Events

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A Finalist in Fiction for the National Jewish Book Awards!

Set in a Paris
darkened by World War II, Sara Houghteling's sweeping and sensuous debut novel
(just now in paperback) tells the story of a son's quest to recover his
family's lost masterpieces, looted by the Nazis during the occupation.

Born to an art dealer and his pianist wife, Max Berenzon is
forbidden from entering the family business for reasons he cannot understand.
He reluctantly attends medical school, reserving his true passion for his
father's beautiful and brilliant gallery assistant, Rose Clement. When Paris falls to the Nazis,
the Berenzons survive in hiding. They return in 1944 to find that their
priceless collection has vanished: gone are the Matisses, the Picassos, and a
singular Manet of mysterious importance. Madly driven to recover his father's
paintings, Max navigates a torn city of corrupt art dealers, black marketers,
Resistants, and collaborators. His quest will reveal the tragic disappearance
of his closest friend, the heroism of his lost love, and the truth behind a
devastating family secret.

Written with tense drama and a historian's eye for detail,
Houghteling's novel draws on the real-life stories of France's
preeminent art-dealing families and the forgotten biography of the only French
woman to work as a double agent inside the Nazis' looted art stronghold. Pictures at an Exhibition conjures the
vanished collections, the lives of the artists and their dealers, the exquisite
romance, and the shattering loss of a singular era. It is a work of astonishing
ambition and beauty from an immensely gifted new novelist.

"In times like this, one turns to books like
"Pictures at an Exhibition" for their exhilarating sense of wonder
and ambition. No other book I have read in a long time has such depth of
history and intelligence, setting art as antidote for suffering, and love as
both a cause and remedy for pain." -- Andrew Sean Greer, author of The Story of a Marriage and The Confessions of Max Tivoli

""Pictures at an Exhibition" is remarkably
self-assured, astute, worldly, and well-informed; in fact, it does not look
like a first novel at all. Its subject-matter-stolen paintings, and Nazis, and
the insatiable hunger for beauty-requires both erudition and brilliance, and
Sara Houghteling has plenty of both, along with a sense of humor and a warm
heart." -- Charles Baxter, author of The
Soul Thief

Sara Houghteling graduated from Harvard
College in 1999 and received her
master's in fine arts from the University
of Michigan. She is the
recipient of a Fulbright scholarship to Paris,
first prize in the Avery and Jules Hopwood Awards, and a John Steinbeck
Fellowship. She currently lives in California,
where she teaches high school English.

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with live music from
Matthew Edwards

Sixteen-year-old Allie, a self-professed music geek, has her
dream job working at Berkeley’s
independent record store, Bob and Bob’s Records. It’s shaping up to be a summer
like never before, what with her mother starting to date again after the
divorce, business at Bob and Bob’s getting dangerously slow, Allie crushing on
a handsome stranger and, biggest of all, her new blog, The Vinyl Princess,
which seems to be gaining interest one vinyl junkie at a time…

THE VINYL PRINCESS
is a love letter to music, and the perfect companion for readers who walk
through life with their earphones in, heads nodding to the rhythm of song,
dreaming of all the great things that are to come.

Yvonne Prinz has written three books in the Clare series; Still There, Clare was was nominated
for an IPPY Award (an Independent Publisher Award) and a Red Cedar Award. Not Fair, Clare was recently
shortlisted for the Red Maple Award. A Canadian living in San Francisco, Prinz founded the famed
independent music store Amoeba Records (our neighbor!)  with her husband. There, she keeps her finger
on the pulse of hip teen culture. You can read the blog of The Vinyl Princess
at www.thevinylprincess.com

Matthew Edwards, the driving force behind The Music Lovers,
will play a short acoustic set this evening; his song, “The Former Miss
Ontario” is on the CD mix that accompanies Yvonne’s book. He will be joined by accordianist Isaac Bonnell. 

Be prepared for some
cool giveaways, too!

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Food writer and blogger Tara Austen Weaver shares her
uproarious, firsthand account of what happens when a lifelong vegetarian enters
the mysterious world of Chateaubriands, London Broils, and osso buco style cuts... and the men who spend their days working with them.

Growing up in a family that kept jars of bean sprouts on its
windowsill before such things were desirable or hip, Weaver never thought she'd
stray from vegetarianism. But as an adult, she found herself in poor health,
and, having tried cures of every kind, a doctor finally ordered her to eat
meat. Warily, she ventured into the butcher shop, and as the man behind the
counter wrapped up her first-ever chicken, she found herself charmed.
Eventually, he dared her to cook her way through his meat counter. As Tara navigates through this new world -- grass-fed beef
vs. grain-fed beef; finding chickens that are truly free-range --  she's tempted to give up and go back to
eating tempeh. The more she learns about meat and how it's produced, and the
effects eating it has on the human body and the planet, the less she feels she
knows. She embarks upon a sometimes hilarious, sometimes frightening whirlwind
tour that takes her from slaughterhouse to chef's table, from urban farm to the
hearthside of cow wranglers. Along the way, she meets an unforgettable cast of
characters who all seem to take a vested interest in whether she opts for
turnips or T-bones.

Tara Austen Weaver is an award-winning writer whose work focuses on
the themes of food, travel, art, and adventure. Her writing has been
published in Edible San Francisco, on Chow.com, and in numerous
anthologies. Her food blog, Tea and Cookies, was selected by the Times of London as one of the top food
blogs in the world.

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Everyone wants to know more about the Middle
East, and Yalo is an
excellent chance to find out. Set in Beirut
during Lebanon's
civil war, this is the bracing story of a man falsely picked up by the police
for terrorism and tortured into a false confession. Written by one of the Arab
world's leading authors, Yalo is a
great book for discussion. We'll try to unwind this complex plot and see what
we can learn from this book about the Middle East
world.

Join us on the fourth Tuesday of every month at 7:00
PM in the bookstore for spirited conversation about some of the newest writing
hitting the U.S.
from all over the globe. No foreign language knowledge necessary and no
continental savvy required (but will be appreciated!)  -- just bring your
desire to read some excellent new books, hand-selected for you by the
Booksmith's knowledgeable booksellers. You'll also meet some great new people
(including Scott Esposito and Annie Janusch, who will guide each monthly
conversation. Scott and Annie's work with both The Quarterly Conversation and
the Center for the Art of Translation keeps them apprised on a day-to-day basis
of what's new in world lit, and they're excited to act as your
"interpreters" through these uncharted literary landscapes) and chat
with them about the best new fiction from around the world.