Songbook

McSweeney's is excited to release Songbook, a brand-new collection of short, personal essays by Nick Hornby on 31 of his favorite songs and songwriters. This hardcover book has 4-color illustrations by Marcel Dzama throughout and comes complete with a CD featuring 11 songs discussed within.

Proceeds from Songbook will benefit TreeHouse and 826 Valencia.

About TreeHouse
The TreeHouse Trust is a U.K. charity based in central London, established in 1997 to provide an educational Centre of Excellence for children with autism and related communication disorders.

TreeHouse was set up by a North London group of parents of children recently diagnosed with autism. Despite the fact that research supported the crucial importance of early, intensive education for children with autism, there was nothing available for their children, nor for the thousands of similar children they wish to help. In just five years, TreeHouse has attracted widespread national and international recognition for its pioneering achievements from the medical and educational establishment.

From an initial pupil base of four, the school now has thirty-one pupils and aims to accommodate eighty pupils within the next ten years. Further, TreeHouse needs to extend its help to the tens of thousands of other children with autism in the U.K. We are developing our plans to disseminate our teaching model, and to secure the funds for a permanent building from which we can grow the school and offer national facilities for training and education research.

For more information or to make a donation:
Visit our website at: www.treehouse.org.uk
E-mail us: info@treehouse.org.uk
Call us: 0044 207681 9982
Or write us: TreeHouse FREEPOST LON 14496, London WC1N 2NY, UK

About 826 Valencia
826 Valencia is a nonprofit learning center in the Mission District of San Francisco, providing free tutoring and workshops for students throughout the Bay Area. Students can drop in for individual one-on-one tutoring, register for workshops, or attend field trips through local schools and community organizations. We thrive on our base of over 250 volunteers ? including published authors, journalists, editors, teachers, and filmmakers ? who are available to teach, tutor, and mentor students, helping them both find their voice through self-expression, and hone their basic communication skills.

The heart of 826 Valencia is one-on-one tutoring. Our growing team of highly qualified tutors is available to students seeking extra help with composition skills, or for students who love to write and can benefit from concentrated personal attention and the nurturing of extracurricular projects.

826 Valencia offers free, in-depth workshops on topics ranging from SAT preparation to digital filmmaking, comic book production, and neighborhood-oriented journalism. Local schools and organizations are welcome to set up field trips involving entire classes. 826 Valencia also awards scholarships to local students and gives monthly grants to area teachers who have had a unique and sustained impact on their students.

For more information:
Visit our website: www.826valencia.com
Call us: 415 642 5905
Or drop in to visit: 826 Valencia, San Francisco, CA, 94110

"Anyone who has read Nick Hornby's work knows that the man is a fan in the best sense. He's enthusiastic, he's knowledgeable...and he's not afraid to let you in on weird little trade secrets..." Jeff Baker, The Oregonian

The CD includes:
Paul Westerberg, "Born for Me"
Teenage Fanclub, "Your Love Is the Place That I Come From"
The Bible, "Glorybound"
Aimee Mann, "I've Had It"
Rufus Wainwright, "One Man Guy"
Rod Stewart, "Mama, You Been on My Mind"
Badly Drawn Boy, "A Minor Incident"
Teenage Fanclub, "Ain't That Enough"
Ben Folds Five, "Smoke"
Mark Mulcahy, "Hey Self-Defeater"
Ani Difranco, "You Had Time"

Chapter listing:
Teenage Fanclub, "Your Love Is the Place That I Come From"
Bruce Springsteen, "Thunder Road"
Nelly Furtado, "I'm Like a Bird"
Led Zeppelin, "Heartbreaker"
Rufus Wainwright, "One Man Guy"
Santana, "Samba Pa Ti"
Rod Stewart, "Mama, You Been on My Mind"
Bob Dylan, "Can You Please Crawl out Your Window?"
The Beatles, "Rain"
Ani Difranco, "You Had Time"
Aimee Mann, "I've Had It"
Paul Westerberg, "Born For Me"
Suicide, "Frankie Teardrop"
Teenage Fanclub, "Ain't That Enough"
J. Geils Band, "First I Look at the Purse"
Ben Folds Five, "Smoke"
Badly Drawn Boy, "A Minor Incident"
The Bible, "Glorybound"
Van Morrison, "Caravan"
Butch Hancock and Marce LaCouture, "So I'll Run"
Gregory Isaacs, "Puff The Magic Dragon"
Ian Dury, "Reasons To Be Cheerful"
Richard and Linda Thompson, "Calvary Cross"
Jackson Browne, "Late for the Sky"
Mark Mulcahy, "Hey Self-Defeater"
The Velvelettes, "Needle in a Haystack"
O. V. Wright, "Let's Straighten It Out"
Royksopp, "Royksopp's Night Out"
The Avalanches, "Frontier Psychiatrist"
Soulwax, "No Fun / Push It"
Patti Smith, "Pissing in a River"