Saturday, December 12, 2009

Mmmmmmm, Pie.


Some young women stopped by the store today and asked us to put up a flyer for their business. They immediately got everyone on staff's attention when they they told us what that business was: the making of pie. What nobler calling is there? (aside from bookselling, that is). They call themselves The Golden Crust, more information here. They are local to The Richmond District, they're using organic ingredients, and they're selling them for $15 per. And we're talking Pecan and Kumquat pie, Chocolate Hazelnut pie, and get this, Upside Down Caramelized Pear and Quince pie. We haven't tried any yet, but you can bet there will be some orders coming their way mighty soon.

Friday, December 11, 2009

Ho Ho Ho!!!

Well, the weather outside is pretty yucky - it's cold and drizzly, but I don't think that it will snow. Which it actually did once here, on Clement Street, on Christmas Eve of all things. Honestly! But even if it's not snowing out, it's still a fine time to get indoors - like in Green Apple's doors, because I just priced a used set of the Complete Spirit Archives and it'll be hitting the shelves tonight.

For those who don't know, The Spirit was a newspaper comic created by Will Eisner that ran from 1940 - 1952 and forever changed the way that comics would be viewed. Eisner's genius extended into all aspects of his strip - the art was superb and often surreal, his plots were engaging, socially conscious, yet somehow self-effacing. Eisner's work on The Spirit was so sophisticated that the Comic Industry even named their top honor after him; The Eisner Award is considered the "Oscar" of comic artists and has been awarded to Dan Clowes, Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore, Chris Ware and many, many others.

So, in the spirit of the season (HA!) I'm reproducing Eisner's Sunday December 21, 1947 in its entirety below. And maybe I'll sneak another strip or two up here before Santa's sled hits town.

Happy Holidays, everyone!



Thursday, December 10, 2009

Help a kid out?

Just a click or two can help provide a child with a book this holiday season.

The Asia Foundation, which has been headquartered in San Francisco for 55 years, is running a free online vote to send copies of a favorite children's book to children in Bangladesh who have never before owned a book. Watch a short 3-minute video about the project and vote for Curious George Learns the Alphabet; Dr. Seuss' One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish; Harold and the Purple Crayon; Goodnight Moon; or What Do People Do All Day, and each child in the Bede "river gypsy" community will get a copy of the winning book. A follow-up video showing the arrival of the winning book will be posted on The Asia Foundation's site on December 16. Voting ends on Monday, December 14.

The Bede are once-nomadic river people who have limited access to basic services and whose children rarely have a chance to go to school. In order to provide these children with an education, The Asia Foundation's Books for Asia program partnered with a Bangladeshi organization called the Subornogram Foundation, which has set up a "boat school" to make it easier for the children to attend school. The challenge now is to stock the school with books.

Books for Asia distributes one million new books and resources each year to students, educators, and community leaders throughout Asia. They recently completed a similar campaign for a small rural hilltribe village school in Thailand. The winning book, Dr. Seuss' beloved Oh, The Places You'll Go!, was delivered into the hands of each child in Morwakee Village on November 1st. Click here to watch the "Return to Morwakee" video.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Cookin' With Green Apple Books


I could be wrong here, but it seems like we don't really mention our incredible COOKING section on the ol' blog. And that co-owner Pete leaves awesome lists of our favorite cookbooks periodically on San Francisco food blog Tablehopper.

So check it out! For cold days like these, there's Clifford Wright's Best Soups in the World, and of course, David Chang's memoir/cookbook Momofuku, chock full of amazing recipes for broths and ramen!


And while we're talking about RAMEN, the streets are buzzing about the new ramen truck circling Hayes Valley. Consider this our plea to bring the love over to the Richmond. We're cold here.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

New bookmarks

I know it's not exactly the best reason to fight Clement Street parking to get in here, but we have a new bookmark.

We're excited, but then again we're bookstore dorks. Big thanks to the creative and generous folks at Seidel Advertising. They get us.

Click for a bigger view of either the front or the back. Better yet, come knock some holiday shopping off your list and get yourself a new bookmark or two.


front

back

Monday, December 7, 2009

Tomorrow Morning's Paper

With San Francisco's floundering local papers amounting to little more than blankets and jacket lining for the city's ubiquitous homeless population nowadays, one might ask where does the discerning Bay Area reader turn for his/her/his2her/her2his' dose of premium journalism? Tim Redmond? Well heck, I read The Guardian today (only to discover that I missed The Legendary Stardust Cowboy playing a few days back), and of course it is what it is and always will be, but I'll tell ya' what I'm gonna' read tomorrow-

Yep. The veritable round table of shining knights that is McSweeney's will be taking to newsprint with San Francisco Panorama, and tomorrow will mark the release of their first (and last so they say, but we'll see depending on how lucrative the venture is) 320 page "21st century newspaper prototype." The publication will be featuring a diverse range of contributors from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie to Art Spiegelman to William T. Vollmann.

Now I'm going to be a bit editorial here, so apologies in advance if my thinking sounds somewhat convoluted. Personally I tend to be a little cold on McSweeney's most times. As appreciative as I am that San Francisco is home to a publishing house that strives to produce new and inventive work (and often does), the social niche that it caters to can be off putting (think "up and coming neighborhoods," street food, or maybe just skim Christian Lander's book). Because of this apparent fan base I worry that sometimes by and large what is considered "cutting edge" is pigeonholed, and that work lacking the McSweeney's aesthetic is ignored. I suppose this isn't the fault of McSweeney's per se. It's just a shame that in their attempt to expose the work of lesser known artists and authors a hierarchy of "what's good" comes to exist, and that people tend to look for a seal of approval rather than making an attempt to explore and develop their own personal landscape.

...Or maybe I'm just cynical. Regardless, I've expressed my lament. Moving on now.

Panorama is something to keep an eye out for. The fact that news of it's production is enough to turn an ugly head like mine is something in itself. Though it's moniker as a "21st century newspaper prototype" may a bit boisterous, it will most certainly provide a bit of breathing room away from the vapid smog that seems to have engulfed much of the world of modern journalism. Read more about it here on the McSweeney's site and if you like what you're seeing (Stephen King on baseball!), swing by to pick it up from us. It really does look like it's going to be awesome.

*An excerpt from Adrian Tomine's full page strip in Panorama, probably relevant to my post here today.*

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Gift Ideas at Great Prices!




Charley Harper: An Illustrated Life - This amazing art book from AMMO books, is out in a smaller $49.95 edition...or you can buy the $200.00 edition for only $79.98!







The Ultimate David Sedaris Box Set - Listening to David Sedaris act out his memoirs and stories is as good as reading them yourself. In the Ultimate Box Set you get 20 CDs containing most of his work. It was $99.98 for you...$39.98!








The Complete Monty Python's Flying Circus - The perfect gift for any comedy lover. Every episode of the Flying Circus as well as bonus discs with live performances. We have the set for $172.44 or you can by brand new, sealed copies for only $69.98!