?!) and the Black Power movement. Obscure recordings produced by SNCC, Ron Karenga’s US, the Tribe and other African-American sociopolitical organizations of the late 1960s and early ’70s are examined along with the Isley Brothers, Nina Simone, Archie Shepp, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Clifford Thornton, Watts Prophets, Last Poets, Gene McDaniels, Roland Kirk, Horace Silver, Angela Davis, H. Rap Brown, Stanley Crouch, and others that spoke out against oppression. Thomas further focuses on Black Consciousness poetry (from the likes of Jayne Cortez, wife of Ornette Coleman), inspired religious recordings that infused god and Black Nationalism, and obscure regional and privately pressed Black Power 7-inch soul singles from across America. The text is accompanied by over 200 large sized, full-color reproductions of album covers and 45 rpm singles — most of which readers will have never seen before.
“[Listen Whitey!]… is a huge contribution to our understanding of this crucial moment in our shared history, and a document that resounds with as much beauty, passion and hope as the records of that fervid time.” – Jeff Chang, author of Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of The Hip-Hop Generation and Who We Be: The Colorization of America
As a reissue producer, Pat Thomas has released vintage recordings from Elaine Brown, the Watts Prophets, Gene McDaniels, and Eddie Gale, His writing about music has appeared in Mojo, Crawdaddy, and the San Francisco Bay Guardian. During the research for this book, he lectured on the recordings contained within at UCLA, San Francisco State University, Evergreen State College and Merritt College.
Our friends at Amoeba Music, just up the street, will be on hand with the companion CD from Light in the Attic Records!
Wednesday, April 11
7:30 PM
MICHAEL MORAN
THE RECKONING:
Debt, Democracy, and the Future of American Power
“This solemn examination of the severe problems facing the U.S. today...offers a practical, useful roadmap for change if politicians will follow.”—Publishers Weekly
A leading forecaster of economic and political trends takes a sharp look at the decline of American influence in the world, and how it can prepare for the new reality.
The age of American global dominance is ending. Today, a host of forces are converging to challenge its cherished notion of exceptionalism, and risky economic and foreign policies have steadily eroded the power structure in place since the Cold War. Staggering under a huge burden of debt, the country must make some tough choices—or cede sovereignty to its creditors. In The Reckoning, Michael Moran, geostrategy analyst, explores the challenges ahead -- and what, if anything, can be prevent chaos as America loses its perch at the top of the mountain.
Covering developments like unprecedented information technologies, the growing prosperity of China, India, Brazil, and Turkey, and the diminished importance of Wall Street in the face of global markets, Moran warns that the coming shift will have serious consequences not just for the United States, but for the wider world. Countries that have traditionally depended on the United States for protection and global stability will have to fend for themselves. Moran describes how, with a bit of wise leadership, America can transition to this new world order gracefully—by managing entitlements, reigniting sustainable growth, reforming immigration policy, launching new regional dialogues that bring friend and rival together in cooperative multinational structures, and breaking the poisonous deadlock in Washington. If not, he warns, history won’t wait.
Michael Moran is Editor-in-Chief of Renaissance Insight, the thought-leadership arm of the global investment bank Renaissance Capital. Based in London and New York, Moran writes on and forecasts geopolitical and economic trends for the bank's clients and is author of "The Reckoning" blog on Slate. Moran worked directly with renowned economist Nouriel Roubini during the 2008-2009 economic crisis and, over the past 25 years, he has reported and analyzed major events for the world’s leading intellectual and newsgathering institutions, winning numerous awards for his work on behalf of the Council on Foreign Relations, the BBC, MSNBC.com, and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
Thursday, April 12
7:30 PM
ZYZZYVA: Spring Issue Celebration
with managing editor Oscar Villalon
Celebrate the release of ZYZZYVA's Spring '12 Issue (No. 94) with readings from four contributors: novelist Elena Mauli Shapiro, debut writer Benjamin T. Miller, and Lindsey Thordarson.
Elena Mauli Shapiro is the author of 13, rue Therese. She lives in the Bay Area.
Benjamin T. Miller taught writing from 2007 to 2010 at UC Irvine, from which he graduated. He lives in Los Angeles.
Lindsey Thordarson has had her work appear in California Northern Magazine and received the 2010 Doug Fir Fiction Award. She lives in Mountain View.
Tuesday, April 17
7:30 PM
S.G. BROWNE
LUCKY BASTARD
Meet Nick Monday: a private detective who’s more Columbo than Sam Spade, more Magnum P.I. than Philip Marlowe. As San Francisco’s infamous luck poacher, Nick doesn’t know whether his ability to swipe other people’s fortunes with a simple handshake is a blessing or a curse. Ever since his youth, Nick has swallowed more than a few bitter truths when it comes to wheeling and dealing in destinies. Because whether the highest bidders of Nick’s serendipitous booty are celebrities, yuppies, or douche bag vegans, the unsavory fact remains: luck is the most powerful, addictive, and dangerous drug of them all. And no amount of cappuccinos, Lucky Charms, or apple fritters can sweeten the notion that Nick might be exactly what his father once claimed—as ambitious as a fart.
That is, until Tuesday Knight, the curvy brunette who also happens to be the mayor’s daughter, approaches Nick with an irresistible offer: $100,000 to retrieve her father’s stolen luck. Could this high-stakes deal let Nick do right? Or will kowtowing to another greedmonger’s demands simply fund Nick’s addiction to corporate coffee bars while his morality drains down the toilet? Before he downs his next mocha, Nick finds himself at the mercy of a Chinese mafia kingpin and with no choice but to scour the city for the purest kind of luck, a hunt more titillating than softcore porn. All he has to do to stay ahead of the game is remember that you can’t take something from someone without eventually paying like hell for it. . .Lucky readers, discover Lucky Bastard, a radically funny and irreverent satirical tale.
“Springboarding off a traditional noir framework, Browne delivers an insightful, intriguing tale… (w)ith twists aplenty, this fast-paced adventure succeeds as both a hard-boiled homage and a paranormal romp.”
– Publishers Weekly, starred review
S.G Browne is the author of Breathers and Fated. He graduated from the University of the Pacific in Stockton, and worked for several years in Hollywood before moving to Santa Cruz to write. He currently lives in San Francisco.