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Archive for February, 2010

This Weeks Book Events, LA (week of 2/8)

Feb 8

Posted by The Valet in Events | No Comments

While San Francisco is lucky enough to have one it’s most favored local authors speak this week I am unsure of what is in store for you Los Angeles. You can only hope to be so lucky.

Naturally, you are not.

Tuesday, February 9th
@ 730pm
- Kevin Sampsell, author, will be discussing his memoir A Common Pornography at Skylight Books. I don’t know much about Mr. Sampsell but he’s got quite the resume. Having written for Mcsweeney’s and having published stories, essays and two other books I think this could be a rather interesting discussion. From what I understand it’s been written in a very unique and different sort of way, a sort of stream of consciousness. I think I’ve seen this book on the shelf and looked passed it but now I will be more inclined to pick it up and investigate a bit more.

Friday, February 12th
@ 7pm
- Melissa Rivers, apparent author and celebrity by association, will be signing copies of her book Red Carpet Ready: Secrets for Making the Most of Any Moment You’re in the Spotlight at Barnes and Noble at the Grove. I don’t really care what the book is about, I’m not going to lie, I just know people out there always like seeing some sort of celebrity, even if they are a D lister. So… here’s your chance.

This Weeks Book Events, SF (week of 2/8)

Feb 8

Posted by The Valet in Events | No Comments

I have an embarrassing confession to make. Last week I made not one, but two mistakes in my SF events post. First off, the Chris Cleeve event that I thought was happening last Wednesday is in fact happening next week. The obvious good thing about this is that now all of you out there that want to go can still get tickets. The real disappointment is the fact that I neglected to mention that Dave Eggers apparently spoke at the Berkeley Rep. last Monday. I really have no idea how I missed it. Stephanie, thank you for pointing it out and ruining my credibility. Just teasing, I don’t think I really had any to begin with. I will though attempt to redeem myself by ignoring all other events this week (there aren’t really any others worth mentioning) and only discussing the Eggers event this week that is on Thursday.

Before I get to that though, there is something I’d like to discuss with you all out there. It is a topic which has been troubling me for a little while now. Don’t pretend to be surprised, I know you’re not. This time around it’s the proliferation of self help, motivational and life strategy books that are popping up all over the show.

I guess what stemmed my current issue with this genre of books is the fact that these authors are making more and more appearances at local book shops. Each week I research what’s going on in the cities of my choosing (SF & LA). More often than not, more than half of these signings are for these exact type of books. I’m actually nearing the point where I want to go to one of these just to see the sort of turnout that accompanies them. I’m not going to go through my calendar and count the number of these events, you’ll just have to trust me on this one. It’s gotten to the point where I can’t really take these books seriously. Now whenever I see one of these books on display, I immediately dismiss it as a farce and silly attempt by someone to make themselves more wealthy. I’m sure some of them out there are good reads and can truly enrich the lives of some but until someone is willing to weed through all the crap, I’m boycotting. Point made.

I’ve decided to ignore all the events this week, as mentioned, except for the Dave Eggers event. In part due to my neglecting of his event last week and in part due to my aforementioned boycott.

Thursday, February 11th
@ 8 – 930pm
- Dave Eggers, author and all round do gooder, will be speaking at Sibley Auditorium at UC Berkeley. The event is being put on by the Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. Not only will Eggers be discussing his latest book Zeitoun, he will be joined by writers and editors of his publishing house Mcsweeney’s. In pertinent part, they will talk about the San Francisco Panorama which was a one time massive newsprint project that went on sale in December in SF. Mcsweeney’s put the project together to demonstrate the importance of print media. I didn’t get a chance to pick one up but am pretty eager to check it out at some point. The topics of discussion don’t actually stop there, other things on the slate include The Believer, Mcsweeney’s Quarterly, and Best American Non-required Reading. Pretty impressive line-up if you ask me. There will be a multimedia presentation, Q & A session and some product peddling. If that’s not enough to motivate you to get there I’m not quite sure what it would take to get you to an event. Even if you think or have thought Mr. Eggers to be “wordy,” I think you should be there.

Bloodsucking Fiends by Christopher Moore

Feb 4

Posted by The Valet in Fiction | 2 Comments

Bloodsucking Fiends by Christopher Moore

It’s been awhile since I’ve read something that I would actually deem to be “funny.” For no particular reason at all, I decided it was time to read another book that would fall into this category. Looking back at the books I’ve reviewed, Christopher Moore’s Lamb is by far the funniest. So, I decided I’d give Mr. Moore another shot, couldn’t hurt right?

Looking around the web I found that most people varied in what they felt was Mr. Moore’s greatest work. So, when I got to the bookshop I just picked one on a whim. At the end of the day, I wish I had read Bloodsucking Fiends before reading Lamb. Bloodsucking was good, just not as good. Bloodsucking was funny, just not as funny. Bloodsucking just was.

Obviously with a name like Bloodsucking it’s somewhat obvious that it’s a book involving vampires. Then again, it could also be about housewives that live in Orange County, a bunch of women who live in a city and talk about sex, a similar group of women trying to marry a bachelor or a mall cop named Blart (that last one may be a stretch). But yes, in case you were wondering, it is about vampires.

Where Lamb had a pretty straightforward story, Bloodsucking was kind of lacking in that department for me. It’s a story of a girl, Judy, who by all normal standards has had a pretty shitty day. She’s broken up with her boyfriend, lost her job, her car’s been impounded and she’s been turned into a vampire. When she realizes that running everyday errands is now impossible (you know, vampires and daylight go together like dirty diaper curry with a booger sandwich on the side) she recruits a lackey to get stuff done. That lackey goes by the name of Tommy.

Stopping now will hurt you more than me…

The Guns of the South by Harry Turtledove

Feb 2

Posted by The Valet in Fiction | 1 Comment

The Guns of the South by Harry Turtledove

Turtledove sounds like the surname of an author who writes romance novels. Just thought I’d throw that out there.

Shabam! That’s kind of how this book hits you. Pretend the South had actually won the Civil War (I know, it’s pretty hard, but try). How would things be different? I tell you what, it would sure as hell be hard to imagine Obama being president. Oh yeah, imagine the South having won the Civil War with the aide of the AK-47 assault rifle. But, but, but… that’s not fair! Well, in Turtledove’s interpretation of how the South defeated the North, that’s just how they did it.

I was thinking about this book last night and it really actually made me start thinking of the Back to the Future movies. Two parts in particular. The sports almanac which could inevitably make someone wealthy and the whole third movie in which they travel back in time to the wild west. I don’t really feel like making all the allusions myself so I’ll leave it up to you to figure out what I’m talking about. I’d also like to point a small bit of irony. I think that irony can be found just about anywhere but I found it particularly ironic that I finished reading this book just after President Obama gave his State of the Union Address. Not too clear on the irony there, but I think it’s there.

I’ve pretty much already outlined the basis of the story but I promise you there is a lot more to it than just that. Take for example the portrayal of General Robert E. Lee. Here is a gentleman that I was taught in school was a bad man (my use of the English language is amazing isn’t it?). What Turtledove has done in this novel is portray the war through Lee’s eyes and given some context to the war behind the slavery conflict. Beyond the motivations for the war that we all know about (slavery, cessation from the Union), Turtledove also brings to light some of those which are less commonly known to those of us who haven’t not really studied the civil war (aka me). Lee is not the only historical personality present in the novel. It’s quite evident that Turtledove went to lengths to uncover the philosophies and personalities of other civil war notables like Abe Lincoln, Jefferson Davis and Nathan Bedford Forrest.

If you stop reading now, I’ll be forced to call you a coward

This Weeks Book Events, LA (week of 2/1)

Feb 1

Posted by The Valet in Events | 2 Comments

LA, it had been too long. Then again my quick trip to your town was all too quick. After flying in Saturday midday and flying out again Sunday in late afternoon I didn’t get up to much. Although I did get to have dinner with my family and surprise my sister to celebrate her engagement. Oh, I also had the pleasure of going to Best Fish Tacos in Ensenada (which is obviously not in Ensenada), The Grove/Farmers Market, Larkin’s and the 8oz. Burger Bar. I had never been to any of these places and was very pleasantly surprised. Lets see, fish tacos for 1.50 speak for themselves, the Farmers Market cause it reminded me of  Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia, Larkin’s for their great southern food and amazing deserts and finally 8oz. for their burgers and awesome bloody mary’s (yes, mine involved bacon and no I’m not a vegetarian).

Another very quick very brief observation I made while there was that there are a lot people in LA who probably call themselves hipsters. I would like to see them have a battle royale with the people in SF who call themselves hipsters. After which the winner of that battle can go on to battle the Brooklyn people who call themselves hipsters. Wow, crazy idea developing… this could lead to a new a website.

More than anything though it was nice to just get away from SF. Oh and I finally got to meet my sister’s new puppy, Birdie. She and her cousin, my brother’s dog Charlie, have yet to become the incredible friends they should, everyone is fairly confident it will come with time. They did both endure a grueling hike (for them) in Griffith Park that was really nice.

Ok, none of that was book related at all, and guess what, I don’t care. Here’s what you really came for (although that’s entirely arguable):

Monday, February 1st
@ 7pm
- Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl, authors, will talk about and sign copies of their book Beautiful Creatures at Vroman’s. I don’t know much about the book, but from what little I read it sounds like it could be pretty interesting. Something about nightmares coming true, secrets and the like. Who knows. Someone go check this one out for me.

Tuesday, February 2nd
@ 7pm
- Ozzy Osbourne, musician, reality tv weirdo and apparent author, will be signing and hopefully singing (ok, not really hoping for it) his book I Am Ozzy at Book Soup. I’m up in the air on this one, would it be worth going to, will they have a translator? If you’re fan, you should be there, who knows maybe his messed up children or his wife Sharrrrrrrron will be there. Oh, and don’t even thinking about bringing anything other than a copy of the book bought from Book Soup to the signing, cause they aren’t having it!

Wednesday, February 3rd
@ 7pm
- Garth Stein, author, will be signing copies of his incredibly good book The Art of Racing in the Rain at Diesel, the bookstore, not the metro mans clothing shop, in Brentwood. I truly enjoyed this book and would really like to hear Mr. Stein speak about the book in person. I’d really like to know where the inspiration and the idea of writing the book from the perspective which he did came from. Go to this one for me please, thank you.

Thursday, February 4th
@ 730pm
- Joshua Ferris, author, will be reading from and signing copies of his latest work, The Unnamed, at Skylight Books. Prior to today (Sunday) I actually had no idea that Mr. Ferris had written another book, his first being Then We Came to the End, which is a hilarious book. At the airport today I was actually scouring the various book sellers to find a copy of the The Unnamed because I’m pretty anxious and desperate to read it, but wasn’t able to find it. I don’t expect Unnamed to be anything like his first novel, I’m still clearly excited about this one.

Thursday, February 4th
@ 7pm
- Walter Kirn, author, will be signing copies of his book Up in the Air at Book Soup. You, like me, probably had no idea this book existed prior to the George Clooney o fest movie that was just released. I haven’t seen it and frankly I’m not sure I will. Not that I don’t want to. Anyways, I think this could be a pretty interesting discussion. You know maybe hear about the book to movie process. I could just be saying that though, maybe the royalties from the movie didn’t really pay off and he’s gone on tour to milk some more money out of the post movie popularity. Hey, can’t blame the guy if that’s the case.

Saturday, February 6th
@ 1pm
- Anne Rice, author and possible vampire, will be signing copies of her book Angel Time: The Songs of the Seraphim which is the first book in her latest romantic book series at Vroman’s. I’m not going to lie, this book would not draw me to this signing. The fact that she wrote Interview With a Vampire alone would make the trip to Vroman’s worth my time. Although the whole romance series thing does kind of scare me. I wonder what sort of people go to that kind of signing, hmm. And Anne Rice looks like such a nice lady, who knew she could come up with all these gnarly but rad stories, excluding the romantic stuff.

Damn, looks like I should have stayed in LA this week you all got a lot going on. Check it out, cause I can’t.

This Weeks Book Events, SF (week of 2/1)

Feb 1

Posted by The Valet in Fiction | 1 Comment

Thank you San Francisco, thank you for helping to make this past week better than the one prior to it. I’m not really going to give you, the city, too much credit but I will certainly give you some.

I think this past week wasn’t so bad because nothing really happened, or should I say nothing really changed. Of course getting away for a night wasn’t so bad either. And the fact that they took the dehumidifiers out of my apartment didn’t hurt, although my apartment is still a disaster zone. These things happen though.

So, let’s cut to the chase and see what’s going on this week in book events.

Tuesday, February 2nd
@ 7pm
- Michael Chabon, author, will be appearing at the Book Passage store in Corte Madera as part of One Book One Marin. One Book One Marin is intended “to provide readers with a shared reading experience that leads to open dialogue.” This year they’ve selected Chabon’s The Adventures of Cavalier and Clay as their selection. If you haven’t already this book I think there may be something wrong with you, to put it simply, it’s awesome. It would be well worth seeing Mr. Chabon talk about it.

Update:

Wednesday February 3rd
@ 7pm
- Chris Cleeve, author, will be appearing and talking about his book Little Bee at the JCCSF in conjunction with Books, Inc. Tickets are still available (I believe) on the JCCSF website. Cleeve, a British journalist who writes about the plight of refugees, has come a long way since the release of his book so do him a favor and go see him, I am sure he’d appreciate it.

Yay! So much not happening this week, pretty disappointing. Go to Los Angeles if you want some real events, gosh SF, way to let me down.

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