Written on the Dock of the Bay: August 20, 2011

Image from literarydeathmatch.com

BAY AREA BOOK WORLD BREAKING NEWS

To honor the 40th anniversary of Chez Panisse, Moe's Bookstore in Berkeley is offering 10% discounts throughout August ... if you eat at Chez Panisse. So if you eat there everyday for ten days, that's a 100% discount! Please note: That’s not really true. But you can get a 10% discount on 10 books.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 20

Death match, of sorts // Get out your mouths and fingers because it’s time for some whistling and some snapping. And some metaphorical punches to the throat. Yes, it's time for this year's Literary Death Match. This time around, the fighters include slam superstar Chinaka Hodge, Jonathon Keats, who attempted to copyright his own thoughts, and cutting edge fictionista Susan Steinberg. // DETAILS: Saturday, August 20, 6pm. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. 701 Mission Street, San Francisco

SUNDAY, AUGUST 21

Author event // Lauren Beukes will be making her rounds at Borderland Books this Sunday to discuss her newest scifi-book, Zoo City. In Zoo City, Zinzi December, a young woman in Johannesburg, South Africa, is writing scam emails to pay off a large debt. Someone has to do it. But then she gets a new job when someone hires her to find a missing recording artist. It turns out she has a gift for finding missing people (always check the refrigerator). // DETAILS: Sunday, August 21, 7pm. Borderland Books. 866 Valencia Street, San Francisco

MONDAY, AUGUST 22

Book club // The creatively named Book Group #3 will be storming Diesel Books to discuss Rebecca Skloot's The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. It’s a nonfiction about Henrietta Lacks, whose cells were taken from her without her permission and which are still used for scientific research under the name HeLa cell. If you want to live forever, that’ll do it (in a weird, unmagical way). // Monday, August 22, 6:30pm. Diesel Bookstore. 5433 College Ave, Oakland

TUESDAY, AUGUST 23

Book club // If you can manage to produce a Spanish conversation on a whim, or if you actually know Spanish, come down yonder to the back room of Modern Times Bookstore for this month's Spanish Book Group. Participants receive a 10% discount on their book purchases. August's book is La Sirvienta y el Luchador de Horacio Castellanos, and September's book is El Ruido de las Cosas al Caer de Juan Gabriel Vasquez. Here, practice this phrase: Ese libro era un libro. The book was a book, indeed. // DETAILS: Tuesday, August 23, 7pm. Fourth Tuesdays of every month. Modern Times Bookstore. 2919 24th Street, San Francisco

THURSDAY, AUGUST 25

Author event // One second the zine is drinking from milk bottles, and the next its a full grown adult, working a day job at The Booksmith as … a book. This was the case for the zine-turned-book Rad Dad, which depicted the life of an anarchist who challenged gender roles and patriarchy when he became a father. The author will be at the Booksmith to discuss his initiation into fatherhood and into the book world. // DETAILS: Thursday, August 25, 7pm. The Booksmith. 1644 Haight Street, San Francisco