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Oscar-Winning Actor, Writer, Director

SEAN PENN
reads from and discusses his new novel
BOB HONEY

Bob Honey Sings Jimmy Crack Corn, the madcap follow-up to his debut novel, which was hailed by authors as diverse as Salman Rushdie, Jane Smiley, and Paul Theroux ―explores the deepest recesses of American politics and culture. Bob Honey, the disillusioned divorcee with a penchant for murder by mallet, weaves his way toward Washington DC for the ultimate showdown with a certain nefarious “landlord,” but nothing is as it seems, and Bob will have more than just the government working against him. Part comedy and part thriller, Bob Honey Sings Jimmy Crack Corn establishes Sean Penn as a fixture of the literary landscape for years to come.

Author

Matthew Shindell
will read from and discuss
his new book
The LIFE and SCIENCE of
HAROLD C. UREY
  Saturday, November 23^rd, 7PM

Harold C. Urey (1893–1981) was one of the most famous American scientists of the twentieth century. Awarded the Nobel Prize in 1934 for his discovery of deuterium and heavy water, Urey later participated in the Manhattan Project and NASA’s lunar exploration program. In this, the first ever biography of the chemist, Matthew Shindell shines new light on Urey’s achievements and efforts to shape his public and private lives.

Shindell follows Urey through his orthodox religious upbringing, the scientific work that won him the Nobel, and his subsequent efforts to use his fame to intervene in political, social, and scientific matters. At times, Urey succeeded, including when he helped create the fields of isotope geochemistry and cosmochemistry. But other endeavors, such as his promotion of world governance of atomic weapons, failed. By exploring those efforts, as well as Urey’s evolution from farm boy to scientific celebrity, we can discern broader changes in the social and intellectual landscape of twentieth-century America. More than a life story, this book immerses readers in the struggles and triumphs of not only an extraordinary man, but also his extraordinary times.

Matthew Shindell is curator of planetary science and exploration at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. Shindell is a historian of science with a Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego's History Department and Science Studies Program. His work focuses on the intersection of science and religion in the American Cold War, the postwar development of nuclear geochemistry, the history of earth, environmental, and planetary science, and the growing importance of "scientific consensus" in contemporary policy making. Shindell has held postdoctoral fellowships at University of California, San Diego, the University of Southern California, and Harvard University.

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