Ann Magnuson embarks on an end-of-the-world tour, humor takes over the Noir City Film Festival, and leave a book, take a book at Books Inc. Opera Plaza. more ›

If you think you fully appreciate San Francisco architecture, then I invite you take a second look through the eyes of author John King, and his book Cityscapes. He dissects our fair city in a way that almost seems irreverent but is actually both insightful and genuine. more ›

Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky stands accused of pedophilia and sexually assaulting several young boys, some as young as 10. Among other graphic accusations, the assistant coach reportedly molested some of the victims inside the school's locker room shower. more ›

In addition to fare and fanfare, another noted Chez Panisse signifier would have to be the illustrations and printing found on their menus and cookbooks. Simple, elegant, and concise--just like the food it denotes--the prints have been around for decades, but little is known about the artist. Until now. Artist, designer, and printmaker Patricia Curtan began hand printing menus while working as a cook in the Chez Panisse kitchen. In her new book Menus for Chez Panisse--a shockingly impressive and addictive tome, especially when you consider that, more or less, it's a book about menus--Curtan shows off four decades of her work, which feature special menus for such media and gastronomic darlings as Julia Child, Hillary Clinton, Mikhail Baryshnikov, James Beard, and more. more ›

Oh boy, do we have a bushel of questions for America's Test Kitchen host Christopher Kimball. Like: who do you like better, Bridget Lancaster or Julia Collin-Davison? (We cannot decide!) What's the deal with the whole Vermont thing? Do you hate Good Eats since you both more or less do similar things? Why are you wasting our time with the equipment corner? And, why do you fumble on the taste-test challenge? You seem actually peeved when you pick the wrong one. Which you do. Often. And that tickles us. more ›

COMEDY: You have two weekends left to catch beloved local comedy troupe Killing My Lobster's latest sketch comedy show, Killing My Lobster Conquers the Galaxy, which includes "the real story of how Dr. Who chooses his time-traveling companions; Space Wizard antics; Italians running a space station and more." (8 p.m., The Jewish Theater San Francisco, 470 Florida Street) more ›

STORYTELLING: The talented folks at Muni Diaries, who are seriously funny people in person, are hosting their first Muni Diaries Live Reunion and Open Mic, featuring Muni Diaries Live alumni telling the stories that they didn't tell the first time around. Additionally, special guest Anna Conda will be at the event reading the winning review from Muni Diaries' Muni Google Places contest. (6:30 to 9 p.m., Elbo Room, 647 Valencia Street) more ›

Looking to score a bunch of awesome kids' books, older-edition cookbooks, self-help guides, parenting manuals, or art books? Got a hankering for laser discs or '80s one-hit wonders and musical soundtracks on vinyl? Then get your tote bags ready and carpool to Fort Mason with a friend (learn from SFist's mistakes, lugging piles of books on Muni is never fun) -- the Friends of the Public Library's 47th Annual Big Book Sale starts Wednesday! more ›

MUSIC: SFJazz presents Carmen Souza, a Lisbon-born "jazz-tinged chanteuse" of Cape Verdean descent, who performs a seductive combination of traditional rhythms and songs with jazz and Brazilian influences. (7:30 p.m., Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, 3200 California Street) more ›

This goes out to all of you who get clammy-palmed as soon as you see your favorite F-car rolling up to your stop. Oh Milano, you come on smooth with that designy orange and classic woodtone, but you're so heavy on the rails. No matter; we love you with all our hearts and Clippercards. Blackpool, you're a topless show-off and you know it. more ›

Welcome again to Twentysomething, SFist's newest interviewing series. What exactly is Twentysomething, you ask? Well, similar to the Proust Questionnaire or the gobbledygook heard at the end of each Inside the Actor's Studio, we ask a bevy of famous subjects a series of searing questions, followed by a handful of tailor-made queries. (Hence TwentySOMETHING.) Today we ask Dan Johnson -- former SFist scribe and author of the excellent The Perplexing Problem of the Porcelain Bandits -- to drop and give us 20. Behold: more ›

All-City photographers Travis Jensen and Brad Evans photo doc book about San Francisco's Tenderloin, aptly christened Tenderloin USA, will have its official launch party on Wednesday night in the 'loin. The bash, featuring good tunes and potent booze, goes down at Ever Gold Gallery (441 O'Farrell). more ›

Clear your schedule later this week so you can get first dibs at Chronicle Books' Summer Warehouse Sale, which runs this Thursday through Saturday. Hundreds of sweet titles by the beloved SF-based publisher will be 65% off, and you'll get a free gift with purchase. more ›

Over the last year, photographer Travis Jensen and fellow All-City photographer Brad Evans worked on a remarkable photo documentary book about San Francisco's Tenderloin called Tenderloin USA. Their work takes a black-and-white look into the heart of the Tenderloin, with a sharp focus being on the characters who live, work, own businesses, hang out, and raise families in the 'loin. more ›

Jeffrey Eugenides, Susan Orlean, James Ellroy, Mary Roach, Ishmael Reed, Adam Mansbach, Jane Smiley, Chris Adrian, Thomas McGuane, Christopher Moore, Daniel Woodrell, Deepak Chopra, Cyra McFadden, and Guillermo Gomez-Peña are just a few of the authors scheduled to read at this year's Litquake Festival. "Er, like, what's Litquake," you derp? Well, Litquake is the city's annual festival of literature devoted to the printed word. Lots of words. Dangerous words. more ›

The last time we heard about BART teaming up with local libraries to dispense reading material through vending machines was three years ago. Back then, the world was an entirely different place. George W. Bush was still president, iPhones didn't have apps for anything, and Justin Bieber's YouTube channel only had like a dozen views. Now it's 2011, Osama bin Laden is dead, your grandmother is downloading eBooks on her 3G Kindle, and Millbrae is still that place you end up when you accidentally take the wrong train out of SFO. But as of today, should you find yourself there without something to read, the Examiner reports that you can check out books from a crisp new Library-a-Go-Go machine. (Sidenote: Really? We're still calling them that?) All you need is a library card from the Peninsula. A much smarter move would be to put one in SFO so we could pick up trashy novels on our way to Cabo, but nobody consulted us on it. Their loss! [SFEx] by way of [CurbedSF] more ›

Sad news for book lovers in San Francisco. According to reports, independently-owned A Different Light (489 Castro) in the Castro and Modern Times (888 Valencia) in the Mission will close their doors this year. Why? Because no one patronizes bookstores these days, that's why. Which is too bad since bookstores, you know, kinda smell nice and are (were?) great places for meeting people. more ›

Anyone with internet access has surely heard about author Amy Chua. Her memoir, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, was recently excerpted in the Wall Street Journal and paired with a rather baiting headline that Chua likely didn't write: "Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior." more ›

If there's one form of print publishing we support - other than the occasional Wintourian rag - it's the coffee table book. So we're more than thrilled to announce that, according to SF Weekly, Giants pitching star Tim Lincecum is currently the subject of a coffee table book called Freak Season. Following him around from Spring Training to the World Series, Pulitzer Prize-winning photog Deanne Fitzmaurice "estimates she snapped more than 4,000 photos of Lincecum hanging out, playing videogames, walking his dog, or modeling bow ties." Bow ties? Aw. [SFW] more ›

Upon hearing that, many moons ago, former First Lady Barbara Bush presented a young George W. Bush with a horrifying fetus-in-a-jar lesson about abortion, both Babs and Dubya instantly turned into the most fascinating First Lady and President in U.S. history, respectively. (Really, can you picture a Chanel-clad Jackie Kennedy whipping out a mason jar filled to the brim with her miscarriage for John-John? Because we cannot.) Which is why former U.S. President (and, let's face it, future war-crime defendant) Bush's Decision Points is this year's must read. more ›

"Borders Books Readers" by Demetrios Lyras. more ›

Today on KQED's Forum, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Cunningham (The Hours, Specimen Days, At Home at the End of the World) talked with Michael Krasny about his new novel, By Nightfall, which tells the story of a married, middle-aged SoHo art dealer contemplating a gay affair with his brother-in-law, in what Booklist calls "an exquisite, slyly witty, warmly philosophical, and urbanely eviscerating tale of the mysteries of beauty and desire, art and delusion, age and love." Listen to the full interview below. more ›

As part of the annual Banned Books Week, San Francisco Public Library will celebrate the 50th anniversary of To Kill a Mockingbird on Tuesday night. The classic Harper Lee novel is on the American Library Association’s Office of Intellectual Freedom’s most frequently banned classic books list. more ›

Isabel Wilkerson's new book, The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story Of America’s Great Migration (Random House) tells the story of the African-American migration from the South to the North and West, from World War I through the 1970s, when many began migrating south again. The NYT calls it "a magisterial new history," and Wilkerson previously won a Pulitzer Prize for journalism as their Chicago bureau chief. She's speaking tonight in Oakland, at a KPFA event at St. Paul's Episcopal Church (7:30 p.m., 114 Montecito Avenue), and SFist got a few words with her about the book, specifically how it relates to African-American communities in the Bay Area. more ›

All you major bookworms out there are probably already in the know about the 46th Annual Big Book Sale at Fort Mason Center's Festival Pavilion, which opened its doors to the public this morning at 10 a.m. You're probably there right now or went to the member preview last night. more ›

This week we bring you a delightful double-dose of Green Apple Books. Check out the bookstore's latest cute and quirky commercial featuring their "Courageous Commando Cuties" advertising Green Apple's September Book of the Month, C by Tom McCarthy. more ›