Archive
Friends,
below are some great events coming up at the Book Smith at 1644 Haight St. between Clayton & Cole (863-8688)
Friday, September 14
7:30 PM
RICHARD KADREY
DEVIL SAID BANG
“This bad-ass supernatural horror stuff is clearly
the material he was born to write.” – Cory Doctorow
God has had a nervous breakdown.
The Devil took a holiday.
Sandman Slim is standing in for Lucifer.
Basically the world is screwed.
The last we saw James Stark, Lucifer had just consigned him to the Devil. Literally. Samael had handed over the keys to the Kingdom, so to speak, and had ascended to bask in the glory of the Heavenly Father. Which Stark knew would be nothing more than an ironic experience for the bastard.
Because only Stark, as Sandman Slim, knows that God had a complete mental meltdown. And now, he’s embodied by five different personalities, who inhabit different places in the world above, below and inbetween – and they are at war with each other. With angels, Hellions, humans (and everything else) caught in the crossfires of the raging battle.
But, even with all Hell breaking loose, Stark’s gotta admit that there are perks to the Lucifer gig. The Ironman all-powerful, all-protective armor, for one. The hellhounds are pretty cool too. But Sandman Slim’s got better and bigger things to do than be the biggest paper-pusher in the down-below, which is which is the devil in the details of this damned job. Doesn’t help that the Generals of Hell are still gunning for him – everyone wants him dead. But that’s nothing new.
What is new is the infernal war being waged on the streets of Los Angeles. Sandman Slim is a monster who kills monsters: he has conquered the Kissi, diverted a zombie plague, and cannily skirmished with LA’s reigning cabal of soulless fiends. But now, he’s going up against gods and ghosts. What is he supposed to do about a serial-killer spirit running wild, with a kill-list that includes unholy high rollers, dreamers, and the undead alike?
And now, only Sandman Slim can ensure that the tourist trap province on the outskirts of Hell that is Los Angeles is going to survive an infernal plague. The Stark reality is that Lucifer’s got to do what Lucifer’s got to do….
Richard Kadrey is a writer living in San Francisco, the author of dozens of stories, including the new digital novella Devil in the Dollhouse, plus eight full-length novels, including DEVIL SAID BANG, Aloha from Hell, Kill the Dead, Sandman Slim, Metrophage and Butcher Bird. His Wired magazine cover story, Carbon Copy, was made into one of the worst movies of 2001. It starred Bridget Fonda.. Sorry, Bridget.
Immortalized as an action figure, Kadrey created and wrote the Vertigo comics mini-series ACCELERATE, which was illustrated by the Pander Brothers. He plans to do more comic work in the near future. He’s written and spoken about art, culture and technology for Wired,The San Francisco Chronicle, Discovery Online, The Site, SXSW and Wired for Sex on the G4 cable network. He is also a fetish photographer and digital artist. His work can be seen at Kaos Beauty Klinik (Warning: Adult Content; 118+ only!)). Richard has no qualifications for anything he does.
Trainspotting: An Evening with Irvine Welsh
September 17, 2012, 7:00 PM
Z Space
450 Florida Street
$12
Buy tickets online
Join Litquake and us for the exclusive Bay Area appearance of Scottish author Irvine Welsh, celebrating the launch of his new novelSKAGBOYS, an exhilarating and moving prequel to the bestselling phenomenon Trainspotting. We are particularly excited to welcome back Irvine to the festival, where he helped launch Litquake with his bold and hilarious readings in 2002 and 2003. In conversation with Alan Black, with videos, and no-host bar. Music by DJ Se666undo. Audience Q&A to follow, and signing and book sales by The Booksmith.
Marked by Irvine Welsh’s scabrous humor and raw Scottish vernacular, Skagboys transports us to 1980s Edinburgh, where theTrainspotting crew is just getting started. Mark Renton has it all: the first in his family to attend university, he has a pretty girlfriend and a great social life. But when economic uncertainties and family problems intervene, Rent succumbs to the defeatism—not to mention the drug use—that has taken hold in Edinburgh’s tougher quarters. His friends are responding according to personality. Laid off, Spud Murphy is paralyzed in the face of long-term unemployment. Sick Boy, supreme manipulator of the opposite sex, is scamming and hustling for money and drugs. And meanwhile, psycho Franco Begbie is scaring the hell out of everyone. Darkly humorous, Skagboys gives a gritty and gripping portrait of a time, not unlike ours, when money was scarce, unemployment was high, and drugs seemed the answer.
Irvine Welsh is the author of Trainspotting, Filth (being made into a movie starring James McAvoy), Acid House, Glue, Porno, and Crime, writes screenplays, and produces movies. He lives in Chicago, Miami, and London
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Alan Black produced the U.S. premier of the stage version of Trainspotting in 1996. He is soccer columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle.
Tuesday, September 18
7:30 PM
DAVID RICH
CARAVAN OF THIEVES
“My father didn’t teach me much except how to lie, cheat, and steal, and then lie, lie, lie some more. Mostly it was by example. I was rebellious and stuck to the truth, maybe because I knew I could never live up to the standard he set. I have paid the price for not following his example, but I’m trying to get my head right.”
So begins David Rich’s spectacular crime thriller about a charming con artist, a complicated heist, and the son charged with constructing a fragile truth out of a lifetime of lies.
Rollie Waters is the smartest guy in any room. Working as an undercover marine, he knows all the angles, and he's never less than two steps ahead of trouble--a skill he learned from the con artist father who raised him, though he hasn't seen Dan in years. Like Dan, Rollie knows how to offer cheap gifts with one hand while stealing the family silver with the other. But, unlike Dan, Rollie is not a criminal.Rollie’s childhood was a mesh of perfectly believable lies stretched so thin that he barely knows who he is. It’s only when he’s working undercover, inhabiting a false identity, that Rollie is comfortable in his own skin. The danger of deep undercover work makes use of his talents and keeps him out of trouble. Most of the time.
After he’s yanked out of his latest assignment and tossed in the brig, he’s only partly surprised when the officials in charge mention one name: Dan Waters. U.S. government money—a lot of money—has gone missing, and they think Rollie’s father took it. The only way to find Dan is to trace the frail tendrils of truth scattered among Rollie’s childhood memories. To do that, he’ll have to go deep into the undercover identity of a lifetime: his own.
David Rich has sold screenplays to most of the major studios and to many smaller studios and production companies in the United States and Europe. He wrote the feature film Renegades, starring Kiefer Sutherland and Lou Diamond Philips. Forsaking Los Angeles for small-town Connecticut, David turned his attention to fiction. CARAVAN OF THIEVES is the result.
A CELEBRATION OF DAVID FOSTER WALLACE
Thursday, September 20
7:30 PM
D.T. MAX
EVERY LOVE STORY IS A GHOST STORY:
A Life of David Foster Wallace
David Foster Wallace was the leading literary light of his era, a man who not only captivated readers with his prose but also mesmerized them with his brilliant mind. In this, the first biography of the writer, D. T. Max sets out to chart Wallace’s tormented, anguished and often triumphant battle to succeed as a novelist as he fights off depression and addiction to emerge with his masterpiece, Infinite Jest.Since his untimely death by suicide at the age of forty-six in 2008, Wallace has become more than the quintessential writer for his time -- he has become a symbol of sincerity and honesty in an inauthentic age. In the end, as Max shows us, what is most interesting about Wallace is not just what he wrote but how he taught us all to live. Written with the cooperation of Wallace’s family and friends and with access to hundreds of his unpublished letters, manuscripts, and audio tapes, this portrait of an extraordinarily gifted writer is as fresh as news, as intimate as a love note, as painful as a goodbye.
"This book should be handed to anyone who wants to write, if only to remind
the aspiring writer that becoming a voice of generational significance
turns out to be very poor insulation indeed from struggle, fear, and despair.
D. T. Max is beautifully attuned to Wallace's strengths, whether personal
or literary, and bracingly clear-sighted on his flaws. The result is a book that's moving, surprising (Wallace voted for Reagan?), and hugely disquieting.
If you love Wallace's work, you obviously need to read this book;
if you don't love Wallace's work, you especially need to read this book.”
-- Tom Bissell, author of The Father of All Things
D.T. Max, a graduate of Harvard University, is a staff writer for The New Yorker. He is the author of The Family That Couldn’t Sleep: A Medical Mystery.
Friday, September 21
8:00 PM
LITERARY CLOWN FOOLERY: Folsom Street Fair Edition
Gird your loins, folks: The clowns are bringing Folsom Street Fair to The Booksmith.
Tonight, we'll debase ourselves for your pleasure (or pain, whatever you're into) as our Literary Clown Foolery players take on San Francisco's raunchiest street fair. The folks at Kink.com (NSFW) will join us for 90 minutes of bondage, domination, and dirty trivia, so polish up your ball gag!
As always, $10 gets you beer and wine, snacks, live performances, and jokes that don't suck.
Tickets in the store, or at Brown Paper Tickets online or 800-838-3006.
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Sunday, September 9 – Sunday, November 4
10:30 – 11:45 AM
FALL CREATIVE WRITING FOR KIDS AT THE BOOKSMITH
“Take My Word For It!” returns to the store for a series of nine Sunday morning classes for kids 8 to 12 – such a good time was had by all during this past spring’s sessions that we’re extremely pleased to host students and facilitators again (in the very special, secret upstairs writing space)!
For the fall sessions, bedtime stories will result from learning the building blocks for creating an engaging story and exploring different techniques, all for kids who love to write or would like to make better friends with the written word in a safe, supportive environment. Our returning facilitator is Zach Wyner, who has been a playwright, actor and tutor and has spent eight years teaching in progressive elementary schools, including the past four years at Park Day School in Oakland. He holds an MFA in creative writing from USF.
Nine classes $144; minimum 8 students – once minimum is reached, one scholarship is offered.