The week ahead at Book Passage

Among Bay Area bookstores, Book Passage in Corte Madera has one of the most active schedules going of author events, readings, classes and other literary happenings. In fact, it’s not uncommon for more than one or two author talks to take place at the store on just about any given day. Additionally, many of these events have a local connection. Looking at the week, here are three events readers won’t want to miss.

Francis Slakey presents To the Last Breath: A Memoir of Going to Extremes -- Sunday, July 1 at 4:00 pm

Francis Slakey presents To the Last Breath: A Memoir of Going to Extremes (Simon & Schuster), a gripping adventure of the body and mind. This new book depicts the quest that leads Slakey, a physics professor, around the globe, almost takes his life, challenges his fiercely held beliefs, and opens his heart.

Francis Slakey is a lecturer on physics and public policy at Georgetown University. The founder and co-director of the Program on Science in the Public Interest and a MacArthur Scholar, Dr. Slakey has been profiled by NPR, National Geographic, and others, and his writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The New York Times, and Scientific American.

Christian Kiefer reads from The Infinite Tides, and maybe plays a song or two
-- Saturday, July7 at 4:00 pm

Christian Kiefer reads from his novel The Infinite Tides (Bloomsbury USA), the story of an astronaut aboard the International Space Station who one day receives word that his sixteen-year-old daughter has died in a car accident, and that his wife has left him. Returning to earth, he is alone with the ghosts, memories and feelings of the past.

There is a good deal of buzz around The Infinite Tides, which is the July selection of our Signed First Editions Club.

Christian Kiefer earned his Ph.D. in American literature from the University of California, Davis, and is on the English faculty of American River College in Sacramento. His poetry has appeared in various national journals including the Antioch Review and Santa Monica Review. He is also an accomplished songwriter and recording artist. [Kiefer has also said he might well play a song or two at his July 7 event!]

Katherine Chiljan discusses Shakespeare Suppressed: The Uncensored Truth About Shakespeare and His Works
-- Sunday, July 8 at noon

Katherine Chiljan discusses Shakespeare Suppressed: The Uncensored Truth About Shakespeare and His Works (Faire Editions). For hundreds of years, debate has swirled around the identity of The Bard and the authorship of his plays and poems. This new book makes the case that “William Shakespeare” was only the great author's pen name.

Katherine Chiljan is an independent scholar who has studied the Shakespeare authorship question for over 26 years. She has debated the topic with English professors at the Smithsonian Institution and at the Mechanics Institute in San Francisco. Chiljan served as editor of the Shakespeare-Oxford Newsletter, and edited two anthologies: Dedication Letters to the Earl of Oxford, and Letters and Poems of Edward, Earl of Oxford.

MORE INFO: Unless otherwise noted, all events take place at Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista Blvd., in Corte Madera. Call (415) 927-0960 or visit www.bookpassage.com for details.

Christian Kiefer's Rocket Man

Christian Kiefer will be reading from his debut novel, The Infinite Tides (Bloomsbury USA) at Book Passage on July 7 at 4 pm. We are excited about this new novel. And, we are excited about this NorCal author, who also happens to be a gifted singer / songwriter. (NPR thinks so too.) It is an event you won't want to miss. Seriously. Here's why...

And here's why....

"Maybe the most beautiful subject in literature, when it is handled with grace and intelligence, is the realization and release of long denied grief.  Christian Kiefer created astronaut Keith Corcoran to travel that galaxy of earthbound loss and regret, after one brief and glorious trip into orbit. The Infinite Tides is the most emotionally and syntactically sophisticated debut I have seen, possibly ever.  Keith Corcoran's space walk is so powerfully rendered, it keeps showing up in my dreams."
— Pam Houston, author of Contents May Have Shifted

And here's why....

"The Infinite Tides takes as its subject an astronaut brought to earth by abandonment and bewilderment. His journey is into the unknown of common suburbia, which he inhabits like an alien, and in whose unfamiliar atmosphere he must be taught to survive. This is a subtle and moving novel, a re-entry and recovery story that eloquently inhabits the terrain of grief and endurance."
— Antonya Nelson, author of Bound

And here's why....

"With astronaut Keith Corcoran, Kiefer will take you on an awesome American life odyssey from the International Space Station down to the lower depths of suburbia. This is a breathtakingly beautiful and honest rendering of one man's massive life crisis. Part Space Oddity, part Revolutionary Road, this is a magnificently original novel. 
There are moments in this book I will never forget."
— Anthony Swofford, author of Jarhead

And here's why....

"Smart, lyrical, deeply moving. The central character, a NASA astronaut who has touched the stars, must come to earth, as we all must. What he finds down here beneath the heavens is dizzying
in its emotional complexity and pure aching beauty."
— T.C. Boyle, author of When the Killing’s Done

And here's why....

"This novel will break your heart and take your breath away."
— Ayelet Waldman, author of Red Hook Road

And here's why....



And here's why....

"An astute, impressive, and ambitious debut."
— Publishers Weekly

"[W]ith a shimmering lexicon of fractals, space travel, and physics as well as a piquantly metaphorical sense of place…Kiefer illuminates the nature of a mathematical mind, depicts a dire failure of familial empathy, and translates emotions into cosmic and algorithmic
phenomena of startling beauty and profound resonance."
— Booklist