Bird & Beckett Books and Records
New & Used Books
and Used Jazz Vinyl
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Click above or on the "Shop" Button in the top navigation bar to visit our just-launched online store, with featured books and merchandise that we will update weekly!
Some New Arrivals
Internationally, there are few grander stages than the World Cup pitch and this year's tournament is now upon us after four long years, so catch up on all the hubub with Africa United: Soccer, Passion, Politics, and the First World Cup in Africa, by Steve Bloomfield (Harper Perennial, 2010, paperback, $14.99). And if soccer's not your bag, basketball's not bad, especially this year with the Lakers and Celts tipping off as I write, so maybe you'd like to read When the Game Was Ours, co-authored by those teams' greatest talents: Earvin Magic Johnson and Larry Bird (with perhaps a bit of punctuational help from Jackie MacMullan) (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009, hardcover, $26).
What's a bookish boy like me going on so long about sports for, you ask? What about the words? Well, you're right of course, The Typewriter Is Holy: The Complete, Uncensored History of the Beat Generation, by Bill Morgan (Free Press, 2010, hardcover, $28) is just out and being very well received. Check it out, then go see the much anticipated narrative film "Howl" -- about Ginsberg's watershed work -- by neighborhood filmmaker Jeffrey Friedman and his partner, Rob Epstein at the LGBT Film Festival -- fresh from its opening night success at Sundance.
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As for good looking new novels, there's no shortage of those. Let's list a few for you...: Island Beneath the Sea, by the incredible Isabel Allende (Harper, 2010, hardcover, $26.99); The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, third and final installment of Stieg Larsson's sensational trilogy (Knopf, 2010, hardcover, $27.95); and Anthill, by E. O. Wilson (Norton, 2010, hardcover, $25.95), the first novel by a man most known as one of the world's preeminent naturalists.
New out in paperback are Between the Assassinations, by Aravind Adiga (Free Press, 2010, $15) following up Man Booker Prize-winning The White Tiger; The Thing Around Your Neck, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Anchor Books, 2010, $15), whose first two books Half of a Yellow Sun and Purple Hibiscus earned her a MacArthur Fellowship; Sailor & Lula: The Complete Novels, by Barry Gifford (Seven Stories, 2010, $19.95) which gathers all seven installments in the saga that started with Wild at Heart and Perdita Durango.
Barry Gifford also has a short piece in our very own publication - the first of what's to be an annual effort - gathering poems, prose, other words and works of art: AMERARCANA: A Bird & Beckett Review, edited by Nicholas James Whittington (BBCLP, 2010, paperback, $15).
Who know's what else might pique your interest while you're here. There's so much to read, and you've got more time than you may think, so come on down.
(Click here for our
monthly calendar)
Coming Up This Week
at Bird & Beckett:
friday, July 30, 5:30 to 8:00 pm
jazz in the bookshop
Earl Davis' Magic Thinktank
<< Every once in awhile (when there are five Fridays in a month), we have the luxury of bringing in a special guest for our regular series!>> Trumpeter Earl Davis , who eschews the label "jazz" as have many of our finest practitioners of what is widely considered America's classical music, will lead a quartet that we feel sure will open your ears and get your mental gears turning! Personnel tba
sunday, August 1, 1:00 to 4:00 pm
special event!
Alfonso Texeidor hosts 3 hours of
the finest Mission District poets he can corral
A new anthology is in the works, and in celebratory anticipation, Alfonso will present a rich afternoon of voices unique to that vital crossroads in our own fair city, live on the Bird & Beckett stage...
sunday, August 1, 4:30 to 6:30 pm
which way west?
two sets of jazz with The Barbara Hunter Quartet
featuring Barbara Hunter on sax, flute and vocals; Bliss Rodriguez on piano; Ravi Abcarian on bass; and Achyutan on drums. Click here for a rundown on the musicians.
monday, August 2, 7:00 to 9:00 pm
POETS!
devorah major, Kim Shuck
and Howard Isaac Williams
followed by an open mic
<< twice a month, featured poets plus an open mic! This Monday, devorah major, our recent San Francisco poet laureate (2002-2006), joins Kim Schuck and Howard Isaac Williams for a full range of engaged, impassioned and incisive readings. Bring your own work for the open mic segment. > >