THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT

Thursday, July 6, 2017
King Middle School, 1781 Rose Street, Berkeley, CA
Free parking
Admit one: $25, admit one plus book: $35, admit two plus book: $45
brownpapertickets.com :: T: 800-838-3006
or Books Inc/Berkeley, Pegasus (3 sites), Moe’s, Walden Pond Bookstore, Diesel a Bookstore, Mrs. Dalloway’s

From Senator Al Franken – #1 bestselling author and beloved SNL alum – comes the story of an award-winning comedian who decided to run for office and then discovered why award-winning comedians tend not to do that. This is a book about an unlikely campaign that had an even more improbable ending: the closest outcome in history and an unprecedented eight-month recount saga, which is comical in retrospect. It’s a book about what happens when the nation’s foremost progressive satirist gets a chance to serve in the United States Senate and, defying the low expectations of the pundit class, actually turns out to be good at it. Senator Al Franken has represented Minnesota in the Senate since 2009.

 

It’s a book about our deeply polarized, frequently depressing, occasionally inspiring political culture, written from inside the belly of the beast. In this candid personal memoir, the honorable gentleman from Minnesota takes his army of loyal fans along with him from Saturday Night Live to the campaign trail, inside the halls of Congress, and behind the scenes of some of the most dramatic and/or hilarious moments of his new career in politics.

 

“The compulsively readable text contains laugh-out-loud lines in every chapter…the  fun is a side dish to a serious meal about important policy decisions…”      
— Booklist Review

 

“An excellent, insightful memoir… Franken is quite a raconteur, and he tells the story of his remarkable life and times with a sense of humor that is always irreverent and often self-deprecating. One thing is no joke, however: he’s very serious about his job representing the people of Minnesota.”
— Publishers Weekly

 

“The nation’s funniest senator speaks of the strange ways of government by ‘old white men.’  Franken… is a definitively humorous fellow and about as candid as any politician can be expected to be….” 
— KIRKUS

 

David Talbot is an American progressive journalist, author and media executive. He is the founder, former CEO and editor-in-chief of one of the first web magazines, Salon, which he founded in 1995, Talbot has worked as a senior editor for Mother Jones magazine and a features editor for The San Francisco Examiner, and has written for Time magazine, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, and other publications. His other books include Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years, Devil Dog,Season of the Witch: Enchantment, Terror, and Deliverance in the City of Love, and the recent The Devil’s Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America’s Secret Government – a biography examining the career of Allen Dulles.  Currently David Talbot is a feature columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle.

KPFA benefit

THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT