Archive
Friends,
below are some great events coming up at the Book Smith at 1644 Haight St. between Clayton & Cole (863-8688)
Thursday, April 4 7:30 PM
LALEH KHADIVI / THE WALKING
Within borders, across them, from rural to urban centers, humans are more mobile, and displaced, than they have ever been. As a twenty-first-century migrant, Laleh Khadivi has spent a great deal of time wondering what this great motion, these leaps of faith and desperation, do to the human souls that make them. How do we know who we are, who we were, if we are in constant motion? In her new novel The Walking, Khadivi explores these questions through Saladin and Ali, two brothers from a small Iranian mountain village. Set during the tumult of the Iranian Revolution, the brothers are forced to flee for their lives in the aftermath of a political killing. Read more:http://www.booksmith.com/event/laleh-khadivi-walking
NEW INFORMATION: Friday, April 5 6:30 – 9:30 PM
BOOKSMITH BOOKSWAP: Home Edition
Go ahead, click your heels together three times. There's no place like home! There's no place like home! There's no place like home!
Home. Where is it? What does it mean? Is it the place you were born? Is it the first place you ever lived on your own? Is it some nebulous idea you've yet to find? For April's Bookswap, bring a book about Home, whatever the concept means to you.
Special Guest: D.A. Powell, poet, professor at USF, and the author of Useless Landscape, or A Guide for Boys, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2012. One student on the website Ratemyprofessors.com describes him as "a god among men! Not only is this man a genius, but he is adorable, looks sexy on the back of his books, and is the greatest teacher in all of academia land! He has great fedoras that match his suits, and knows everything about film, literature, and mankind." That said, he's only rated 2.3 for "easiness", so you'd better bring your A game.
Dinner, open bar, free books, author conversation and MORE for $25.
Bookswap. Get Lit!
Tickets in the store or online at Brown Paper Tickets (or 800-838-3006)
LAUNCH PARTY!
Tuesday, April 9 7:30 PM
CAROLINE PAUL and WENDY McNAUGHTON / LOST CAT: A True Story of Love, Desperation, and GPS Technology
Technology and cats are two words that don’t often go together. But in the case of Tibia, the beloved cat of San Franciscans Caroline Paul and her partner Wendy MacNaughton, the combination brings a funny, quirky, and heartwarming tale that any pet lover can relate to. Learn just how far one woman will go to keep an eye on her surprisingly adventurous cat...Read more:http://www.booksmith.com/event/caroline-paul-and-wendy-mcnaughton-lost-cat-true-story-love-desperation-and-gps-technology
Wednesday, April 10 7:30 PM
RACHEL KUSHNER / THE FLAMETHROWERS
The author of the celebrated Telex from Cuba returns with a story of fakes, narcissists and dreamers, and a 'sentimental education", sexual, intellectual, and aesthetic, in a a realm where factory politics, speed, leftists and subversion form a dangerous nexus.Rachel Kushner’s debut novel, Telex from Cuba, was a finalist for the 2008 National Book Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, winner of the California Book Award, and a New York Times bestseller and Notable Book. Her fiction and essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Believer, Artforum, Bookforum, Fence, Bomb, Cabinet, and Grand Street. A former San Franciscan, and graduate of UC Berkeley, she lives in Los Angeles. Read more: http://www.booksmith.com/event/rachel-kushner-flamethrowers
A Literary Double-header:
Thursday, April 11 7:30 PM
STEPHEN BEACHY and ALVIN LU
Stephen Beachy reads from and discusses SOME PHANTOM / NO TIME FLAT, two novellas. Beachy is the author of The Whistling Song and boneyard; he teaches at USF's MGA in Writing Program. Read more: http://www.booksmith.com/event/stephen-beacy-alvin-lu-literary-double-header
Alvin Lu is the author of the novel The Hell Screens, about which The New York Times wrote “This devilish puzzle of a novel ... will appeal to anyone who loves the cat-and-mouse games of Nabokov, the playful elegance of Borges or the rarefied dreamscapes of Calvino.” Lu’s writing also appears in the anthologies San Francisco Noir and "It's a poor sort of memory that only works backwards": On the Work of Johan Grimonprez.
Calling All Young Writers – and Their Adults!
Sunday, April 14 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM
KIDS, TRANSLATING POETRY? You bet! An Interactive WorkshopPoetry Inside Out is a program of San Francisco-based Center for the Art of Translation. Its certified instructors teach in schools throughout the Bay; its professional development component is implemented in a number of major cities around the country. Because it’s sometimes hard to find that little spark of inspiration that gets kids creating, PIO has a new, exceptionally engaging book, Poetry Inside Out: A Creative Writing Workbook – a terrific addition for rainy day or after-school activities. We’ve invited PIO staff to give an interactive workshop – for kids age 9 and up, and their adults. We’ll find out how to translate poems from different languages (no foreign language skills required!) with really fun brainstorming and word games (all material provided). Kids translating Basho, Lorca, Dante? Absolutely. Space is limited. There is no cost to attend, but RSVPs are necessary: email events@booksmith.com to reserve your spot! Read more:http://www.booksmith.com/event/kids-translating-poetry-you-bet
Wednesday, April 17 7:30 PM
ELIZABETH SCARBORO / MY FOREIGN CITIES
In a much discussed Modern Love piece for The New York Times three years ago, Liz Scarboro eloquently and without regret addressed being a new bride while facing the specter of young widowhood.In MY FOREIGN CITIES, she delves further into the repercussions of marrying a man with a degenerative illness and poor prospects of living past his 30s, asking what would any of us do for love?A memoir in the tradition of Fracisco Goldman’s Say Her Name, MY FOREIGN CITIES is a portrait of approaching mortality with reckless abadon, gleefully outrunning it for as long as possible.Read more: http://www.booksmith.com/event/elizabeth-scarboro-my-foreign-cities
Thursday, April 18 7:30 PM
FIONA MAAZEL / WOKE UP LONELY
Fans of Sam Lipsyte, Jennifer Egan, Lauren Groff, and Karen Russell will find much to love in Woke Up Lonely, which is by turns comic, lacerating, heartbreaking, and wholly unpredictable. The novel is centered around Thurlow Dan, the charismatic founder of the Helix, a cult based on the idea that everyone is lonely and that the only way to avoid emptiness is through connection. As a result, the Helix sponsors speed-dating, rallies, communes, and a Facebook-like website designed to prevent loneliness via oversharing. But Thurlow, camped out in his Cincinnati headquarters, is lonely. And his ex-wife, CIA covert agent Esme, is the only one he wants. Through a series of well-intentioned missteps in the name of earning back Esme’s love, Thurlow finds himself at the center of a hostage situation with nowhere to run. Fiona Maazel takes us down the rabbit hole of what it means to be lonely in the age of the Internet, in which none of us are ever truly alone. Read more: http://www.booksmith.com/event/stephen-beacy-alvin-lu-literary-double-header
Sunday, April 21 2:00 – 5:00 PM
MOTHER-DAUGHTER CREATIVE WRITING ADVENTURE!
(or aunts and their nieces, grandmothers and their granddaughters...)
Our adventure with pencil and paper for mothers and their daughters will lead both of you to little-explored places and give you the satisfaction that comes from creating something new.For mothers of any age and daughters ages 8 – 11 / $99 per pair; pre-registration required via Brown Paper Tickets / Another fabulous adventure with Take My Word for It! Read more: http://www.booksmith.com/event/mother-daughter-creative-writing-adventure
JUST ADDED:
Monday, April 22
7:30 PM
REVEREND BILLY
THE END OF THE WORLDChildren: hurricanes swamp our coasts! Fracking poisons our drinking water! Mountain tops are bulldozed into streams! The end of the world is nigh!
In pages that crackle with the lightning of an electric storm, the Reverend Billy, messianic leader of the Church of Stop Shopping, thunders from his pulpit, sounding the tocsin on the toxins that are poisoning our planet.
"The End of the World is so astonishingly brilliant that it almost hurts to read it, but at the same time so wise and loving and full of yearning..." -- Barbara Ehrenreich, author, Nickel and Dimed
"Here's why God invented fire and brimstone to begin with: to help humans avert personal and collective apocalypse. In a heartfelt book short enough to read under the light of your last set of AA batteries, my friend and pastor Billy Talen shows how the more we buy, the more distance between us we create, and thus the more we need to buy, ad infinitum. Life or death, love or stuff: the choice may still be ours." -- Douglas Rushkoff, media theorist and Saint, Church of Stop Shopping
"Reverend Billy's The End of the World is the beginning of wisdom. Its comedy is just camouflage for its truths, which are dead earnest -- that is to say, if we don't take them dead seriously, we may end up seriously dead." -- Benjamin Barber, author, Jihad vs. McWorld
"The Rev. Billy leads his congregants through programs of blazing testimonials, uplifting gospel music and fervid rituals (throwing away credit cards is a favorite) that blur the lines among theater, protest action and religious ceremony." -- The Los Angeles Times
"The zeal of a street-corner preacher and the schmaltz of a street-corner Santa." -- The New York Times
"The collar is fake but the calling is real." -- The Village Voice
Bill Talen, aka The Reverend Billy, is the author of What Should I Do When the Reverend Billy Is in My Store? and (with Savitri D) The Reverend Billy Project: From Rehearsal Hall to Super Mall with the Church of Life After Shopping. He lives in New York City where he street preaches (and is arrested for doing so) on a regular basis. You can find him at revbilly.com.