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Event
A Conversation About Life with David Shields
New York Times bestselling author David Shields will read from "The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead" (2008) and "How Literature Saved My Life" (2013). Book signing and kosher reception will follow.
Mr. Shields is a Seattle resident and faculty at the University of Washington. The evening's sponsors are the Phinney Neighborhood Association, Jewish Family Service, Temple Beth Am, Congregation Beth Shalom and Santoro's Books.
Listen to a recent KUOW interview: http://www.kuow.org/post/gardening-panel-returns (about 15 minutes into it).
"The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead"
New York Times bestseller
Best Nonfiction Book of the Year, TimeOut Chicago
Chosen by Artforum as one of the 25 best books of the year
Best Reads of 2008, Salon
Chosen as one of the twenty best nonfiction books of 2008, Seattle Times
Chosen by Amazon as one of its 50 best books of the year
Powell's Books New Favorite, Staff Pick
BookSense Selection
"Mix equal parts anatomy and autobiography, science and self-disclosure, physiology and family history; shake, stir. [S]immer over a low-grade fever of mortality. . . a terrible beauty of a book is born." Thomas Lynch, The Boston Globe
"Many writers aim to capture the human condition in all its variety, audacity, and contradiction, but few can claim to get as close to their target as Shields. . . . [a] truly original vision brought to fruition." Josh Rosenblatt, The Austin Chronicle
"Enthralling. . . . Fascinating. . . . Ultimately, the humanity of Shields's interior and exterior exploration is what makes The Thing About Lifeand life itself worthwhile." Meredith Maran, San Francisco Chronicle
"How Literature Saved My Life"
"Here is a mind on fire, a writer at war with the page. 'I've sacrificed my life for art,' says David Shields in an astutely titled, contrarian collage, How Literature Saved My Life. At age 56, Shields, the author of 13 books, seems to be asking, 'Is that all there is?' And yet these rigorous, high-octane, exhaustive yet taut ruminations on ambivalence, love, melancholy, and mortality are like an arrow laced with crack to the brain. Shields draws on popular culture from Greek tragedies to Spider-Man to the essays of David Foster Wallace, while delving into how these works have shaped him. The associative thoughts leap, crawl, wail, and thrash about in an interior mindscape that's loaded with aphoristic asides, as his gun-to-the-head prose explicates an all-consuming passion for reading, writing, and 'the redemptive grace of human consciousness itself.'" Kristy Davis, O, The Oprah Magazine
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LocationPhinney Center Community Hall (View)
6532 Phinney Ave N
Seattle, WA 98103
United States
Categories
| Kid Friendly: Yes! |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
| Wheelchair Accessible: Yes! |
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