POROCHISTA KHAKPOUR presents SICK: A Memoir
In conversation with ACHY OBEJAS
Tuesday, June 26, 2018, 7:30pm
Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St., Berkeley
Tickets available now!
For as long as writer Porochista Khakpour can remember, she has been sick. For most of that time, she didn't know why. All of her trips to the ER and her daily pain and lethargy only ever resulted in one question: How could any one person be this sick? Several drug addictions, three major hospitalizations, and over $100,000 later, she finally had a diagnosis: late-stage Lyme disease. In the tradition of Brain on Fire and Darkness Visible, an honest, beautifully rendered memoir of chronic illness, misdiagnosis, addiction, and the myth of full recovery. SICK is a candid, illuminating narrative of hope and uncertainty, boldly examining the deep impact of illness on one woman's life.
Porochista Khakpour’s debut novel Sons and Other Flammable Objects was a New York Times Editor’s Choice, one of the Chicago Tribune’s Fall’s Best, and the 2007 California Book Award winner in the “First Fiction” category. Her second novel The Last Illusion was a 2014 "Best Book of the Year" according to NPR, Kirkus, Buzzfeed, Popmatters, Electric Literature, and many more. Among her many fellowships is a National Endowment for the Arts award. Her nonfiction has appeared in many sections of The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Elle, Slate, Salon, and Bookforum, among many others. Currently, she is guest faculty at VCFA and Stonecoast's MFA programs as well as Contributing Editor at The Evergreen Review. Born in Tehran and raised in the Los Angeles area, she lives in New York City’s Harlem. Her author photo was taken by Sylvie Roskoff.
Please note:
Conversation to be followed by a Q&A and signing.
This event is all ages. Accessibility is important to us! If you have special needs of any kind, please write events AT booksmith DOT com and we will do our best to accommodate you. If the cost of admission would be a financial hardship that might prevent you from attending, please let us know.
In conversation with ACHY OBEJAS
Tuesday, June 26, 2018, 7:30pm
Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St., Berkeley
Tickets available now!
For as long as writer Porochista Khakpour can remember, she has been sick. For most of that time, she didn't know why. All of her trips to the ER and her daily pain and lethargy only ever resulted in one question: How could any one person be this sick? Several drug addictions, three major hospitalizations, and over $100,000 later, she finally had a diagnosis: late-stage Lyme disease. In the tradition of Brain on Fire and Darkness Visible, an honest, beautifully rendered memoir of chronic illness, misdiagnosis, addiction, and the myth of full recovery. SICK is a candid, illuminating narrative of hope and uncertainty, boldly examining the deep impact of illness on one woman's life.
Porochista Khakpour’s debut novel Sons and Other Flammable Objects was a New York Times Editor’s Choice, one of the Chicago Tribune’s Fall’s Best, and the 2007 California Book Award winner in the “First Fiction” category. Her second novel The Last Illusion was a 2014 "Best Book of the Year" according to NPR, Kirkus, Buzzfeed, Popmatters, Electric Literature, and many more. Among her many fellowships is a National Endowment for the Arts award. Her nonfiction has appeared in many sections of The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Elle, Slate, Salon, and Bookforum, among many others. Currently, she is guest faculty at VCFA and Stonecoast's MFA programs as well as Contributing Editor at The Evergreen Review. Born in Tehran and raised in the Los Angeles area, she lives in New York City’s Harlem. Her author photo was taken by Sylvie Roskoff.
Please note:
Conversation to be followed by a Q&A and signing.
This event is all ages. Accessibility is important to us! If you have special needs of any kind, please write events AT booksmith DOT com and we will do our best to accommodate you. If the cost of admission would be a financial hardship that might prevent you from attending, please let us know.
DON MIGUEL RUIZ presents THE THREE QUESTIONS:
How to Discover and Master the Power Within You
In conversation with co-author BARBARA EMRYS
Wednesday, June 27, 2018, 7pm
First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way, Berkeley
Tickets available now!
The beloved spiritual teacher builds on the message of his enduring New York Times and international bestseller The Four Agreements with this profound guide that takes us deeper into the tradition of Toltec wisdom, helping us find and use the hidden power within us to achieve our fullest lives.
In The Four Agreements, Don Miguel Ruiz introduced seekers on the path to enlightenment to the tenets of Mesoamerican spiritual culture -- the ancient Toltec. Now, he takes us deeper into Native American practice, and asks us to consider essential questions that drive our lives and govern our spiritual power. Three eternal questions can help us into our power and use it judiciously:
> Who am I?
> What is real?
> How do I express love?
At each stage in our lives, we must ask these simple yet deeply profound questions. Finding the answers will open the door to the next stage in our development, and eventually lead us to our complete, truest selves. But as Don Miguel Ruiz makes clear, we suffer if we do not ask these questions -- or if we fail to pay attention to their answers -- because we either never act on our power or use it destructively. Only when power is anchored in our identity and in reality will it be able to be in synch with the universe -- and be of true benefit to ourselves and to others.
The three questions provide a practical framework that allows readers to engage with Ruizs transformative message and act as a vehicle for overcoming fear and anxiety and discovering peace of mind. An essential guide for all travelers pursuing self-knowledge, understanding, and acceptance, The Three Questions is the next step in our unique spiritual metamorphosis.
--
Don Miguel Ruiz is an international bestselling author, and has dedicated his life to sharing the wisdom of the ancient Toltec through his books, lectures and journeys to sacred sites around the world.
Barbara Emrys is a spiritual teacher and the author of The Red Clay of Burundi: Finding God, the Music, and Me.
Please note:
Each ticket includes one copy of The Three Questions. Don Miguel will pre-sign the books.
Conversation to be followed by a Q&A. Additional details coming soon.
This event is all ages. Accessibility is important to us! If you have special needs of any kind, please write events AT booksmith DOT com and we will do our best to accommodate you.
How to Discover and Master the Power Within You
In conversation with co-author BARBARA EMRYS
Wednesday, June 27, 2018, 7pm
First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way, Berkeley
Tickets available now!
The beloved spiritual teacher builds on the message of his enduring New York Times and international bestseller The Four Agreements with this profound guide that takes us deeper into the tradition of Toltec wisdom, helping us find and use the hidden power within us to achieve our fullest lives.
In The Four Agreements, Don Miguel Ruiz introduced seekers on the path to enlightenment to the tenets of Mesoamerican spiritual culture -- the ancient Toltec. Now, he takes us deeper into Native American practice, and asks us to consider essential questions that drive our lives and govern our spiritual power. Three eternal questions can help us into our power and use it judiciously:
> Who am I?
> What is real?
> How do I express love?
At each stage in our lives, we must ask these simple yet deeply profound questions. Finding the answers will open the door to the next stage in our development, and eventually lead us to our complete, truest selves. But as Don Miguel Ruiz makes clear, we suffer if we do not ask these questions -- or if we fail to pay attention to their answers -- because we either never act on our power or use it destructively. Only when power is anchored in our identity and in reality will it be able to be in synch with the universe -- and be of true benefit to ourselves and to others.
The three questions provide a practical framework that allows readers to engage with Ruizs transformative message and act as a vehicle for overcoming fear and anxiety and discovering peace of mind. An essential guide for all travelers pursuing self-knowledge, understanding, and acceptance, The Three Questions is the next step in our unique spiritual metamorphosis.
--
Don Miguel Ruiz is an international bestselling author, and has dedicated his life to sharing the wisdom of the ancient Toltec through his books, lectures and journeys to sacred sites around the world.
Barbara Emrys is a spiritual teacher and the author of The Red Clay of Burundi: Finding God, the Music, and Me.
Please note:
Each ticket includes one copy of The Three Questions. Don Miguel will pre-sign the books.
Conversation to be followed by a Q&A. Additional details coming soon.
This event is all ages. Accessibility is important to us! If you have special needs of any kind, please write events AT booksmith DOT com and we will do our best to accommodate you.
AMBER TAMBLYN presents ANY MAN
In conversation with MATTHEW ZAPRUDER
Thursday, July 5, 2018, 7:30pm
Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St., Berkeley
Tickets available now!
In her electric and provocative debut novel Any Man, Amber Tamblyn blends genres of poetry, prose, and elements of suspense to give shape to the shocking narratives of victims of sexual violence, mapping the destructive ways in which our society perpetuates rape culture.
A violent serial rapist is on the loose, who goes by the name Maude. She hunts for men at bars, online, at home -- the place doesn't matter, neither does the man. Her victims then must live the aftermath of their assault in the form of doubt from the police, feelings of shame and alienation from their friends and family, and the haunting of a horrible woman who becomes the phantom on which society projects its greatest fears, fascinations, and misogyny. All the while the police are without leads and the media hound the victims, publicly dissecting the details of their attack.
What is extraordinary is how as years pass these men learn to heal, by banding together and finding a space to raise their voices. Told in alternating viewpoints signature to each voice and experience of the victim, these pages crackle with emotion, ranging from horror to breathtaking empathy.
As bold as it is timely, Any Man paints a searing portrait of survival and is a tribute to those who have lived through the nightmare of sexual assault.
--
Amber Tamblyn, author of the critically acclaimed poetry collection Dark Sparkler, has been nominated for Emmy, Golden Globe, and Independent Spirit awards. She has published two additional books of poetry, Free Stallion (2005), which won the Borders Book Choice Award for Breakout Writing, and Bang Ditto (2009), an IndieNext bestseller. Tamblyn reviews books of poetry for Bust Magazine, is poet in residence at Amy Poehlers Smart Girls and is a contributing writer for The New York Times. Her work has appeared in Glamour, Teen Vogue, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Iowa Review Poets & Writers, PANK, and elsewhere. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and daughter.
Matthew Zapruder is the author of four collections of poetry, most recently Come On All You Ghosts, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and Sun Bear, Copper Canyon 2014. Why Poetry, a book of prose, is forthcoming from Ecco/Harper Collins in 2017. He has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a William Carlos Williams Award, a May Sarton Award from the Academy of American Arts and Sciences, and a Lannan Foundation Residency Fellowship in Marfa, TX. An Associate Professor and Director of the MFA Program in Creative Writing at Saint Mary’s College of California, he is also Editor at Large at Wave Books. He lives in Oakland, CA.
Please note:
Q&A and signing to follow. More information to come soon.
This event is all ages. Accessibility is important to us! If you have special needs of any kind, please write events AT booksmith DOT com and we will do our best to accommodate you. If the cost of admission would be a financial hardship that might prevent you from attending, please let us know.
In conversation with MATTHEW ZAPRUDER
Thursday, July 5, 2018, 7:30pm
Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St., Berkeley
Tickets available now!
In her electric and provocative debut novel Any Man, Amber Tamblyn blends genres of poetry, prose, and elements of suspense to give shape to the shocking narratives of victims of sexual violence, mapping the destructive ways in which our society perpetuates rape culture.
A violent serial rapist is on the loose, who goes by the name Maude. She hunts for men at bars, online, at home -- the place doesn't matter, neither does the man. Her victims then must live the aftermath of their assault in the form of doubt from the police, feelings of shame and alienation from their friends and family, and the haunting of a horrible woman who becomes the phantom on which society projects its greatest fears, fascinations, and misogyny. All the while the police are without leads and the media hound the victims, publicly dissecting the details of their attack.
What is extraordinary is how as years pass these men learn to heal, by banding together and finding a space to raise their voices. Told in alternating viewpoints signature to each voice and experience of the victim, these pages crackle with emotion, ranging from horror to breathtaking empathy.
As bold as it is timely, Any Man paints a searing portrait of survival and is a tribute to those who have lived through the nightmare of sexual assault.
--
Amber Tamblyn, author of the critically acclaimed poetry collection Dark Sparkler, has been nominated for Emmy, Golden Globe, and Independent Spirit awards. She has published two additional books of poetry, Free Stallion (2005), which won the Borders Book Choice Award for Breakout Writing, and Bang Ditto (2009), an IndieNext bestseller. Tamblyn reviews books of poetry for Bust Magazine, is poet in residence at Amy Poehlers Smart Girls and is a contributing writer for The New York Times. Her work has appeared in Glamour, Teen Vogue, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Iowa Review Poets & Writers, PANK, and elsewhere. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and daughter.
Matthew Zapruder is the author of four collections of poetry, most recently Come On All You Ghosts, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and Sun Bear, Copper Canyon 2014. Why Poetry, a book of prose, is forthcoming from Ecco/Harper Collins in 2017. He has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a William Carlos Williams Award, a May Sarton Award from the Academy of American Arts and Sciences, and a Lannan Foundation Residency Fellowship in Marfa, TX. An Associate Professor and Director of the MFA Program in Creative Writing at Saint Mary’s College of California, he is also Editor at Large at Wave Books. He lives in Oakland, CA.
Please note:
Q&A and signing to follow. More information to come soon.
This event is all ages. Accessibility is important to us! If you have special needs of any kind, please write events AT booksmith DOT com and we will do our best to accommodate you. If the cost of admission would be a financial hardship that might prevent you from attending, please let us know.
DANIEL J. SIEGEL, M.D. presents AWARE: The Science and Practice of Presence
With an introduction by DACHER KELTNER
Monday, August 27, 2018, 7:30pm
Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St., Berkeley
Tickets available now!
Berkeley Arts & Letters and The Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley co-present an evening with Daniel J. Siegel, M.D., for his new book Aware: The Science and Practice of Presence--The Groundbreaking Meditation Practice.
Aware provides practical instruction for mastering the Wheel of Awareness, a life-changing tool for cultivating more focus, presence, and peace in one's day-to-day life.
An in-depth look at the science that underlies meditation's effectiveness, this book teaches readers how to harness the power of the principle "Where attention goes, neural firing flows, and neural connection grows." Siegel reveals how developing a Wheel of Awareness practice to focus attention, open awareness, and cultivate kind intention can literally help you grow a healthier brain and reduce fear, anxiety, and stress in your life.
Whether you have no experience with a reflective practice or are an experienced practitioner, Aware is a hands-on guide that will enable you to become more focused and present, as well as more energized and emotionally resilient in the face of stress and the everyday challenges life throws your way.
With an introduction by Dacher Keltner, Ph.D, founder and director of the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley.
--
Dr. Siegel is a clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine and the founding co-director of the Mindful Awareness Research Center at UCLA. He is also the Executive Director of the Mindsight Institute which focuses on the development of mindsight, which teaches insight, empathy, and integration in individuals, families and communities.
Dr. Siegel has published extensively for both the professional and lay audiences. His four New York Times bestsellers are: Mind: A Journey to the Heart of Being Human, Brainstorm: The Power and Purpose of the Teenage Brain, and two books with Tina Payne Bryson, Ph.D: The Whole-Brain Child and No-Drama Discipline. His other books include: The Developing Mind (2nd Ed.), Mindsight, The Mindful Brain, The Mindful Therapist, The Yes Brain (also with Tina Payne Bryson, PH.D), and his upcoming book Aware (2018). Dr. Siegel also serves as the Founding Editor for the Norton Professional Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology which contains over sixty textbooks.
Dacher Keltner, Ph.D, is a founder of the Greater Good Science Center and its director. After receiving his Ph.D. from Stanford University, Dacher has devoted his career to studying the nature of human goodness, conducting ground-breaking research on compassion, awe, laughter, and love. He is also a leading expert on social intelligence, the psychology of power, and the emotional bases of morality. He has written more than 100 scientific papers and two best-selling textbooks, Social Psychology and Understanding Emotions. More recently, he is the author of the best-selling book The Power Paradox: How We Gain and Lose Influence and Born to Be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life, and a co-editor of the Greater Good anthology, The Compassionate Instinct. Dacher is an outstanding speaker who has received several national research and teaching awards. Wired has rated the podcasts of his Human Emotion course as one of the five best academic podcasts in the country. He has twice presented his research to His Holiness the Dalai Lama as part of a continuing dialogue between the Dalai Lama and scientists, and his work is featured regularly in major media outlets, including The New York Times, CNN, and NPR. In 2008, the Utne Reader named him as one of 50 visionaries who are changing our world.
Please note:
Presentation to be followed by a Q&A. Important signing details to follow.
This event is all ages. Accessibility is important to us! If you have special needs of any kind, please write events AT booksmith DOT com and we will do our best to accommodate you. If the cost of admission would be a financial hardship that might prevent you from attending, please let us know.
With an introduction by DACHER KELTNER
Monday, August 27, 2018, 7:30pm
Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St., Berkeley
Tickets available now!
Berkeley Arts & Letters and The Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley co-present an evening with Daniel J. Siegel, M.D., for his new book Aware: The Science and Practice of Presence--The Groundbreaking Meditation Practice.
Aware provides practical instruction for mastering the Wheel of Awareness, a life-changing tool for cultivating more focus, presence, and peace in one's day-to-day life.
An in-depth look at the science that underlies meditation's effectiveness, this book teaches readers how to harness the power of the principle "Where attention goes, neural firing flows, and neural connection grows." Siegel reveals how developing a Wheel of Awareness practice to focus attention, open awareness, and cultivate kind intention can literally help you grow a healthier brain and reduce fear, anxiety, and stress in your life.
Whether you have no experience with a reflective practice or are an experienced practitioner, Aware is a hands-on guide that will enable you to become more focused and present, as well as more energized and emotionally resilient in the face of stress and the everyday challenges life throws your way.
With an introduction by Dacher Keltner, Ph.D, founder and director of the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley.
--
Dr. Siegel is a clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine and the founding co-director of the Mindful Awareness Research Center at UCLA. He is also the Executive Director of the Mindsight Institute which focuses on the development of mindsight, which teaches insight, empathy, and integration in individuals, families and communities.
Dr. Siegel has published extensively for both the professional and lay audiences. His four New York Times bestsellers are: Mind: A Journey to the Heart of Being Human, Brainstorm: The Power and Purpose of the Teenage Brain, and two books with Tina Payne Bryson, Ph.D: The Whole-Brain Child and No-Drama Discipline. His other books include: The Developing Mind (2nd Ed.), Mindsight, The Mindful Brain, The Mindful Therapist, The Yes Brain (also with Tina Payne Bryson, PH.D), and his upcoming book Aware (2018). Dr. Siegel also serves as the Founding Editor for the Norton Professional Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology which contains over sixty textbooks.
Dacher Keltner, Ph.D, is a founder of the Greater Good Science Center and its director. After receiving his Ph.D. from Stanford University, Dacher has devoted his career to studying the nature of human goodness, conducting ground-breaking research on compassion, awe, laughter, and love. He is also a leading expert on social intelligence, the psychology of power, and the emotional bases of morality. He has written more than 100 scientific papers and two best-selling textbooks, Social Psychology and Understanding Emotions. More recently, he is the author of the best-selling book The Power Paradox: How We Gain and Lose Influence and Born to Be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life, and a co-editor of the Greater Good anthology, The Compassionate Instinct. Dacher is an outstanding speaker who has received several national research and teaching awards. Wired has rated the podcasts of his Human Emotion course as one of the five best academic podcasts in the country. He has twice presented his research to His Holiness the Dalai Lama as part of a continuing dialogue between the Dalai Lama and scientists, and his work is featured regularly in major media outlets, including The New York Times, CNN, and NPR. In 2008, the Utne Reader named him as one of 50 visionaries who are changing our world.
Please note:
Presentation to be followed by a Q&A. Important signing details to follow.
This event is all ages. Accessibility is important to us! If you have special needs of any kind, please write events AT booksmith DOT com and we will do our best to accommodate you. If the cost of admission would be a financial hardship that might prevent you from attending, please let us know.
P. W. SINGER presents LIKEWAR: The Weaponization of Social Media
Tuesday, October 9, 2018, 7:30pm
Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St., Berkeley
Tickets available now!
Social media has been weaponized, as state hackers and rogue terrorists have seized upon Twitter and Facebook to create chaos and destruction. This urgent report is required reading, from defense experts P.W. Singer and Emerson T. Brooking.
LikeWar: The Weaponization of Social Media is an ambitious and thoroughly researched book by in-demand defense strategist P.W. Singer (Ghost Fleet; Wired for War) and Emerson Brooking that answers big questions like, why do things go viral online? What really happened in Russian operations vs US politics? How do online bots work? What is the future of online war and AI? And so much more. The book highlights how social media has changed war and politics, and, in turn, war and politics has changed social media. It uses a mix of the latest research and interviews to reveal whats behind everything from how Trump uses Twitter to the rise of ISIS and Taylor Swift, from Israel's web warrior units to Silicon Valley's new role in battle, and what all these trends mean for the future of not just war, but everything online.
--
P. W. Singer is a strategist at New America, an editor at Popular Science, and the author of several best-selling books, including Wired for War and Ghost Fleet. He has been named by the Smithsonian as one of the nation's 100 leading innovators, by Defense News as one of the 100 most influential people in defense issues, by Foreign Policy to their Top 100 Global Thinkers List, as an official "Mad Scientist" for the U.S. Army's Training and Doctrine Command, and by Onalytica social media data analysis as one of the ten most influential voices in the world on cybersecurity and 25th most influential in the field of robotics. Previously he worked in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Harvard University, and as the founding director of the Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence at Brookings, where he was the youngest person named senior fellow in its 100 year history.
Please note:
Q&A to follow. Important signing information to come soon.
This event is all ages. Accessibility is important to us! If you have special needs of any kind, please write events AT booksmith DOT com and we will do our best to accommodate you. If the cost of admission would be a financial hardship that might prevent you from attending, please let us know.
Tuesday, October 9, 2018, 7:30pm
Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St., Berkeley
Tickets available now!
Social media has been weaponized, as state hackers and rogue terrorists have seized upon Twitter and Facebook to create chaos and destruction. This urgent report is required reading, from defense experts P.W. Singer and Emerson T. Brooking.
LikeWar: The Weaponization of Social Media is an ambitious and thoroughly researched book by in-demand defense strategist P.W. Singer (Ghost Fleet; Wired for War) and Emerson Brooking that answers big questions like, why do things go viral online? What really happened in Russian operations vs US politics? How do online bots work? What is the future of online war and AI? And so much more. The book highlights how social media has changed war and politics, and, in turn, war and politics has changed social media. It uses a mix of the latest research and interviews to reveal whats behind everything from how Trump uses Twitter to the rise of ISIS and Taylor Swift, from Israel's web warrior units to Silicon Valley's new role in battle, and what all these trends mean for the future of not just war, but everything online.
--
P. W. Singer is a strategist at New America, an editor at Popular Science, and the author of several best-selling books, including Wired for War and Ghost Fleet. He has been named by the Smithsonian as one of the nation's 100 leading innovators, by Defense News as one of the 100 most influential people in defense issues, by Foreign Policy to their Top 100 Global Thinkers List, as an official "Mad Scientist" for the U.S. Army's Training and Doctrine Command, and by Onalytica social media data analysis as one of the ten most influential voices in the world on cybersecurity and 25th most influential in the field of robotics. Previously he worked in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Harvard University, and as the founding director of the Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence at Brookings, where he was the youngest person named senior fellow in its 100 year history.
Please note:
Q&A to follow. Important signing information to come soon.
This event is all ages. Accessibility is important to us! If you have special needs of any kind, please write events AT booksmith DOT com and we will do our best to accommodate you. If the cost of admission would be a financial hardship that might prevent you from attending, please let us know.
Enjoy our event with Rebecca Solnit and Jeff Chang, courtesy of C-SPAN:
[The Mother of All Questions]
Rebecca Solnit examines how women have been silenced and the changes occurring within the feminist movement today. She speaks with with author Jeff Chang.