Same Page SF | Time for a summer reading challenge

Why should kids have all the fun?

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 for a true story of celibacy - and pleasure

Melissa Febos on The Dry Season: A Memoir of Pleasure in a Year Without Sex at The Booksmith. Tuesday 6/17, 7pm, free with RSVP.

In the wake of a painful breakup, bestselling author and serial monogamist Melissa Febos decided to abstain from all romantic entanglements. The year that followed - recounted in her memoir The Dry Season - proved a revelation of solitude, freedom, and unexpected pleasure; Kirkus called it “gorgeous and thought-provoking” in a starred review. She’ll discuss it with Carvell Wallace (Another Word for Love).

2) You’re intrigued by folklore, witchcraft, and dark inheritance

Irene Solá on I Gave You Eyes and You Looked Toward Darkness at Green Apple Books on the Park and via Zoom. Friday 6/20, 7pm, free.

Catalonian author Irene Solá is visiting to celebrate the English-language release of her novel I Gave You Eyes and You Looked Toward Darkness (what a title!), translated by Mara Faye Lethem. The story of an impossibly old woman on her deathbed, it blurs the lines between past and present, living and dead. Catherine Lacey (Biography of X) described it as “forged from the deepest and truest stories about the perversity of the body, the sheer drama of the natural world, and the vengeful side of the divine.”

3) You love a celebration of literature and culture

Flor y Canto Literary Festival in the Mission. Friday 6/20 through Sunday 6/22, various times, free. 

Flor y Canto, La Mision’s beloved homegrown literary festival, is back! As always, it’ll kick off with a poetry crawl Friday evening and continue with over a dozen events throughout the weekend, hosted mostly at Adobe Books and Medicine for Nightmares. Highlights include Libros, a solo art show by Amanda Ayala, Not Your Papi’s Utopia: Latinx Visions of Radical Hope at Medicine for Nightmares, and Fernando A. Flores reading from his new dystopia Brother Brontë.

4) You want to go behind the scenes of queer beach reads

How They Did It: Queer Summer Reads at Page Street Co-Working. Sunday 6/22, 3-5pm, $25 (use SAMEPAGESUMMER for $5 off). 

In celebration of Pride, Litquake’s upcoming How They Did It panel is all about Queer Summer Reads, featuring five authors - Dominic Lim, Jonathan Parks-Ramage, Renee Swindle, Edward Underhill, and Shoshana von Blackensee - who’ve placed “queer characters front and center, giving them the epic adventures and happily-ever-afters they deserve.” Come for the thoughtful conversation, stay for casual mingling over Prosecco and fancy NA drinks.

Speaking of Shoshana: her debut Girls Girls Girls - an achingly tender exploration of queerness, self-discovery, and San Francisco in the summer of ‘96 - is our next Same Page x Black Bird Book Club Pick! Our first meeting was a rousing success, and there’s been so much interest in this next one that we’ve decided to cap attendance to keep things cozy. Reserve your spot here. (And remember, if you buy your copy from Black Bird, enjoy a cafe drink on the house!)

5) You’re nostalgic for a summer reading challenge 

You’re not the only one. And you’ve got options! 

The SFPL’s Summer Stride is open to readers of all ages - log 20 hours of reading or complete their Bingo challenge to win a custom tote. (And don’t forget the raffle - every day you visit a branch, you’re eligible for a ticket!) 

For grown-ups only, Green Apple Books is partnering with Friends and Neighbors for their second annual Summer Reading Challenge. Kicking off Sunday with an Opening Ceremony, it’ll run through the end of September, with the overall winner determined by total reading hours and side prizes for categories like “Book Salad,” “All Ears,” and “Well-Traveled.”

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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  —

TUESDAY  Ingrid Hu Dahl on Sun Shining on Morning Snow: A Memoir of Identity, Loss, and Living Boldly at Manny’s  |  Charles Soule on Trials of the Jedi, the conclusion to his Star Wars: The High Republic series, at Books Inc. in the Marina

WEDNESDAY Poets Keith Ekiss, Rachel Richardson, and Matthew Zapruder on their new collections at Green Apple Books on the Park | Radical Reading Group & Activism Book Discussion for The Faggots & Their Friends Between Revolutions at Sour Cherry Comics  |  Coauthors john a. powell and Stephen Menendian on Belonging without Othering: How We Save Ourselves and the World at Mechanics’ Institute  |  Dee Knight on Befriending China and Kyle Ferrana on Why The World Needs China at Book Passage  |  James Beard winner Jeff Koehler on The Spanish Mediterranean Islands at Omnivore  |  Pride Night, “an after-hours celebration of queerness in literature and life,” at Noe Valley Books