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Books of the Month
Seven New Books
Author Events
Jog in the Fog
Murakami Release Party
Litquake contest
SIGNED books
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Summer is rolling along nicely here at Green Apple.  The Sunday Clement Street farmer's market is now three block long and full of tasty grub; our shelves are bursting with great new releases and old gems; and we're feverishly working to open our second store.  The trees pictured above, felled by winds in Golden Gate Park 15 years ago, are being milled for our front counter and parts of the children's book section.  Talk about shopping local, eh?

In today's newsletter we offer: 
  • our July Book of the Month, guaranteed to please;
  • Seven new books we think you'll want to read;
  • July author events;
  • the Richmond's own Jog in the Fog;  
  • a save-the-date for some Murakami midnight madness;  
  • a chance to win Green Apple's sponsorship for a Litquake writing seminar and 
  • signed books galore, including Neil Gaiman!  

More than ever, we can use your support, as opening a new bookstore is expensive.  Please consider Green Apple for your next purchase, in person or online.  You must know someone worth feting with a Green Apple gift card good for either store; we ship anywhere!  

 

And remember: you can read digitally and shop locally.  Our partnership with Kobo allows you to read eBooks on any device (except Kindle).  Sign up here and Green Apple will forever get a cut of your eBook purchases.  

 

Read on!
Book of the Month 
Each month, we present THE book we are most passionate about.  This month's gem is by local favorite Rebecca Solnit: Men Explain Things To Me (Haymarket Books).  Several Green Applers heartily endorse this short book.  Here's Anna's shelf-talker:
Smart, bold, and urgently necessary, this collection of essays by the eminently readable Rebecca Solnit weaves together a global story of gender and power. Solnit is extremely funny and incisive as she recounts the now infamous incident at a party Aspen, in which a Very Important Man interrupts and talks over her to explain a Very Important Book he thinks she should read - which it turns out she wrote. Men explain things to women, whether or not they know what they're talking about. Solnit astutely identifies and politicizes this experience, which is already familiar to so many women. Writing through a variety of seemingly diverse topics in the essays that follow, she traces the contours of a culture in which women continue to be silenced and otherwise made to disappear.
Seven New Books
I was moved by the strong spirit of friendship, camaraderie, and care expressed in these letters, and inspired by the intellectual rigor and clarity of thought found here. Berry and Snyder don't argue or debate, but they totally engage questions of culture/civilization, livelihood/economy, and technology. (And they also get into the virtues of tractors vs. roto-tillers a little. . .). Farm-fresh food for thought. -- EH

On the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City by Alice Goffman (University of Chicago Press)

On the Run is an eye-opening account of six years spent in one of Philadelphia's poorest neighborhoods, where residents live in a virtual police state. Goffman's intensive study pinpoints the weaknesses of the perpetual War on Drugs, revealing just how a self-perpetuating system is maintained at the cost of basic human rights.

Preparing the Ghost by Matthew Gavin Frank (Liveright)

Frank's beautiful and meandering essay on the giant squid is my favorite book of the summer. Charting his own obsession with the creature and its long history of obsessing others, Frank opens all kinds of doors and follows many trails in search of this elusive beast. Written with all the page-turning urgency of a novel, this is a stunning work of non-fiction.
-- SS

Last Words from Montmartre by Qui Miaojin (NYRB Classsics)

Anna writes: "This book is like the worst breakup you've ever had, except it's actually worse, because Qui Miaojin killed herself at the age of twenty-six. But this is also the best book I have read in 2014." Emily follows that up with: "I completely agree with this last statement. This book felt like I was reading the journal of a crazy person who wrote beautiful meditations on love and loss."

Horn! The Collected Reviews by Kevin Thomas (OR Books)

Regular readers of The Rumpus are surely familiar with Kevin Thomas's nine-paneled black and white comic book reviews. These succinct and intelligent pieces, ranging from books like The Flamethrowers to David Graeber's Debt, prove the such a thing a creative criticism exists.

Red or Dead by David Peace (Melville House)

We'd be remiss not to include a soccer (sorry, football) novel during a summer of World Cup madness, and what better work than this masterpiece by David Peace? Universally praised (seriously; look up the reviews), Red or Dead is the story of Bill Shankly, a working class hero who transformed Liverpool's last-place soccer team and in the process lifted a city onto his shoulders.

Your Fathers, Where Are They. . .? by Dave Eggers (Knopf)

We are loyal fans of Eggers here, and this compelling new novel continues where Hologram for the King left off. As my pal Randy wrote: "If Hologram exposed the lack of spine, then Fathers shows why. . .." It's written entirely in dialogue, though I forgot that a few pages in. Or read it as a play? Either way, it's a sharp critique of contemporary America.
-- PM
Upcoming Author Events
We have a fine slew of author events on the horizon, and we hope you'll feel inspired to put on some pants and get out of the house one evening, meet some other booklovers, and dip into a new book.  As always, if you can't make a particular event but want signed copies, just call us (415-387-2272) and pre-pay.  We'll hook you up.

July 10 (Thursday): Michael Deibert, In the Shadow of Saint Death

Combining dozens of interviews that the author has conducted over the last six years in Mexico and other countries in the region along with a vast reserve of secondary source material, In the Shadow of Saint Death gives U.S. readers the story of the war being waged along our border in the voices of the cartel hit men, law enforcement officials, politicians, shopkeepers, migrants and children living inside it year-round. Through their stories, the book poses provocative questions about the direction and consequence of U.S. drug policy and the militarized approach to combating the narcotics trade on both sides of the border.       

     7pm in our Granny Smith Room. FREE. All ages.  More here. 

 

 

July 12 (Saturday): Tony Gilbert, Hannah and the Secret Mermaids of San Francisco Bay   

 

Hannah learns to swim in San Francisco Bay, and discovers a mystery like no other. What does she learn from the secret society of swimmers? Why have the mermaids come to San Francisco? What will you discover?

A magical and fun tale of adventure for the young and young at heart. Set against the backdrop of San Francisco's favorite sites for locals and visitors.

 

Hand paintings by artist Gail Weissman, exuding vivid examples of whimsy and imagination. Original story by Tony Gilbert. 
NOON on our mezzanine.  FREE.  All ages. More here.


July 15 (Tuesday): Marek Breiger, Floyd Salas, and Gerald Haslam

Marek Breiger has published over 40 essays dealing with California literature and life. He has taught high school English for 33 years and has won two Dorothy Wright Awards from San Jose State University for "contributions in promoting excellence in writing and love of literature."

Berkeley writer Floyd Salas is the author of the powerful prison novel, Tattoo the Wicked Cross, winner of the Joseph Henry Jackson Award. His coming-of-age memoir, Buffalo Nickel, charts his search for identity in a family struggling with drug addiction, crime, and suicide. Among his other books are Lay My Body On The Line, a novel about the San Francisco State uprising of the 1960s, and Color of My Living Heart, a collection of love poems.

A native of Oildale in the Bakersfield area, Gerald Haslam, through his writing and editing, has created an awareness of the "other California," the state's untrendy small towns and rural areas. He has written about the Central Valley (The Great Central Valley), about country music (Workin' Man Blues), and the joys and despairs of blue collar people in California (That Constant Coyote, Masks, etc.), winning numerous literary awards.
7pm in our Granny Smith Room.  FREE.  All ages. More here.


July 22 (Tuesday): Gene Luen Yang, The Shadow Hero

In the comics boom of the 1940s, a legend was born: the Green Turtle. He solved crimes and fought injustice just like other comics characters. But this mysterious masked crusader was hiding something more than your run-of-the-mill secret identity. The Green Turtle was the first Asian-American super hero.

 

The comic had a short run before lapsing into obscurity, but the acclaimed author of American Born Chinese, Gene Luen Yang, has finally revived this character in a new graphic novel that creates an origin story for the Green Turtle.

 

With artwork by Sonny Liew, this gorgeous, funny comic adventure for teens is a new spin on the long, rich tradition of American comics. 

7pm here. FREE.  All ages. More here.


July 23 (Wednesday): Elizabeth Cantwell, Nights I Let the Tiger Get You

Please join Green Apple Books when we welcome Elizabeth Cantwell as she reads from her debut collection of poems: Nights I Let the Tiger Get You.

 

Elizabeth Cantwell's poems unfold in the nightmarish space between seeing a monster and discovering you are unable to scream. Nights I Let The Tiger Get You occupies that liminal moment between sleep and waking, when the objects of everyday life have grown distorted and ominous. Cantwell's poems touch on picnics and metamorphosis, addiction and taxidermy. How can words absorb a history that keeps resisting expression? "And in the space inside your head, between / your eyes and your ears, an entire / planet throbs." 

7pm in our Granny Smith Room.  All ages. FREE.  More here.

 

 

July 30 (Wednesday): Prajwal Parajuly, The Gurkha's Daughter

 

A number one bestseller in India and a shortlisted nomination for the Dylan Thomas Prize, The Gurkha's Daughter is a distinctive debut from a rising star in South Asian literature. This collection of stories captures the textures and sounds of the Nepalese diaspora through eight intimate, nuanced portraits, taking us from the hillside city of Darjeeling, India to a tucked away Nepalese restaurant in New York City. 

 

Across different ethnicities, religions, and other social distinctions, these characters share a universal yearning, not just for survival but for a better life; one with love, dignity, and community. In The Gurkha's Daughter, Parajuly reveals the small acts of bravery--the sustaining, driving hope--that bind together the human experience.
7pm in our Granny Smith Room.  All ages.  FREE.  More here.


August 5 (Tuesday): Edan Lepucki, California (Litquake)

Be sure to save August 5 to meet Edan Lepucki, latest beneficiary of the Colbert Bump and a fine novelist in her own right.  Litquake had the foresight to book her months ago, so here's your best chance to meet her.  Details are here, and the venue might move due to demand, so stay tuned.


 
Join the Jog in the Fog



Green Apple is proud to again sponsor the Richmond District Jog in the Fog, a 5k family fun run.  This year's run is on Sunday, September 14, starting at 8am
in Mountain Lake Park.

The run is a production of the Richmond Neighborhood blog, and proceeds benefit the worthy Richmond District Neighborhood Center.

Register now, train later!
Murakami Midnight Madness

Japanese author and cult favorite Haruki Murakami (finally!) has a new novel coming out, and we're pulling out all the stops with a midnight release party at our NEW store, Green Apple Books on the Park.  While Murakami himself won't be there, we have a significant number of signed first editions on the way.  Want a chance at one?  Here's how, in two simple steps.
  • Pre-order a copy here or in either store.
  • Come to our midnight release party on Monday night, August 11, 2014 (at the NEW store on 9th Avenue) 
Anyone who pre-orders and attends the party will receive a
free beer, some free grub (most likely from our new pals at Nopalito), and a chance to win a signed copy of the book.  A little before midnight, we'll pull entries from a hat.  Winners line up for their signed copy; "losers" get an unsigned edition and the consolation of having had a blast.

More about the party here.  And here are a few photos from the last one we did in 2011 with about 150 joyful, good-looking readers.
Litquake's Writing Seminar & your chance to attend FREE!

Green Apple Books and Music is so excited about Litquake's upcoming inaugural writing seminar, that we will pay for one talented writer to attend their choice of sessions at the "Master Class Mixers." Could this be you?

"Master Class Mixers" are a series of writing workshops, each focused on a specific aspect of the craft, and each led by a stellar Bay Area talent: Tom Barbash on the short story, T.J. Stiles on non-fiction, and Joyce Maynard on the character-driven novel.  Each session is three hours long, and will include cocktails and snacks, of course.

If you think you have the chops, simply visit our event page and post your "Favorite Singular Moment at Green Apple" in 150 words or fewer.  It could be the time you met the love of your life in the philosophy nook, the time you found $20 in a used book, or heck, that one day you found parking on 6th avenue. . . you get the idea.

One talented winner will be chosen on Sunday, July 13th.  He or she will get to attend their pick of sessions, plus a Green Apple Books bag filled with quality swag. This could be YOU!

Enter here.  Good luck!
SIGNED copies galore


We have an unusual abundance of signed books right now: Geoff Dyer, Roz Chast, John Waters, Lorrie Moore, PLUS several books by superstar Neil Gaiman. 

You can buy them here or drop by the store for the most up-to-date selection.  What better gift than a truly unique signed copy of an excellent new book, I say.
 
Thanks for reading.
 
Sincerely,
 
Pete et al
Green Apple Books and Music
415-387-2272