Litseen

Adam Morris and Chris Jennings
2019-03-28 19:30 - 21:30 UTC | Green Apple Books on the Park, 1231 9th Ave, San Francisco , CA, 94122, United States
Adam Morris discusses his new book, American Messiahs: False Prophets of a Damned Nation with Chris Jennings.

About American Messiahs
A history with sweeping implications, American Messiahs challenges our previous misconceptions about “cult” leaders and their messianic power.
Mania surrounding messianic prophets has defined the national consciousness since the American Revolution. From Civil War veteran and virulent anticapitalist Cyrus Teed, to the dapper and overlooked civil rights pioneer Father Divine, to even the megalomaniacal Jim Jones, these figures have routinely been dismissed as dangerous and hysterical outliers.
After years of studying these emblematic figures, Adam Morris demonstrates that messiahs are not just a classic trope of our national culture; their visions are essential for understanding American history. As Morris demonstrates, these charismatic, if flawed, would-be prophets sought to expose and ameliorate deep social ills—such as income inequality, gender conformity, and racial injustice. Provocative and long overdue, this is the story of those who tried to point the way toward an impossible “American Dream”: men and women who momentarily captured the imagination of a nation always searching for salvation.

Julie Moss / Crawl of Fame: Julie Moss and the Fifteen Feet that Created an Ironman Triathlon Legend
2019-03-28 19:30 - 21:30 | The Bindery, 1727 Haight St, San Francisco , 94117, United States
The Bindery and Women Sports Film Festival hosts a special evening with Julie Moss for her new book, co-written with Robert Yehling, Crawl of Fame: Julie Moss and the Fifteen Feet that Created an Ironman Triathlon Legend. Please join us!

In 1982, Julie Moss ran the Ironman triathlon for her college senior research project. Her idea was quirky, even crazy; only a handful of hardcore, highly trained enthusiasts competed in the little-known, 140.6-mile combination of swimming, cycling, and running. Julie brought no experience or appreciable training beyond running two marathons. She did bring a latent willpower that, the world soon found out, wouldn’t be denied. What happened next changed Ironman forever…. After becoming the unlikely leader during the marathon, the final leg of the Ironman, Julie fell and lost all bodily function fifteen meters (50 feet) from the finish. While on hands and knees, she watched her rival pass her. Thirty seconds later, she crawled across the line – stunning the millions who were watching on television.

At age twenty-three, Julie became the instant global icon, and the public face of fitness and endurance sports – which exploded in popularity, partly because of her inspiration. That this young co-ed would represent such a new sport was unlikely. That she would inspire millions to change the courses of their lives in the three decades since was unthinkable. Yet, it happened. And keeps happening. In April 2017 Julie won her age group in the Ironman North American Championships – racing 25 minutes faster than her 1982 Ironman. How does a 58-year-old woman beat the time of her 23-year-old self? Crawl of Fame is the long-awaited release of her incredible story. Julie describes how she found her greater purpose while lying across the finish line at Ironman 1982 – and how that greater purpose as a woman, athlete, endurance sports symbol and, now, iconic figure has defined her life and inspired others since. Several endurance sports athletes have written memoirs, but none have changed a sport so dramatically as Julie Moss. Now, readers will join the inner and outer journey of one of the world’s most impressive athletes, a woman who has already inspired millions – with millions more to come.

Julie Moss is a member of the Ironman Hall of Fame, U.S.A. Triathlon Hall of Fame and a ten-time Ironman competitor. She was the 2012 Triathlon Business International Female Athlete of the Year and was the 2017 Ironman North American Champion in her age group. Julie has served as a commentator for ABC, NBC, CBS, and the Goodwill Games. Julie is a member of the Hoka One One sports team, which has been featured inPeople, Sports Illustrated, ESPN: The Magazine, The New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times. She lives in San Diego, California.

Please note: this event will be held at The Bindery, 1727 Haight.

This is an all ages event with mature themes. The bar opens at 7pm; event starts at 7:30pm.

As with all of our events, seating may be limited; you can guarantee a seat by pre-purchasing the book below — when checking out, just be sure to include a note that you’d like to attend the event. If you cannot attend the event but would like to request a signed copy of Crawl of Fame, order below and put your request in the comments field.

RSVP appreciated but not required.

LAUNCH for Cindy Derby / How to Walk an Ant
2019-03-31 16:00 - 18:00 | The Bindery, 1727 Haight St, San Francisco , 94117, United States
The Bindery is thrilled to host the launch party for Cindy Derby‘s debut picture book, How to Walk an Ant. Please save the date and join us for this special afternoon event, which will include a puppetry performance — with ant puppets! — and innovative activities for adults and their kids.

There are nine steps to becoming an ant walker, and Amariyah, the expert ant walker, is here to show you how it’s done. This irreverent and quirky picture book follows a young girl as she goes through the process of walking ants, from polite introductions to tragic leash entanglements. In the end, this unique book shows that as long as you’re doing what you’re best at, you may find a like-minded friend to tag along.

Cindy Derby is an illustrator and author based out of San Francisco. How to Walk an Ant is her first picture book (Roaring Brook Press, March 2019). Other picture book titles (as illustrator) include: Climbing Shadows by Shannon Bramer (Groundwood Books, 2019); Outside by New York Times best selling author Deborah Underwood (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2020); The Boy and the 800-Pound Gorilla by Jackie Azua Kramer (Candlewick Press, 2020). Cindy’s background is in puppetry and she has performed all over the world. She received her Master of Arts from The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and was awarded grants from organizations such as The Jim Henson Foundation and Puppet Animation Scotland to assist in the creation of her shows. In 2014 Cindy won the grand prize for her illustration portfolio at the international SCBWI conference in Los Angeles. Her work is done in watercolor, india ink, gouache and inktense pencils.

Please note: this event will be held at The Bindery, 1727 Haight.

This is an all ages event. The bar opens with doors at 2pm; event starts at 4pm.

As with all of our events, seating may be limited; you can guarantee a seat by pre-purchasing the book below — when checking out, just be sure to include a note that you’d like to attend the event. If you cannot attend the event but would like to request a signed copy of How to Walk an Ant, order below and put your request in the comments field.

RSVP appreciated but not required.

POETS! - Michael Koch + Robert Anbian followed by an open mic
2019-04-01 19:00 - 21:00 | Bird & Beckett Books and Records, 653 Chenery St, San Francisco , CA, 94131, United States
A Night Horn Press celebration… On April 1st, poet and Night Horn Press publisher Robert Anbian joins poet Michael Koch to recite verse and celebrate Night Horn’s most recent release, Koch’s poetry collection Street Theology The featured readers will be followed by the usual Monday open mic.

LAUNCH for Meredith May / The Honey Bus: A Memoir of Loss, Courage and a Girl Saved by Bees
2019-04-01 19:30 - 21:30 | The Bindery, 1727 Haight St, San Francisco , 94117, United States
The Bindery is thrilled to host longtime San Francisco Chronicle columnist Meredith May for the launch of her book, The Honey Bus: A Memoir of Loss, Courage and a Girl Saved by Bees. More information to be announce, but please save the date and join us!
Meredith May recalls the first time a honeybee crawled on her arm. She was five years old, her parents had recently split and suddenly she found herself in the care of her grandfather, an eccentric beekeeper who made honey in a rusty old military bus in the yard. That first close encounter was at once terrifying and exhilarating for May, and in that moment she discovered that everything she needed to know about life and family was right before her eyes, in the secret world of bees.
May turned to her grandfather and the art of beekeeping as an escape from her troubled reality. Her mother had receded into a volatile cycle of neurosis and despair and spent most days locked away in the bedroom. It was during this pivotal time in May’s childhood that she learned to take care of herself, forged an unbreakable bond with her grandfather and opened her eyes to the magic and wisdom of nature.
The bees became a guiding force in May’s life, teaching her about family and community, loyalty and survival, and the unequivocal relationship between a mother and her child. Part memoir, part beekeeping odyssey, The Honey Bus is an unforgettable story about finding home in the most unusual of places and how a tiny, little-understood insect could save a life.

Meredith May spent sixteen years at the San Francisco Chronicle, where her narrative reporting won the PEN USA Literary Award for Journalism and was short-listed for the Pulitzer Prize. She is coauthor of I, Who Did Not Die and is a fifth-generation beekeeper. She lives in San Francisco, where she keeps several hives in a community garden.

Please note: this event will be held at The Bindery, 1727 Haight.

This is an all ages event with mature themes. The bar opens at 7pm; event starts at 7:30pm.

As with all of our events, seating may be limited; you can guarantee a seat by pre-purchasing the book below — when checking out, just be sure to include a note that you’d like to attend the event. If you cannot attend the event but would like to request a signed copy of The Honey Bus, order below and put your request in the comments field.

RSVP appreciated but not required.

K Chess
2019-04-01 19:30 - 21:30 | Green Apple Books on the Park, 1231 9th Ave, San Francisco , CA, 94122, United States
This event will be held at our 9th Ave. location.
K Chess discusses her new novel, Famous Men Who Never Lived.

Praise for Famous Men Who Never Lived
“With an eerie and ingenious premise, K Chess explores in a fresh way the most universal of human experiences: loss, regret, and the longing for what might have been. With its refugees from a parallel universe, this inventive book does what only fiction can do: describes an impossible world in order to more clearly show us our own.”—Karen Thompson Walker, author of The Age of Miracles
“Famous Men Who Never Lived is a fascinating novel: complex, uncanny, powerful. K Chess adroitly enacts Joyce’s ‘cracked looking glass’ and gives us an off-kilter reflection that allows us to really see who we are. The wit, elaboration, and detail of her invention are spectacular.”—Dana Spiotta, author of Innocents and Others
“The novel jumps off from a fascinating premise into strange and fertile territory. K Chess constructs not just one universe, but two, and delicately entangles them to create a rich, engrossing exploration of displacement, history, memory, of the past and the present. Conceptually adventurous yet full of feeling, Famous Men Who Never Lived is a smart, thought-provoking and thoroughly enjoyable debut.”—Charles Yu, author of How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe

About Famous Men Who Never Lived
For readers of Station Eleven and Exit West, Famous Men Who Never Lived explores the effects of displacement on our identities, the communities that come together through circumstance, and the power of art to save us.
Wherever Hel looks, New York City is both reassuringly familiar and terribly wrong. As one of the thousands who fled the outbreak of nuclear war in an alternate United States―an alternate timeline―she finds herself living as a refugee in our own not-so-parallel New York. The slang and technology are foreign to her, the politics and art unrecognizable. While others, like her partner Vikram, attempt to assimilate, Hel refuses to reclaim her former career or create a new life. Instead, she obsessively rereads Vikram’s copy of The Pyronauts―a science fiction masterwork in her world that now only exists as a single flimsy paperback―and becomes determined to create a museum dedicated to preserving the remaining artifacts and memories of her vanished culture.
But the refugees are unwelcome and Hel’s efforts are met with either indifference or hostility. And when the only copy of The Pyronauts goes missing, Hel must decide how far she is willing to go to recover it and finally face her own anger, guilt, and grief over what she has truly lost.

Unnamed Press @ City Lights with Rheea Mukherjee & Adam Nemett
2019-04-02 19:00 - 21:00 | City Lights Bookstore, 261 Columbus Ave, San Francisco , CA, 94133, United States
Rheea Mukherjee reads from The Body Myth
Adam Nemett reads from We Can Save Us All
About The Body Myth:
A moving exploration of loss, Mukherjee delivers an intense and unexpected modern love story as Mira reconciles reality with desire.
Mira is a teacher living in the heart of Suryam, a modern bustling city in India, and the only place in the world the fickle Rasagura fruit grows. Mira lives alone, and with only the French existentialists as companions, until the day she witnesses a beautiful woman having a seizure in the park. Mira runs to help her but is cautious, for she could have sworn the woman looked around to see if anyone was watching right before the seizure began.
Mira is quickly drawn into the lives of this mysterious woman Sara, who suffers a myriad of unexplained illnesses, and her kind, intensely supportive husband Rahil, striking up intimate, volatile and fragile friendships with each of them that quickly become something more.
Praise for The Body Myth
“Witty, melancholic, and dramatic by turns, Rheea Mukherjee’s THE BODY MYTH is a touching love story about misfits searching for togetherness, even if that togetherness might not be healthy for all concerned… THE BODY MYTH is a compelling tale, rich in emotional undercurrents and empathy for its unconventional characters.”
—Foreword Reviews,
“Rheea Mukherjee has written a thought provoking and memorable meditation on the meaning of life. In seductive prose, THE BODY MYTH, explores the depths and boundaries of relationships, conventional and unconventional, and the meaning of intimacy in sickness and health. A fine novel.”
—Soniah Kamal, award winning author of ‘Unmarriageable: Pride and Prejudice in Pakistan’
“Like the Rasagura fruit Rheea Mukherjee so eloquently writes about, THE BODY MYTH is a tender love story at its core: sweet, sour, and bursting with wisdom. An intoxicating read.”
—Neel Patel, author of IF YOU SEE ME, DON’T SAY HI
About We Can Save Us All:
Welcome to The Egg, an off-campus geodesic dome where David Fuffman and his crew of alienated Princeton students train for what might be the end of days: America is in a perpetual state of war, climate disasters create a global state of emergency, and scientists believe time itself may be collapsing.
Funded by the charismatic Mathias Blue and fueled by performance enhancers and psychedelic drugs, a student revolution incubates at The Egg, inspired by the superheroes that dominate American culture. The arrival of Haley Roth—an impassioned heroine with a dark secret—propels David and Mathias to expand their movement across college campuses nationwide, inspiring a cult-like following. As the final superstorm arrives, they toe the line between good and evil, deliverance and demagogues, the damned and the saved.
In this sprawling, ambitious debut, Adam Nemett delves into contemporary life in all of its chaos and unknowing. We Can Save Us All is a brave, ribald, and multi-layered examination of what may be the fundamental question of our time: just who is responsible for fixing all of this?
Praise for We Can Save Us All
“Adam Nemett is the kind of smart and the kind of funny we need right now. WE CAN SAVE US ALL has the savvy, dangerous feel of early Don DeLillo.”
—Sam Lipsyte, author of ‘THE ASK’ and ‘THE SUBJECT STEVE’
“Adam Nemett has done something superheroic here. WE CAN SAVE US ALL is a wild and uproarious debut that is also wise and deeply felt. Come for the costumes, comedy, and psychedelics; stay for the searching questions about what it means to live an honorable life—to try to be one of the Good Guys—at the (maybe) end of time.”
—Justin Taylor, author of ‘THE GOSPEL OF ANARCHY’, ‘FLINGS’, and ‘EVERYTHING HERE IS THE BEST THING EVER’
“Adam Nemett is a terrific new writer, and in WE CAN SAVE US ALL he has crafted a wildly entertaining and often moving book about what it’s like to be young and rebellious in a dangerous world.”
—Tom Barbash, bestselling author of ‘ON TOP OF THE WORLD’, ‘STAY UP WITH ME’, and ‘THE LAST GOOD CHANCE’
about the authors:
Rheea Mukherjee’s fiction and non-fiction has been published in several publications including Scroll.in, Southern Humanities Review, Out of Print, QLRS and Bengal Lights, among others. Her previous stories have been Pushcart nominees, Glimmer Train Very Short Fiction Finalists, and semi-finalists for the Black Lawrence Press Award. She co-founded Bangalore Writers Workshop in 2012 and currently co-runs Write Leela Write, a Design and Content Laboratory in Bangalore. You can learn more about Rheea at www.rheeamukherjee.com.
Adam Nemett serves as creative director and author for The History Factory, where he’s written award-winning nonfiction books for Lockheed Martin, Brooks Brothers, City of Hope Medical Center, and Huntington Bank, and directed campaigns for 21st Century Fox, Adobe Systems, HarperCollins, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, New Balance, Pfizer and Whirlpool. An excerpt of his debut novel, WE CAN SAVE US ALL, was anthologized in The Apocalypse Reader. He is the writer/director of the feature film, The Instrument (2005). Adam’s work has been published, reviewed and featured in Variety, LA Weekly, The New Yorker, Washington Post, The Brooklyn Rail, as well as many others.
about the publisher:
Unnamed Press is an independent publisher based in Los Angeles, California. Unnamed Press publishes literary fiction and non-fiction, with an emphasis on debuts by women, underrepresented voices and people of color, as well as internationally focused speculative and fantasy.

Meredith May - - The Honey Bus
2019-04-02 19:00 - 21:00 | East Bay Booksellers, 5433 College Avenue, Oakland, 94618
EAST BAY BOOKSELLERS welcomes Meredith May to discuss her new new book The Honey Bus, on Tuesday, April 2nd at 7pm.
An extraordinary story of a girl, her grandfather and one of nature’s most mysterious and beguiling creatures: the honeybee. Meredith May recalls the first time a honeybee crawled on her arm. She was five years old, her parents had recently split and suddenly she found herself in the care of her grandfather, an eccentric beekeeper who made honey in a rusty old military bus in the yard. That first close encounter was at once terrifying and exhilarating for May, and in that moment she discovered that everything she needed to know about life and family was right before her eyes, in the secret world of bees.May turned to her grandfather and the art of beekeeping as an escape from her troubled reality. Her mother had receded into a volatile cycle of neurosis and despair and spent most days locked away in the bedroom. It was during this pivotal time in May’s childhood that she learned to take care of herself, forged an unbreakable bond with her grandfather and opened her eyes to the magic and wisdom of nature.The bees became a guiding force in May’s life, teaching her about family and community, loyalty and survival and the unequivocal relationship between a mother and her child. Part memoir, part beekeeping odyssey, The Honey Bus is an unforgettable story about finding home in the most unusual of places, and how a tiny, little-understood insect could save a life.

* * *

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Meredith May is an award-winning journalist and fifth-generation beekeeper.
During her sixteen-year career at the San Francisco Chronicle, her reporting won the PEN USA Literary Award for Journalism, the Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism, and first place feature writing awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and the Associated Press. Her series about an Iraqi boy wounded during the second Gulf War was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize.
Meredith is a former professor of journalism and podcasting at Mills College in Oakland, CA. She lives in San Francisco, where she rows on the Bay and cares for several beehives in a community garden.

Event date:

Tuesday, April 2, 2019 – 7:00pm

Event address:

East Bay Booksellers
5433 College Avenue

Oakland, CA 94618

Laurie Halse Anderson, SHOUT
2019-04-02 19:00 - 21:00 | Bookshop Santa Cruz, 1520 Pacific Ave, Santa Cruz , CA, 95060, United States
Bookshop Santa Cruz welcomes New York Times bestselling, award-winning author Laurie Halse Anderson for a discussion and signing of her new book, SHOUT – a searing poetic memoir for the #MeToo era. This offsite event is cosponsored by The Humanities Institute UC Santa Cruz, and will take place at Cowell Ranch Hay Barn on the UCSC campus.
REGISTER NOW HERE

Laurie Halse Anderson is known for the unflinching way she writes about, and advocates for, survivors of sexual assault. In 1999, her groundbreaking, award-winning novel Speak opened the door for a national dialogue about rape culture and consent. Now, twenty years later, she reveals her personal history as a rape survivor in a searing poetic memoir, SHOUT.
In free verse, Anderson shares reflections, rants, and calls to action woven between deeply personal stories from her life that she’s never written about before. Searing and soul-searching, devastating and triumphant, SHOUT is a denouncement of our society’s failures and a love letter to all the people with the courage to say #MeToo and #TimesUp, whether aloud, online, or only in their own hearts.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION:
· This event is for mature audiences only; children under 13 will not be admitted.
· Attendees must purchase a copy of SHOUT from Bookshop Santa Cruz either in store or at the event to enter the signing line.

Laurie Halse Anderson is a New York Times bestselling author whose writing spans young readers, teens, and new adults. Combined, her books have sold more than 8 million copies. She has been nominated for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award three times. Two of her books, Speak and Chains, were National Book Award finalists, and Chainswas short-listed for the prestigious Carnegie medal. Laurie was selected by the American Library Association for the 2009 Margaret A. Edwards Award and has been honored for her battles for intellectual freedom by the National Coalition Against Censorship and the National Council of Teachers of English.
In addition to combating censorship, Laurie regularly speaks about the need for diversity in publishing and is a member of RAINN’s National Leadership Council. She lives in Philadelphia, where she enjoys cheesesteaks while she writes. Find out more about Laurie by following her on Twitter at @halseanderson, Instagram at halseanderson, Facebook at writerlady, and Pinterest at halseanderson or by visiting her website.

T Kira Madden and Pam Zhang
2019-04-02 19:30 - 21:30 | Green Apple Books on the Park, 1231 9th Ave, San Francisco , CA, 94122, United States
T Kira Madden discusses her new memoir, Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls, with Pam Zhang.

Praise for Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls
“Harrowing and beautiful. What seems most miraculous about Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls is the way T Kira Madden forges out of such achingly difficult material a memoir as frank and funny and powerful and surprising as this, her utterly gorgeous debut.” —Lauren Groff, author of FLORIDA and FATES AND FURIES
“Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls is sad, funny, juicy and prickly with deep and secret thoughtful places. It is raucous and poignant at once and I recommend it highly.” —Mary Gaitskill, author of THE MARE and SOMEBODY WITH A LITTLE HAMMER
“I’ve never read such a gorgeous and raw depiction of girlhood, the terrible vulnerability of adolescence, and the humiliation that often goes hand in hand with desire. Madden is fearless about diving deep into the darkest aspects of herself and her past, and that’s what makes her work riveting and urgent. An absolutely necessary book.” —Julie Buntin,author of MARLENA
“This open, defiant memoir is the long-awaited daughter of Dorothy Allison’s Bastard Out of Carolina. Madden captures the dangers and longings of a perilous girlhood with prose so vivid and sensuous we feel her past in our bodies. A mesmerizing piece of art I won’t soon forget.” —Claire Vaye Watkins, author of GOLD FAME CITRUS AND BATTLEBORN

About Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls
Acclaimed literary essayist T Kira Madden’s raw and redemptive debut memoir is about coming of age and reckoning with desire as a queer, biracial teenager amidst the fierce contradictions of Boca Raton, Florida, a place where she found cult-like privilege, shocking racial disparities, rampant white-collar crime, and powerfully destructive standards of beauty hiding in plain sight.
As a child, Madden lived a life of extravagance, from her exclusive private school to her equestrian trophies and designer shoe-brand name. But under the surface was a wild instability. The only child of parents continually battling drug and alcohol addictions, Madden confronted her environment alone. Facing a culture of assault and objectification, she found lifelines in the desperately loving friendships of fatherless girls.
With unflinching honesty and lyrical prose, spanning from 1960s Hawai’i to the present-day struggle of a young woman mourning the loss of a father while unearthing truths that reframe her reality, Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls is equal parts eulogy and love letter. It’s a story about trauma and forgiveness, about families of blood and affinity, both lost and found, unmade and rebuilt, crooked and beautiful.

Lynn Breedlove
2019-04-03 19:00 - 21:00 | City Lights Bookstore, 261 Columbus Ave, San Francisco , CA, 94133, United States
reading from his new book
45 Thought Crimes
from Manic D Press
45 Thought Crimes conveys a lineage of resistance and places the reader squarely in the driver’s seat of their own destiny. During the Reagan and Bush years, author Lynn Breedlove tried to ignore the political climate to focus on his own self destruction. When that didn’t work, he got sober and committed his life to art. After publishing his first two books and spending a career on tour, life took an unexpected turn. Breedlove spent the next decade caring and grieving for his mother, and founding / running a nonprofit to serve his LGBT community. But when the world threatens to end, the only moment that matters becomes now. Breedlove began writing this book the morning after the 2016 election, at the dawn of the coup. Newly in love and acutely aware of what was at stake, he questioned and confirmed life lessons learned, with Prince, Bowie, Leonard Cohen, and his ancestors as muses.
Lynn “Lynnee” Breedlove is the author of the novel Godspeed, was the singer for the band Tribe 8, and was the writer/performer of Lynnee Breedlove’s One Freak Show, a comic solo show on gender and the ensuing book, which won the 2010 Lambda Literary Award in the transgender category. He is the entrepreneurial founder of Homobiles, the indie non-profit startup that’s a ride service for the LGBTIQQ community and its allies, which, along with his creative work, won him the 2012 Harvey Milk LGBT Club Award for Activism.

April in Paris: Springtime in Blossom
2019-04-03 19:00 - 21:00 | The Octopus Literary Salon, 2101 Webster St #170, Oakland , CA, 94612, United States
Featured readers: James Cagney, Sara McAulay, George Korolog, Lucille Lang Day. Late Night Open Mic follows the featured readers. Sign-up now. Book & Broadside Giveaway. Free, 7-9 pm. The Octopus Literary Salon, 2101 Webster St., Oakland.

RACHEL KLEINFELD at Books Inc. Berkeley
2019-04-03 19:00 - 21:00 | Books Inc. Berkeley, 1491 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley , CA, 94710, United States
Senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Rachel Kleinfeld discusses her comprehensive work, A Savage Order: How the World’s Deadliest Countries Can Forge a Path to Security.
The most violent places in the world today are not at war. More people have died in Mexico in recent years than in Iraq and Afghanistan combined. These parts of the world are instead buckling under a maelstrom of gangs, organized crime, political conflict, corruption, and state brutality. Such devastating violence can feel hopeless, yet some places–from Colombia to the Republic of Georgia–have been able to recover.
In this powerfully argued and urgent book, Rachel Kleinfeld examines why some democracies, including our own, are crippled by extreme violence and how they can regain security. Drawing on fifteen years of study and firsthand field research–interviewing generals, former guerrillas, activists, politicians, mobsters, and law enforcement in countries around the world–Kleinfeld tells the stories of societies that successfully fought seemingly ingrained violence and offers penetrating conclusions about what must be done to build governments that are able to protect the lives of their citizens.
Taking on existing literature and popular theories about war, crime, and foreign intervention, A Savage Order is a blistering yet inspiring investigation into what makes some countries peaceful and others war zones, and a blueprint for what we can do to help.

Event date:

Wednesday, April 3, 2019 – 7:00pm

Event address:

Books Inc.
1491 Shattuck Ave

Berkeley, CA

MARGARET DUMAS at Books Inc. Palo Alto
2019-04-03 19:00 - 21:00 | Books Inc. Palo Alto, 74 Town & Country Village, Palo Alto, CA, 94301, United States
Local author Margaret Dumas shares the first book in her humorous mystery series, Murder at the Palace: Movie Palace Mystery #1.
Welcome to the Palace movie theater! Now Showing: Philandering husbands, ghostly sidekicks, and a murder or two.
When Nora Paige’s movie-star husband leaves her for his latest co-star, she flees Hollywood to take refuge in San Francisco at the Palace, a historic movie theater that shows the classic films she loves. There she finds a band of misfit film buffs who care about movies (almost) as much as she does.
She also finds some shady financial dealings and the body of a murdered stranger.
Oh, and then there’s Trixie, the lively ghost of a 1930’s usherette who appears only to Nora and has a lot to catch up on. With the help of her new ghostly friend, can Nora catch the killer before there’s another murder at the Palace?
– – – – – – – – – – – – –
MURDER AT THE PALACE by Margaret Dumas A Henery Press Mystery. If you like one, you’ll probably like them all.

Event date:

Wednesday, April 3, 2019 – 7:00pm

Event address:

Books Inc.
74 Town & Country Village

Palo Alto, CA

Lyrics & Dirges: A "Weekly" Reading Series
2019-04-03 19:30 - 21:30 | Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley , CA, 94704, United States
Wednesday, April 3, 7:30pm
This Recurring Event is at Pegasus Books Downtown
Lyrics & Dirges: A Monthly Weekly Reading Series
In celebration of National Poetry Month, our flagship reading series Lyrics & Dirges is going weekly! (For April only).
Lyrics & Dirges features a mix of prominent, emerging and beginning writers. Currently in its ninth year, its aim is to highlight various forms of writing in an effort to spotlight the diverse literary community of the Bay Area. Hosted and curated by Sharon Coleman and Mk Chavez.

Event date:

Wednesday, April 3, 2019 – 7:30pm

Event address:

Pegasus Books Downtown
2349 Shattuck Avenue

Berkeley, CA 94704

Event Category:

Shattuck Location

Ben Lerner
2019-04-04 12:10 - 12:50 | Morrison Library, UC Berkeley, 2000 Carleston Street, Berkeley, CA, 94720, United States
Ben Lerner was born in Topeka, Kansas. He has received fellowships from the Fulbright, Guggenheim, and MacArthur Foundations, among other honors. He is the author of three books of poetry (The Lichtenberg Figures, Angle of Yaw, and Mean Free Path), two novels (Leaving the Atocha Station and 10:04). and a work of criticism (The Hatred of Poetry). His most recent books are collaborations: Blossom (with Thomas Demand), The Polish Rider (with Anna Ostoya), and The Snows of Venice (with Alexander Kluge). He is Distinguished Professor of English at Brooklyn College.

Meredith May, The Honey Bus
2019-04-04 19:00 - 21:00 | Bookshop Santa Cruz, 1520 Pacific Ave, Santa Cruz , CA, 95060, United States
Meredith May, The Honey Bus

THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 2019 – 7:00PM

An extraordinary story of a girl, her grandfather and one of nature’s most mysterious and beguiling creatures: the honeybee. Meredith May recalls the first time a honeybee crawled on her arm. She was five years old, her parents had recently split and suddenly she found herself in the care of her grandfather, an eccentric beekeeper who made honey in a rusty old military bus in the yard. That first close encounter was at once terrifying and exhilarating for May, and in that moment she discovered that everything she needed to know about life and family was right before her eyes, in the secret world of bees.
May turned to her grandfather and the art of beekeeping as an escape from her troubled reality. Her mother had receded into a volatile cycle of neurosis and despair and spent most days locked away in the bedroom. It was during this pivotal time in May’s childhood that she learned to take care of herself, forged an unbreakable bond with her grandfather and opened her eyes to the magic and wisdom of nature.The bees became a guiding force in May’s life, teaching her about family and community, loyalty and survival and the unequivocal relationship between a mother and her child.
Part memoir, part beekeeping odyssey, The Honey Bus is an unforgettable story about finding home in the most unusual of places, and how a tiny, little-understood insect could save a life.
Meredith May spent sixteen years at the San Francisco Chronicle, where her narrative reporting won the PEN USA Literary Award for Journalism and was short-listed for the Pulitzer Prize. She is coauthor of I, Who Did Not Die and is a fifth-generation beekeeper. She lives in San Francisco, where she keeps several hives in a community garden.
“Filled with hope, grace, beauty, and wisdom, this book is like warm honey in the sunshine. It beautifully illustrates how nature – even honeybees – can teach and heal us, if only we open our minds and hearts. It’s the kind of book that stays with you long after you’ve finished it–a rare treasure–and you don’t have to be a bee lover to be deeply moved by May’s wonderful story. I’m recommending it to everyone I know.”
— Stacey O’Brien, New York Times bestselling author of Wesley the Owl
“Captivating and surprising…. If you’ve ever been stung by a bee you will instantly forget the venom and remember forever the sweetness and redemption bees offer in this extraordinary book.”
— Sy Montgomery, New York Times bestselling author of How To Be A Good Creature and The Soul of an Octopus
“If Meredith May’s book was simply an ethology of bees I would devour every word; her prose is tender, thoughtful and transporting. But The Honey Bus is so much more – a memoir of aching loneliness, reckoning and redemption. Beautiful and brave.”
— Domenica Ruta, New York Times bestselling author of With or Without You: A Memoir
“The wounded feminine, the missing masculine, healed by a relationship with honeybees. An innocent child’s hard won journey to adulthood–clear eyed, often very funny, and agonizingly compassionate. The Honey Bus is all these things and more–so if you’ve ever been a lonely child, or want the world to become a kinder place, here is your book.”
— Laline Paull, author of The Bees
“The Honey Bus is a rare treat for true storytelling deeply rooted in science. Everyone will leave this book with much more knowledge about bees and humanity, and the compassion that lives at the intersection of the two. [A] captivating coming of age family story.”
— Noah Wilson-Rich, Ph.D., author of The Bee: A Natural History
“To read about Meredith May’s bee family and her human family is to garner heart strength. A true story in every sense.”
— Maxine Hong Kingston, bestselling author of The Woman Warrior

This free event will take place at Bookshop Santa Cruz. Chairs for open seating are usually set up about an hour before the event begins. If you have any ADA accommodation requests, please e-mail info@bookshopsantacruz.com by April 2nd.

RHYS BOWEN at Books Inc. Palo Alto
2019-04-04 19:00 - 21:00 | Books Inc. Palo Alto, 74 Town & Country Village, Palo Alto, CA, 94301, United States
Award-winnig crime writer Rhys Bowen shares her heart-rending new novel, The Victory Garden.
As the Great War continues to take its toll, headstrong twenty-one-year-old Emily Bryce is determined to contribute to the war effort. She is convinced by a cheeky and handsome Australian pilot that she can do more, and it is not long before she falls in love with him and accepts his proposal of marriage.
When he is sent back to the front, Emily volunteers as a “land girl,” tending to the neglected grounds of a large Devonshire estate. It’s here that Emily discovers the long-forgotten journals of a medicine woman who devoted her life to her herbal garden. The journals inspire Emily, and in the wake of devastating news, they are her saving grace. Emily’s lover has not only died a hero but has left her terrified–and with child. Since no one knows that Emily was never married, she adopts the charade of a war widow.
As Emily learns more about the volatile power of healing with herbs, the found journals will bring her to the brink of disaster, but may open a path to her destiny.

Event date:

Thursday, April 4, 2019 – 7:00pm

Event address:

Books Inc.
74 Town & Country Village

Palo Alto, CA

LOLLY WINSTON at Books Inc. Campbell
2019-04-04 19:00 - 21:00 | Book Inc. Campbell, 1875 S. Bascom Avenue, Suite #600, Campbell, CA
Lolly Winston—New York Times-bestselling author of Good Grief–discusses her poignant new novel, Me for You.
The last thing Rudy expected was to wake up one Saturday morning, a widow at fifty-four years old. Now, ten months after the untimely death of his beloved wife, he’s still not sure how to move on from the defining tragedy of his life–but his new job is helping. After being downsized from his finance position, Rudy turned to his first love: the piano. Some people might be embarrassed to work as the piano player at Nordstrom, but for Rudy, there’s joy in bringing a little music into the world. And it doesn’t hurt that Sasha, the Hungarian men’s watch clerk who is finally divorcing her no-good husband, finds time to join him at the bench every now and then.
Just when Rudy and Sasha’s relationship begins to deepen, the police come to the store with an update about Rudy’s wife’s untimely death–a coworker has confessed to her murder–but Rudy’s actions are suspicious enough to warrant a second look at him, too. With Sasha’s husband suddenly reappearing, and Rudy’s daughter confronting her own marital problems, suddenly life becomes more complicated than Rudy and Sasha could have imagined.
With Winston’s trademark humor and sweetness that will appeal to readers of Jennifer Weiner and Fredrik Backman but is uniquely her own, Lolly Winston delivers a heartfelt and realistic portrait of loss and grief, hope and forgiveness, and two imperfect people coming together to create a perfect love story.

Event date:

Thursday, April 4, 2019 – 7:00pm

Event address:

Books Inc.
1875 S. Bascom Avenue, Suite #600

Campbell, CA

Marina Lazzara, Ava Koober & Patrick James Dunagan - poetry reading
2019-04-04 19:00 - 21:30 | Bird & Beckett Books and Records, 653 Chenery St, San Francisco , CA, 94131, United States
Marina Lazzara, Ava Koober & Patrick James Dunagan – poetry reading

Laila Lalami
2019-04-04 19:30 - 21:00 | Kepler’s Books, 1010 El Camino Real, Menlo Park , CA, 94025, United States
Join us at Kepler’s Literary Foundation for a book discussion with author Laila Lalami! From the celebrated Pulitzer Prize finalist who swept multiple book awards with The Moor’s Account comes this lyric, fascinating new novel The Other Americans. Through nine separate narrators whose accounts effortlessly interweave, Lalami unravels both the mystery of an immigrant’s sudden death and the quiet schisms that underlie American culture.
The novel opens with Nora, a jazz composer, who sips champagne with a friend on the same night that her father dies in an apparent hit-and-run near his home in California. Maryam, Nora’s mother, narrates a following chapter; a distant neighbor, another; an undocumented witness, a friend and immigrant, and a detective all speak to the events leading up to and following Driss Guerroui’s death. These dueling narrative lines call out to secrets both within Nora’s family and throughout the town.
The Other Americans has already garnered extraordinary praise from Kirkus, Publisher’s Weekly, and talented writers of fiction like J.M. Coetzee and Viet Thanh Nguyen, who gets it exactly right when he calls Laila Lalami “a writer of uncommon conviction and tremendous insight.” Don’t miss the opportunity to meet this glittering star in the literary pantheon at the height of her career. RSVP now for Lalami’s visit on April 4th.

Solito, Solita Book Launch
2019-04-04 19:30 - 21:30 | Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley , CA, 94704, United States
Thursday, April 4, 7:30pm
Pegasus Books Downtown
Join the editors and two narrators of Solito, Solita for a discussion of this powerful new book from Voice of Witness and Haymarket Books. Solito, Solita tells the stories of youth refugees fleeing their home countries and traveling for hundreds of miles seeking safety and protection in the United States. In an era of fear, xenophobia, and outright lies, these stories amplify the compelling voices of immigrant youth. What can they teach us about abuse and abandonment, bravery and resilience, hypocrisy and hope?
Narrators:
Gabriel, who after surviving sexual abuse starting at the age of eight fled to the United States, and through study, legal support and work, is now attending UC Berkeley.
Soledad, a young woman from Honduras who fled at age 14 after being abused by her stepfather, abandoned by her mother, and forced into child labor. She recently graduated from SFSU.
Editors:
Steven Mayers is a writer, oral historian, and professor of English at the City College of San Francisco.
Jonathan Freedman is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist, author, and writing mentor at the City College of San Francisco.

Event date:

Thursday, April 4, 2019 – 7:30pm

Event address:

Pegasus Books Downtown
2349 Shattuck Avenue

Berkeley, CA 94704

W. Thomas Boyce OFFSITE
2019-04-05 18:30 - 20:30 | First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley, 2407 Dana St., Berkeley, CA, 94704, United States
A celebration and reading from his new book The Orchid and the Dandelion: Why Some Children Struggle and How All Can Thrive.
“The Orchid and the Dandelion is based on groundbreaking research that has the power to change the lives of countless children–and the adults who love them.”–Susan Cain, author of Quiet: The Power of Introverts

Friday, April 5, 2019 – 6:30pm

From one of the world’s foremost researchers and pioneers of pediatric health–a book that offers hope and a pathway to success for parents, teachers, psychologists, psychiatrists, and child development experts coping with “difficult” children, fully exploring the author’s revolutionary discovery about childhood development, parenting, and the key to helping all children find happiness and success.
W. Thomas Boyce, M.D., is the Lisa and John Pritzker Distinguished Professor of Developmental and Behavioral Health and chief of the Division of Developmental Medicine at UCSF. He is also a member of the National Academy of Medicine and codirector of the Child and Brain Development Program of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. He lives with his wife in Oakland.

Event address:

2407 Dana St

Berkeley, CA 94720

After Hours: Poetry World Series
2019-04-05 19:00 - 21:00 | Main Reading Room, Mill Valley Public Library, 375 Throckmorton Ave, Mill Valley , CA, 94941, United States
After Hours: Poetry World Series
Friday, April 5th · 7:00pm
Wine reception at 6:30pm for registered guests.
This unlikely pairing of baseball and poetry showcases the poetry, wit, and smarts of Bay Area poets who are judged on their ability to make their poems fit subjects “pitched” by the audience.
Master of Quips and Ceremonies Daniel Handler ensures fun and irreverence. Popcorn, beer.
Adults and high school students only.
Registration recommended. Registration opens March 19th.
Add to my:iCal/Outlook
When:Friday, April 5, 2019
Time:7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Where:Mill Valley Public Library – Main Reading Room, 375 Throckmorton Ave, Mill Valley, California, 94941
Event Type:Library, After Hours
Contact:(415) 389-4292

Occult Features of Anarchism: Erica Lagalisse in Conversation with Andrej Grubačić
2019-04-05 19:30 - 21:30 | Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley , CA, 94704, United States
Friday, April 5, 7:30pm
Pegasus Books Downtown
Erica Lagalisse presents her new book, Occult Features of Anarchism (PM Press, 2019). In conversation with anarchist dissident and historian, Andrej Grubačić.

About the Book:
In the nineteenth century anarchists were accused of conspiracy by governments afraid of revolution, but in the current century various “conspiracy theories” suggest that anarchists are controlled by government itself. The Illuminati were a network of intellectuals who argued for self-government and against private property, yet the public is now often told that they were (and are) the very group that controls governments and defends private property around the world. Intervening in such misinformation, Lagalisse works with primary and secondary sources in multiple languages to set straight the history of the Left and illustrate the actual relationship between revolutionism, pantheistic occult philosophy, and the clandestine fraternity.
Exploring hidden correspondences between anarchism, Renaissance magic, and New Age movements, Lagalisse also advances critical scholarship regarding leftist attachments to secular politics. Inspired by anthropological fieldwork within today’s anarchist movements, her essay challenges anarchist atheism insofar as it poses practical challenges for coalition politics in today’s world.
Studying anarchism as a historical object, Occult Features of Anarchism also shows how the development of leftist theory and practice within clandestine masculine public spheres continues to inform contemporary anarchist understandings of the “political,” in which men’s oppression by the state becomes the prototype for power in general. Readers behold how gender and religion become privatized in radical counterculture, a historical process intimately linked to the privatization of gender and religion by the modern nation-state.
Praise:
“This is surely the most creative and exciting, and possibly the most important, work to come out on either anarchism or occultism in many a year. It should give rise to a whole new field of intellectual study.”
—David Graeber, professor of anthropology at the London School of Economics and Political Science, author of Debt: The First 5,000 Years
“A tour de force. Any self-respecting radical should know this history, right down to the dirty history of the ‘A for anarchism’ sign from its location within Freemasonry and magic. Ripping apart with historical detail our contemporary common sense we learn the tactics of how elite radicals claim power through difference. The significance of this history for the politics of now should not be underestimated and most certainly more widely known. Essential reading.”
—Beverley Skeggs, director of the Atlantic Fellows programme at the International Inequalities Institute of the London School of Economics and Political Science, author of Class, Self, Culture
“Lagalisse excavates the theological, spiritual roots of anarchism to identify some of the contemporary shortcomings of left activism. Engrossing, enlightening, and often surprising, the book delights and dazzles as it ruminates on a stunning array of topics from gender and intersectionality to secret societies, the occult, and conspiracy.”
—Gabriella Coleman, professor of anthropology at McGill University, author of Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy: The Many Faces of Anonymous
Erica Lagalisse is an anthropologist and writer. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the International Inequalities Institute of the London School of Economics and Political Science, where she is conducting a research project on dynamics surrounding the “conspiracy theory” in social movement spaces.
Andrej Grubačić is an anarchist dissident and historian and chair of the Anthropology and Social Change department at the California Institute of Integral Studies. His books include Don’t Mourn, Balkanize!: Essays After Yugoslavia, Wobblies and Zapatistas: Conversations on Anarchism, Marxism and Radical History, and Living at the Edges of Capitalism Adventures in Exile and Mutual Aid.

Event date:

Friday, April 5, 2019 – 7:30pm

Event address:

Pegasus Books Downtown
2349 Shattuck Avenue

Berkeley, CA 94704

The FIRST SATURDAY BOOK CLUB at Books Inc. Berkeley
2019-04-06 10:00 - 12:00 | Books Inc. Berkeley, 1491 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley , CA, 94710, United States
The FIRST SATURDAY BOOK CLUB will discuss The Year of Pleasures by Elizabeth Berg.

Event date:

Saturday, April 6, 2019 – 10:00am

Event address:

Books Inc.
1491 Shattuck Ave

Berkeley, CA

Story Time with Chris Van Dusen
2019-04-06 11:00 - 12:00 | Kepler’s Books, 1010 El Camino Real, Menlo Park , CA, 94025, United States
A new book by Kate DiCamillo and Chris Van Dusen is a cause for celebration. And we WILL be celebrating when Chris Van Dusen, one of our favorite picture book author/illustrators, visits Kepler’s on April 6.
Every porcine wonder was once a piglet – discover Mercy Watson’s delightful origin story in A Piglet Named Mercy. an endearing picture-book prequel to the beloved New York Times best-selling Mercy Watson series.

Chris Van Dusen is the author-illustrator of many books for young readers, including The Circus Ship, If I Built a House, If I Built a Car, Down to the Sea with Mr Magee and Hattie & Hudson, and the illustrator of the Mercy Watson and Deckawoo Drive series.
Mr. Watson and Mrs. Watson live ordinary lives. Sometimes their lives feel a bit too ordinary. Sometimes they wish something different would happen. And one day it does, when someone unpredictable finds her way to their front door. In a delightful origin story for the star of the Mercy Watson series, a tiny piglet brings love (and chaos) to Deckawoo Drive — and the Watsons’ lives will never be the same.
Join us and celebrate the joy of a new arrival by a longtime favorite author.

BAPC OPEN POETRY READING
2019-04-06 15:00 - 17:00 | Strawberry Creek Lodge, 1320 Addison Street, Berkeley, CA, 94702, United States
3:00 – 5:00 PM

STRAWBERRY CREEK LODGE
1320 Addison St., Berkeley, CA

Addison is one block south of and parallel to University Ave.
between Acton & Bonar St.
Parking on the street (NOT in the S.C.L. parking lot)

Check in at the front desk and you will be directed to the meeting location
(usually Movie Room, or backyard garden)

All Ages Welcome

Come and enjoy a friendly and informal read-around —
3-5 minutes per poet/reader, or “just listening” is fine too 🙂

After the reading, join us for dinner if you’d like at a nearby restaurant

Random Poetics
2019-04-07 14:00 - 15:00 | Bird & Beckett Books and Records, 653 Chenery St, San Francisco , CA, 94131, United States
What is poetry? What is the poet’s role? Is there a future for this ancient art? Does poetry constitute An ideology Poet Neeli Cherkovski will talk on these and other issues, In a provocative evening in Glen Park

Poetry Flash
2019-04-07 15:00 - 17:00 | East Bay Booksellers, 5433 College Avenue, Oakland, 94618
Sunday, April 7
3:00pm

EAST BAY BOOKSELLERS is excited to welcome back our friends from Poetry Flash on Sunday, April 7th at 3pm. This month we will be joined by poets from Sixteen Rivers: Maya Khosla, Barbara Swift Brauer, and Camille Norton.
More Details to Come!

Event date:

Sunday, April 7, 2019 – 3:00pm

Event address:

East Bay Booksellers
5433 College Avenue

Oakland, CA 94618
