Same Page SF | A beach read, a creative retelling, and new nonfiction from a local legend
Plus, next week's highlights (because I'll be on vacation!)
Welcome back to Same Page SF, your home for all things local and literary!
I'm Christina, your friendly, well-informed, and unabashedly nerdy bookseller. Each week, I share and signal-boost author events, book clubs, new releases, and community gatherings happening across our city.
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On to the goings-on!
It’s another great week to be a reader, writer, or book-lover in San Francisco. Here’s what you’ll want to attend if:
1) You appreciate a good beach read in every sense
Catherine Newman on Sandwich at Bookshop West Portal. Thursday 7/25, 7pm, free.
Join celebrated author and columnist Catherine Newman, in conversation with Jenny True, to celebrate her latest novel Sandwich. Set in Cape Cod over the course of a weeklong family vacation, it’s a slim book with emotional heft: Ann Patchett called it “joy in book form.” (If that’s not strong enough endorsement, I read my advance copy twice on one plane ride, flipping back to the start as soon as I finished - and teared up both times.)
2) You love fantasy and creative retellings
Lev Grossman on The Bright Sword at Books Inc Opera Plaza. Wednesday 7/24, 7pm, $40 (includes book).
Join Lev Grossman, author of the bestselling Magicians trilogy, to celebrate the launch of The Bright Sword. A reimagining of the King Arthur legend centering lesser-known characters from the Round Table, it’s already received raves from big names in fantasy - “engrossing” (George R. R. Martin) and “utterly enchanting” (Rebecca Yarros).
3) You want to understand the long history of food weaponization
Andrea Freeman on Ruin Their Crops on the Ground: The Politics of Food in the United States, from the Trail of Tears to School Lunch at Omnivore Books (Saturday 7/27, 3pm) and Book Passage (Sunday 7/28, 2pm), both free.
In 1779, to subjugate Indigenous nations, George Washington ordered his troops to “ruin their crops now in the ground and prevent their planting more.” From frybread to government cheese, Ruin Their Crops on the Ground investigates the history of food in US law as a weapon of conquest and control. Author and professor Andrea Freeman will be speaking with fellow legal experts Celia Lee (Omnivore) and Sanjay Narayan (Book Passage).
4) You’re intrigued by relationships and power dynamics
Sarah Manguso on Liars at Booksmith. Wednesday 7/24, 7pm, free.
Join Sarah Manguso, whose previous novel Very Cold People was longlisted for the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award, to celebrate the launch of Liars. Front-cover blurbed by Elif Batuman (“Painful and brilliant - I loved it”), it’s a searing novel about being a wife, mother, and artist - and how marriage “makes liars out of us all.” She’ll be in conversation with journalist Moira Donegan.
5) You’d like to celebrate a local literary legend
Molly Giles on Life Span at Green Apple Books on the Park and via Zoom. Thursday 7/25, 7pm, free.
Eighty-two year old Molly Giles is best known for her award-winning fiction, but her latest book is something new. A memoir in flash form, Life Span chronicles some of the most memorable Golden Gate Bridge crossings throughout her life, starting with a ride in a moving van with her father in 1945. Join her for what’s sure to be an interesting conversation with fellow author Sylvia Brownrigg.
Also
MONDAY Virtual launch for Dismantling Mass Incarceration: A Handbook for Change with editor Premal Dharia via City Lights | Virtual launch for Viewfinder with coauthors Jon M. Chu and Jeremy McCarter and special guest Ariana Grande (yep, that Ariana Grande!) via Book Passage
TUESDAY Adam Sass on queer romance Cursed Boys and Broken Hearts at Fabulosa | Longtime Alcatraz tour guide Brian Stannard on Alcatraz Ghost Story at SFPL Richmond | Virtual poetry readings from Oceania and Turtle Island via the SFPL | Poetry workshop with the North Beach Poets Society | July Silent Reading Party at Booksmith is sold out
WEDNESDAY SF in SF presents Hugo Award winners Paolo Bacigalupi & Tim Pratt in reading and conversation at The Lost Church | Physician and public health advocate Dr. Dean-David Schillinger on Telltale Hearts: A Public Health Doctor, His Patients, and the Power of Story at Green Apple Books on the Park | DW Gibson on One Week to Change the World: An Oral History of the 1999 WTO Protests via City Lights Zoom | Erotica Writing Workshop with Natalie Sierra at Sour Cherry Comics | Katherine Lewin on Big Night: Dinners, Parties & Dinner Parties at Omnivore Books with wine and small bites
THURSDAY Journalist Megan Kimble on City Limits: Infrastructure, Inequality, and the Future of America’s Highways at Book Passage | Winner of the Prism Prize for Climate Literature Nina Schuyler on her latest novel In This Ravishing World at Bird & Beckett | Erik Davis on Blotter: The Untold Story of an Acid Medium, the first comprehensive written account of the history, art, and design of LSD blotter paper | Mark Sutton on How Democrats Can Win Back Men at Manny’s | Environmental journalist Christina Gerhardt on Sea Change: An Atlas of Islands in a Rising Ocean at SFPL Main | Literary speakeasy at Martuni’s | The Racket Presents: All Over the Map at The Sycamore | The final (for now) iteration of NO WORRIES IF NOT at Adobe Books
FRIDAY Jesse Katz on The Rent Collectors, a true story about a botched gang murder set in the invisible economy of LA's immigrant street vendors, at Green Apple Books on the Park in partnership with Alta Journal
SATURDAY Beast Crawl Literary Festival at Commune Oakland | The Racket Presents: The Lonesome Crowded West with guest host Lauren Parker and readings by Kar Johnson, TS Leonard, Ariel Neidermeier, Rebecca Rubenstein, and Beth Winegarner | Screenwriter and Oakland dive bar owner Alfredo Botello on 180 Days at Books Inc. Chestnut
SUNDAY Adrienne Borlongan of LA’s Wanderlust Creamery on The World of Ice Cream at Omnivore Books | Virtual talk with Ajay Singh Chaudhary, executive director of the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research, on The Exhausted of the Earth: Politics in a Burning World | Author and community organizer Cynthia Kaufman on finding your place in the climate justice movement at SFPL Main | Live-streamed author talk with Michael Castleman on The Untold Story of Books: A Writer’s History of Publishing via Book Passage Corte Madera | Meeting of the SF Silent Book Club at Obscenity Bar & Lounge
Book-adjacent gatherings
Not *about* books, but around them
💬 Manny’s is hosting a panel with guests from the Modern Family Institute and This is Actually Happening podcast on the ever-expanding definition of family - specifically, the 82% of US households outside of the traditional nuclear structure. Wednesday 7/24, 6-8pm, $15.
🌼 The SFPL is celebrating Library Day at the Great Meadow of the Botanical Gardens. Highlights include a stroll with the Feminist Birding Club, a performance by the Ensambles Ballet Folklorico de San Francisco, and a plethora of art workshops - and, of course, free books! Saturday 7/27, 11am-2pm, free to SF residents.
📽️ Medicine for Nightmares is holding a special Drag Story Hour (Sundance Filmed Edition) with Panda Dulce. In 2022, far-right extremists stormed Panda’s Drag Story Hour; now, she’s producing a short film about the aftermath of that encounter and the bravery and resilience of drag artists and LGBTQ youth. Saturday 7/27, 2-4pm, free.
🕶️ Looking ahead
I’ll be on vacation and entirely offline next week, so I’ll be taking a break from Same Page for the first time since launching last year. (Paid subscribers, never fear - you’ll still receive your August sneak peek!)
To minimize your literary FOMO, I’m sharing the final five July events that have been on my radar all month, starring the two I absolutely wouldn’t miss if I was in town:
🌟 Think you know your literature? Prove it! Litquake is holding a Literary Trivia Night at Gilman Brewing Company in Berkeley, hosted by Jeneé Darden. Bring your bookish friends or get matched to a team, and compete for prizes from Litquake, Green Apple Books, Saintsbury Winery, and more. Monday 7/29, 7-10pm, $20.
Writer, podcaster, and “educatrix” Tina Horn will visit Fabulosa to celebrate the launch of Why Are People Into That?: A Cultural Investigation of Kink, which explores the universal drives that shape even the most specific erotic tastes. Monday 7/29, 7pm, free with RSVP.
Book Passage is hosting a virtual talk with Yasmin Zaher for her hotly anticipated debut The Coin, which follows a young Palestinian woman’s unraveling as she teaches at a NYC middle school, resells Birkin bags, and strives to gain control over her body and mind. Wednesday 7/31, 1pm, free.
Award-winning novelist and musician Willy Vlautin will visit Green Apple Books on the Park to discuss his latest The Horse, the story of a journeyman musician unable to escape his past. Jess Walter called it a “terrific parable of art and aging … the literary equivalent of a classic album by Tom Waits or Townes Van Zandt.” Wednesday 7/31, 7pm, free.
🌟 Lit-mag ZYZZYVA’s new film series features an acclaimed writer sharing one of their favorite movies, along with a recommended reading list that speaks to their selected title. Their first showing: R. O. Kwon and Secretary. Bring on the popcorn! Wednesday 7/31, 6pm, $5-15.
Thanks for reading!
If you enjoyed this issue of Same Page, please share it with a bookish friend or two (or more, but let’s be honest, we’re all introverts here!).
As always, if you have questions, ideas, or events to share, I’d love to hear! Just reply to this email or reach me at hello@samepagesf.com.
Cheers,
Christina
Book recommendations Advance notice is my love language.
No recommendations this week - I’m feeling much better, but lingering COVID brain made reading a struggle! Paid subscribers can look forward to an August sneak peek, hitting inboxes next week.