Same Page SF | Creativity, mistaken identity, and Keanu Reeves
Plus, a May sneak peek ♥️
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 summarize and signal-boost author events, 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 attend if:
1) You’re looking to feel “less world-weary, more filled with wonder”
Suleika Jaouad on The Book of Alchemy at City Arts & Lectures. Monday 4/28, 7:30pm, $95+ (includes book).
Suleika Jaouad is one of my favorite writers (thanks to Sarah for the recommendation!) - her memoir Between Two Kingdoms is frankly unforgettable, and her weekly newsletter is a regular source of inspiration and joy. I’m far from her only fan: City Arts & Lectures added this event after the first sold out in 24 hours! She’ll be celebrating The Book of Alchemy: A Creative Practice for an Inspired Life with an evening of storytelling and performances hosted by her husband, Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Jon Batiste.
2) You’ve ever been tempted by someone else’s emails
Kirthana Ramisetti on The Other Lata at Book Passage. Monday 4/28, 5:30pm, free.
In 2005, I joined Gmail with the coveted firstname+lastname combo - and ever since, my inbox has been overflowing with messages meant for other Christinas, from a real estate agent to a Long Island influencer. So I was immediately drawn to the premise of Kirthana Ramisetti’s new novel The Other Lata, a rom-com in which the protagonist - who’s constantly getting emails meant for a more interesting Lata - impulsively decides to try out her doppelgänger’s life. Claire Jimenéz called it “a clever, playful tale about identity, imposters, and the illusion of wealth … An absolute joy to read.”
3) Your sweet spot is celebrity news meets deep academia
Sezin Devi Koehler on Much Ado About Keanu: A Critical Reeves Theory at Green Apple Books on the Park and via Zoom. Tuesday 4/29, 7pm, free.
Keanu Reeves may be the “universal screen saver of pop culture,” but there’s much more to the man than box office receipts and Internet memes. Join sociologist Sezin Devi Koehler to celebrate Much Ado About Keanu, a book of essays that critically examine Reeves’s forty-year career and creative output from an interdisciplinary and intersectional perspective, especially how his Asian and Indigenous identity informs his mainstream work.
4) You’re desperate for baby books you’ll actually want to read
Jon Klassen on Your Farm / Your Forest / Your Island at Black Bird Bookstore & Cafe. Friday 5/2, 7pm, free with RSVP.
As someone newly immersed in kid-lit, I’ve quickly discovered it can be hit or miss (some board books are more like *bored* books, amiright?). Thankfully, there are author-illustrators like Jon Klassen, whose whimsical storybooks have long delighted humans of all ages. In celebration of Your Farm, Your Forest, and Your Island - the first he’s written for actual babies - he’ll be speaking with collaborator Mac Burnett about the surprisingly sophisticated art of the board book (“Your imaginary audience has a note taped to them: ‘I can’t read. I can’t talk. I don’t care about stories, plots or characters. What do you have for me?’”).
5) You’re a fan of trailblazing sci-fi
SF in SF feat. Karen Joy Fowler and Pat Murphy at The Lost Church. Sunday 5/4, $15, 4:45-7pm.
This month’s SF in SF features the authors who co-founded the Otherwise Award for fiction that explores and expands our understanding of gender: Karen Joy Fowler, whose most recent novel Booth was longlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize, and Pat Murphy, whose just-released The Adventures of Mary Darling is a subversive Peter Pan/Sherlock Holmes tale that “turns the bigotry and misogyny of Victorian England on its head” (Library Journal). There’ll be a bar, with all proceeds going to The Lost Church, a nonprofit creating, sustaining, and defending spaces for live performance.
Also
MONDAY Science Read-In at Green Apple Books on the Park | History professor Martha S. Jones on The Trouble of Color: An American Family Memoir at City Lights
TUESDAY Grotto Night at the Library: Writers of color on family and identity via Rooted and Written on SFPL Zoom | John M. Efron on All Consuming: Germans, Jews, and the Meaning of Meat at City Lights | Alix Traeger on Scratch That: Embrace the Mess, Cook to Impress at Omnivore (with wine from Vino Disco)
WEDNESDAY History and Healing: A Celebration of AANHPI Heritage Month via Litquake and Heyday Books at SFPL Main | USF WordNight at The Booksmith | Ursula Pike on An Indian Among los Indígenas: A Native Travel Memoir via City Lights Zoom | Janice Shapiro on graphic novel Honoraria: A Fortuitous Friendship at Bird & Beckett | The San Francisco Wild Writing Women on their collection Season Lightly With Salt: Poems and Recipes from the Test Kitchens of the San Francisco Wild Writing Women at Bookshop West Portal
THURSDAY Gen Blend, a monthly intergenerational writers’ potluck and open mic, at Ruth’s Table | Kyle Casey Chu (Panda Dulce) on her debut middle-grade novel The Queen Bees of Tybee County at Fabulosa | Taku Kondo on Coastal Harvest: Fish Forage Feast at Omnivore | Arion Press Craft Talk featuring Riso printmaker Natalie Andrewson at the Bayfront Theater
FRIDAY Friends of the SFPL Monthly Book Sale Day 1 at Friends’ Donation Center | North Beach First Friday (“galleries, poetry, wine, not a great web presence”) starting from City Lights | Rescheduled conversation (from October) between Ross Gay and Aracelis Girmay at Sydney Goldstein Theater
SATURDAY Friends of the SFPL Monthly Book Sale Day 2 at Friends’ Donation Center | Free Comic Book Day at Mission: Comics | In the Presence of Absence: Poets in response to carcerality at Medicine for Nightmares | Author and philosopher Daniel Pinchbeck on “the emerging themes forming the zeitgeist of our times” via City Lights Zoom | Food demo and book-signing with Vina Thakkar Patel for The Spice Collector’s Cookbook at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market | Pat Murphy on The Adventures of Mary Darling at SFPL Bernal Heights | Anders Nilson on Tongues at Silver Sprocket | Library Laureates Gala and After-Party
SUNDAY Author panel on pivoting to publishing at age 50+ via Litquake at Page Street Co-Working
Book-adjacent gatherings
Not *about* books, but around them
🎶 Medicine for Nightmares is holding a book release concert to celebrate A Year of Deep Listening: 365 Text Scores for Pauline Oliveros. The Cornelius Cardew Choir, Thingamajigs Ensemble and Pet the Tiger Instrument Inventors Collective will perform, with audience participation encouraged. Thursday 5/1, 7pm, free.
🫖 Sour Cherry Comics is hosting resident witch Maya Songbird for an afternoon of tea and tarot. Your sliding-scale ticket gets you a tarot reading and a candle color consult; you’re also welcome to just hang out! Saturday 5/3, 4-6pm, $15-30.
💐 Black Bird Bookstore & Cafe is welcoming Karen Trinidad from Bright Moments for a floral design workshop. Learn Karen’s farm-to-vase approach to sourcing local flowers, build community with other anthophiles, and take home your own stunning arrangement! Sunday 5/4, 10am-12pm, $155.
Bouquet from Bright Moments website
Let’s keep Same Page going, together.
Did you reach the end of this issue and think, wow, Same Page must be a lot of work?
It is! Same Page is a labor of love, but it’s still a labor - one that requires time and focus. So I’m seeking 200 paid subscribers by July to make it sustainable.
And we’re officially a third of the way there!
Paid subscribers get weekly book recommendations, priority access to giveaways, and sneak peeks for events likely to sell out. (Founding subscribers also get personalized book suggestions on request!)
THANK YOU to those of you who have upgraded. I’m encouraged by your support and kind words.
I'm grateful to you for doing time-consuming but necessary work to help strengthen the fabric of the Bay Area's in-person literary community.
It would also mean a lot if you pass Same Page along to a bookish friend or two (or more, but let’s be real, we’re all introverts here).
As always, if you have a question to ask or an event to share, I’d love to hear from you! Reply to this email or find me at hello@samepagesf.com.
Cheers,
Christina
Advance notice is my love language.
It’s the start of the month, and you know what that means: a sneak peek of the good stuff! Mark your calendar and gird your TBR.
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