Same Page SF | Reading, writing, and eating for introverts

Plus: If your favorite classes were Art and Science, you're in luck!

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 do if:

1) You’re looking to read in community

After-Hours Reading Club at Black Bird Bookstore & Cafe. Wednesday 7/24, 7pm, $10. 

Black Bird’s new After-Hours Reading Club is a dedicated evening once a month to read, drink, and mingle with fellow bookworms. Bring your current read or treat yourself to something new from Black Bird’s shelves (the Fiction section is lovingly curated by yours truly!), then curl up and get cozy. The first hour will be devoted to quiet reading, the second to casual conversation.

2) You’ve got the munchies

Stephanie Hua on Edibles: Small Bites for the Modern Cannabis Kitchen at On Waverly. Friday 7/25, 5-7:30pm, $60+.

Join recipe developer and food photographer Stephanie Hua, whose subversively sophisticated Edibles has sold over 160k copies and counting, for a hands-on cooking class. Learn about the art and science of making edibles like a Peach & Ginger Ale Float, Roasted Beet Hummus, and Grapefruit Negroni “Pot” de Fruits. (You may also want to meet chef Chad Hyatt earlier in the week to celebrate the launch of The Mushroom Hunter’s Kitchen - though as far as I’m aware, his mushrooms are the non-hallucinogenic kind!)

3) You’re a human being who cares about other human beings

Erasure: Archives and Disappearance at 477 Minna. Friday 7/25, 6pm, $10+.

This isn’t specific to San Francisco, but it isn’t as separate as we’d like to think either: the most important thing I read this week was graduate student Rümeysa Öztürk’s account of her weeks in a for-profit ICE detention center. I’m simultaneously devastated for and infuriated by what she went through - what we as a country put her through - and grateful for her thorough documentation.

Along those lines, I’m eager to hear from Quraysh Ali Lansana (Killing the Negative) and Daniela Naomi Molnar (Protocols: An Erasure). Facilitated by Linda Norton (Public Gardens), they’ll explore erasure from a socio-political perspective - how it’s enacted, its effects on communities, and the creative and collective strategies used to resist and reclaim what’s lost.

4) You’re reading or writing about motherhood

Narrating the Mother on Zoom via Litquake and Bay Area Book Festival. Saturday 7/26, 10am, free with registration.

Iman Mersal, Egyptian-Canadian poet and essayist who most recently authored Motherhood and Its Ghosts, and Kate Briggs, Rotterdam-based author of The Long Form, are gathering for an intimate virtual conversation on motherhood - its invisible labor, daily improvisations, and radical potential. (To no one’s surprise, I’m currently devouring works of this kind; if you can relate, Mia Ayumi Malhotra’s Mothersalt and Doireann Ní Ghríofa’s A Ghost in the Throat are two more of my recent favorites.)

5) Your favorite classes were Art and Science

Biology of Books at the Randall Museum. Saturday 7/26, 1-3pm, free with registration. 

Ever read a book that blew your mind about the natural world? (For me, it’s this.) Whatever yours is, bring it to the Randall Museum for an afternoon of community art-making. Hosted by Friends & Neighbors as part of their Adult Summer Reading Challenge, they’ll provide supplies to bring your reading to life. If you’re feeling extra-inspired, bring a dish to share - maybe “foods described in your favorite book, foods that make you think of nature [or] that are green.” Love the commitment to the theme!

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Excited about one of this week’s features? Invite a bookish friend to join you (or a full crew, but let’s be real, we’re all introverts here).

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Also

MONDAY  Chetna Makan on Classic Indian Recipes and Newest Indian Vegetarian at Omnivore  |  The Commonwealth Club’s Summer Literary Salon has been postponed 

TUESDAY  Barbara Ramos on A Fearless Eye: The Photography of Barbara Ramos, a collection of ‘70s San Francisco street photography, at Green Apple Books on the Park | Culture historians Dennis McNally on The Last Great Dream: How Bohemians Became Hippies and Created the Sixties and Charles Shuttleworth on Jack Kerouac: The Buddhist Years via City Lights Zoom | Poetic Tuesday at Yerba Buena Gardens  |  Generative writing workshop with Matthew Clark Davidson of The Lab: Experiments in Writing Across Genre at The Booksmith | Sami Tamimi on Boustany: A Celebration of Vegetables from My Palestine at Omnivore  |  Emmy Award-winning comedy writer Bruce Vilanch on It Seemed Like a Bad Idea at the Time: The Worst TV Shows in History and Other Things I Wrote to benefit The Richmond/Ermet Aid Foundation at OASIS

WEDNESDAY  Authors Nicholas Triolo on The Way Around: A Field Guide to Going Nowhere and Josh Jackson on The Enduring Wild: A Journey Into California's Public Lands at Green Apple Books on the Park to benefit the Golden Gate Natural Parks Conservancy  |  Mark Sapir on I’ll Fly Away: Stories about Amazing Disabled Elders at Book Passage  |  Cathy Whims on The Italian Summer Kitchen: Timeless Recipes for La Dolce Vita at Omnivore  |  Líneas del Sur on Las Aventuras de la China Iron de Gabriela Cabezon Camara at Medicine for Nightmares  |  Caro De Robertis on So Many Stars: An Oral History of Trans, Nonbinary, Genderqueer, and Two-Spirit People of Color via City Lights Zoom