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March already?  Yay!  The Giants will soon be home; spring break is on the horizon; and the days are getting longer. 

At both stores, we're very excited about our especially rich schedule of upcoming events--Helen MacDonald; Atticus Lish with Daniel Handler; Carey Perloff; Karl Ove Knausgaard(!); and John Waters, plus many more worthy writers.

Meanwhile, new books keep hitting the shelves in all subjects. We mention a few gems herein, but there's nothing like a good browse, so drop by; we're open late to make it ever-easy to poke around.

In today's newsletter we offer: 
  • our March Book of the Month, guaranteed to please;
  • eleven new books you should probably know about; 
  • more details for California Bookstore Day; and
  • reminders about upcoming events.
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!
 March's Book of the Month 
Each month, we present THE book we are most passionate about.  Yep; we guarantee it!  This month's pick is presented by Green Appler Ronnie.

Girl in a Band by Kim Gordon (Dey Street Books)
 
"What's it like to be a girl in a band?
I don't quite understand."
--Sonic Youth. Sacred Trickster.

Really, there isn't a way to preface a book like Kim Gordon's Girl In A Band. She might be best known as the bassist and co-lead singer of Sonic Youth, but Kim Gordon is also an icon in fashion and art. Gordon tells her stories about family, love, politics, touring, adversity, and all that happens in between with little restraint and unflinching fearlessness. Just read it already!

We have SIGNED copies while they last.
 Eleven New Books you may like

We are Pirates by Daniel Handler (Bloomsbury)

  

At first glance, Daniel Handler's most recent foray into grown-up fiction, We Are Pirates, might not seem such a stretch from the work he has written for younger readers. Our protagonists, Amber and Gwen, are a couple of rebellious teenage girls, doing those things that rebellious teenage girls have been doing as long as there have been stores to shoplift from. There is even some dreamy teenage talk about becoming pirates on the San Francisco Bay. But when talk turns to action, We Are Pirates tacks in interesting directions indeed. We Are Pirates is engaging, hilarious, occasionally unsettling, and even, in the end, a rip-roaring yarn. -kpr 

 

H is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald (Grove Atlantic) 

 

As its title suggests, Helen MacDonald's memoir is about a hawk. But the book is not just about a bird, but the way our lives intersect with animals and how we are transformed by the wildness hovering at the edge of our humanity. It's also about loss, grief, and the solace we can find in something fierce. If you're a fan of exquisite and emotionally powerful memoirs along the lines of Cheryl Strayed's Wild and Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, this is a book for you. -- Sparks

Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America by Jill Leovy (Spiegel & Grau)

This book will change the way you think about crime and the ways we investigate crime in America. Leovy worked the police beat for the L.A. Times for ten years, and she approaches the problem of violence with a compassionate and knowledgeable eye. Most importantly, she offers real solutions. Everyone should read this book. -- Emily
  
Thrown by Kerry Howley (Sarabande) 

Kerry Howley's pursuit of the ecstatic in professional mixed martial arts (MMA) paints an indelible portrait of obsession, glory, violence, and fatigue by following two very different fighters through the distinctly American landscapes of sweaty basements and glowing arenas awash in color. -- Matt
  
Outline by Rachel Cusk (Farrar Straus Giroux) 

This sparse yet economically detailed meditation on how we tell stories about ourselves investigates with sharp clarity the drive to create a narrative that informs one's sense of self. The title is an apt description of the book that Cusk decorates with poetic observations of those she meets. A woman is described as having a "demolished beauty." Gems like this appear on every other page. Highly recommended. -- Clara

The Boatmaker by John Benditt (Tin House)

Two Green Applers (and my father-in-law) heartily endorse this novel! The Boatmaker is a sweeping tale, epic but precise (not sprawling).  It carried me away from the start on a journey of unexpected twists and turns, and it sticks with me even months after reading it.  It felt more like an experience than a novel. We even have some signed copies available, as he came through town last week.

Black River by S.M. Hulse (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

How can I recommend such a heartbreaking sock-in-the-gut as this? With such precise writing, such reserve underpinning its narrative drive, Black River reminded me a bit of Gilead and left my humanity duly deepened. -- Pete


Now in paperback: The hugely entertaining story of Mark Twain, Bret Harte, Ina Coolbrith and Charles Warren Stoddard (the Bohemians of the title) roaring through 1860's San Francisco.  At once an intimate portrait of an unforgettable group of writers and a history of a cultural revolution in America, The Bohemians reveals how a brief moment on the far western frontier changed our culture forever.

The Sellout by Paul Beatty (Farrar Straus Giroux)
 
Paul Beatty's most recent novel is a hilarious, biting button-pusher of the highest order. Publishers Weekly has this to say: "At the novel's opening, its narrator, a black farmer whose last name is Me, has been hauled before the Supreme Court for keeping a slave and re-instituting racial segregation in Dickens, an inner-city neighborhood in Los Angeles inexplicably zoned for agrarian use. When Dickens is erased from the map by gentrification, Me hatches a modest proposal to bring it back by segregating the local school. While his logic may be skewed, there is a perverse method in his madness; he is aided by Hominy, a former child star from "The Little Rascals" who insists that Me take him as his slave. Beatty gleefully catalogs offensive racial stereotypes but also reaches further, questioning what exactly constitutes black identity in America. Wildly funny but deadly serious, Beatty's caper is populated by outrageous caricatures, and its damning social critique carries the day."


A Bad Character by Deepti Kapoor (Knopf)


 A lyrical examination of first love gone awry, A Bad Character tells the story of a young woman in New Delhi and the affair that both saves her and ruins her. Kapoor's writing swept me away with its grace and grit. A beautiful book about the loves that shape us and the people who alter our paths. - Emily

 

Redeployment by Phil Klay (Penguin)

 

Now out in paperback, Redeployment won the National Book Award and was named one of the NY Times' best books of 2014. Redeployment takes the reader to the front lines of the war in Iraq, and then back home. It asks us to understand what happened there, and what happened to the soldiers who returned. Easily the best work of fiction to emerge from our recent military actions. And my good friend Chris loved it. So what can you possibly be waiting for?

California Bookstore Day returns May 2

California Bookstore Day is May 2, and we have maximum book fun in the works.  We've turned it up to 11.    

 

What is Bookstore Day?  It's 350+ bookish parties at indie bookstores across America, including both Green Apples, of course.  Each store celebrates in its own way, but we also get to sell 16 unique books and art pieces that aren't available anywhere else, ever. 

 

As for the collectible books and word-based art, they're all here, and they include works by Roxanne Gay, Christopher Moore, Chris Ware, Margaret Atwood, Mary Roach, Stephen King, Allie Brosh, Sherman Alexie, and more. Quantities are limited, but we ordered deeply to maximize your chances of getting your paws on these unique gems.

 

On Clement, we so far have lined up 826 Valencia for a storytelling workshop; free custom poems from Silvi Alcivar; a hands-on workshop with the San Francisco Center for the Book; live bluegrass; and an evening reading with Samantha Schoech, Mary Roach, Novella Carpenter, and Michelle Richmond.  More surprises are in the works, plus free beer all day. 

 

On 9th Avenue, we'll host 826 Valencia in the morning, 3 Fish Studios with a print-making demo in the afternoon, and "Pirates vs. Poets" in the evening: Daniel Handler, Matthew Zapruder, and Victoria Chang.  Plus more surprises to come and free beer all day. 


 

Oh, and we'll be giving away a limited quantity of broadsides with a salty John Waters quotation at both stores throughout the day.  Be here, or you can't be among the lucky ones!

 

Save May 2, 2015 for some literary fun with your pals at Green Apple Books and/or Green Apple Books on the Park.   

Coming author events at both stores
When we opened our new store on 9th Avenue, we constructed it with events in mind.  And between winning Publishers Weekly's 2014 Bookstore of the Year award and the personal relationships we've built with publishers over the decades, our spring events calendar is bursting with stars both bright and nascent.  Clement Street, too, has some fine authors coming through.

We teased you in the intro with some links to brand-named authors, but please check out all the authors here, put on some pants, and get out of the house!    

You're lucky to live here, right?  Take advantage of it!
Thanks for reading.
 
Sincerely,
 
Pete et al
Green Apple Books and Music
415-387-2272