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DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20180815T190000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20180815T210000
DTSTAMP:20260501T133920
CREATED:20180713T003352Z
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SUMMARY:Jason Heller presents STRANGE STARS (w/ Nick Mamatas & Richard Kadrey)
DESCRIPTION:EAST BAY BOOKSELLERS welcomes Jason Heller to discuss his book Strange Stars: David Bowie\, Pop Music\, and the Decade Sci-Fi Exploded\, on Wednesday\, August 15th at 7pm. Joining him in conversation will be Nick Mamatas and Richard Kadrey. \nAs the 1960s drew to a close\, and mankind trained its telescopes on other worlds\, old conventions gave way to a new kind of hedonistic freedom that celebrated sex\, drugs\, and rock ‘n’ roll. Derided as nerdy or dismissed as fluff\, science fiction rarely gets credit for its catalyzing effect on this revolution. \nIn Strange Stars\, Jason Heller recasts sci-fi and pop music as parallel cultural forces that depended on one another to expand the horizons of books\, music\, and out-of-this-world imagery. \nIn doing so\, he presents a whole generation of revered musicians as the sci-fi-obsessed conjurers they really were: from Sun Ra lecturing on the black man in the cosmos\, to Pink Floyd jamming live over the broadcast of the Apollo 11 moon landing; from a wave of Star Wars disco chart toppers and synthesiser-wielding post-punks\, to Jimi Hendrix distilling the “purplish haze” he discovered in a pulp novel into psychedelic song. Of course\, the whole scene was led by David Bowie\, who hid in the balcony of a movie theater to watch 2001: A Space Odyssey\, and came out a changed man… \nIf today’s culture of Comic Con fanatics\, superhero blockbusters\, and classic sci-fi reboots has us thinking that the nerds have won at last\, Strange Stars brings to life an era of unparalleled and unearthly creativity–in magazines\, novels\, films\, records\, and concerts–to point out that the nerds have been winning all along. \n* * * \nABOUT THE AUTHOR \nJason Heller has written for publications including the New Yorker\, Rolling Stone\, Pitchfork\, NPR\, and The AV Club. His latest book was Taft 2012.
URL:https://litseen.com/event/jason-heller-presents-strange-stars-w-nick-mamatas-richard-kadrey/
LOCATION:East Bay Booksellers\, 5433 College Avenue\, Oakland\, 94618
CATEGORIES:East Bay,Free
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://litseen.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/strange-stars.jpg
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DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20180815T193000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20180815T210000
DTSTAMP:20260501T133920
CREATED:20180605T212836Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20180605T212836Z
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SUMMARY:BOOKSMITH: Launch for Vanessa Hua / A River of Stars
DESCRIPTION:Booksmith welcomes Vanessa Hua (Deceit and Other Possibilities) back to the store to launch her debut novel\, A River of Stars. Joining her in conversation is Zyzzyva managing editor Oscar Villalon. More information coming soon — please save the date\, and join us! \n  \nHoled up with other mothers-to-be in a secret maternity home in Los Angeles\, Scarlett Chen is far from her native China\, where she worked in a factory and fell in love with the owner\, Boss Yeung. Now she’s carrying his baby. Already married with three daughters\, Boss Yeung is overjoyed because the doctors have confirmed that he will finally have the son he has always wanted. To ensure that his child has every advantage\, Boss Yeung has shipped Scarlett off to give birth on American soil. U.S. citizenship will open doors for their little prince. \n  \nAs Scarlett awaits the baby’s arrival\, she chokes down bitter medicinal stews and spars with her imperious housemates. The only one who fits in even less is Daisy\, a spirited teenager and fellow unwed mother who is being kept apart from her American boyfriend. \n  \nThen a new sonogram of Scarlett’s baby reveals the unexpected. Panicked\, she escapes by hijacking a van–only to discover that she has a stowaway: Daisy\, who intends to track down the father of her child. The two flee to San Francisco’s bustling Chinatown\, where Scarlett will join countless immigrants desperately trying to seize their piece of the American dream. What Scarlett doesn’t know is that her baby’s father is not far behind her. \n\n“Illuminates the lives of her characters with energy\, verve\, and heart. Hua tracks the minutest emotional terrain of these characters while simultaneously interrogating the cultural and economic forces that shape their worlds.” – Emma Cline\, New York Times bestselling author of The Girls \n  \n“A River of Stars splits the ‘Chinese immigrant story’ into a kaleidoscopic spectrum\, putting human faces to the many groups — rich and poor\, privileged and marginalized\, documented and not — who come to America. Vanessa Hua’s debut is an utterly absorbing novel about the ruthless love of parenthood and the universal truth that sometimes family runs deeper than blood alone.” – Celeste Ng\, New York Times bestselling author of Little Fires Everywhere and Everything I Never Told You \n  \n“How does Scarlett Chen — pregnant\, with her immigration status in peril — make her way in America without friends\, language\, and money? Vanessa Hua’s compelling A River of Stars is a story of resistance\, survival\, and self-determination in a world that is seemingly indifferent to the needs of the poor and disenfranchised.” – Min Jin Lee\, author of National Book Award finalist Pachinko \n  \n“A River of Stars is as pleasurable in its parts as it is profound in its sum. It is a road novel\, an immigrant narrative\, a family saga\, a mystery\, and the unlikeliest of love stories\, all animated by a magnificent cast of characters who bear out John Berger’s assertion that ‘never again shall a single story be told as though it were the only one.’ Vanessa Hua’s debut contains multitudes.” – Anthony Marra\, New York Times bestselling author of A Constellation of Vital Phenomena and The Tsar of Love and Techno \n  \n\n  \nVanessa Hua is a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle and the author of a short story collection\, Deceit and Other Possibilities. For two decades\, she has been writing\, in journalism and fiction\, about Asia and the Asian diaspora. She has received a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award\, the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature\, the San Francisco Foundation’s James D. Phelan Award\, and a Steinbeck Fellowship in Creative Writing\, as well as honors from the Society of Professional Journalists and the Asian American Journalists Association. Her work has appeared in publications including The New York Times\, The Atlantic\, and The Washington Post. A River of Stars is Vanessa Hua’s first novel. Her author photo is by Andria Lo. \n  \nRSVP appreciated but not required
URL:https://litseen.com/event/booksmith-launch-for-vanessa-hua-a-river-of-stars/
LOCATION:The Booksmith\, 1644 Haight St\, San Francisco \, CA\, 94117\, United States
CATEGORIES:Free,San Francisco
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://litseen.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/stars.jpg
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