Christopher McDougall - Born to Run

Christopher McDougall - Born to Run JUST ADDED EVENT!
Tickets required: Purchase of the book admits one
April 9th at 4:00 pm

Join Book Passage in Corte Madera as we welcome Christopher McDougall, who will be presenting Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen ($15.95).

Born to Run revolutionized the world's most popular sport and ignited the barefoot revolution. Now, McDougall brings the book to life as some of the main figures step out of the pages and join him at Book Passage for a fast-moving presentation that includes hula dancers, ultra-running legends, the world's best barefoot coaches, and rare images of the mythical Tarahumara Indians.

Also, join McDougall and his fellow Naked Tour Cabaret performers in a group run prior to the cabaret. For details of the run, check thenakedtour.com.


Performers at this special event will include:
Luis Escobar, photographer of the Tarahumara
Eric Orton, elite endurance coach
Sunny Blende, endurance sport nutritionist and Marin County masters athlete
Scott Jurek, ultramarathon legend
Marshall Lewy, screenwriter who's adapting Born to Run into a film

About the book: An epic adventure that began with one simple question - why does my foot hurt? In a riveting narrative, award-winning journalist and often-injured runner, Chris McDougall, sets out to discover the secrets of Mexico’s Tarahumara Indians – who have honed the ability to run hundreds of miles without rest or injury. In the process, McDougal takes his readers from science labs at Harvard to the sun-baked valleys and freezing peaks across North America, where ever-growing numbers of ultra-runners are pushing their bodies to the limit, and, finally, to a climactic race in the Copper Canyons that pits America’s best ultra-runners against the tribe. McDougall’s incredible story will not only engage your mind but inspire your body when you realize that you, indeed all of us, were born to run.

About the author: Christopher McDougall is a former war correspondent for the Associated Press and is now a contributing editor for Men’s Health. A three-time National Magazine Award finalist, he has written for Esquire, The New York Times Magazine, Outside, Men’s Journal, and New York. He does his own running among the Amish farms around his home in rural Pennsylvania.

"A tale so mind-blowing as to be the stuff of legend." — The Denver Post

"McDougall's book reminded me of why I love to run." — Bill Rodgers, San Francisco Chronicle

"Fascinating. . . . Thrilling. . . . An operatic ode to the joys of running." — The Washington Post

“It’s a great book. . . . A really gripping read. . . .Unbelievable story . . . a really phenomenal book.” — Jon Stewart on The Daily Show

"One of the most entertaining running books ever." — Amby Burfoot, Runnersworld.com

“Equal parts quest, physiology treatise, and running history. . . . [McDougall] seeks to learn the secrets of the Tarahumara the old-fashioned way: He tracks them down. . . . The climactic race reads like a sprint. . . . It simply makes you want to run.” — Outside Magazine

“McDougall recounts his quest to understand near superhuman ultra-runners with adrenaline pumped writing, humor and a distinct voice...he never lets go from his impassioned mantra that humans were born to run.” — NPR

“Born to Run is a fascinating and inspiring true adventure story, based on humans pushing themselves to the limits. It’s destined to become a classic.”– Sir Ranulph Fiennes, author of Mad, Bad and Dangerous To Know

“Equal parts hilarity, explanation and earnestness—whisks the reader along on a compelling dash to the end, and along the way captures the sheer joy that a brisk run brings.” — Science News

5th Annual Children's Writers & Illustrators Conference

June 16-19, 2011 - Corte Madera, CA

Book Passage is pleased to announce the 5th Annual Book Passage Children's Writers & Illustrators Conference, which will take place June 16-19, 2011 at Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista Blvd., Corte Madera, CA 94925. Located just 15 minutes across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco, this conference brings together some of the best writers and illustrators of children's books and young adult literature in the country. The conference is appropriate for writers and illustrators at all levels--those both seasoned and those just starting their careers.

Visit the Conference homepage on the Web

2011 Faculty

Mac Barnett, Jennifer L. Holm, Kathryn Otoshi & Laura Rennert, and many more!

This year's Conference boasts an outstanding faculty of writers, illustrators, agents, and publishing professionals including Chronicle Books publisher Christine Carswell, president & publisher of Random House Children's Books Chip Gibson, author of Anya's War Andrea Alban, author of The Clock Without a Face and the Brixton Brothers series Mac Barnett, the "Author Enablers" Sam Barry and Kathi Kamen Goldmark, award-winning authors Thacher Hurd and Jennifer L. Holm, Bram Stoker Award-nominated YA author Linda Watanabe McFerrin, McSweeeney's editor and art director Brian McMullen, editor and author of Me, Frida Amy Novesky, author-illustrator Kathryn Otoshi, agents Laurie McLean (Larsen-Pomada Literary Agency), Laura Rennert (Andrea Brown Literary Agency), Danielle Svetcov (Levine-Greenberg Literary Agency), and many more!

Complete faculty list at this link

Author Kathryn Otoshi with
a Conference participant

Areas of Focus

The Conference will cover all aspects of writing and illustrating for children--from developing ideas to honing skills to finding a publisher. Students will work closely with other writers and illustrators, as well as with agents, editors, and publishers. The conference is designed to meet the differing needs of those who create for different age groups.

Each Conference day is structured to provide an intensive writing and/ or illustrating experience. In the mornings and afternoons there are panels & workshops, and special presentations in the evenings.

Mornings: Students select an area of interest, such as writing for picture books, middle readers, young adult books, or illustration. Morning sessions are spent with a single teacher or team of teachers on that subject.

Afternoons: Students attend panels and seminars on topics such as:
·    Collaboration between Writers & Illustrators
·    Round Table Critique Group
·    Writing & Illustration for Magazines
·    Working with an Editor
·    Finding an Agent
·    Getting Your Book Published
·    Promotion, Publicity & Marketing

Evenings: Each evening features events and activities with faculty members. The opening evening includes dinner.

Register for the Conference

The cost of the four-day Conference is $475. Optional 30-minute private consultations are available for $95.

Register for the Conference

Add a Private Consultation

Conference FAQ at this link Don't hesitate to call us for more information at (415) 927-0960, ext. 239 or email bpconferences@bookpassage.com. We are happy to help! Kathryn Petrocelli, Conference Coordinator Follow the Conference on Facebook Follow the Conference on Twitter

Exclusive Interview with Carl Safina, Author of A Sea in Flames

Book Passage buyer Sheryl Cotleur interviewed author Carl Safina about his new book A Sea in Flames ($25.00). A Sea in Flames will be released on April 19, but you may pre-order a copy at this link.

Carl Safina

A Sea in Flames ($25.00)

Sheryl Cotleur: While BP and our government seems to have been excruciatingly slow in responding to the Deepwater Horizon blowout and admitting to its scale, were there any other groups or individuals, to your knowledge, hammering on the door to elicit a greater response and call for wider help? Maybe that's too broad—any other groups or individuals with clout?

Carl Safina: There were a lot of groups hammering. Wildlife groups, enviro groups, some universities, local activists—But there was no preparedness, blurry authority, widespread confusion, and BP’s attempts to obscure the magnitude of the leak. There were few—really none—responsive pressure points to push. It was just a mess. This created a situation where the worst toll on the whole Gulf was largely the psychological suffering thousands of people endured, wondering what was going on, what the future held, and whether their lives and livings were, basically, finished.

SC: One of the most stunning aspects that became clear during this event is the way Big Business in the form of BP seemed to have ultimate authority (political authority) over our government in terms of controlling public access to information, roads, beaches and the clean-up. Please elaborate on what you experienced and what this means for us as citizens. Along the same lines then, why do you think it was assumed they'd be the authority on environmental clean-up, as well as calling for the use of dispersants on such a large scale? Was anyone inviting scientists into the discussion, or listening to them?

CS: I don’t think anyone was listening. As for how BP managed to be an occupying force all along the Gulf Coast, two things: One, the law on oil spill response is based on the Exxon Valdez tanker accident. The law makes the spiller responsible for cleanup. This was not a spill. It was a deepwater blowout that lasted months. The law did not envision this (though they certainly should have—the Gulf had a 9-month blowout in Mexican waters 30 years ago and smaller blowouts are fairly common). BP therefore, by law, was given the task of running the cleanup. And they way overreached. That, combined with local law seizing the opportunity to “do something” created a bizarre situation that was just shameful. You had private guards kicking people off public beaches, roads closed, people with cameras harassed—just shameful. The law should make the responsible company pay for all the contractors, but not run the cleanup. It got totally out of hand as far as giving them and the local bullies free range in trying to prevent public access and avert public scrutiny.

SC: Is there a government agency in charge of environmental cleanup after an accident, and is it different on land versus at sea?

CS: Not sure. I think in either case the company at fault must do the clean-up. This obviously needs to be constrained. The company should be made to write checks, and a federal emergency agency like FEMA (if managed right) should coordinate the contractors. The government should retain full authority and allow full public access except where it would be dangerous. For instance, too many planes were circling over the site of the blowout, so that got dangerous. But to have private companies hire private guards to bully the public and harass media people; in the U.S., that is totally unacceptable. But that’s what happened. Remember though, back to your question of “cleanup,” that in the case of a blowout there was, and remains, zero preparedness for quickly stopping a leaking pipe in deep water. That’s why they tried all that inane stuff: top kill, junk shot, dome; they were just making it up. The analogy was responding to a burning house by building a fire truck.

SC: While the tragedy of eleven lives lost will forever mark this event, the Deepwater Horizon blowout, do you think any positives might come from any other aspects of the blowout?

CS: The most positive thing would have been an energized push for the inevitable ramping up and phase in of clean energy technologies. That moment was lost because the politics of this country has become a dysfunctional team sporting event where each “side” tries to “win” by making the other lose. Actually America is the loser. China is seizing the moment because they understand that the country that invents the energy future will own the future and sell it to the rest of us. As we bicker, they build. It’s a catastrophe for U.S. leadership in the world and for our economy and American jobs, because a lot of the energy infrastructure would have to be built and we have people capable of doing that. There is some positive, in increased attention to what is really causing the collapse of the Mississippi marshes. Over 40 years, people have cut 10,000 miles of canals and channels into the Mississippi Delta. Those channels, and flood control upstream, also starve the marshes of the silt that builds and maintains them. The marshes are just crumbling, converting to open water at a rate of 25 square miles a year. That’s what’s really killing those wetlands. Not the oil. And by the way, the real problem with oil is not the oil we spill. The real problem is the oil we burn. The spilled oil gets more and more diluted. But the carbon dioxide from the oil and coal we burn gets more and more concentrated. There’s 30 percent more of it in the air now than there was at the start of the Industrial Revolution 200 years ago. It’s changing the heat balance of the planet and acidifying the seas. The blowout was a terrible event caused by sheer reckless stupidity. Lives were lost and the region was in turmoil for months. But it’s not the long-term problem.

SC: You mention BP having established a fund to study the aftereffects of the blowout for at least 10 years. Do you know who is being funded and to whom they report their findings eventually?

CS: Academic institutions. I don’t know the details of which, or what they are looking at specifically. Last I heard, this was to be no-strings-attached, meaning BP would not own or control the data or scientific publications. That’s imperative. In the aftermath, BP has been a better citizen than Exxon was. Exxon had abandoned the people in Prince William Sound, Alaska, and turned into a monstrous adversary. That’s what people feared in the Gulf. But almost all the details were different right from the start, and it played out very differently. But there’s still plenty of reason not to trust BP’s motives and to scrutinize their statements and their actions. They’re still trying to minimize the estimates of how much oil got into the Gulf, not because they care about accuracy but only because they get fined by the gallon.

SC: Thank you for your time and especially thank you for your work. One of the most powerful points you make in A Sea in Flames is the psychological devastation to the communities affected by these kinds of events and the need to grieve. This is not something one often finds pointed out, at least so effectively as you have. I only hope this kind of attention and care continues to educate the rest of us, makes us think, and spurs us to effective action.

CS: The pleasure is mine.

***

Yale has just brought out a timely publication, Atlas of Oceans: An Ecological Survey of Underwater Life ($50.00), with a forward by Carl Safina. This is an invaluable addition to our understanding of how oceans work. It has excellent illustrations and even some reference to the Deepwater Horizon Blowout, though it is far more comprehensive that just that event.

From the Depths of Time

by Barbara Quick

[Barbara Quick, author of Vivaldi's Virgins, takes us along with her on a journey of historical research for her latest novel, A Golden Web. Barbara will be teaching a class at Book Passage entitled Writing Historical Fiction coming up on April 30, 2011. Read more about the class at this link. You may listen to an audio podcast with Barbara about her research at this link.]

Barbara Quick

I’m no physicist, and my understanding of string theory is primitive, at best. But my whole heart responds to the idea that time, far from being linear, is comprised of a matrix of misbehaving, logic-defying squiggles.

Everything that ever happened, and everything that ever will happen, is swirling inside and outside our brains at any given time. Most of the time, we only see and feel the time that makes sense in the context of what we know to be our individual lives.

But sometimes, some part of us—charged with a special receptivity—strays into the primordial soup where all time exists at once. And there, in that darkness—in the rush and swirl of infinity—I was tapped on the shoulder in 2008 by a young girl who looked straight into my eyes and whispered, “Tell my story!”

She was a brilliant young medical student who studied and died in the early 14th century in one of Europe’s oldest centers of higher learning, the University of Bologna. I had found the barest outlines of her life in somewhat of an accidental search on Google. I was looking for information about another female anatomist from Bologna, far better known, from the 18th century.

I had sat down at my computer, dressed in my workout clothes, at 10:30 in the morning. When I looked up again, it was dark outside, and I’d written a fully fleshed-out book proposal. I knew the girl’s father and mother and the struggle they’d put up against their daughter’s determination to leave home and study medicine. I knew her good-natured jock of a big brother who was more than happy to have her sit by quietly while his tutors lectured him, so that she could provide all the answers for him, discreetly whispered, when he took his exams. By way of a thank-you, he took her out riding with him, taught her to hunt and dress the game they bagged together.

I knew her little sister who was poised to get married and yet couldn’t until Alessandra stopped being so stubborn and started behaving like a proper girl. And, clearest of all, I heard the voice of the young man who loved her, chosen by her parents and yet making them promise to keep the betrothal secret, so that he could win Alessandra’s love on his own.

I saw her death at the age of nineteen. I saw her fevered eyes that glittered not only with the disease contracted from one of the corpses she used in her medical experiments, but also with the knowledge that—magically, against all odds—she’d accomplished what she’d set out to do.

A Golden Web

The book contract with HarperCollins was still in the works when I set off—against all financial good sense—for three weeks of research in Bologna. I was a sleuth in search of a time and place that had been covered over (I discovered upon my arrival) by layers and layers of history and architecture. The fourteenth century was so much longer ago than I’d realized.

I took heart when I woke up in my hotel room, with the doors flung open over the garden, to hear a joyous chorus of birds. They were probably singing the same songs, I reasoned, that Alessandra had heard on her own first morning in Bologna. Time, for some aspects of the world, at least, changes very slowly.

In the ornately frescoed, vaulted rooms of the Sala Borsa, one of Bologna’s gorgeous public libraries, I found sources I never would have been able to find at home—and I knew I had made the right decision in coming. Illustrated manuals of the time clearly showed a girl in boy’s clothing assisting at the anatomy lessons of Alessandra’s mentor, Mondino de’ Liuzzi. In my original story outline, I’d had Alessandra’s parents insist that she dress as a boy for the insane adventure they only consented to finally because she threatened to kill herself if they refused. They insisted as well that she travel in the company of her nanny—which did much to compromise the public image Alessandra hoped to project as a brave young cavalier.

I was in a trattoria, eating my supper and parsing out one of the articles in Italian I’d photocopied at the library, when both facts were confirmed: Alessandra is reputed to have dressed as a boy during her time at school, and she traveled in the company of her bambinaia. I shed a couple of astonished tears over my tortellini.

Everyday I walked something like six hours over the cobble-stoned streets and alleys of Bologna—which is arranged like the spokes of a wheel radiating out from Piazza Maggiore, reigned over by a huge statue of Neptune and his entourage of nymphs whose breasts burst forth with fountains of water. I sought out the places where the medical students were reputed to hang out in the 1300s, looking for the sanctuaries that Alessandra might have turned to in moments of fear or despair. I climbed the 498 precipitous steps of the Torre degli Asinelli to imagine the landscape as it must have been during Alessandra’s time, mentally covering over buildings from the 15th century onwards and blotting out any signs of the Renaissance, the Baroque, and modern times. When my feet were covered in blisters, I borrowed a bicycle from the hotel and zipped with utter joy and abandon from one church, library, archive, or hallowed spot to the next, playing chicken with buses and scooters and cars. I felt safe: I felt—as frightening as it is to admit—invincible.

I walked up the pilgrimage road, now sheltered by two kilometers of porticoes but merely a path in Alessandra’s time, to the 18th century church of San Luca, poised thirty meters above the town, which started out as a convent founded by a solitary, visionary nun. I imagined Alessandra’s bereaved best friend and fiancé, making the pilgrimage up to the sanctuary barefoot, praying to be reunited with his beloved in the next life. On the way down, I strayed off the pilgrimage road to follow a grass-covered pathway into the countryside, taking in the trees and wildflowers in the same way I had taken in the birdsong. A flurry of white plum blossoms blew down on my path and I could hear with precision the voice of Otto, Alessandra’s fiancé.

I have no doubt that my passion and enthusiasm for my subject was infectious. Everywhere I went, doors opened for me.

Vivaldi's Virgins

In Venice, when I’d been researching my last novel, librarians there (I’m sure jaded by the relentless crush of tourists) treated me as a force to be fended off, rather than someone to be helped as I burrowed into the past to release an extraordinary young girl from the darkness of history. But in Bologna the librarians not only helped me with patience and good cheer but also thoroughly entered into the spirit of what I was trying to do. They became my collaborators. They turned their backs when I took forbidden digital photos. They gave me their email addresses and promised to continue digging for me after my return to California.

I never thought that history would become my life’s passion. I never even liked history when I was at school, apart from the context of literature, music, and art. But history has suddenly been revealed to me as the place where I live, where we all live, side by invisible side with others who—if we get quiet enough and listen carefully enough—will touch us and tell us their stories.

                        —Barbara Quick

Northern California novelist Barbara Quick is the author of Vivaldi’s Virgins (which has been translated into 14 languages) and A Golden Web, published last year by HarperCollins.

Sarah Vowell comes to Book Passage

Popular author and This American Life (NPR) contributor Sarah Vowell will be visiting Book Passage on Friday, April 1st at 1:00 pm. This very funny and very witty writer will be speaking about her new book, Unfamiliar Fishes (Riverhead, $25.95), an examination of Hawaii, the place where Manifest Destiny got a sunburn.

On Monday, Vowell was on The Daily Show with John Stewart. In this unedited, extended interview, Sarah Vowell looks back on the year that the United States became a world power for the first time. In the second part, she also tells a Saddam Hussein anecdote that involves a quilt. Take a look. Take a listen.

The Daily Show - Exclusive - Sarah Vowell Extended Interview Pt. 1
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Many think of 1776 as the defining year in American history, when we became a nation devoted to the pursuit of happiness through self-government. In Unfamiliar Fishes, Vowell argues that 1898 might be a year just as defining, when, in an orgy of imperialism, the United States annexed Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Guam, invaded first Cuba, and then the Philippines, and became an international superpower practically overnight.

Among the many and various developments in these newly acquired outposts, Vowell considers the Americanization of Hawaii the most intriguing. With her trademark smart-alecky insights and reporting, Vowell lights out to discover the off, emblematic, and exceptional history of the fiftieth state, and in so doing finds America, warts and all.

The Daily Show - Exclusive - Sarah Vowell Extended Interview Pt. 2
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Sarah Vowell has been a columnist for Salon, Time, and the San Francisco Weekly, and continues to write essays for the opinion page of The New York Times. Her work has also appeared in the Los Angeles Times, The Village Voice, Spin, Esquire, McSweeney's and GQ. A popular speaker, Vowell has made numerous appearances on the Late Show with David Letterman, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, and the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. In addition, she was the voice of teen superhero Violet Parr in Brad Bird’s Academy Award-winning The Incredibles, a Pixar Animation Studios film.

Sarah Vowell, the bestselling author of The Wordy Shipmates, Assassination Vacation, The Partly Cloudy Patriot, Take the Cannoli, and Radio On, will be speaking about her new book at Book Passage in Corte Madera on Friday, April 1st - no foolin'. Preferred seating to this special afternoon event is by book purchase. If you can't attend this event and would like a signed copy of Vowell's new hardback book, simply follow this link to place an order - and please note "signed copy" in the comments field.

Aloha.

Jodi Picoult event

If you missed Jodi Picoult's memorable March 16th event at Dominican University (co-sponsored by Book Passage), don't despair. A near 60 minute video of the event can be seen below. And what's more, Book Passage has a supply of autographed copies of Jodi's new book, Sing You Home (Atria, $28.00). It's now the number 1 bestselling book in the country, according to the New York Times! To find out more or to order a signed copy of Sing You Home, simply click on the linked title.

April 9th is SUSIE BRIGHT Day at Book Passage

Saturday, April 9th is Susie Bright day at Book Passage in Corte Madera. If it ain't marked so on your calendar, it oughta be! At 4:30 pm, Susie will be teaching a class — "The Real Story: Closely-Held Secrets & Memoir Writing." And at 7:00 pm, Susie will be in conversation with Bay Area journalist David Gans discussing her new book, Big Sex Little Death: A Memoir (Seal Press, $24.95). These two back-to-back events are not to be missed.

Ever wondered why there’s no female voice as bold, erotic, unflinching, and revealing as Norman Mailer, Henry Miller, or Philip Roth? There is. And it belongs to the Bay Area writer and literary provocateur Susie Bright.

Her just published book, Big Sex Little Death, is a revealing and at-times intimate coming-of-age story. It's also an explosive memoir that’s pure Susie: bold, free-spirited, unpredictable — larger than life, yet utterly true to life. From fearful Irish Catholic Girl Scout to gun-toting teenage revolutionary to "The Avatar of American Erotica"(NY Times) — Bright’s life story is shaped as much by America’s sexual awakening as the national sexual landscape was altered by Bright herself.

Novelist Tom Perotta has said, "Susie Bright is a one-woman counterculture, a teenaged socialist revolutionary turned Reagan-era sexual freedom fighter. In this lively, bittersweet memoir, she recounts a life full of political and erotic adventures and betrayals, a life at once deeply subversive and totally American, defined as it is by the idea that people should be free to express and pursue their own visions of happiness, no matter how uncomfortable it makes the prigs and scolds among us."

The approach Susie Bright took to writing her memoir will be explored in "The Real Story: Closely-Held Secrets & Memoir Writing." A memoir reflects our intimate lives — the thrills, the losses, the secrets. Even small moments can tell a profound story. Memoir-writing is cathartic — as well as a revelation to edit and to market. Those who take the challenge we think will find unparalleled insight.

As your guide and editor, Susie Bright will start you on intimate writing exercises that point the way to what you’re digging for. She will show you how to write freely, edit ruthlessly, and be truly prepared to share a page with the world. Book Passage is offering a 10% discount on purchase of Big Sex Little Death with class registration.

"The best-named writer in America, Susie Bright has written a witty, wise, and enlightening memoir." — Erica Jong. Besides Big Sex Little Death, Susie Bright is the bestselling author and editor of 30+ books including such national bestsellers, Full Exposure and The Sexual State of the Union — as well as The Best American Erotica and Herotica series, which ushered in women’s erotic publishing. She also the host of Audible’s In Bed With Susie Bright, the beloved and longest running sex education show in the history of broadcasting. A progenitor of the sex-positive movement, Bright taught the first university course on pornography while appearing in films like Bound and The Celluloid Closet. She is also a regular contributor at Salon.com.blogged by thomas gladysz

What do booksellers do when the lights go out?

by Book Passage Tina

I first became a bookseller in 1986, before automated cash registers and computerized inventories. And I loved the challenges those days presented; you had to add up totals, compute tax, count change back to a cash customer. And you had to know your inventory pretty much by heart.

When the latest Spring storm knocked out the power at Book Passage on a Sunday afternoon, we decided to stay open, at least as long as the daylight held out. The booksellers and I hauled out the old-fashioned credit card sliding devices and cash receipt books, and put a chalkboard out front proclaiming, “Open until Sundown!” After all, we figured, you don’t need electricity to read a book, as long as the daylight holds out.

Since the nearby mall shops all decided to close with their power out, we had a small flood of customers. The café sprang into gear serving cold sandwiches and soft drinks. My booksellers, who know our inventory pretty darned well, walked the floors helping our customers find the books they wanted, and offering recommendations as we always do when someone wants a good read. With our telephone and paging systems between the two buildings also out, we synchronized our personal cell phones and called each other as needed. When a customer wanted a book but couldn’t remember the exact title or author, Andy whipped out his mobile phone and looked it up on the Internet, then went to the right section and handed it to the customer.

Delighted patrons picked up on our spirit of fun and adventure, and patiently waited as we hand-wrote receipts and counted their change the old-fashioned way. They browsed, mingled, read a newspaper over a sandwich in the café, and agreed that a community bookstore with a willingness to remain open and serve its patrons, was the best place to be, when the lights went out.

Exclusive Interview with Sarah Vowell, Author of Unfamiliar Fishes

Book Passage contributing blogger Zack Ruskin interviewed author Sarah Vowell about her new book Unfamiliar Fishes ($25.95). Vowell will be appearing at Book Passage in Corte Madera on Friday, April 1, 2011 at 1:00 pm.

Sarah Vowell

Unfamiliar Fishes ($25.95)

Zack Ruskin: Your last couple of books have focused on some rather eccentric characters from history, like John Winthrop in The Wordy Shipmates and Queen Lili'uokalani in Unfamiliar Fishes. Do you find there is a correlation between these people and figures in modern politics today?

Sarah Vowell: Winthrop, the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and the last queen of the Kingdom of Hawaii share a way with words. In fact, one could argue that their contributions to literature outshine their political achievements--Winthrop for his sermon "A Modell of Christian Charity" and the queen for her song "Aloha 'Oe" and her memoir Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen, written to argue against American annexation of the islands. I suppose President Obama could be lumped into the category of writer-politicians.

ZR: In many of your books, there's a strong undercurrent of religion propelling the events you depict. Why do you think it is that so many major (and minor) chapters of history have been written in the ink of faith?

SV: It's a mistake to underestimate the burning flames of hell as a motivator.

ZR: Do you prefer writing the portions of your book where you're describing history or the more memoir-focused, anecdotal passages? Is one much tougher to write than the other?

SV: It's all hard. I'm happiest when I'm connecting dots. For example, when I was writing about the founding of Boston I had to figure out how that Protestant bastion became the Catholic capital of America. I've never been more giddy than the moment I realized that both developments had to do with microbes--that the Puritans could settle Massachusetts so quickly and peacefully because a plague wiled out most of the native population just before their arrival, and that a potato blight in Ireland a couple of centuries later sent droves of Irish Catholics to Boston Harbor. 

ZR: Nerd confession: I absolutely adore the covers of all of your books. Whose idea was it to pose little figurines themed to your work, and why didn't I think of it?

SV: David Levinthal, a photographer who lives in my neighborhood, shoots the covers. My editor heard there was an artist making Polaroids of Abraham Lincoln using vintage toys. That's how we found him. I think his work speaks to mine in that the toys have an inherently playful quality but the lighting is nevertheless a little melancholy and ominous.

ZR: There seems to be a trend occurring where authors writing nonfiction (you, Mary Roach, Bill Bryson) have sprinkled humor into their narratives. What do you see as the value in bringing the funny with the facts?

SV: Seems like there is inherent value in not being a total drag. That and history is so crushing, so dispiriting, that without a dry sense of humor, I would never stop weeping. I think I'm drawn to writing about people who believe they are right. Because I am full of doubt and also sort of low-key, I'm endlessly amused by historical figures like religious fanatics or assassins, because to me, there is nothing funnier than self-important blowhards.

ZR: Now that you’ve finished your book, what's the process for paring down the infinite pool of potential subjects for your next work into something concrete, like the U.S.'s annexation of Hawaii? Are you actively seeking your next project, or do they tend to find you?

SV: I'm always on the lookout. But so far I have no idea what's next. Which is a source of no small amount of anxiety, so thanks for reminding me.

ZR: If you could be asked by any living person to do their official biography, who would you pick?

SV: I would never do that. I try and avoid the living.

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Book Passage rocks with Nikki Sixx

It's just been confirmed! On Thursday, April 14th at 6 pm, Motley Crue bassist Nikki Sixx will be signing copies of his new book, This Is Gonna Hurt: Music, Photography and Life Through the Distorted Lens of Nikki Sixx at Book Passage in San Francisco.

Love story, bad-ass rock tell-all, social commentary, family memoir, This Is Gonna Hurt (Morrow, $29.99) is a collection of compelling photographs and stories that capture the rage, love, optimism, darkness, and determination that shape this singular musician's work. Combining the raw authenticity that defined his New York Times Bestseller, The Heroin Diaries, with a photographic journey, This Is Gonna Hurt chronicles Sixx's many experiences — from his early years filled with toxic waste, to his success with Motley Crue, to his death from an over-dose and his eventual "rebirth" through music, photography, and love.

Sixx, who was born in San Jose, offers readers compelling insights as an artist and as a man struggling to survive, connect, and find a happy ending — a search that fuels this musician's everyday life.

In 1981, Sixx became the bassist for Motley Crue, the legendary rock band he started with friend Tommy Lee. Today, Sixx is a bestselling author, a nationally syndicated radio host, a solo artist, photographer, film maker, and a still loyal member of the Crue.

Please note: our April 14th event with Nikki Sixx is a booksigning only. This special event will take place at our store in the Ferry Building in San Francisco. If you can't attend this event, please follow this link - This Is Gonna Hurt (Morrow, $29.99) - to place an order for an autographed copy of this new book.

What are some of the other rock n roll events coming up at Book Passage in San Francisco? On March 31st, nine-time Grammy Award winner Sheryl Crow will be signing copies of her book, If It Makes You Healthy: More Than 100 Delicious Recipes Inspired by the Seasons (St. Martin's, $29.99), at Book Passage in San Francisco. The start time for this special event is also set for 6 pm.

Celebrating Arthur Szyk

Arthur Szyk (American, b. Poland, 1894–1951) is best remembered for his diverse and brilliant work as an artist and illustrator, from illustrations for traditional Jewish and Polish folktales and religious texts to watercolor designs for political cartoons that were regularly featured on the cover of Collier’s magazine throughout the 1930s and '40s. During the Second World war, he did so much to advance the Allied cause that Eleanor Roosevelt once referred to him as a “one-man army,” and indeed, he saw himself as a “soldier in art.” blogged by thomas gladysz

illustrations and portrait of Arthur Szyk courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

Szyk’s Polish and Jewish heritage were central to his work, and his attention to detail evidenced considerable historical research. At it's best, Szyk’s work recalls the intricate illumination present in medieval manuscripts, Near-Eastern miniature paintings, and traditional Polish and Jewish folk arts.

illustrated endpapers from the 1945 Anderson Fairy Tales

For reader's of a certain time and place (including your humble blogger, who read and cherished his Mother's copy), Szyk’s illustrations for a certain 1945 edition of Hans Christian Anderson's Fairy Tales have also proved etched into memory. Copies of this edition were in circulation for decades, and were sought after as a family keepsake or as collectible copies of a classic work.

Though not so well known today, Szyk’s work is being rediscovered by contemporary audiences. The California Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco is currently hosting an exhibit of the artist's work. "Arthur Szyk: Miniature Paintings and Modern Illuminations" explores Szyk’s artistry over a productive career and returns the artist to the Legion of Honor, where a selection of his watercolors was shown seventy years ago, in 1941. The exhibit features approximately 70 drawings and illustrations, and is on display through March 27th.

On that same day - on Sunday March 27th, one of the world's leading Szyk's scholars will be speaking at Book Passage in Corte Madera. Irvin Ungar, an antiquarian bookseller and former rabbi curreently resident in Burlingame, has championed the rediscovery of Szyk’s work. He will be discussing the recently published Szyk Haggadah.

Szyk (pronounced “Shick”) created his magnificent Haggadah in Lodz, on the eve of the Nazi occupation of his native Poland. There is no Haggadah like it, before or since, filled with such sumptuous paintings of Jewish heroes as well as stunning calligraphy. This beautifully printed edition, the first since 1940 to be reproduced from Szyk’s original art, boasts a newly commissioned and practical English text by Rabbi Byron L. Sherwin. Additionally, a special commentary section by Sherwin and Ungar gives insight into the rituals of the Seder as well as Szyk’s rich illustrations.

Don't miss this very special event with Irvin Ungar. Start time is 7 pm. If you can't attend and would like to order an autographed copy of the The Szyk Haggadah ($40.00 hardcover/$16.95 paperback) as a keepsake for your family, please let us know. Copies of the The Szyk Haggadah will be signed by Irvin Ungar.

To learn more about Arthur Szyk, follow this link to his extensive Wikipedia entry.

20th Annual Conference for Aspiring Travel Writers featured on Frommers

Book Passage's 20th Annual Conference for aspiring travel writers was featured today by Arthur Frommer on the Frommer's website. Wow! As Frommer notes, "this year's event ... promises to be an especially robust gathering."

Why? Because, in Frommer's words, the Book Passage Conference on Travel Writing and Photography has "gained renown globally for the quality and accessibility of its faculty, the range of its workshops and panels, and the extraordinary achievements of its graduates, who have gone on to publish hundreds of books and articles in magazines, newspapers and websites."

This year's Book Passage Conference on Travel Writing and Photography takes place August 11-14. In general, the conference is aimed toward aspiring travel writers, as well as perspiring travel writers who venture to warmer climes. Find out more about the conference, including the 2011 faculty and participant schedule, at http://bookpassage.com/travel-food-photography-conference-schedule.

Book recommendations from Book Passage

Every week, the San Francisco Chronicle offers recommendations of recent books from the staffs of a rotating list of independent bookstores in the San Francisco Bay Area, including us! This week's list from Book Passage can be found at http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/03/11/RVRF1I4DLV.DTL#ixzz1GbImrflJ

The Tiger's Wife is hugely ambitious, audaciously written

Téa Obreht’s first book, The Tiger’s Wife, could not have received a better review then it did in today's New York Times.

This remarkable new book is also the March selection of our Signed First Editions Book Club.

Michiko Kakutani's glowing appraisal, "Luminous Fables in a Land of Loss," started this way: "Téa Obreht’s stunning debut novel, “The Tiger’s Wife,” is a hugely ambitious, audaciously written work that provides an indelible picture of life in an unnamed Balkan country still reeling from the fallout of civil war." Kakutani's review concludes with "Ms. Obreht has not only made a precocious debut, but she has also written a richly textured and searing novel." Wow.Obreht was born in Belgrade, in the former Yugoslavia, in 1985 and has lived in the United States since the age of twelve. Her writing has been published in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Harper’s, and The Guardian, and has been anthologized in The Best American Short Stories and The Best American Nonrequired Reading. She was also named by The New Yorker as one of the twenty best American fiction writers under forty and included in the National Book Foundation’s list of 5 Under 35.

Obreht's new book also caught the attention of Book Passage bookseller Mary Benham, who selected it for the Signed First Editions Club. Each month, members of the Book Passage Signed First Editions Club receive a signed first edition of a new work of fiction by an emerging author who shows exceptional talent and promise. Many of our selected authors have gone on to win literary acclaim, including Paul Harding, whose small press novel, Tinkers, won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.To sign up for the Signed First Editions Club, please use this online form; or for more information call Club Coordinator Mary Benham at (415) 927-0960 ext. 227 or email mbenham AT bookpassage.com.

Joyce Carol Oates awarded National Humanities Medal

The National Humanities Medal, given by the National Endowment for the Humanities, honors individuals or groups whose work has deepened the nation’s understanding of the humanities, broadened citizens’ engagement with the humanities, or helped preserve and expand Americans’ access to important resources in the humanities.

Over the weekend, Joyce Carol Oates was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Barak Obama. Oates was honored along with nine others, novelist Philip Roth and writer Wendell Berry; historians Bernard Bailyn, Jacques Barzun and Gordon Wood; Library of America founding President Daniel Aaron; biographer and critic Arnold Rampersad; American Council of Learned Societies President Stanley Nider Katz; and Hispanic literature scholar Roberto Gonzales Echevarria.

Oates is the also author of a new memoir, A Widow’s Story (Ecco, $27.99), which she will be discussing at Book Passage in Corte Madera on April 25. In this new work, the National Book Award-winner unveils a poignant, intimate memoir about the unexpected death of her husband of 46 years and its wrenching aftermath.

A Widow’s Story is a surprisingly candid view of a very private woman. Entertainment Weekly has said, “In a narrative as searing as the best of her fiction, Oates describes the aftermath of her husband Ray’s unexpected death from pneumonia…It’s the painful, scorchingly angry journey of a woman struggling to live in a house 'from which meaning has departed, like air leaking from a balloon'.”

Don't miss this special event with Joyce Carol Oates, once of the most celebrated authors of our time. Preferred seating at this special event is with purchase of the book. If you can't attend the event, and would like a signed first edition copy of A Widow’s Story, please follow this link and note "signed 1st edition" in the comments field of your order.

Joyce Carol Oates is a recipient of the National Book Critics Circle Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award, the National Book Award, and the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction, and has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. She has written some of the most enduring fiction of our time, including the national bestsellers We Were the Mulvaneys; Blonde, which was nominated for the National Book Award; and the New York Times bestseller The Falls, which won the 2005 Prix Femina. She is the Roger S. Berlind Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Princeton University and has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 1978. In 2003 she received the Commonwealth Award for Distinguished Service in Literature, and in 2006 she received the Chicago Tribune Lifetime Achievement Award. (Photo by Ruth David, via the NEH Tumblr)

T.C. Boyle drops by Book Passage

The acclaimed novelist and short story writer T.C. Boyle dropped by Book Passage today to sign copies of his new novel, When The Killing's Done (Viking, $26.95). The book is a favorite of staffer Janel (here pictured with the author) and others at Book Passage. blogged by thomas gladysz

Largely set on the wild and sparsely inhabited Channel Islands off the coast of Santa Barbara, it's story concerns endangered animals and those who protect them. Boyle examines one of the essential questions of our time: Who has the right of possession of the land, the waters, the very lives of all the creatures who share this planet with us? When the Killing's Done will offer no transparent answers, but like The Tortilla Curtain, Boyle's classic take on illegal immigration, it will touch you deeply and put you in a position to decide.

T.C. Boyle is the author of nine short story collections and twelve novels, including World's End, winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award; Drop City, finalist for the National Book Award; and the New York Times bestselling The Women. We also like his earlier novel, The Road to Wellville. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, he once lived in Bolinas and now lives lives near Santa Barbara, California, and is a Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Southern California.

If you'd like to order a signed first edition of When The Killing's Done (Viking, $26.95), just follow its link and please note "signed 1st ed" in the comments field.

Exclusive Interview with Benjamin Hale, Author of The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore

Book Passage contributing blogger Dax Proctor interviewed author Benjamin Hale about his new novel The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore ($25.99). Hale will be appearing at Book Passage in Corte Madera on Monday, March 7, 2011 at 7:00 pm. Don't miss it!

Benjamin Hale

The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore ($25.99)

Dax Proctor: How long did it take you to write The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore?

Benjamin Hale: It was about four years, from one end to the other. The first fifty pages or so I wrote in about a week, then I wrote the last chapter, and then I spent the next three years writing them together. It took me about three years of pretty hard and concentrated work to get a finished draft, and then there was another year of cleaning it up some with my agent and editor.

DP: I understand that you have an MFA in fiction from Iowa Writers Workshop—did you begin Bruno while you were in the program? Did the workshop environment fast track the development of the book?

BH: I did start writing Bruno at the very end of my first semester at Iowa, yes. The main advantage by far of an MFA program—and particularly a really good one like Iowa—is the amount of time it gives one to write.  Time is a writer’s most precious resource, by far. I only showed a little bit of it to a workshop, once, at the very beginning of my process of composition, and after that it was something I worked on just on my own, while putting it aside now and then to write short stories. But the workshop spurred Bruno on in other ways, as well. In one sense, Bruno is my personal, noisy little rebellion against everything that irritates me about what people call “workshop” fiction.

DP: Can you tell us about how you came up with the idea for the book? Did it stem from your interest in a particular subject like biology, sociology or linguistics, or perhaps from a fascination with chimpanzees?

BH: At the time I started writing the novel, it was my first semester at Iowa, and my girlfriend at the time was living in Chicago, which is a three-hour-ish drive from Iowa City, so I was in Chicago half the time. She was a grad student in architecture, which meant she was really busy, whereas I, an MFA student, had effectively nothing to do (I was supposed to be writing). So while I was waiting for her to finish her work, I would often spend the day in the Lincoln Park Zoo, watching the chimps at the primate house. Sometimes I would sit there and watch them for three, four hours...  At the same time I was also getting really into Philip Roth and Saul Bellow (the unofficial novelist laureate of Chicago; the first line of The Adventures of Augie March is "I'm an American, Chicago-born—Chicago, that somber city..."; the book's Chicago setting is in part a bit of an homage to Bellow). Often I would read in the zoo, when the chimps weren't doing anything. There was one time when I was reading Portnoy's Complaint in the Lincoln Park Zoo Primate House, and I looked up at the poor chimps stuck in their claustrophobic enclosure during one of those brutal Chicago winters, and an idea was born.

Another germ of inspiration for the book was certainly my own lifelong fascination with chimps. I remember being profoundly affected by a moment in a Jane Goodall documentary that I saw as a kid. It was the story of Flint, who essentially had the chimp equivalent of an Oedipal complex. He had a neurotic, obsessive, unhealthy attachment to his mother, Flo. He was like the chimp Norman Bates. For instance, he clung to her back far beyond the time in childhood when chimps ordinarily quit doing that. When Flint was an adolescent, his mother died—simply because she was old—it happens. But he could not accept the death of his mother. He dragged her corpse around with him for weeks afterward, refusing to eat or sleep, and eventually wasted away himself. Jane Goodall found him, still holding his mother’s body, dead beside a creek. I was powerfully shaken, disturbed, haunted by this as a child. I was chilled by the idea that an animal, a chimpanzee, could be just as crazy as a human being. 

DP: Did you do a lot of research for this book? What was that process like? Did you conduct the bulk of the research before you began writing, or did you do research as you went along? What types of materials were you looking at, scientific studies on animal behavior? Polemics on language?

BH: The most interesting research I did was at the Great Ape Trust, outside of Des Moines, Iowa, just a couple hours’ drive from Iowa City. The only ongoing ape language experiments in America happen there.  Kanzi, the bonobo, is their most well-known ape. I attended the Decade of the Mind conference at the GAT—an annual symposium on the science of consciousness—and went back and visited the apes a few times after that. William Fields, the current director of the bonobo language research program, was particularly receptive and helpful with my research. I also revisited the chimps at the Lincoln Park Zoo whenever I was in Chicago, and on top of all that, I read piles of books—I probably fed at least two-hundred books into my research mill. Frans de Waal’s writing was particularly helpful to me, but I also read all kinds of other stuff: anthropology, primatology, philosophy of consciousness, philosophy of language, linguistics, semiotics.

DP: The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore is rich with cultural and literary references, and in my opinion there is a certain sense of joy and exuberance to your writing when you evoke them—one of my pleasures in reading the book was noticing your own pleasure in commenting, remarking, and extending these references. Was it your aim from the get-go to do this or did it emerge naturally as you wrote? 

BH: I think it was probably something that emerged from Bruno’s voice. It’s a voice that allows for a lot of play, and I just let myself go. Ordinarily, if I’m writing fiction in the third person, there’s no way in hell I’d casually drop references to Ovid and things like that. That would be insufferably obnoxious. But Bruno is obnoxious. Because he’s such a bombastic, narcissistic, deeply insecure show-off, his voice allowed me to squirt as much frosting as I pleased on the cake.

DP: Many critics have commented on the skillful and complex voice you’ve created for Bruno as narrator.  How did you arrive at Bruno’s voice? Was it one that you were immediately able to inhabit, or did it evolve over time through rewrites?

BH: Bruno’s voice emerged into its mature state fairly quickly. Bruno was a mask that was a hell of a lot of fun to put on. Initially it began as my own parody of the voice of Portnoy from Portnoy’s Complaint, but then there were myriad other influences that began to be interwoven into it: Oscar Matzerath from Gunter Grass’ The Tin Drum, Henderson from Henderson the Rain King—plus voices from the epic English bildungsroman novels I somewhat-consciously wanted Bruno to follow in the tradition of: Tristram Shandy, Tom Jones, David Copperfield, and so on. But I wanted there to always be a veil of irony between Bruno and me.

DP: Did you read while working on the book? If so, what books were you reading while you wrote Bruno? Did you find that they intentionally or unintentionally seeped into your own work?

BH: Yes, I’m always reading. I’ve talked about some of the main influences above—here’s an incomplete list of books that I remember reading while working on Bruno, all of which influenced it in some way: Steven Millhauser (all of his books, but Edwin Mullhouse was an especial influence), Roberto Bolano’s 2666 (resulting in some long-ass paragraphs in Bruno), Tristram Shandy, Tom Jones, David Copperfield … Saul Bellow: Henderson the Rain King (several times), The Adventures of Augie March, Herzog, Mr. Sammler’s Planet, Ravelstein … Philip Roth (I read almost all of them, I think, but I especially love Portnoy, My Life as a Man, Sabbath’s Theater, and The Human Stain), Mary Gaitskill’s short stories (genius). Let’s see… Jakob Wassermann’s novel about Caspar Hauser, Mikhail Bulgakov’s Heart of a Dog and The Master and the Margarita. Lots of Saussure, some Wittgenstein. Martin Amis’ The Rachel Papers. I reread Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy books at one point. Paul Celan. Yeats. Flann O’Brien’s At Swim-Two-Birds. Lots of John Berryman. Celine’s Journey to the End of the Night. That’s still a very incomplete list, but it’s a start.

DP: Some writers tell us that the act of writing is sheer agony, while others tell us it’s fun. Do you fall on one side of the issue or the other?

BH: When it’s going well, I love it. For the most part I had an absolute blast writing Bruno. I knew I was having a good day writing if I found myself alone in my room with my manuscript, laughing.

DP: I understand that you are teaching fiction writing at Sarah Lawrence this spring. Was there anything significant that you learned through writing the book—not necessarily from your own MFA education—that you plan on sharing with your students?

BH: Too much to say!

DP: What are you working on next?

BH: Yep. I have a collection of stories sitting on deck for now, all done and ready to go. Meanwhile, I’m working on another novel. This one is much more realistic. It’s still in such a pupa stage of development that I don’t want to jinx myself by talking about it too much, but for now it’s about a friendship between a poet and a pot dealer. It might turn into my stoner comedy. It’s like Cheech & Chong & John Berryman.

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