sarah's comments (member since Aug 12, 2007)

sarah's comments from the Black Oak Books group.

All events are at our Berkeley location. Visit [http://events.blackoakbooks.com] for more info.

Monday September 10 7 pm
In a thrilling and ambitious take on this innovative field of study, Big History begins when the universe is no more than a single point of unimaginable density and ends with a planet inhabited by 6.1 billion people. Local historian Cynthia Stokes Brown creates a stunning synthesis of historical knowledge and cutting-edge science that puts mankind in the context of its ecological impact on the planet.

Tuesday September 11 7 pm
Examining U.S. foreign policy’s influence on cover-ups of past domestic criminal acts, perhaps including 9/11, Berkeley scholar Peter Dale Scott probes how America’s expansion into the world has catered to agendas of private wealth at the expense of the public. The Road to 9 11 shows how other societies have recovered after a similar cycle of imperial overreach and internal decay and how a reinvigorated American public could restore a more open society.

Monday September 17 7 pm
Author, activist, and columnist Norman Solomon traces five decades of disturbing trends in American public life: warfare abroad and acquiescence at home. Made Love Got War is a kaleidoscope of personal adventures and political insights that backdrop his critique of our country’s increasingly militaristic attitudes and of the media’s failure to question them.

Tuesday September 18 7 pm
A gritty collection of stories set in the sunburnt edges of Nevada and Arizona, Desert Gothic introduces a darkly inventive new voice. With prose as sneaky as the landscape it depicts, Don Waters lends empathy and an edgy wit to these harsh and beautiful places, with an uncompromising eye toward the grim yet fascinating journeys of characters who have decided they have had enough of second chances.

Wednesday September 19 7 pm
What happens when public image overtakes the living of a life? In her fourth novel, local author Lucy Jane Bledsoe sinks her teeth into nostalgia, obsession and what can inspire a life or derail it. With its sophisticated humor and a cast of strong, unusual women, Biting the Apple is a deft, engrossing take on the search for authenticity.

Monday September 24 7 pm
Six new West Coast poets remind us that verse is alive and well in Yuba Flows. Kirsten Casey, Gary Cooke, Cheryl Dumesnil, Judy Halebsky, Iven Lourie and Scott Young share voices that are distinct and fresh, true to themselves and to the vitality of the American language in their varied and engaging debut.

Wednesday September 26 7 pm
60 on Up is everything most books about aging are not. With refreshing candor and characteristic wit, best-selling author Lillian Rubin explores the issues of our graying nation, the triumph of our new longevity, as well as the pain, both emotional and physical, that coexists alongside such advances — offering a much-needed road map for the uncharted territory that lies ahead.

Rupert Thomson reads from Death of a Murderer

Monday, August 13 @ 7 p.m.

Rupert Thomson—“a true master,” according to the San Francisco Chronicle—now gives us his most powerful work yet: the story of a woman who, even after her death, inflames an entire nation, and of the man who comes under her spell.

Having spent decades in prison for crimes gruesomely familiar to everyone in England, this murderer has finally died of natural causes but is no less notorious in death than she was in life. Billy Tyler, a career policeman, has been assigned the task of guarding her body—to make sure, he’s told, that nothing happens. But alone on a graveyard shift his wife begged him not to accept, Billy has occasion to contemplate the various turns his life has taken, his complicated thoughts about violence in himself and society, the unease that distances him from marital disappointment and a damaged daughter, and, finally, why it is that this reviled murderer, in the eerie silence of the hospital morgue, seems to speak to him directly and know him more fully than anyone else. In this dark night of the soul, his own problems and anxieties gradually acquire a new and unexpected significance, giving rise to questions that should haunt us all: Whom do we love, and why? How do we protect our children? And what separates us from those we call monsters?

A gripping revelation of crime, of punishment—and of what we desperately seek to hide from ourselves.

From Publishers Weekly:

Starred Review "Thomson (The Insult) takes the death of real-life British serial sex murderer Myra Hindley, who died of natural causes in prison years after her crimes, as the starting point for his riveting eighth novel. Billy Tyler, an underachieving, unambitious policeman, gets the night shift guarding the killer's body, which lies in a hospital morgue before cremation. During Billy's 12-hour vigil, he reflects on his troubles with his wife, Sue; their Down syndrome child, Emma; lost love, friendship and death. In several perfectly drawn scenes, the ghost of ?Britain's most hated woman? (Hindley is never named) appears, drawing Billy into discussions that leave him troubled and confused about the nature of evil and the possibility that it exists within us all. The writing is quietly brilliant... Readers will agree; this fine novel is one of those unforgettable stories."


Simon Van Booy reads from The Secret Lives of People in Love

Friday, August 17 @ 7 p.m.

The Secret Lives of People in Love is an evocative debut story collection set in present day New York City, Paris, Rome and Greece. Simon Van Booy explores love's labor and love's loss with masterful simplicity and in touching detail. His prose is spare, economical and evanescent. His characters are often unbearably lonely, vulnerable and private. Their realities are so filled with memories that they seem transcendental and independent of time. Simon Van Booy's voice is reverent, haunting and profoundly humane.

From Kirkus:

"Lovely and genuinely touching....Van Booy's clean, simple, delicate prose suits the material's sadness....for all their sombreness, these stories exude an abiding sweetness.... These characters cling to optimism, even to love, despite their frailties and straitened circumstances....This talented author bears watching."

Stay tuned for lots more events coming in September, and visit [http://www.blackoakbooks.com]