Same Page SF | A delightfully weird novel, meditations on migration, and SLUTS: The Anthology
Something for everyone!
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 book-lover in San Francisco. Here’s what you’ll want to attend if:
1) You like weird books (and I mean that as a compliment!)
Melissa Broder on Death Valley at Booksmith. Wednesday 5/8, 7pm, $22 (includes book).
Join Melissa Broder to celebrate the paperback release of her latest novel Death Valley, a surreal and shockingly funny take on grief featuring a magical cactus, a desert survival story, and an unforgettable narrator embodying the adage “wherever you go, there you are.” The NYT named it one of the 10 best California books of 2023, calling it “incandescent … hilarious … a triumph.”
If you’re bursting to discuss Death Valley (or you need an extra push to try it), it’s the SF Literary Fiction Book Club’s latest pick - join them for an open meeting 6/1!
2) You’re looking for a genre-bending memoir
Shze-Hui Tjoa on The Story Game at The Ruby. Thursday 5/9, 7pm, free with RSVP.
Join UK-based writer Shze-Hui Tjoa for the launch of The Story Game: A Memoir, which reenacts - in tautly novelistic fashion - the process of healing she moved through to recover memories lost to complex PTSD and, eventually, to reconstruct her sense of self. She’ll be joined for a reading and conversation with local writers Alexandra Clemente Perez, Jennifer Hu, and Lena Moses-Schmitt.
3) You’d like to dismantle myths around migration
Lauren Markham on A Map of Future Ruins and John Washington on The Case for Open Borders at Black Bird Bookstore and Cafe. Friday 5/10, 7pm, free.
How did migration become a crime - and who benefits? Hear from Lauren Markham, whose A Map of Future Ruins began as an investigation into the 2020 fire that destroyed most of Greece’s largest refugee camp and evolved into a much broader exploration, and John Washington, whose The Case for Open Borders proposes a forthright solution to the immigration crisis: open the gates.
If you’re looking to learn about the Greek refugee crisis through fiction, join Helen Benedict for a talk about her novel The Good Deed at Green Apple Books on the Park Monday. Drawn from four years of interviews with refugees on Samos, it offers a powerful portrait of women on opposite sides of a refugee camp in Greece.
Can’t make it to the conversation Friday? Catch John Washington solo at Medicine for Nightmares Tuesday.
4) You have *thoughts* about the word SLUT
SLUTS Anthology Release Party at Fabulosa Books. Thursday 5/9, 7pm, free.
Celebrate the SLUTS Anthology, the inaugural publication from queer publisher Dopamine Books, with contributor readings and festivities at Fabulosa. Composed of more than 30 personal essays, fiction, and experimental works exploring the eternally controversial word, SLUTS “asks writers and readers to investigate the many ways the notion of the slut impacts our inner and outer lives.” Juicy!
5) You’re craving a “tender, slyly comical, shamelessly honest” novel
Yukiko Tominaga on See: Loss. See Also: Love at Green Apple Books on the Park and via Zoom. Tuesday 5/7, 7pm, free.
Join translator and author Yukiko Tominaga, in conversation with Carol Edgarian, for the launch of her debut novel See: Loss. See Also: Love. A testament to the nonlinearity of grief, it follows a Japanese widow raising her son between San Francisco and Japan with the help of her Jewish mother-in-law as she wrestles with loss, sadness, and - unexpectedly - joy.
Also
MONDAY | Heather McCalden on her debut The Observable Universe: An Investigation at Booksmith | Amy R. Wong in conversation with Christopher Rovee on A Nostalgia for English: Rethinking Language, Refiguring the Discipline at City Lights
TUESDAY | Peaches Christ on With Love, Mommie Dearest at Fabulosa | Rusty Morrison on Risk at City Lights | Taleen Voskuni on Lavash at First Sight at Book Passage
WEDNESDAY | Disability activist Alice Wong speaks online about her new book Disability Intimacy | Last Supper Party feat. Zara Jamshed & Cassandra Rockwood Ghanem at Medicine for Nightmares | Alison Roman Gives Solicited Advice at the Palace of Fine Arts
THURSDAY | Narrative Magazine presents Thirsty Readers’ Club at Black Bird | Deuki Hong and Matt Rodbard on Koreaworld: A Cookbook at Omnivore | Launch party for Pure: The Sexual Revolutions of Marilyn Chambers at the Tenderloin Museum | Editor Jordan Elgrably on Stories from the Center of the World: New Middle East Fiction at City Lights | Juli Min on Shanghailanders at Book Passage
FRIDAY | Poetry, Art & Jazz: SF Waldorf High School's 3rd Annual Literary Reading with Live Music at Bookshop West Portal
SATURDAY | Day Dreamer’s Poetry Showcase feat. the Berkeley Slam Team | Flor Y Canto Literary Festival Fundraiser with Cherrie Moraga | GBBO semi-finalist Benjamina Ebuehi on I'll Bring Dessert at Omnivore | NO WORRIES IF NOT poetry showcase feat. Casper Lee, Willa Smart, and Be Schierenberg | Debbie Hines on Get Off My Neck: Black Lives, White Justice, and a Former Prosecutor’s Quest for Reform at City Lights
SUNDAY | Anne Lamott teaches an online writing workshop via Book Passage | Online meeting of the Silent Book Club
Psst - how do you feel about this week’s Also section?
I’m always looking to improve the Same Page experience! Recently, a few readers asked me to experiment with formatting to make the Also section more digestible. Compared to the usual structure, how do you feel about this version, which is broken out by days of the week?
If you have feedback that’s not captured by the poll, I’d love to hear - just reply to this email.
Book-adjacent gatherings
Not *about* books, but around them
🎤 Black Bird Bookstore and Cafe is running their monthly open-mic night, hosted by Laura Booth. Share the mic and your words with fellow writers - all levels welcome! Wednesday 5/8, 7-9pm, free.
💬 Manny’s is welcoming Elise Joshi, student activist and Executive Director of Gen Z for Change, for a talk about the ongoing campus protests - she’ll share the impact she’s seen on students and young folks across the country and her hopes for the future of the movement. Wednesday 5/8, 7pm, $15 (complimentary tickets available).
🎵 Green Apple Books on the Park is hosting an evening of experimental music featuring Hauras and silo homes, two musicians with close connections to the shop. It’s free to attend, but all donations will go to the Prisoners Literature Project, which has provided books to incarcerated people for more than 30 years. Thursday 5/9, 7pm.
Thanks for reading!
If you enjoyed this issue of Same Page, please pass it along to 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.
Cheers,
Christina
Book recommendations are my love language.
A bonus for paid subscribers: each week I feature a book I’ve recently read and wholeheartedly loved.
I’ll be honest: it’s been a minute since I came across a new-to-me book I couldn’t put down. (It’s why my last few recommendations have been rereads!) But this week, we’re back to our regularly scheduled programming, with a strange, tender, incandescently human gem of a book - despite the fact that it’s (maybe?) about an alien.
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