Two-time Booker Prize winner Peter Carey reads from The Chemistry of Tears ($26.00), a story of secret grief assuaged, an automaton, a man and woman who can never meet, an affair, and the fate of the warming world brought to incandescent life in a haunting new novel from one of the most admired writers of our time. Carey’s books include the bestselling Oscar and Lucinda.

Peter Carey is the author of eleven previous novels and has twice received the Booker Prize. His other honors include the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and the Miles Franklin Literary Award, which he has won 5 times. Born in Australia, he has lived in New York City for twenty years.

Admission $115 per person/ $185 per couple

Call (415) 927-0960, ext. 1 to reserve

Join Cindy Pawlcyn, one of America's leading chef's, for what we know will be a very special event! Twice nominated as the James Beard Best Chef in California, Pawlcyn is rocking the food world with her new cookbook, Cindy's Supper Club.

It's no secret that legions of fans flock to Pawlcyn's restaurants for her globally influenced signature dishes. What is not so well known is that Cindy has turned her passions for cooking and travel into a popular supper club, where she creates an adventurous menu celebrating a different international cuisine each week. Cindy's Supper Club has become a destination event, presenting a world tasting tour on a plate. Pawlcyn's new book, drawn from the weekly menus of her supper clubs, is a collection of 125 complete recipes and menus from around the globe - as well as a delicious delight.

Pawlcyn helped make the Napa Valley a destination for food and wine in Northern California. Today, her trio of restaurants -  Mustard’s Grill, Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen, and Brassica - are as much loved among locals as they are popular with visitors. Besides owning three of region's popular restaurants, Pawlcyn is also the author of four award-winning cookbooks including Mustard's Grill Napa Valley Cookbook, Big Small Plates, and Cindy Pawlcyn's Appetizers. She received a James Beard award for Mustards Grill Napa Valley Cookbook and is the author of Fog City Diner Cookbook.

Don't miss this event! Tickets are $115 per person / or $185 per couple. Price includes meal, wine, coffee, tax, tip, & a signed copy of the book. 

Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Ford reads from Canada ($26.99), a deeply affecting new novel of boundaries traversed, of innocence lost and reconciled, and of the mysterious and consoling bonds of family. Told in spare, elegant prose both resonant and luminous, Canada is a masterwork of haunting, even spectacular vision from one of our great writers.

Richard Ford is the acclaimed author of the Bascombe novels, which include The Sportswriter and its sequels, Independence Day — the first novel to win the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award — and The Lay of the Land, as well as the short story collections Rock Springs and A Multitude of Sins, which contain many widely anthologized stories.

Anthony Swofford talks about Hotel, Hospitals, and Jails: A Memoir ($26.99). Following the success of Jarhead, Swofford assumed he had exorcised his military demons — but as every veteran knows, that isn't exactly how it works. In these searing, courageous pages, Swofford struggles to make sense of what his military service meant, and what his life should become.

Anthony Swofford served in a U.S. Marine Corps Surveillance and Target Acquisition/Scout-Sniper platoon during the Gulf War. After the war, he was educated at American River College; the University of California, Davis; and the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Harper's, Men's Journal and other publications; his memoir Jarhead was a major New York Times bestseller, and the basis for the movie of the same name.

Hotels, Hospitals, and Jails: A Memoir (Hardcover)

By Anthony Swofford

$26.99

ISBN-13: 9781455506736
Availability: Coming Soon - Available for Pre-Order Now
Published: Twelve, 6/2012

Other Editions of this Title

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Renowned author Francine Du Plessix Gray presents The Queen's Lover ($25.95), a work of historical fiction which tells the story of a love affair between Marie Antoinette and a Swedish aristocrat. Expertly researched and deeply imagined, this new novel offers a fresh view of the French Revolution and French royal family, as told through the love story that was at its center.

Francine du Plessix Gray has been a regular contributor to The New Yorker and is the author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction, including Simone Weil, At Home with the Marquis de Sade: A Life, and Soviet Women. She is most recently the author of the memoir Them: A Memoir of Parents.

Join us for lunch with Belva Davis as she discusses her memoir Never in My Wildest Dreams — the story of a journalist who helped change the face of television news, a history-maker, an award-winning reporter, and a pioneering feminist. Born to a 15-year old Louisiana laundress during the Great Depression and raised in the projects of Oakland, Davis overcame abuse, racism, and sexism to become the first black female news anchor on the West Coast. Davis reported on some of the most explosive stories of the past decades, including the rise and fall of the Black Panthers, the Jonestown massacre, the Moscone/Milk murders, and the onset of the AIDS epidemic. She recounts her interviews with world leaders, including Fidel Castro and three U.S. presidents.

Davis has traveled the world reporting on politics, terrorism, racial and gender issues, and the role of art and culture in increasing human understanding. She has anchored at three major network affiliates, and currently hosts a highly respected political affairs program on KQED-TV in San Francisco.

Book Passage hosts literary luncheons with celebrated authors at our Marin store. These events are catered by the outstanding Insalata’s Restaurant of San Anselmo.

Admission $110 per person

 Call (415) 927-0960, ext. 1 to reserve

Some may recognize Marcus Samuelsson as the winner of Top Chef: Master's Season 2 or as the James Beard Foundation award winning chef of New York City's Red Rooster Harlem. In his memoir, YES, CHEF, Samulesson chronicles his incredible journey from the age of 3 when he was orphaned along with his sister in Ethiopia after walking 75 miles from a remote village to a hospital to try and save his mother from succumbing to tuberculosis. Later, when he was adopted by a loving Swedish family, Samuelsson developed a lifelong passion for cooking alongside his Swedish grandmother, Helga. From this humble beginning to some of the most demanding restaurants in Europe, Samuelsson then arrived in NYC's Aquavit. While there, he earned a coveted three-star rating from the New York Times at the age of 24. President Clinton writes, "In his famed dishes, and now in this memoir, Marcus Samuelsson tells a story that reaches past racial and national divides to the foundations of family, hope and downright good food." 

Join us at the top rated Jardinière restaurant in SF, along with co-owner and award winning chef/restauranteur, Traci des Jardins. Don't wait to sign up - space is limited. Can't attend the event? Order a signed copy