We can't take any more of this Bay Area independent bookstore stress -- first the Kepler's drama and now this? Venerated SF independent bookstore stalwart A Clean Well-Lighted Place For Books is on the market. Owner Neal Sofman says that it's been hard getting walk-in traffic at its Opera Plaza location and that sales have been steadily declining over the years. But what about that new Peet's that just opened next door? Surely that would......

Saturday:We're hitting the San Francisco Peoples’ Organization “Auctions Off Downtown" event at 111 Minna. There'll be live music, film screenings, and the aforementioned auction with Matt Gonzalez taking the auctioneer's podium. This we've got to see! It all starts at 7:30. Sunday:We'll be at the SF MOMA's Wattis Theater for the 2 p.m. screening of local filmmaker Philip Lane's 55-minute documentary Working Title, a movie about "career, art, and identity in America". Monday: We're......

Nikki Richesin, the editor of the The May Queen, started compiling this book of essays on "the eve of the thirtieth birthday." Given that the tagline of the book is "Women on life, love, work, and pulling it all together in your 30s", that piece of data seemed ironic -- we're pretty sure we spent the eve of our thirtieth birthday watching "Knight Rider". Thanks for making us feel like even MORE of a screwup,......

Amanda Boyden, author of Pretty Little Dirty is going to be reading from her book at 7 p.m. at A Clean Well-Lighted Place tonight and City Lights tomorrow. Doesn't the idea of sitting in a cozy bookstore listening to bits of a punk-influenced story of friendship sound perfect on a day like today (yes, that WAS hail)? Even if you can't make it to one of these readings, Amanda's publishers want to give the......

In case you missed our passing mention in yesterday's interview with Andrew Sean Greer, Picador, the publishers of such SFist faves as The Secret Life of the Lonely Doll and A Death in Brazil, is celebrating its 10th birthday with a series of readings across the country. Here in San Francisco, the reading is tomorrow at 7 PM at A Clean Well-Lighted Place for Books, and features local writer Michael Chabon and new friend......

Who is that charming young man riding his scooter up Divis for the early-bird special at the Metro Cafe? It's Andrew Sean Greer, California Book Award winner for The Confessions of Max Tivoli, San Franciscan, and one of the featured readers at Picador's 10th Birthday Event (scroll down) at A Clean Well Lighted Place For Books, this Wednesday at 7 p.m. To kick things off, we have some copies of Max Tivoli to give......

Paula Kamen has a headache. We can say that with some assurance because she's had a headache for over a decade now. For most of us, the idea of suffering from a headache for more time than it takes for a couple of Advil to kick in sounds unbelievable, but after reading All in My Head, Kamen's book about her battle with chronic daily headache, (and dealing with some daily headache issues of our......

We need to come up with a new word to describe the tasteless, fabulous, trashy, glamorous style of the Tenderloin. It's not just a slummy neighborhood; it's a slummy neighborhood with a can-do spirit and discerning palette. And one of its heroines is Tenderloinish drag star Juanita More, who, along with three hot Moreboys and the adorable Mike Albo, performed for an adoring crowd at The LGBT Center on Tuesday night. The evening, the......

We've loved Wendy McClure almost as long as we've loved the internerd, from her appearances on the late, great Hissyfit site, to her recaps at what we now call Television Without Pity, to her personal site, Pound, to her column in Bust. When we heard she wrote a book we thought about hitting her up for a review copy, before we decided to go out and spend our own money on it, library-abusing cheapskate......

Special up-and-down-the-penninsula edition. For the waveriding set, Tribal Surf is putting on a tsunami benefit, "Elements" at the Blue Cube to benefit SurfAid. Surf photography by the legendary Bob Barbour and surf wear from local designers will be on sale, and you can pick up your blue SurfAid wristband to make a small donation and tell the world that you both carve cutbacks and care. Reception starts at six. At the half way point......