Same Page SF | Bookstore birthdays, an anonymous author, and a translator's tale
July 13 - 19, 2026
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. Every Monday, I share author talks, book clubs, and new releases happening across our city.
It’s another great week to be a reader in San Francisco. Here’s what you’ll want to do if:
1) You’re celebrating bookstore birthdays
It’s a milestone month! Christopher’s celebrated their 35th on July 4th; if you’re not familiar with their improbable origin story, read about the New Zealand venture capitalist turned Potrero Hill bookseller here.
This week, Bound Together Anarchist Collective Bookstore is commemorating 50 years at the Counterculture Museum, where “a panel of old and new collective members will … attempt to explain how a completely volunteer bookstore is still around after half a century” (Wednesday 7/15, 7:30pm, free). Also in the Haight - and also turning 50! - is Booksmith, throwing an all-day party (Saturday 7/18, all day, free). Expect activities, giveaways, a custom drink, and special merch - including glittery watercolor stickers designed by Angela Chu of Tend Studio in collaboration with Same Page. 🪩
2) You’re craving powerful poetry
Jake Skeets on Horses: Poems at Green Apple Books on the Park and live online. Wednesday 7/15, 7pm, free (RSVP requested).
In one of the odder sentences I’ve published in this newsletter, I feel like horses are everywhere this summer (Whistler by Ann Patchett, “All Them Horses” by Noah Kahan), so it was the title of Navajo Nation Poet Laureate Jake Skeets’ sophomore collection that first caught my attention. That said, it was the premise and praise of Horses that hooked me: a four-part collection tracking the shifting land of the Navajo Nation and the impacts of climate change, Ada Limón called it “singularly stunning.”
3) You love a mystery in every sense of the word
Chuck Tingle on Fabulous Bodies at The Internet Archive. Thursday 7/16, 7pm, $20+.
You know his name, but you don’t know his face! The bestselling/anonymous author Chuck Tingle will don his trademark sunglasses and hot-pink mask to visit The Internet Archive for the launch of Fabulous Bodies. A page-turner about an aspiring fashion influencer who moonlights as a grave robber - at least, until a dead body wakes up - it’s blurbed as a “supernatural joyride where Drive meets Beetlejuice.”
4) You’d like to imbibe and be inspired
Listening to Wine: A Tasting and Storytelling Experience at Jared’s Pottery (Emeryville). Thursday July 16, 6pm, $40 benefits Litquake.
I went to business school at Berkeley, and by far our program’s most popular elective was a wine-tasting class. Maybe if I’d bid on it, I’d understand what a tannin is? Regardless, there’s no place for wine jargon in this unusual tasting experience. Hosted by Grant Faulkner (The Art of Brevity) and Elizabeth Rosner (Third Ear), “you’ll embark on an adventurous and playful experience tasting a curated series of Saintsbury wines, along with prompts to inspire writing your own 100-word descriptions—or stories.”
5) You’re wondering how to bring an ancient epic to life
Dr. Doug McFarland on Translating The Odyssey at Russian Hill Bookstore. Sunday 7/19, 5-6pm, free with RSVP.
“Why is a sea described as wine dark? What is gained and lost moving a story between languages? How do we tell an epic poem in meter or on screen?” To coincide with the release of Christopher Nolan’s movie adaptation, hear from English and Classics scholar Doug McFarland about his experience translating Homer’s iconic, 2,500-year-old saga.
✨ SNEAK PEEK: You love books and boats
Trip to The Friends of the Sausalito Library Bookstore. Next Saturday 7/25, 12-3:30ish, free (RSVP requested).
Next Saturday, join Same Page SF and Big Book Baby - an online and pop-up bookstore selling used books by queer, trans, and BIPOC authors - for an adventure to The Friends of Sausalito Library Bookstore, Marin’s biggest used bookshop with nearly 30,000 books for sale.
We’ll take the 12:35pm ferry from Embarcadero, then walk twenty minutes along the water from the terminal to the bookshop. Wear comfy shoes and bring a blanket in case you have time for outdoor reading before the 3:10pm ferry back. Let us know you’re coming here!
Book-adjacent events
🍰 Black Bird is hosting their monthly Game & Pie Night. Bring your own game or buy one and settle in for an evening of friendly competition. Your ticket gets you tea, wine, and treats from a local micro-bakery. Wednesday 7/15, 7pm, $10.
💬 As part of this year’s LaborFest, Bird & Beckett is welcoming author and theater historian Joel Eis for Left off the Program, a visual lecture and discussion on the censored history of labor theater in America from 1880-1940. Wednesday 7/15, 7:30-9pm, free.
🔤 Arion Press - the last unified type foundry, letterpress workshop, and bindery in daily operation in the US - is opening their Fort Mason facility for a tour. Learn how they hand-craft their books and see what they’re currently creating. Saturday 7/18, 1pm and 3pm, $15 suggested donation.
Excited about one of this week’s features? Invite a friend to join you (or a full crew, but let’s be real, we’re all introverts here).
Have an event to share? Tell me about it!
Absolutely Science Fiction!, an unforgettable stage adaptation of stories by Ray Bradbury and Kurt Vonnegut, runs through July 19 at Z Space | Futurity Library: Disobedient Artists’ Books in the Postbook Age runs through July 26 at San Francisco Center for the Book | Letterform Archive, a library/museum focused on calligraphy, lettering, and graphic design, is hiring for an Art Director | Local publisher Two Lines Press is open for submissions through the beginning of August
MONDAY Choreographer and scholar Farima Berenji on Companions of the Sun, about the history and spirituality of Iranian dance and ritual, at SFPL Anza | Babes Who Book at Sour Cherry Comics
TUESDAY Journalist Chris Ballard on The Plunge: Maverick Swimmers, an Unlikely Quest, and the Transformative Power of Cold Water at KALW | N. K. Navarro on When the Bar is in Hell: Dating at 40 at The Love Potion Library | Thomas Mullaney on How We Disappear: A Personal History of Information - one of my most-anticipated nonfiction books of the year - via City Lights Zoom | Bastille Day Party and Lamantia Reading with Pepite, Pierreclos, and Alexandre Sahli at Golden Sardine | Poetic Tuesday at Yerba Buena Gardens | Poetry Open Mic at Noe Valley Books | On the Page, Off the Page at SFPL Park
WEDNESDAY Grace Loh Prasad on The Translator’s Daughter, a memoir exploring language, identity and belonging as a Taiwanese American immigrant, at SFPL Sunset
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