New York, NY
Saturday, September 10, 2011, 6:00 PM
Lit Crawl, SOHO Press, with Paula Bomer, Julian Garey, and Henry Chang
Scratcher (ages 21+)
209 E. 5th St.
New York, NY 10003
Luminarium – Editor’s Choice
Luminarium was selected as an Editor’s Choice by BookBrowse.com.
Los Angeles
My Hollywood marquis, right down the block from Pauly Shore’s.
Thank you, Ted, Emilia, and the others at Book Soup for selling my book and running the event. And those smart, cool readers who continue to come out, including Kristen, professional fanthropologist, whose career path was inspired by The Savage Girl, and now inspires me in turn. And good luck to Nicole, Conor, and the others at the shiny new Mysterious Galaxy in Redondo Beach.
Luminarium review
“The fantasy of ferreting out truth in the whorls of information available to us is explored in Alex Shakar’s grandly ambitious second novel, Luminarium. Weighing in at more than 400 pages, the story is centered on twin brothers Fred and George Brounian (the latter cancer-ridden and in a coma) and on restless searches for meaning in several realms: some physical and mapped, others more abstract. It’s a brilliant book dogged in its pursuit of disassembling human experience in hopes of finding the essence, or at least an astoundingly prismatic view.”
–The Los Angeles Times
San Francisco / Corte Madera
One of the most photogenic cities in the world–pastel homes, trolleys and hills, fog and the Golden Gate–and the only I picture I thought to take was this:
Didn’t even get the magnificent redwoods surrounding, on this hike through the Muir Woods.
Two great readings. Booksmith on Haight, adeptly run by bookseller and flash-fiction writer Whitney Ochoa. A deep conversation afterward about everything from Jung to DARPA, thanks to some well- and widely-read regulars. And Book Passage in Corte Madera. Thanks to everyone there who came out for the event, including Jeri from NJ, whose love of literature inspired me to contemplate the unthinkable–actually writing another book. And thank you Karen West; and host Johanna Rapp for the gracious introduction, the thoughtful gift (I will put them to use!), and for prepping for signature (and re-prepping to the black title page) about a hundred books. Also stopped by some other terrific indie bookstores while there–M is for Mystery in San Mateo, Books Inc. on Chestnut, and Mrs. Dalloway’s in Berkeley. Thanks much, guys, for your enthusiasm, and for (in Mrs. D’s case) the high Berkeley praise of “mindf**k” and “refreshingly weird.”
Austin, TX
Thursday, September 8, 2011 @ 7:00pm
BookPeople
603 North Lamar Boulevard
Austin, TX 78703
(512) 472-5050
Portland, OR
Thursday, September 1, 2011, 7:30 PM
Powells Books on Hawthorne
3723 SE Hawthorne Boulevard
Poertland, OR 97214
(503) 228-4651
New York, 9/11/11
75 degrees. Cloudy. Walked around the perimeter of the barricades. The new tower: a shock to see it finally going up.
Along the esplanade by the Hudson, the steel from the old ones, forged intothe U.S.S. New York, a San Antonio class amphibious transport dock ship, inching south. Firefighting boats and police boats skitting by.
And a man in a yacht, watching the ceremony on TV:
Took me a while to find the usual suspects (been wondering where they’d gotten to) on the Broadway side: The stooped old man with big glasses and a sign with a picture of Bin Laden, black bullet-sized hole in one eye and the words Wanted, Dead and NOT Alive. Thank You Obama. The man in the white cowled robe with thin rainbow stripes and the requisite End is Near Repent sign. The Bible-handout squadrons. The conspiracy crowd (three times the size as five years ago), same banners, T-shirts, outraged faces.
The most peaceful among the crowd: the photographers. Next: the police, everything well in hand. On speakers and a video screen: the bereaved, the names, so many names. All morning, and not even halfway done.
Luminarium – Editor’s Choice
Luminarium was picked as an Editor’s Choice by the New York Times Book Review.
Scratcher, New York
Wish I had a picture for this one–maybe one will surface. Great readings by fellow SOHOans Paula Bomer, Henry Chang, and Juliann Garey. And a boisterous, beery crowd.
BookPeople, Austin, TX
I didn’t notice the giant brain floating over the audience at the time, but it couldn’t be more apropos. Up front there center right are Marla Akin and Jim Magnuson, who lavish their brainpower and even more importantly their love on the Michener Center for Writers year after year. Delegates from the present and future of fiction and poetry surround them, with the occasional game designer and horse whisperer thrown in. Thank you, Liz, Julie, and Jen (hovering angelically just out of the frame) for making sure things ran just right.
So much began for me here in Austin. That, those above, and the fact that I spotted an actual, archetypal white 70s Cadillac convertible with mounted longhorns downtown, made for a memorable trip.
Seattle, WA
Wednesday, August 31, 2011, 7:00 PM
Elliot Bay Book Company
1521 Tenth Ave
Seattle, WA 98122
(206) 624-6600
Powell’s on Hawthorne, Portland
So we seemed to lose the propellers on the way to Portland, but made it anyway. (My friend Rob at Microsoft explained what’s actually happening here: “This might actually be an artifact of the order in which the camera was reading frame data from the CCD — sweeping across laterally while the pixels themselves were strobing from the propeller’s shadow.”)
Thank you James and Diane for setting up a great event at Powell’s on Hawthorne. Another engaged, smart, beautiful audience. Including Lisa and Rachel here–
These are homemade The Savage Girl T-shirts that they’re wearing! Replete with lines and “sloganitions” from the novel on both front and back. I’m so touched by this, words fail me. What an honor to have such cool and creative readers.
Elliot Bay, Seattle
What an impressive library. So nice to see books taken so seriously:
Well, except for…
…due to budget cuts, that sign says.
Just as well. Did me good to get away from books for a while anyway:
All these sightseeing pictures because I forgot to get a picture of the Elliot Bay audience–probably for the best, might have weirded them out. But this was a terrific audience, engaged and really thoughtful questions. Thank you, Selena, for letting me know how you’ve been waiting for a new one from me–sorry it took so long! And thank you, Laurie, for doing such a great job managing the event.
Chicago, IL
Sunday, August 28, 2011, 8:00 PM (doors open at 7)
The Nervous Breakdown reading series, hosted by Sunday Salon Chicago
Katerina’s
1920 W. Irving Park Rd.
Chicago, IL 60613
(773) 348-7592