Book It: Events for Bibliophiles

Welcome to Book It: Events for Bibliophiles! You may have noticed that this column no longer runs weekly. Starting today, we will be publishing it on the first Sunday of each month. Let's take a look at some popular authors that are on tour as well as a special event happening this month. We also want to say thank you for your patience as this column evolves!

If you would like to see your event listed in a future post, please contact me via e-mail at heather [dot] varanini [at] gmail [dot] com.

Credit: The Commonwealth Clubof California

The 82nd Annual California Book Awards

Date: Thursday, June 6th 

Time: 5:15pm check-in, 6pm ceremony, 7:15pm signing & reception

Cost: $20 general/$15 members/$7 students

Location: Commonwealth Club of California

595 Market Street, 2nd floor, San Francisco, CA

For more information and to purchase tickets, click here.

Authors confirmed to attend:

Gold Medalists 

FICTION: Adam Johnson: The Orphan Master's Son, Random House

FIRST FICTION:  Jennifer duBois: A Partial History of Lost Causes, Random House

NONFICTION: Victoria Sweet: God’s Hotel: A Doctor, A Hospital, and A Pilgrimage to the Heart of Medicine, Riverhead Books

JUVENILE: Katherine Applegate: The One and Only Ivan, Harper Collins

YOUNG ADULT:  Morgan Matson: Second Chance Summer, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

CONTRIBUTION TO PUBLISHING: Ken and Melanie Light: Valley of Shadows and Dreams, Heyday Press

Silver Medalists

FIRST FICTION: Mariah K. Young: Masha'allah and Other Stories, Heyday Press

YOUNG ADULT: Marissa Moss: A Soldier’s Secret: The Incredible True Story of Sarah Edmonds, a Civil War Hero, Amulet Books

Credit: Penguin Group USA

The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics is Daniel James Brown's third non-fiction book. The launch celebration will be on June 4th in Seattle. Brown will be touring the United States through mid-July. He has quite a few stops on his tour. To see if Brown will be visiting your town, click here to see a list of his appearances. You can watch the book trailer and keep up-to-date by liking the book's Facebook page.

Credit: macmillan publishers

Famous for his tattoo artistry and the subsequent clothing line bearing his name, Ed Hardy has become a household name. He is currently on a limited book tour after the release of his memoir, Wear Your Dreams: My Life in Tattoos, with stops in New York City, San Francisco, Santa Monica, and Honolulu. Do not miss an opportunity to meet this legend! For details, please click here. And to read an excerpt, click here.

Credit: Penguin Group USA

The book that everyone has been buzzing about: Khaled Hosseini's third novel, And the Mountains Echoed. Famous for The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, the author has written another novel that is sure to be a hit. His tour is concentrated on the east and west coasts, with some stops in the middle. Since Mr. Hosseini is in great demand, most of the events require advance tickets. Please click there for a list of his tour dates and destinations. Hosseini not visiting your city? Like him on Facebook to follow his travels.

Credit: Random House

Author Anthony Marra's book tour is winding down, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try to catch him at his last few stops. His debut novel, A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, has been receiving a lot of positive attention. It's about war and love in Chechnya. You can read an excerpt here. He will be speaking in Corte Madera on June 9th and Santa Cruz on June 20th. Click here for more details. You can like him on Facebook and follow him on Twitter for updates.

Credit: Random House

Irish author Colum McCann kicks off his extensive American book tour on June 4th at Barnes and Noble in New York City. The tour for Transatlantic runs through the middle of November. To see if McCann will be in your city, click here to see his list of appearances. The novel has received a lot of praise and the author was recently profiled in The New York Times. You can read an excerpt of the book by clicking here (the link will start a download of the .pdf).

Credit: Penguin Group USA

The country's most famous sex-advice columnist, Dan Savage, is promoting his new book American Savage: Insights, Slights, and Fights on Faith, Sex, Love, and Politics. With only a handful of tour dates, Savage makes his way across the country from Seattle to DC. Click here for a listing of his appearances. You can follow him on Twitter or read his famous column by clicking here.

Credit: Simon & Schuster

Author Lauren Weisberger, famous for writing The Devil Wears Prada, celebrates the release of her second novel on June 4th at GILT City in New York. The sequel, Revenge Wears Prada: The Devil Returns, promises to be another runaway hit. Weisberger will be on a limited book tour along the east coast with one stop in California. To see if she will be in your city, click here. You can follow Lauren on Twitter as she promotes her book.

A BookTator's Isabel Allende Experience

Source: Jeane Ess

My fellow BookTator Karena and I had the opportunity to go to a reading by Isabel Allende this week and I couldn't have been more thrilled. I liked The House of Spirits (her first novel), and it was definitely one of my most enjoyable, if not my most enjoyable assigned reading in high school, but Isabel really got me with City of Beasts. It's her only YA novel, but I love just about any adventure that has to do with the Amazon rainforest and all the mysteries that still lay untold there, plus it's a trilogy (The Eagle and Jaguar trilogy).

Source: Jeane Ess

Source: Jeane Ess

A few years later my Film Appreciation teacher gave a lecture on Zorro, and mentioned that Isabel Allende wrote a novel that really did the character justice. So, I checked out her novel, Zorro, and loved, loved, loved it! If you are any sort of Zorro fan, you will love it too. I digress, so Karena and I went to see her at a reading/signing put on by Bookshop Santa Cruz at Santa Cruz High School, and it was everything that I could have wished for! Isabel was absolutely a fantastic speaker, she made me laugh out loud, she made me tear up, basically she made me feel like I was reading one of her books! Really though, mostly she made me laugh my butt off.

Source: Karena Fagan

Please, please, please if you have not had the chance to read one of her books try and do so sometime, they are amazing. She is branching out in a new direction with her newest one, Maya's Notebook, and her next book which will be released next year which she said will be a thriller. And if you ever get the chance to go to a book signing, DO IT! You will (hopefully) not regret it!

Source: Karena Fagan

Do you have a favorite Isabelle Allende novels? Have you been to one of her events? Tell us about it!

Book It: Events for Bibliophiles

Welcome to the second installment of Book It: Events for Bibliophiles. We hope you will enjoy the selection of book-related events we have compiled this week.

If you would like to see your city or event listed in future posts, please contact me via e-mail at: heather[dot]varanini[at]gmail[dot]com.

Without further ado, here are your book events for the week of April 29th through May 5th:

Monday April 29th

Lemony Snicket and John Klassen

Event: The author, Lemony Snicket, and illustrator, John Klassen, will be discussing their new book The Dark.

Learn more about the event by clicking here. 

Time: 3:30pm book purchase/4:30pm event

Location: Burlingame Library

480 Primrose Road

Children's Room

Burlingame, CA

Cost: The event is free, but if you'd like a signed copy of your book it must be purchased through Books, Inc.

Little America -- Co-sponsored by the World Affairs Council of Northern California and the Marines' Memorial Association

Event: Rav Chandrasekeran will be discussing his new book, Little America. Rav has spent over ten years reporting for The Washington Post, covering the war in Afghanistan. 

Learn more about the event by clicking here. 

Time: 6pm - 7pm

Location: Marines' Memorial Club & Hotel

609 Sutter Street

San Francisco, CA

Cost: Free 

Tuesday April 30th

17th Annual Effie Lee Morris Lecture

Event: Eve Bunting will be the special guest speaker for this event.  Her theme will be: Picture Books That Can't Be Written: Social Issues in Children's Literature. Bunting has penned many children's books such as Green Apple and Fly Away Home.

Click here for more information. 

Time: 6pm - 8pm

Location: SF Public Library - Main

Koret Auditorium

100 Larkin Street

San Francisco, CA

Cost: Free

Barbara Rose Booker -- The Viagra Diaries

Event: Author and professor at San Francisco State University, Barbara Rose Booker comes to talk about sex and love after sixty.

For more information, please click this link.

Time: 7pm

Location: Book Passage

51 Tamal Vista Blvd.

Corte Madera, CA

Cost: Free

Wednesday May 1st

RT 30th Annual Book Lover's Convention

Event: If you love all things bookish, you'll love this event. It's a five day event (runs through Sunday, May 5th) that includes speaker panels, author signings, writing competitions, and parties. There is something for everyone -- readers, publishers, booksellers, librarians, and writers.

To learn more about the convention please click here. 

Time: 8:45am - 11:55pm

Location: Sheraton Kansas City Hotel at Crown Center

2345 McGee Street

Kansas City, MO

Cost: Call 800-989-8816 x12 for details

Vali Nasr: The Dispensable Nation

Event: Val Nasr will be sharing insights from his book as well as his time as an advisor to the State Department on Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Click here to purchase tickets and learn more about the event. 

Time: 5:30pm check-in/6pm program/7pm signing

Location: Commonwealth Club of California

595 Market Street, 2nd Floor

San Francisco, CA

Cost: $20 nonmembers/$12 members/$7 students

Thursday May 2nd

Kim Wong Keltner, Author of Tiger Babies Strike Back

Event: Kim Keltner discusses her new book and shares her experience growing up in the Chinese community and the product of a tiger mom.

For more information about the program and an exclusive essay by Kelther, click this link.

Time: 7pm

Location: Green Apple Books

506 Clement Street

San Francisco, CA

Cost: Free

Search Inside Yourself: Chade-Meng Tan, Google's Jolly Good Fellow: I-House Speaker Series

Event: Tan, author of Search Inside Yourself, will be discussing his book as well as his experience working at Google.

To purchase tickets and learn more about the event click here.

Time: 7:30pm - 9pm

Location: International House at UC Berkeley

Chevron Auditorium

2299 Piedmont Avenue

Berkeley, CA

Cost: $10 public/free for IH residents and UCB students w/ID

Friday May 3rd

33rd Annual Steinbeck Festival

Event: Come and discover all things John Steinbeck during this three day festival that runs from May 3rd through May 5th in Salinas, California. The theme this year is "Home" -- the festival will explore the home of Steinbeck with tours, lectures, films and more.

Click here to purchase tickets and learn more about the event.

Time: All Day

Location: Steinbeck Center

1 Main Street

Salinas, CA

Cost: $10 - $175

Fabio Vivani -- Fabio's Italian Kitchen

Event: Fabio Vivani is most well-known for his time on Top Chef as a contestant during the show's fifth season. He now owns and operates two Italian restaurants in Southern California. This cookbook is his life's story in recipes.

Click here for more information.

Time: 6pm

Location: Book Passage

1 Ferry Building

San Francisco, CA

Cost: Free 

Eisner Award-Winner Hope Larson at Books Inc. in Berkeley

Event: Come and see Hope Larson share a slide show of her illustrations and discuss her work.

Click here for more information.

Time: 7pm

Location: Books Inc.

1760 Fourth Street

Berkeley, CA

Cost: Free

Saturday May 4th

The Big Yes Society Presents Maggie Oman Shannon at Books Inc. in Alameda

Event: Author Maggie Shannon comes to share about her new book, Crafting Calm: Projects and Practices for Creativity and Contemplation. 

To learn more about this event, please click here. 

Time: 7pm

Location: Books Inc. Alameda

1344 Park Street

Alameda, CA

Cost: Free

Sunday May 5th

An Afternoon with Author Alan Fleishman

Event: Author Fleishman will be sharing from his new novel, A Fine September Morning.

Learn more about the event by clicking here.

Time: 3pm

Location: Belmont Library

1110 Alameda de las Pulgas

Belmont, CA

Cost: Free

An Evening with David Sedaris

Event: David Sedaris will be talking about his new book, Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls, and holding a book signing afterward.

To learn more about the event and purchase tickets, please click here. 

Time: 7:30pm

Location: War Memorial Opera House

301 Van Ness Avenue

San Francisco, CA

Cost: $57 - $77

Book It: Events for Bibliophiles

Welcome to the first installment of Book It: Events for Bibliophiles. This will be a weekly post dedicated to book-related events such as author talks and book signings in an effort to make the beautiful world of books more accessible.

To get us started, I have only included events happening in San Francisco for the upcoming week. The scope of book event locations will expand as the weeks progress. If you would like to see your city or event listed in future posts, please contact me via e-mail at: heather[dot]varanini[at]gmail[dot]com.

Without further ado, here are your book events for the week of April 22nd through the 28th:

Monday, April 22nd

"Someday" Never Comes: Conquer Life's Challenges with the Spirit of Adventure

Event: Rick Deutsch "Mr. Half Dome" and author of One Best Hike: Yosemite's Half Dome will be speaking about his experiences hiking Half Dome -- he's done it a whopping 35 times! He will also be talking about how hiking one of Yosemite's most famous landmarks is a metaphor for life.

Click this link to purchase tickets and learn more information about the program. 

Time: 4:45pm networking reception; 5:15pm program

Place: Commonwealth Club of California

595 Market Street, 2nd Floor

San Francisco, CA

Cost: $20 nonmember/$7 students 

GRANTA Presents: The Best of Young British Novelists 4

Event: Nadifa Mohamed and Ross Raisin, two newly announced Best British Novelists will be reading from their works.

Click this link to learn more about the program. 

Time: 6pm hospitality; 7pm readings

Place: The Book Club of California

312 Stutter Street, Suite 500

San Francisco, CA

Cost: Free

David Kirp at Books Inc. in the Marina

Event: Professor of Public Policy at UC Berkeley and author of Improbable Scholars: The Rebirth of a Great American School System and a Strategy for American Schools comes to discuss how he thinks America can change the face of our educational system in order to better serve students. 

Click this link to learn more about the program.

Time: 7pm 

Place: Books Inc.

2251 Chestnut Street

San Francisco, CA

Cost: Free

Alan Brennert at Books Inc. in Laurel Village

Event: Alan Brennert shares tales from his latest novel, Palisades Park.

Click here for additional details.

Time: 7pm

Place: Books Inc.

3515 California Street

San Francisco, CA

Cost: Free

Hendrick Smith -- Who Stole the American Dream?

Event: Pulitzer prize-winning journalist and Emmy award-winning producer, Hendrick Smith, comes to discuss his new novel: Who Stole the American Dream?

Click here for tickets and event details.

Time: 7pm

Place: Jewish Community Center of San Francisco

3200 California Street

Fisher Hall

San Francisco, CA

Cost: $15 nonmembers/$12 members/$10 students

Laura Antoniou at Books Inc. in the Castro

Event: Laura Antoniou, National Leather Association award-winning author, discusses her most recent book, The Killer Wore Leather.

Click here for additional details.

Time: 7:30pm

Place: Books Inc.

2275 Market Street

San Francisco, CA

Cost: Free

Tuesday, April 23rd

World Book Night US: 2013

Event: In an effort to spread the love of reading, books are given (for free) to people who don't regularly read or have access to printed books at a local, participating bookstore.

Learn more about World Book Night by clicking here. 

Location: Click here to find an event near you!

Cost: Free  

Maria Semple -- Where'd You Go, Bernadette

Event: Author Maria Semple discusses her second novel, Where'd You Go Bernadette.

Click here to learn more about the event.

Time: 6:00pm

Place: Book Passage

1 Ferry Building

San Francisco, CA

Cost: Free

Gillian Flynn: Gone Girl

Event: Author Gillian Flynn talks about her latest book Gone Girl.

Click this link to purchase tickets and learn more about the event. 

Time: 7pm

Place: Jewish Community Center of San Francisco

3200 California Street

Kanbar Hall

San Francisco, CA

Cost: $25 nonmembers/$20 members/$15 students

Joyce Carol Oates

Event: Joyce Carol Oates reads from her novel The Accursed.

To learn more about the event click here. 

Time: 7pm

Place: City Lights Bookstore

261 Columbus Avenue at Broadway

San Francisco, CA

Cost: Free

Parents Group SPEAK Presents Po Bronson

Event: Po Bronson is author of Top Dog: The Science of Winning and Losing

Learn more about this event by clicking here.

Time: 7pm

Place: Chinese American School

151 Oak Street

San Francisco, CA

Cost: Free

Weighing the Economic Equation: Regulation vs. Growth

Event: Adat Admanti visits the World Affairs Council to discuss lessons learned from the 2007 financial crisis and share insights from her new book, The Bankers' New Clothes: What's Wrong With Banking and What to Do About It.

Purchase tickets and learn more about the program by clicking here. 

Time: 7pm - 8pm

Location: World Affairs Council of Northern California

312 Sutter Street

San Francisco, CA

Cost: $15 nonmembers/$5 students 

Wednesday, April 24th

NY Times Reporter Mark Mazzetti: Inside the CIA and America's Covert Operations

Event: Mazzetti, author of The Way of the Knife, will be discussing America's covert operations in relation to the dark side of our country's foreign policy.

To buy tickets and learn more about this event, click here. 

Time: 5:30pm check in/6pm program

Place: Commonwealth Club of California

595 Market Street, 2nd Floor

San Francisco, CA

Cost: $20 nonmembers/$12 members/$7 students

Mexico, the United States, and the Road Ahead 

Event: Shannon O'Neil, Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, discusses her new book, Two Nations Indivisible and the future of US-Mexico relations.

Click here to purchase tickets and learn more about the event. 

Time: 6:30pm - 7:30pm

Place: World Affairs Council of Northern California

312 Sutter Street

San Francisco, CA

Cost: $15 nonmembers/$5 students

Mary Williams -- The Lost Daughter: A Memoir

Event: Mary Williams is a daughter of the Black Panther movement and tells her life story in her latest book. It details her time growing up amongst poverty and violence as well as the time she was adopted by Jane Fonda. It's also a story of Williams finding her way back home.

Click here to learn more about the author, her book, and the event.

Time: 6pm 

Place: Book Passage 

1 Ferry Building

San Francisco, CA 

Cost: Free

Tosh Berman on his love affair with SPARKS

Event: Author Tosh Berman shares tales from his new book Sparks-Tastic: 21 Albums in 21 Nights in London with Sparks. 

Click here for more information.

Time: 7pm

Place: City Lights Bookstore

261 Columbus Avenue at Broadway

San Francisco, CA

Cost: Free

Moses Gates, Author of Hidden Cities

Event: Author Moses Gates is also an urban planner. He will be sharing stories and signing copies of his new book, Hidden Cities: Travels to the Secret Corners of the World's Greatest Metropolises.

To learn more about the event, please click here.

Time: 7pm

Place: Green Apple Books

506 Clement Street

Granny Smith Room

San Francisco, CA

Cost: Free

Thursday, April 25th

Peggy Riley -- Amity & Sorrow

Event: Author Peggy Riley comes to discuss her debut novel, Amity & Sorrow. Described as "fierce and disturbing" by Publisher's Weekly, Riley's novel has been garnering attention.

Click here for more information.

Time: 6pm 

Place: Book Passage 

1 Ferry Building

San Francisco, CA

Cost: Free

David Talbot, Author of Season of the Witch

Event: To celebrate the paperback release of Season of the Witch, author David Talbot will be sharing from his book over cocktails at San Francisco's historic Elk Lodge.

Learn more about the event by clicking here.

Time: 7pm - 8:30pm

Location: San Francisco Elks Lodge #3

450 Post Street, 3rd Floor

San Francisco, CA

Cost: Free

Regreturature 2013 

Event: Authors read works they regret -- when good writers write not-so-good stuff. Join the San Francisco Writers' Grotto to hear their stories.

Purchase tickets and find additional details about the event by clicking here. 

Time: 8pm

Place: Swedish American Hall (15th/Sanchez)

2174 Market Street

San Francisco, CA

Cost: $12 advance/$15 at the door

Friday, April 26th

What We Need to Build A Better Future, Orion Magazine and Thirty Writers

Event: Orion Magazine asked thirty of America's best writers to discuss what the country needs to do in order to create a better future. And Thirty-Year Plan: Thirty Writers On What We Need to Build A Better Future was born. Editor-in-Chief H. Emerson Blake of Orion Magazine will be present, along with authors Craig Childs of Apocalyptic Planet and Riane Eisler of The Blade, The Chalice, and the Real Worth of Nations, as well as Professor Rubén Martínez of Loyola Marymount University where he teaches Literature and Writing, he is also the author of Desert America.

Purchase tickets and learn more about the event by clicking here.

Time: 11:30am check in/noon program/1pm book signing

Place: Commonwealth Club of California

595 Market Street, 2nd Floor

San Francisco, CA

$20 nonmembers/$7 students 

Mary Roach -- Gulp

Event: America's funniest science writer, Mary Roach, takes us on a trip from tip to tail on what happens when we eat in her new book, Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal.

Click here to learn more about the event. 

Time: 6pm 

Place: Book Passage 

1 Ferry Building

San Francisco, CA

Cost: Free

Saturday, April 27th

Charles Dubow -- Indiscretion

Event: Come and hear stories from author Charles Dubow, founding editor at Forbes.com and former editor at Businessweek.com, discuss his most recent novel Indiscretion.

To learn more about this event click here.

Time: 6pm 

Place: Book Passage 

1 Ferry Building

San Francisco, CA

Cost: Free

Sunday, April 28th

No events listed.