Shelf-talker by John.

An intimidating debut, Thomas's novel charts the life of one New York woman and her family. Spanning the course of a half century, we readers receive the ultimate pleasure of watching characters transform from children into adults, moving from youth to maturity. The family must confront the reality that something is not right, as a sudden illness shakes the core of who these people are to themselves and to each other. Do not let this book's six-hundred plus pages bully you into leaving it on the shelf, you'll be totally invested from the opening sentence. Go ahead.

This book by a married couple of Richmond district co-authors has been flying off the shelf, and with good reason.  It's a fascinating look at a young forensic pathologist's training by immersion in New York City, coinciding with the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center.  Explore a world that few ever see: the morgue.

Kill My Mother by Jules Feiffer (Liveright)

The first graphic novel by the 80+-year-old, award-winning political cartoonist is a "gateway" book.  That is, even if you don't read graphic novels, you should give this a shot.  It's a hard-boiled noir tale with strong female characters.  Booze, murder, loners, streets black with soot--it's all here in a beautiful, darkly illustrated story.

In the Kingdom of Ice: the Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeanette by Hampton Sides (Doubleday)

During the grips of "Arctic Fever," the USS Jeanette set sail from San Francisco searching for that verdant North Pole.  You know where this is going, but the journey is the destination, right?  And it's quite a journey.  An obvious gift for any explorer on your list; it will not disappoint.
(And see events below for your chance to meet the author!)

The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan (Knopf)

Join Flanagan when he comes to Hattery for a conversation about the spinning of fact into fiction, the paradox of love and war, and the importance of storytelling.

BUY TICKETS HERE

Green Apple Books on Clement is proud to host photographer, Beth Moon, as she presents her beautiful book, Ancient Trees: Portraits of Time.

RSVP for the Facebook event here! 

Beth Moon's fourteen-year quest to photograph ancient trees has taken her across the United States, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Some of her subjects grow in isolation, on remote mountainsides, private estates, or nature preserves; others maintain a proud, though often precarious, existence in the midst of civilization. All, however, share a mysterious beauty perfected by age and the power to connect us to a sense of time and nature much greater than ourselves. It is this beauty, and this power, that Moon captures in her remarkable photographs.

What happens when an acclaimed memoirist sits down for a conversation with his mother?

Join us for a conversation with author Sean Wilsey, who captured the curiosity of life as a San Francisco society child in his 2005 memoir Oh the Glory of it All. Wilsey, an avid skateboarder and boarding school wayfarer, chronicled a youth spent in and out of San Francisco's upper echelons with what the New York Times described as a "vivid mix of brio, self-awareness and sophistication."

In Wilsey's new collection of essays, More Curious, the author paints a compelling picture of an America he found to be "much kinder and less homogenous" than he feared. More Curious spans fifteen years of Wilsey's work and includes musings on life in rural Texas, what soccer and religion have in common, and the state of skateboarding - and American culture - today. Other essays include those previously published in GQ, McSweeney's, The New York Times Magazine, National Geographic, Fast Company, and Vanity Fair.

Join Wilsey as he discusses More Curious, the power of place, and memoir as catharsis. Wilsey will be joined in conversation by his mother, non-fiction author and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Pat Montandon.

When and Where: September 24, 7pm, Hattery (414 Brannan)

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Please join Green Apple and the S.F. Elks Lodge in welcoming award-winning author Hampton Sides to the historic San Francisco Elks Lodge, to celebrate his newest book, In the Kingdom of Ice.

 

Hampton Sides is the best-selling author of Ghost Soldiers and  Hellhound on his Trail, but his newest chronicles the grand and terrible polar voyage of the USS Jeanette, and America's last efforts to reach the North Pole in the 1890s; it is his most thrilling book yet. With strong ties to San Francisco, and a cast of characters to rival any in history (including John Muir, and controversial newspaper magnate and bon vivant James Gordon Bennett) In the Kingdom of Ice is a gripping saga of courage and suffering that makes Shackelton's Endurance seem like a walk in the park on a lazy Sunday afternoon.  

 

The free event is part of the successful author series, "Cocktails and Conversations at the Lodge," and will be held in the main room of the S.F. Elks Lodge, the oldest extant lodge in the United States, established in 1873. An architectural marvel, this normally private lodge is open to guests wishing to celebrate the publication of In the Kingdom of Ice, and those hoping to have a cocktail with Hampton Sides--of course, this means you!

 

When and Where: September 25, 7pm, SF Elks Lodge (450 Post St), FREE     

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