News from City Lights Booksellers & Publishers

City Lights Books
261 Columbus Avenue
San Francisco | California | 94133

August 2008


News about City Lights books and authors
City Lights recommended reads
Last month's bestsellers
Events at the bookstore
City Lights authors on the road

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News about City Lights Books and Authors

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Voices of the Chicago Eight:
A Generation on Trial

Forty years ago, in August 1968, thousands of protesters gathered to demonstrate at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, where they were met with overwhelming police violence. In the aftermath, the U.S. government indicted eight of the most outspoken organizers and brought them to trial. The theatrical farce that became known as the Chicago Eight Conspiracy Trial was followed by millions of Americans via the mainstream media, and gave voice to the tumultuous cultural, social and racial politics of the time. 

As young activists again prepare for action and protest at the upcoming 2008 Democratic National Convention, the parallels between then and now are striking. Voices of the Chicago Eight captures the spirit of '68 and provides a comprehensive introduction to the historic events of that time, presenting the dramatic and uncensored voices of Black Panther co-founder Bobby Seale, Yippie activists Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, poet Allen Ginsberg, and many more in actual courtroom transcripts, accompanied by historical reflections by Tom Hayden, one of the original Chicago Eight defendants. Get a copy now to brush up on your cultural history before this month's Democratic National Convention, August 25-28 in Denver!

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Recommended Reads from the City Lights staff

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Slumberland
A Novel
by Paul Beatty

DJ Darky’s quest for “The Schwa”, an illusive avant-garde jazz musician to co-sign his perfect beat, leads him to become sommelier for a jukebox in a West Berlin Bar (Slumberland), a miscegenation hot-spot for Germans and Black expats just before the fall of the wall. As the wall falls and secret agents and rag-men emerge, Beatty remains pitch-perfect. There are passages that will make you blurt out, like some people laugh at a jazz concert when an impresario pulls off an amazing aural stunt. This is a fun book, a meditation on music, love, and acceptance and full of more truth than most Americans can bear. —Recommended by Tân

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City Lights bestsellers (paperbacks) for the month of July

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1. Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje (Random/Knopf)
2. No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July (Scribner)
3. Discoveries: Frida Kahlo by Christina Burrus (Abrams)
4. Amulet by Roberto Bolaño (New Directions)
5. The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño (St. Martin's Press)
6. Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon (Harper Collins)
7. Dying to Live: A Story of U.S. Immigration in an Age of Global Apartheid by Joseph Nevins and Mizue Aizeki (City Lights)
8. Writings for a Democratic Society by Tom Hayden (City Lights)
9. God is Dead by Ron Currie (Penguin)
10. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver (Harper Collins)

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Events at the Bookstore
City Lights is taking a brief respite from its events schedule for the month of August. We thank you for your continued support and hope you'll stay tuned for our fall schedule! Events resume in September with several exciting authors:

Hanif Kurieshi at Canessa Gallery on Friday, September 12, 7 pm
Frank Wilderson on Tuesday, September 16, 2008, 7 pm
Staughton Lynd on Sunday, September 21, 2008, 5 pm
James Nolan on Thursday, September 25, 2008, 7 pm

To get weekly alerts of upcoming events, sign up for the City Lights Events email newsletter!

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City Lights authors on the road this month

Tom Hayden, author of Writings for A Democratic Society and Voices of the Chicago Eight will be in Chicago, IL, and Denver, CO.

Lisa Gray Garcia, aka Tiny, author of Criminal of Poverty will be in Seattle, WA at the Bumbershoot Festival.

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Virtual Jihadi
1Up on City Lights author Wafaa Bilal's controversial new project "Virtual Jihadi":

"Wafaa Bilal. . . is no terrorist. Rather, he's the artist behind Virtual Jihadi, a controversial videogame art installation shut down twice in March. Virtual Jihadi's subject matter -- which includes the assassination of President George W. Bush -- sparked a furious debate over whether or not videogames count as art. . ."

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Can Poetry Be a War Crime?
City Lights author Semezdin Mehmedinovic featured in the New Yorker's online book blog,
THE BOOK BENCH:

"Radovan Karadzic has been captured. To anyone who cares about Bosnia, war crimes, and impunity, this is thrilling, almost impossible news. Thirteen years after the siege of Sarajevo and the massacre at Srebrenica, the warlord who gave the orders is headed for the Hague.

Like many megalomaniacs, Karadzic fancied himself a poet. . . A real poet, Semezdin Mehmedinovic, in his book Sarajevo Blues, remembers watching Karadzic on the news at the height of the siege. . ."

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Obama Supports Indigenous Ecuadorians in Case Against Chevron

In June, City Lights published Crude Reflections: Oil, Ruin and Resistance in the Amazon Rainforest, which documents in photographs and testimonials the efforts of indigenous groups in Ecuador to hold Chevron accountable for toxic waste from oil drilling. Newsweek recently reported that Barack Obama has taken a stand on this issue: in 2006, along with Senator Patrick Leahy, he wrote a letter to the Bush administration in support of a trial in Ecuador free from Chevron's hard-ball corporate lobbyists' influence. Learn more and urge the Obama campaign to continue its support for this landmark environmental rights case!

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