Michael Chabon

Michael Chabon

For 20 years, proceeds from Celebration of Learning have supported key library initiatives such as Summer Reading Club, Homework Help Centers and Ready to Read. This tradition continues as we strive to meet the needs of our customers now and in the future. Please join us on November 2 to hear author and Pulitzer-Prize winner Michael Chabon. His first novel, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh (1988), became a New York Times bestseller. Chabon’s second novel, Wonder Boys (1995), was also a bestseller, and was made into a critically acclaimed film. His book The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay was selected by the American Library Association as one of the Notable Books of 2000 and won the Pulitzer Prize. In addition, Chabon has also written novels for young adults and his first children’s book, entitled The Astonishing Secret of Awesome Man, was published in September 2011. He has also written numerous articles and essays, a number of screenplays and teleplays. Chabon's new novel, Telegraph Avenue, was recently released. Michael Chabon has lectured widely on topics including the art and craft of writing, the tradition of Jewish fiction, and Vladimir Nabokov, to name but a very few. He has appeared before audiences all over the United States and in Russia, Finland, Lithuania, Italy, France, Great Britain, Germany and Canada. He has spoken to the creative teams at Pixar Animation Studios about fantasy and childhood, to the employees of Industrial Light and Magic about the art of storytelling, and to many different literary, Jewish, and corporate organizations about a wide variety of topics. Other highlights of the evening will be the presentation of the Julian Sinclair Smith Award for Lifelong Learning and a strolling dinner among the stacks. Seating begins at 6:50 p.m. for the 7:15 p.m. program. Individual tickets ($100) are available to purchase now. Please join us for this delightful evening! (astults)… (more)

Credit: Ulf Andersen Getty Images

Michael Chabon in conversation with Beth Morgan

Thursday, October 25, 7:00 p.m.

Telegraph Avenue

As the summer of 2004 draws to a close, Archy Stallings and Nat Jaffe are still hanging in there--longtime friends, bandmates, and co-regents of Brokeland Records, a kingdom of used vinyl located in the borderlands of Berkeley and Oakland. Their wives, Gwen Shanks and Aviva Roth-Jaffe, are the Berkeley Birth Partners, two semi-legendary midwives who have welcomed more than a thousand newly minted citizens into the dented utopia at whose heart--half tavern, half temple--stands Brokeland.

When ex-NFL quarterback Gibson Goode, the fifth-richest black man in America, announces plans to build his latest Dogpile megastore on a nearby stretch of Telegraph Avenue, Nat and Archy fear it means certain doom for their vulnerable little enterprise. Meanwhile, Aviva and Gwen also find themselves caught up in a battle for their professional existence, one that tests the limits of their friendship. Adding another layer of complication to the couples' already tangled lives is the surprise appearance of Titus Joyner, the teenage son Archy has never acknowledged and the love of fifteen-year-old Julius Jaffe's life.

Michael Chabon is the bestselling and Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, A Model World, Wonder Boys, Werewolves in Their Youth, The amazing adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Summerland (a novel for children, The Final Solution, The Yiddish policemen’s union, Maps and Legends, and Gentlemen of the Road.

Beth Morgan is a local resident, avid reader, and Kepler's volunteer, and Michael Chabon was the first author reading she ever attended, back in 1995.

Tickets are available now at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/275171 $35.00 ($37.22 w/service fee) - admits one person and includes one copy of Telegraph Avenue $10.00 ($11.34 w/service fee) - admits one person. Does not include a book

Location: Street: 1010 El Camino Real City: Menlo Park, Province: California Postal Code: 94025-4349 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

Telegraph Avenue Michael Chabon “A loving craftsman and author of superb, seemingly alchemically rendered sentences” (The Los Angeles Times Book Review), Michael Chabon emerged as a rising star with the publication of his debonair debut novel, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, and his follow-up book, Wonder Boys, which was made into a critically acclaimed film. His third novel, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay—an epic story of New York adventure and possibility during the golden age of comic books—won the Pulitzer Prize, among many other honors, and was hailed as his “magnum opus” (The New York Review of Books). Chabon’s new novel, Telegraph Avenue crosses wires of friendship, race, and clandestine history in Oakland, California. Cloud Atlas David Mitchell Called simply “a genius” by the New York Times Book Review and named one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People, David Mitchell was twice listed for the Man Booker Prize for his novels Number9Dream and Cloud Atlas. His other works include Black Swan Green, Ghostwritten, and the historical novel The Thousand Autumns of Jacom de Zoet –“a formidable marvel” (The New Yorker). His ambitious Cloud Atlas was acclaimed for its adept braiding of six narratives that each evoked a different fiction genre. Directed and adapted for the screen by Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run) and Andy and Lana Wachowski (The Matrix), the film version of Cloud Atlas premieres in fall 2012 with an all-star cast featuring Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, and Hugh Grant. Parkway Central Library 1901 Vine Street Philadelphia, PA 19103 (between 19th and 20th Streets on the Parkway) Tickets on sale August 24 at 10:00 a.m. This is a TICKETED event; $15 General Admission, $7 Students. For more information, please call 215-567-4341, or click here

Location: Street: Free Library of Philadelphia Additional: 1901 Vine Street City: Philadelphia, Province: Pennsylvania Postal Code: 19103-5207 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

Called "one of the most celebrated writers of his generation" by The Virginia Quarterly Review, Michael Chabon is at the height of his powers. An intimate epic, a NorCal "Middlemarch" set to the funky beat of classic vinyl soul-jazz and pulsing with a virtuosic, pyrotechnical style all its own, Telegraph Avenue (Harper, $27.99) is the great American novel we've been waiting for. Generous, imaginative, funny, moving, thrilling, humane, triumphant, it is Michael Chabon's most dazzling book yet.

FREE tickets are required for this event, available at Books & Books in Coral Gables, Bal Harbour Shops, and Miami Beach, while supplies last. People with tickets will be seated first. Entry will be allowed, space permitting, to those without tickets at 7:45pm. Presented in collaboration with The Centre for Literature and Theatre at Miami Dade College.

Location: Street: 265 Aragon Ave City: Coral Gables, Province: Florida Postal Code: 33134-5008 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

Monday, September 17, 7:30 PM Michael Chabon presents his novel Telegraph Avenue

In his first novel in five years, beloved Pulitzer Prize-winning and New York Times best-selling author Michael Chabon provides a kaleidoscopic vision of urban America in transition, as witnessed by two intimately intertwined families in Oakland, California. Telegraph Avenue encompasses race, family, sexuality, gentrification, politics, jazz, funk, comics, kung fu, and a talking parrot, all with dazzling style and deep compassion. Chabon will read from his novel and answer audience questions before signing books.

Please note: Customers who purchase Chabon's new novel Telegraph Avenue from Greenlight will be given priority in the signing line. Upon purchase (either online or in store), each customer will be assigned a pass with a group number indicating his/her place in the signing line. Passes will be assigned on a first-come, first-served basis. Books and passes may be picked up on or after the book's publication date, September 11. Customers without passes (did not buy their copy from Greenlight) and those with large quantities of books will be asked to wait at the end of the line.

Location: Street: 686 Fulton Street City: Brooklyn, Province: New York Postal Code: 11217 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

Michael Chabon promotes Telegraph Avenue.

Bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Michael Chabon will read from and sign his new novel Telegraph Avenue (Ecco), a big-hearted and exhilarating novel that explores the profoundly intertwined lives of two Oakland, California families, one black and one white. In Telegraph Avenue, Chabon lovingly creates a world grounded in pop culture—Kung Fu, ‘70s Blaxploitation films, vinyl LPs, jazz and soul music—and delivers a bravura epic of friendship, race, and secret histories. Free numbered tickets for a place in the booksigning line will be handed out at 6:30 pm. Seating for the presentation prior to the booksigning is limited, and available on a first-come, first-served basis to ticketed customers only. (jpmoore)… (more)

City Arts & Lectures presents Michael Chabon author of Telegraph Avenue in conversation with Adam Savage.

For more information visit:
Location">http://www.cityarts.net/

Location: Herbst Theatre Street: 401 Van Ness Avenue City: San Francisco, Province: California Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)