The Week Ahead @ Book Passage

Among the Bay Area’s many bookstores, Book Passage in CorteMadera has one of the most active schedules going of author events, readings, classesand other literary happenings. In fact, it’s not uncommon for more than one ortwo author talks to take place just about every day. And what's more, many ofthese events have a local connection. Looking to the week ahead, here are threeevents readers won’t want to miss.
Pam Houston talks about Contents May Have Shifted
-- Monday, February 6 at 7:00 pm
Pam Houston is the author of two collections of linked short stories, CowboysAre My Weakness, a bestseller which was the winner of the 1993 WesternStates Book Award and has been translated into nine languages, and Waltzingthe Cat which won the Willa Award for Contemporary Fiction. She has alsoauthored a book of essays and a novel and is the Director of Creative Writingat U.C. Davis, as well as the Director of the Tomales Bay Workshops.
Her new novel, Contents May Have Shifted(Norton), tells the story of Pam, who is stuck in a dead-end relationship; oneday, this fearless narrator leaves her metaphorical baggage behind and finds freedomin the air. Plane ticket in hand, she flies around the world and finds new reasonsto love life in dozens of far-flung places.
Adam Johnson presents The Orphan Master’s Son
-- Wednesday, February 8 at 7:00 pm
San Franciscoauthor Adam Johnson has been receiving a good deal of attention lately for hisnew novel, The Orphan Master’s Son(Random House). His book has been favorably reviewed in the New York Times and Los Angeles Times and elsewhere, and last week he was on the PBSNewsHour talking about what is fast becoming one of the big books of theseason.

The Orphan Master’s Son follows a young man’s journey through the icywaters, dark tunnels, and eerie spy chambers of the world’s most mysteriousdictatorship, North Korea.Part dystopian thriller, part story of innocence lost, part story of romanticlove found, The Orphan Master’s Son is also a riveting portrait of aworld heretofore hidden from view: a North Korea rife with hunger, corruption,and casual cruelty but also camaraderie, stolen moments of beauty, and lastlylove.
Lysley Tenorio reads from Monstress
-- Thursday, February 9 at 7:00 pm
Monstress (Ecco), by Lysley Tenorio, introduces a bold new writer whoexplores the clash and meld of disparate cultures. In the National MagazineAward-nominated title story, a has-been movie director and his reluctantleading lady travel from Manila to Hollywood for one lastchance at stardom, unaware of what they truly stand to lose. In "FelixStarro," a famous Filipino faith healer and his grandson conduct anillicit business in San Francisco,though each has his own plans for their earnings. And in “Help,” after theBeatles reject an invitation from Imelda Marcos for a Royal CommandPerformance, an aging bachelor attempts to defend her honor by recruiting histhree nephews to attack the group at the Manila International Airport. (The last storyis based on actual incidents.)
Born in the Philippines,Tenorio is a graduate of UC Berkeley and a former Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. He currently lives in San Francisco, and is an associate professor at SaintMary’s College of California.
MORE INFO: Unlessotherwise noted, all events take place at Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista Blvd., in Corte Madera.Call (415) 927-0960 or visit www.bookpassage.comfor details.