On Muscle: Book Signing Event in Malibu w/ Author Bonnie Tsui
Join us for a Book signing event in Malibu!
Meet Bonnie Tsui the bestselling author of Why We Swim, in conversation with big-wave photographer Sachi Cunningham and learn about her fascinating journey into a mind-expanding exploration of muscle—from our ancient obsession with the ideal human form to the modern science of this amazing and adaptable tissue—that will change the way you think about what moves us through the world.
Event Details
- Date: Sun April 27th
- Time 3-5 PM
- Location" Traveler Malibu | 3862 Cross Creek Rd
- RSVP! (Pre-order recommended)
In On Muscle, Bonnie Tsui brings her signature blend of science, culture, immersive reporting, and personal narrative to examine not just what muscles are but what they mean to us. Cardiac, smooth, skeletal—these three different types of muscle in our bodies make our hearts beat; push food through our intestines, blood through our vessels, babies out the uterus; attach to our bones and allow for motion. Tsui also traces how muscles have defined beauty—and how they have distorted it—through the ages, and how they play an essential role in our physical and mental health.
Tsui introduces us to the first female weightlifter to pick up the famed Scottish Dinnie Stones, then takes us on a 50-mile run through the Nevada desert that follows the path of escape from a Native boarding school—and gives the concept of endurance new meaning. She travels to Oslo, where cutting-edge research reveals how muscles help us bounce back after injury and illness, an important aspect of longevity. She jumps into the action with a historic Double Dutch club in Washington, D.C., to explain anew what Charles Darwin meant by the brain-body connection. Woven throughout are stories of Tsui’s childhood with her Chinese immigrant artist dad—a black belt in karate—who schools her from a young age in a kind of quirky, in-house Muscle Academy.
On Muscle shows us the poetry in the physical, and the surprising ways muscle can reveal what we’re capable of.
Bonnie Tsui is a longtime contributor to The New York Times and the bestselling author of Why We Swim, a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice and a Time magazine and NPR Best Book of the Year; it is currently being translated into ten languages. Bonnie is also the author of American Chinatown, which won the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, and Sarah and the Big Wave, a children’s book about the first woman to surf Mavericks and a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selection. Her work has been recognized and supported by Harvard University, the National Press Foundation, the Mesa Refuge, and the Best American Essays series. She lives, swims, and surfs in the Bay Area.
Sachi Cunningham is a director and photographer based in San Francisco and Los Angeles, CA. She is known worldwide for her pioneering work as a big wave water surf photographer and videographer. With a background in studio feature films and commercial production, paired with a Masters of Journalism degree from UC Berkeley, she brings both Hollywood know-how and vérité documentary sensibility to her work. She is a tenured professor of multimedia journalism at San Francisco State University.
FAQ: How to get to the Bu
While we hope that PCH is open to all by Sunday the 27th, if it is not accessible, you can easily reach Traveler Surf Club from the 101 freeway either by Las Virgines/ Malibu Canyon Rd or Kanaan Rd.