Events

We'll be hosting Rick Bass as he discusses his new novel, Nashville Chrome. The novel takes place in the late 1950s and recounts the tale of the Brown siblings, a family band enjoying unprecedented international success, rivaled only by their longtime friend Elvis Presley. By turns mesmerizing and heartbreaking, the novel jumps between the Browns’ promising past and harsh present.  Nashville Chrome hits all the right grace notes with its vivid evocation of an era in American music, while at its heart it is a wrenching meditation on the complexities of fame and of one family—forgotten yet utterly unforgettable when reclaimed by Bass.

Rick Bass' fiction has received O. Henry Awards, numerous Pushcart Prizes, awards from the Texas Institute of Letters, fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation, among others. Most recently, his memoir Why I Came West was a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award. Check out Nashville Chrome and don't miss Rick Bass in the store on September 13th.

The busiest writer in San Francisco, Dave Eggers, will be stopping by Green Apple at non on Tuesday, September 14th to sign copies of his award-winning Zeitoun, newly available in paperback.

Zeitoun is a compelling and urgent work of narrative non-fiction that, through the lens of one family's harrowing experience, examines the state of post-hurricane New Orleans and its national and international context in all its complexity. It's tough to put it better or offer more aptly high praise than the New York Times Book Review did, saying, "Imagine Charles Dickens, his sentimentality in check but his journalistic eyes wide open, roaming New Orleans after it was buried by Hurricane Katrina... Eggers' tone is pitch-perfect-suspense blended with just enough information to stoke reader outrage and what is likely to be a typical response: How could this happen in America?"

Eggers is also the editor of McSweeney's, co-founder of the local non-profit writing center 826 Valencia, and author of the Pulitzer-finalist memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Don't miss this opportunity to meet and talk to him here in the store, and, if you haven't already, pick up a signed copy of Zeitoun.

Saul Austerlitz will be in the Granny Smith Room on September 16th to talk about his newest book, Another Fine Mess: A History of American Film Comedy. Running the gamut of film history from City Lights to Knocked Up, Another Fine Mess retells the story of American film from the perspective of its unwanted stepbrother--the comedy. Each chapter is devoted primarily to a single performer or director as Another Fine Mess retraces the steps of the American comedy film, filling in the gaps and following the connections that link Mae West to Doris Day, or W. C. Fields to Will Ferrell.

Saul Austerlitz is a New York City based writer whose work has been published in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Slate, the Boston Globe, and other publications. He is the author of Money for Nothing: A History of the Music Video from the Beatles to the White Stripes.

Fred Lyon, a San Francisco native with nearly 70 years as a photographer under his belt, has put together a fascinating picture of our dear city by the bay with his newest collection, San Francisco Then. The prints therein came from a box of old negatives that he found in a filing cabinet from his early years experimenting with photography in the 1940s and 50s-- photographs that had been just gathering dust until now. Newly printed and displayed together for the first time, they offer a candid and raw rendering of San Francisco, pieced together by an artist who loves (and can tell) a good story through words and images alike. This opportunity to meet the man behind the lens and hear his take on San Francisco Then is truly one not to miss.

Ready to take your home cocktail bar to the next level? This book of recipes, chock full of lovely photos, features recipes from bartenders up and down the West Coast, with many of them manning the stick at local establishments like Alembic, Range, Bourbon & Branch, and Nopa. There is a short profile of each of them, along with a bit of their personal philosophy, followed by a recipe or two. But this is not Mr. Boston. You're going to have to hunt down ingredients like Falernum, Aperol and Cynar, along with specialized bitters and garnishes. Or you could just read the book, get in a cab, and go order one directly from one of these mix-masters.

Join Green Apple Books and the authors of Left Coast Libations, along with some of its bartender/contributors at Heaven's Dog for an evening of cocktail talk and conviviality. Check their website, leftcoastlibations.com, for more details.

John Casti will be appearing in the side room to talk about his new book, Mood Matters, which makes the makes the assertion that all social events ranging from trends in music and art to the rise and fall of civilizations are biased by the attitudes a society holds toward the future. Casti's hypothesis: when the "social mood" is positive and people look forward to the future, events of an entirely different character tend to occur than when the cultural tone is of a more pessimistic nature. Casti's writing is a pleasure to read and its contents an eye-opener; be sure to come by Green Apple on September 21st to pick up your signed copy.