http://www.booksmith.com/ The Booksmith April 2008 Events Calendar en-us Thursday, March 27 2008 10:00:00 PST Thursday, March 27 2008 10:00:00 PST http://www.booksmith.com/rss.xml read@booksmith.com http://www.booksmith.com/events.html Reading and Booksigning for "Serpent Box" (paper, $14.95) "Serpent Box," a debut novel by northern California writer Vincent Carrella, brings to mind Flannery O'Connor's Wise Blood. Set in post-WWII Appalachia, "Serpent Box" unfolds against a backdrop of snake handlers, tent revivalists, folk healers, sinners and skeptics. Powerful, compelling, and ambitiously historic, "Serpent Box" is a vividly rendered, uplifting coming-of-age novel. This event will take place at The Booksmith, 1644 Haight Street, San Francisco, California 94117. To order a signed book call us Tel:415-863-8688 or 800-493-7323 or Email us at read@booksmith.com. http://www.booksmith.com/events.html Reading and Booksigning for "first to leave before the sun" (paper, $14.50) Long-time friends Lewis Buzbee and Dave Tilton join together in "first to leave before the sun,"` a collection of two novellas set in California's Central Valley. Buzbee contributes "First to Leave," a fictional account of his family's move from Oklahoma to Modesto in the first years of the Dust Bowl. Dave Tilton contributes "Before the Sun," a tale of growing up in Manteca in the 1960s. first to leave before the sun explores the betrayal of emigration and the emigration of betrayal through the lens of the promise of the Golden State. This event will take place at The Booksmith, 1644 Haight Street, San Francisco, California 94117. To order a signed book call us Tel:415-863-8688 or 800-493-7323 or Email us at read@booksmith.com. http://www.booksmith.com/events.html Reading and Booksigning for "Bonk" (hardcover, $24.95) From one of our leading film authorities comes The Star Machine, a penetrating look at the golden age of film. In this new book, Jeanine Basinger offers us an immensely entertaining look into the "star machine," examining how, at the height of the studio system, the studios worked to manufacture star actors and actresses. With revelatory insights and delightful asides, she shows us how the machine worked when it worked, how it failed when it didn't, and how irrelevant it could sometimes be. This event will take place at The Booksmith, 1644 Haight Street, San Francisco, California 94117. To order a signed book call us Tel:415-863-8688 or 800-493-7323 or Email us at read@booksmith.com. http://www.booksmith.com/events.html Reading and Booksigning for " I Was Told There'd Be Cake" (paper, $14.00) Wry, hilarious, and profoundly genuine, this debut collection of literary essays is a celebration of fallibility and haplessness in all their glory. From despoiling an exhibit at the Natural History Museum to provoking the ire of her first boss to siccing the cops on her mysterious neighbor, Sloane Crosley can do no right despite the best of intentions - or perhaps because of them. Together, the essays in "I Was Told There'd Be Cake" introduces a strikingly original voice, chronicling the struggles and unexpected beauty of modern urban life. ** This Booksmith co-sponsored event will take place at Orson, 508 4th Street in San Francisco. To order a signed book call us Tel:415-863-8688 or 800-493-7323 or Email us at read@booksmith.com. http://www.booksmith.com/events.html Reading and Booksigning for "Wrestling with the Angel of Democracy: On Being an American Citizen" (cloth, $24.95) In "Wrestling with the Angel of Democracy: On Being an American Citizen," Susan Griffin - poet, feminist, public intellectual - blends history, cultural criticism, and memoir to discover the essence of democracy - the essence of our democracy. From the Declaration of Independence to the war in Iraq, from Thomas Jefferson to Jelly Roll Morton, Griffin reflects upon the rise and fall of the American vision of freedom and equality. This event will take place at The Booksmith, 1644 Haight Street, San Francisco, California 94117. To order a signed book call us Tel:415-863-8688 or 800-493-7323 or Email us at read@booksmith.com. http://www.booksmith.com/events.html Reading and Booksigning for "The Mayor's Tongue" (hardback, $24.95). "I read "The Mayor's Tongue" with ever-increasing delight, rooting with all my heart for the young protagonist on his near-mythic quest. This is an elegantly-structured, brilliantly-told novel, by turns terrifying, touching, and wildly funny, and always generous and magical. "The Mayor's Tongue" is about how we talk to each other and how make-believe helps us get on with our lives; most of all, it's about love. Kudos to Nathaniel Rich, who has created a brave book, a novel brimming with brio." - Stephen King This event will take place at The Booksmith, 1644 Haight Street, San Francisco, California 94117. To order a signed book call us Tel:415-863-8688 or 800-493-7323 or Email us at read@booksmith.com. http://www.booksmith.com/events.html Reading and Booksigning for "Trauma" (hardback, $24.95). Admirers of Patrick McGrath's work know what to expect from his fiction. The grotesque and the macabre dominate his work. Trauma - his new novel - is no exception. In an unreliable first person narrative, this disturbing new novel includes aspects of mental illness and sexual obsession, and in general, a distressing ambiance. All in all, it's highly recommended and jolly good fun. This event will take place at The Booksmith, 1644 Haight Street, San Francisco, California 94117. To order a signed book call us Tel:415-863-8688 or 800-493-7323 or Email us at read@booksmith.com. http://www.booksmith.com/events.html Reading and Booksigning for "Playing" (paper, $13.00). Melanie Abrams's debut novel is a provocative tale of love, betrayal, and how one young woman's unconventional sexual reawakening uncovers the most guarded parts of her past. Rapturous, illuminating, and emotionally charged, "Playing" is also an unflinching look at the irrevocable consequences of giving in to our most secret passions, and the freedom that comes with self-knowledge. This event will take place at The Booksmith, 1644 Haight Street, San Francisco, California 94117. To order a signed book call us Tel:415-863-8688 or 800-493-7323 or Email us at read@booksmith.com. http://www.booksmith.com/events.html Reading and Booksigning for "The Age of American Unreason" (hardback, $26.00). Americans are dumb. We are a lazy and credulous public, prone to following ignorant political and religious leaders. In 'The Age of American Unreason,' Susan Jacoby dissects a culture at odds with both its heritage of Enlightenment reason and with contemporary secular knowledge and science. With wit, Jacoby surveys an anti-rationalist landscape extending from pop culture to a pseudo-intellectual universe of "junk thought." This provocative new book challenges Americans to face a painful truth about what our flight from reason has cost us as individuals and as a nation. This event will take place at The Booksmith, 1644 Haight Street, San Francisco, California 94117. To order a signed book call us Tel:415-863-8688 or 800-493-7323 or Email us at read@booksmith.com. http://www.booksmith.com/events.html Reading and Booksigning for "All the Sad Young Literary Men" (hardback, $24.95). All the Sad Young Literary Men is a charming, yet scathing portrait of young adulthood at the opening of the twenty-first century. Keith Gessen's debut novel charts the lives of Sam, Mark, and Keith as they over-think their college years, under-think their love lives, and struggle through the encouragement of the women who love and despise them to find a semblance of maturity, responsibility, and even literary fame. This event will take place at The Booksmith, 1644 Haight Street, San Francisco, California 94117. To order a signed book call us Tel:415-863-8688 or 800-493-7323 or Email us at read@booksmith.com.