Same Page SF | Literary journeys, provocative novels, and a whole lot to learn đ§
Plus, meet me at Analog Night!
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.
Nearly a year ago, I dreamed up Same Page after missing one too many events I only learned about after the fact (and, as a bookseller, working one too many with no attendees). Over these last ten months Iâve had the pleasure of meeting many Same Page readers, and Iâd love to meet more. Iâll be tabling this Friday at Black Bird Bookstore & Cafeâs Analog Night, a celebration of real-world craft and community. Come check it out and say hello! đ
On to the goings-on!
No matter how old I get, I still think of September as back-to-school season, and it would appear the literary world does, too - particularly this Thursday! Read on to learn what youâll want to attend if:
1) Youâre looking for a propulsive tale of class, race, and privilegeÂ
Regina Porter on The Rich People Have Gone Away at Booksmith. Tuesday 9/17, 7pm, free with RSVP.Â
Join award-winning playwright and author Regina Porter - in conversation with R. O. Kwon - to celebrate the launch of her second novel. Set in Brooklyn in the early days of the pandemic lockdown, The Rich People Have Gone Away follows a diverse group brought together by the search for a missing pregnant woman. Kirkus praised it as ârestless, intentionally unsettling ⌠breathtakingâ in a starred review.
2) Youâre being watched (or doing the watchingâŚ)
Secret Nook Presents: Surveillance at Clioâs Bookstore (Oakland). Wednesday 9/18, 7pm, free.
In the infamous words of Joseph Heller, âJust because youâre paranoid doesnât mean they arenât after you.â Join Secret Nook, an experimental reading series based out of Clioâs Bookstore in Oakland, for a literary excavation of surveillance (!) with readings from local authors and creatives Abigail Stewart, Erin Gravley, Hadas Goshen, Giovanna Lomanto, and Rena Tom.
3) Youâre enamored by literary passages - literally and figuratively
John McMurtrie on Literary Journeys: Mapping Fictional Travels Across the World of Literature at Book Passage. Wednesday 9/18, 5:30pm, free.Â
Join editor John McMurtrie to celebrate the launch of Literary Journeys, a visual guide to over seventy-five momentous journeys in the world of literature, from Homerâs Odyssey to Kerouacâs On the Road to Ngozi Adichieâs Americanah. Arranged in chronological order over the course of twenty-five hundred years, theyâre lovingly and vividly illustrated with paintings, engravings, photographs, and maps.
4) You want to better understand our city, our country, and our world
Thereâs a lot to learn - all happening this Thursday!
đď¸ Our city
Alison Owings with Del Seymour on Mayor of the Tenderloin at the Tenderloin Museum. Thursday 9/19, 5:30pm, free with RSVP.Â
Oral history-based reporter Alison Owings spent nearly a decade shadowing, interviewing, and writing about Del Seymour, the âMayor of the Tenderloin.â Her new book bears witness to his extraordinary life and provides a nuanced, on-the-ground history of the Tenderloinâs past decade. (Canât make it Thursday? Owings will be speaking solo at Bookshop West Portal Wednesday.)
đşđ˛ Our country
How did American politics becomeâŚwhatever they are now? Hear from Heather Cox Richardson, the historian behind the explosively popular Substack Letters from an American and book Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America, via fireside-style chat with writer and critic Steven Winn. 9/19, 7:30pm, $75 (as always, City Arts & Lectures makes free tickets available to students and educators!).
If you were to ask me whoâs thought the most deeply - and written the most brutally and beautifully - about our country, my answer would be immediate: James Baldwin. Visit the GLBT Historical Museum for an 100th birthday party to celebrate his life and work with readings, drag performances, and cake, plus books for sale from Fabulosa. 9/19, 6-9pm, $20 (free for members).
đ Our world and climateÂ
Join Nemonte Nenquimo and her husband and co-author Mitch Anderson at Booksmith for the release of We Will Be Jaguars: A Memoir of My People. Born into the Waorani tribe of Ecuadorâs Amazon rainforest, two decades later sheâs emerged as one of the most forceful voices in climate change activism. 9/19, 7pm, free with RSVP.Â
Hear from Genevieve Guenther, the founding director of End Climate Silence, on her new book The Language of Climate Politics: Fossil-Fuel Propaganda and How to Fight It at City Lights in partnership with the SF Bay Chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility. 9/19, 7pm, free.Â
AlsoÂ
MONDAYÂ Financial expert Megan Gorman on All the Presidents' Money: How the Men Who Governed America Governed Their Money
TUESDAY Investigative journalist Mara Kardas-Nelson on We Are Not Able to Live in the Sky: The Seductive Promise of Microfinance at Book Passage | Global justice organizers Stephanie Guilloud, Anuradha Mittal, Merle Payne and David Solnit on City Lights-published anthology Globalize Liberation: How to Uproot the System and Build a Better World via Zoom | Chilean-born journalist and writer CristiĂĄn Opacho on EngaĂąos Mutuos: El Golpe Gringo at Medicine for Nightmares | Arielle Egozi on Being Bad: Breaking the Rules and Becoming Everything Youâre Supposed to Be at Fabulosa | Rhymes for Reform via KQED Live featuring SF Poet Laureate Tongo Eisen-Martin
WEDNESDAY Wordnight presented by USFâs English Department and MFA program at Booksmith | Sex-positive author and activist Carol Queen reading from her memoir-in-progress at SFPL Main
THURSDAY  Speaking Axolotl, the Bay Areaâs long-running Latinx reading series, featuring Jozer Guerrero and Xochiquetzal Candelaria | Sharon K. Gillenwater on Scaling with Soul at Book Passage
FRIDAY Meeting of the Marina Girls Book Club to discuss The FiancÊ Dilemma by Elena Armas at Tacolicious | Tim Z. Hernandez on They Call You Back: A Lost History, A Search, A Memoir via City Lights Zoom | Hyeseung Song on her debut Docile: Memoirs of a Not-So-Perfect Asian Girl in conversation with Grace Loh Prasad
SATURDAY New Orleans-based chef Nini Nguyen on DÇc BiĂŞt: An Extra Special Vietnamese Cookbook at Omnivore | Book-signing and photo opportunity with Tue Nguyen for Di An: The Salty, Sour, Sweet and Spicy Flavors of Vietnamese Cooking with TwayDaBae at Book Passage | Batman Day 2024 at Mission: Comics and Art | Book-signing and photo opportunity with pop star Joanna âJojoâ Levesque of âLeave (Get Out)â and âToo Little, Too Lateâ fame for her memoir Over the Influence | Jandy Nelson on When The World Tips Over at Books Inc. Opera Plaza | Launch party for Yasmeen Abedifardâs When To Pick a Pomegranate, a collection of contemplative and cathartic short comics, at Silver SprocketÂ
SUNDAY Meeting of the SF Silent Book Club at Obscenity Bar & Lounge | Joy Neumeyer on A Survivor's Education: Women, Violence, and the Stories We Donât Tell at Book Passage
Local & literary news
Last week to complete the Summer Reading Challenge held by Green Apple Books and Friends & Neighbors | Green Apple Books is partnering with The Fillmore to celebrate their fall 2024 season, with a limited-edition tote bag and ticket giveaways at their three locations | Illustrator Jenny Jedeikinâs virtual four-week workshop, Write About Your Life in a Comic Strip, kicks off Thursday via Book Passage Zoom | Four of the former owners and booksellers of Folio Books plan to reopen in the same space as Noe Valley Books this fall | The schedule for Litquake 2024, the largest independent literary festival on the West Coast, has been published (and it looks amazing!)
Book-adjacent gatheringsÂ
Not *about* books, but around them
đ¨ Friends & Neighbors SF is hosting All-Star Art Club, a communal art party and potluck. Bring a creative project to work on alongside other artists - the novel youâre writing, a podcast to edit, or the idea you just canât get out of your head. Tuesday 9/17, 5-10pm, $10 donation requested.
đ Black Bird Bookstore & Cafe is back with Analog Night - stop by for food, music, wine, and the first-ever Black Bird Flea Market (curated by staff and friends - including yours truly!). Friday 9/20, 7-9pm, free.Â
đś The SFPL Park is welcoming musicians from the San Francisco Symphony for a chamber concert and talk. Theyâll be performing classical pieces from a range of composers and sharing their experiences as members of the Symphony. Saturday 9/21, 3-4pm, free.
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Cheers,
Christina
Book recommendations are my love language.
A bonus for paid subscribers: each week I feature a book Iâve recently read and want to recommend. If youâre into literary fiction thatâs part satire, part thriller - think Yellowface by R.F. Kuang - this oneâs for you.
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