This January, local author Marian Palaia helps us kick off the new year! Marian's debut novel, The Given World, was shortlisted for the Saroyan International Prize for Fiction, longlisted for The PEN/Bingham First Novel Prize, and recognized by Kirkus as a 2015 Best Novel.
From a quiet family farm in Montana in the 60s to the grit and haze of San Francisco in the 70s to a gypsy-populated, post-war Saigon, The Given World spins around its unconventional and unforgettable heroine, Riley. When her big brother is declared MIA in Vietnam, young Riley packs up her shattered heart and leaves her family, her first love, and “a few small things” behind. By trial and error she builds a new life, working on cars, delivering newspapers, tending bar. She befriends, rescues, and is rescued by a similarly vagabond cast of characters whose “‘unraveled souls’ sting hardest and linger the longest” (The New York Times Book Review). Foolhardy, funny, and wise, Riley’s challenge as she grows into a woman is simple: survive long enough to go home again, or at least figure out where home is, and who might be among the living there.
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Bring a book about being lost. As long as you love it, bring it to Bookswap. You’ll talk about it in groups and hear about the books that other people brought. We’ll drink a bunch of free wine and beer and get to know our guest author. At the end, we’ll have a big, rowdy, white elephant swap, and you’ll leave with a new favorite (or ten).
>>> Tickets are $10.00 and MUST BE purchased in advance. They do sell out! You can purchase them HERE: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2718675 <<<
**** Admission includes an open bar, swag, and 20% off everything you buy that night. ****
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“Much of this deeply felt work reverberates with the tones of a modern Western — except that it's tough-talking hero is a woman..." - San Francisco Chronicle
"A haunting meditation on the aftermath of war and the search for inner peace." - San Jose Mercury News
"The Given World is astonishing in every regard: the voice, the range of characters, the charismatic, colloquial dialogue, the ability to summon, through telling detail, geographically diverse worlds that are far flung, but still cohere. Vietnam, countercultural San Francisco, the Vietnam War draft’s resonance on a Montana reservation, all give evocative shape and texture to an historical era. It’s edgy, often cutting, humorous, and impassioned." - Rob Nixon
"The Given World is about a lost generation coming of age too quickly… It shows us the effects of war from an unusual perspective – that of a devoted little sister who is looking for her MIA brother or, heartbreakingly, a way to live in the world without him. This is also a love story in many of its dimensions: the intimacy of friendship between two women, the temporary but crucial bonds of expats, a love between two gay men that is tested when one infects the other with HIV, a mother's love for her daughter, and a sister's love for her brother.” - Missoulian
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Marian Palaia’s novel, The Given World, was shortlisted for the Saroyan International Prize for Fiction, longlisted for The PEN/Bingham First Novel Prize, and recognized by Kirkus as a 2015 Best Novel. She lives in San Francisco, California and in Missoula, Montana with her Mongolian Barking Shepherd, Tupelo. She and Ted Kaczynski were neighbors in the early 1980s, when she was the littlest logger in Lincoln, Montana.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
~*Bookswap*~
Think cocktail party, with a bookish twist. - Litquake
An idea every Independent Bookstore should steal. - Conversational Reading
...embodies the spirit both of innovation and community... - The Examiner
More Info Here: http://www.booksmith.com/event/bookswap-marian-palaia
Tickets Here: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2718675
RSVP Here: https://www.facebook.com/events/246892029061471/
show less
From a quiet family farm in Montana in the 60s to the grit and haze of San Francisco in the 70s to a gypsy-populated, post-war Saigon, The Given World spins around its unconventional and unforgettable heroine, Riley. When her big brother is declared MIA in Vietnam, young Riley packs up her shattered heart and leaves her family, her first love, and “a few small things” behind. By trial and error she builds a new life, working on cars, delivering newspapers, tending bar. She befriends, rescues, and is rescued by a similarly vagabond cast of characters whose “‘unraveled souls’ sting hardest and linger the longest” (The New York Times Book Review). Foolhardy, funny, and wise, Riley’s challenge as she grows into a woman is simple: survive long enough to go home again, or at least figure out where home is, and who might be among the living there.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bring a book about being lost. As long as you love it, bring it to Bookswap. You’ll talk about it in groups and hear about the books that other people brought. We’ll drink a bunch of free wine and beer and get to know our guest author. At the end, we’ll have a big, rowdy, white elephant swap, and you’ll leave with a new favorite (or ten).
>>> Tickets are $10.00 and MUST BE purchased in advance. They do sell out! You can purchase them HERE: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2718675 <<<
**** Admission includes an open bar, swag, and 20% off everything you buy that night. ****
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Much of this deeply felt work reverberates with the tones of a modern Western — except that it's tough-talking hero is a woman..." - San Francisco Chronicle
"A haunting meditation on the aftermath of war and the search for inner peace." - San Jose Mercury News
"The Given World is astonishing in every regard: the voice, the range of characters, the charismatic, colloquial dialogue, the ability to summon, through telling detail, geographically diverse worlds that are far flung, but still cohere. Vietnam, countercultural San Francisco, the Vietnam War draft’s resonance on a Montana reservation, all give evocative shape and texture to an historical era. It’s edgy, often cutting, humorous, and impassioned." - Rob Nixon
"The Given World is about a lost generation coming of age too quickly… It shows us the effects of war from an unusual perspective – that of a devoted little sister who is looking for her MIA brother or, heartbreakingly, a way to live in the world without him. This is also a love story in many of its dimensions: the intimacy of friendship between two women, the temporary but crucial bonds of expats, a love between two gay men that is tested when one infects the other with HIV, a mother's love for her daughter, and a sister's love for her brother.” - Missoulian
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marian Palaia’s novel, The Given World, was shortlisted for the Saroyan International Prize for Fiction, longlisted for The PEN/Bingham First Novel Prize, and recognized by Kirkus as a 2015 Best Novel. She lives in San Francisco, California and in Missoula, Montana with her Mongolian Barking Shepherd, Tupelo. She and Ted Kaczynski were neighbors in the early 1980s, when she was the littlest logger in Lincoln, Montana.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
~*Bookswap*~
Think cocktail party, with a bookish twist. - Litquake
An idea every Independent Bookstore should steal. - Conversational Reading
...embodies the spirit both of innovation and community... - The Examiner
More Info Here: http://www.booksmith.com/event/bookswap-marian-palaia
Tickets Here: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2718675
RSVP Here: https://www.facebook.com/events/246892029061471/
This January, local author Marian Palaia helps us kick off the new year! Marian's debut novel, The Given World, was shortlisted for the Saroyan International Prize for Fiction, longlisted for The PEN/Bingham First Novel Prize, and recognized by Kirkus as a 2015 Best Novel.
From a quiet family farm in Montana in the 60s to the grit and haze of San Francisco in the 70s to a gypsy-populated, post-war Saigon, The Given World spins around its unconventional and unforgettable heroine, Riley. When her big brother is declared MIA in Vietnam, young Riley packs up her shattered heart and leaves her family, her first love, and “a few small things” behind. By trial and error she builds a new life, working on cars, delivering newspapers, tending bar. She befriends, rescues, and is rescued by a similarly vagabond cast of characters whose “‘unraveled souls’ sting hardest and linger the longest” (The New York Times Book Review). Foolhardy, funny, and wise, Riley’s challenge as she grows into a woman is simple: survive long enough to go home again, or at least figure out where home is, and who might be among the living there.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bring a book about being lost. As long as you love it, bring it to Bookswap. You’ll talk about it in groups and hear about the books that other people brought. We’ll drink a bunch of free wine and beer and get to know our guest author. At the end, we’ll have a big, rowdy, white elephant swap, and you’ll leave with a new favorite (or ten).
>>> Tickets are $10.00 and MUST BE purchased in advance. They do sell out! You can purchase them HERE: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2718675 <<<
**** Admission includes an open bar, swag, and 20% off everything you buy that night. ****
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Much of this deeply felt work reverberates with the tones of a modern Western — except that it's tough-talking hero is a woman..." - San Francisco Chronicle
"A haunting meditation on the aftermath of war and the search for inner peace." - San Jose Mercury News
"The Given World is astonishing in every regard: the voice, the range of characters, the charismatic, colloquial dialogue, the ability to summon, through telling detail, geographically diverse worlds that are far flung, but still cohere. Vietnam, countercultural San Francisco, the Vietnam War draft’s resonance on a Montana reservation, all give evocative shape and texture to an historical era. It’s edgy, often cutting, humorous, and impassioned." - Rob Nixon
"The Given World is about a lost generation coming of age too quickly… It shows us the effects of war from an unusual perspective – that of a devoted little sister who is looking for her MIA brother or, heartbreakingly, a way to live in the world without him. This is also a love story in many of its dimensions: the intimacy of friendship between two women, the temporary but crucial bonds of expats, a love between two gay men that is tested when one infects the other with HIV, a mother's love for her daughter, and a sister's love for her brother.” - Missoulian
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marian Palaia’s novel, The Given World, was shortlisted for the Saroyan International Prize for Fiction, longlisted for The PEN/Bingham First Novel Prize, and recognized by Kirkus as a 2015 Best Novel. She lives in San Francisco, California and in Missoula, Montana with her Mongolian Barking Shepherd, Tupelo. She and Ted Kaczynski were neighbors in the early 1980s, when she was the littlest logger in Lincoln, Montana.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
~*Bookswap*~
Think cocktail party, with a bookish twist. - Litquake
An idea every Independent Bookstore should steal. - Conversational Reading
...embodies the spirit both of innovation and community... - The Examiner
More Info Here: http://www.booksmith.com/event/bookswap-marian-palaia
Tickets Here: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2718675
RSVP Here: https://www.facebook.com/events/246892029061471/
read more
From a quiet family farm in Montana in the 60s to the grit and haze of San Francisco in the 70s to a gypsy-populated, post-war Saigon, The Given World spins around its unconventional and unforgettable heroine, Riley. When her big brother is declared MIA in Vietnam, young Riley packs up her shattered heart and leaves her family, her first love, and “a few small things” behind. By trial and error she builds a new life, working on cars, delivering newspapers, tending bar. She befriends, rescues, and is rescued by a similarly vagabond cast of characters whose “‘unraveled souls’ sting hardest and linger the longest” (The New York Times Book Review). Foolhardy, funny, and wise, Riley’s challenge as she grows into a woman is simple: survive long enough to go home again, or at least figure out where home is, and who might be among the living there.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bring a book about being lost. As long as you love it, bring it to Bookswap. You’ll talk about it in groups and hear about the books that other people brought. We’ll drink a bunch of free wine and beer and get to know our guest author. At the end, we’ll have a big, rowdy, white elephant swap, and you’ll leave with a new favorite (or ten).
>>> Tickets are $10.00 and MUST BE purchased in advance. They do sell out! You can purchase them HERE: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2718675 <<<
**** Admission includes an open bar, swag, and 20% off everything you buy that night. ****
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Much of this deeply felt work reverberates with the tones of a modern Western — except that it's tough-talking hero is a woman..." - San Francisco Chronicle
"A haunting meditation on the aftermath of war and the search for inner peace." - San Jose Mercury News
"The Given World is astonishing in every regard: the voice, the range of characters, the charismatic, colloquial dialogue, the ability to summon, through telling detail, geographically diverse worlds that are far flung, but still cohere. Vietnam, countercultural San Francisco, the Vietnam War draft’s resonance on a Montana reservation, all give evocative shape and texture to an historical era. It’s edgy, often cutting, humorous, and impassioned." - Rob Nixon
"The Given World is about a lost generation coming of age too quickly… It shows us the effects of war from an unusual perspective – that of a devoted little sister who is looking for her MIA brother or, heartbreakingly, a way to live in the world without him. This is also a love story in many of its dimensions: the intimacy of friendship between two women, the temporary but crucial bonds of expats, a love between two gay men that is tested when one infects the other with HIV, a mother's love for her daughter, and a sister's love for her brother.” - Missoulian
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marian Palaia’s novel, The Given World, was shortlisted for the Saroyan International Prize for Fiction, longlisted for The PEN/Bingham First Novel Prize, and recognized by Kirkus as a 2015 Best Novel. She lives in San Francisco, California and in Missoula, Montana with her Mongolian Barking Shepherd, Tupelo. She and Ted Kaczynski were neighbors in the early 1980s, when she was the littlest logger in Lincoln, Montana.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
~*Bookswap*~
Think cocktail party, with a bookish twist. - Litquake
An idea every Independent Bookstore should steal. - Conversational Reading
...embodies the spirit both of innovation and community... - The Examiner
More Info Here: http://www.booksmith.com/event/bookswap-marian-palaia
Tickets Here: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2718675
RSVP Here: https://www.facebook.com/events/246892029061471/
show less
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1644 Haight Street, San Francisco, CA 94117
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