Welcome to the third issue of Same Page SF, your home for all things local and literary. Think of us as your friendly, well-informed, and unabashedly nerdy source for book discussions, author talks, writer meet-ups, new releases, and other relevant happenings.
Before we dig in (food pun *fully* intended - okay, I’ll see myself out), if you’re feeling generous this Thanksgiving, here are two great causes worth supporting:
Books Not Bans, initiated and sponsored by Fabulosa Books in the Castro, curates and sends boxes of queer, affirmative, and necessary books to LGBTQ+ organizations in conservative parts of the country.
The Children’s Book Project helps build reading-rich environments for equity in literacy, learning, and life. They’re always looking for kids’ books in Spanish, which you can buy at a 10% discount through their longtime partner Folio Books in Noe Valley.
And if you’re feeling grateful for *us* (right back atcha!), we’ll share the love - we’ll donate 10% of revenue pledged to Same Page SF now through the end of the year to Books Not Bans and The Children’s Book Project.
Love the warm-and-fuzzies on a Monday morning 🥰 Speaking of which, here are five literary goings-on this holiday week you’ll want to attend if…
1) You’ve been meaning to join a book club
These free and open-to-all club meetings are happening in December, so you’ll want to start reading now (and, hey, it won’t hurt to have a book on hand if you need a little ~break~ this Thursday).
SFPL’s LGBTQIA+ interest club on Endpapers by Jennifer Savran Kelly, “the story of a genderqueer book conservator who feels trapped by life until discovering a decades-old hidden queer love letter and obsessing over tracking down its author.” (Anyone else getting The Verifiers vibes?) 12/3.
SFPL’s world literature club on Paradise by Abdulrazak Gurnah. 12/7.
Fabulosa’s virtual club on The Color Purple by Alice Walker. 12/13.
Borderlands’ sci-fi and fantasy club on Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones. 12/17.
2) You’re a fan of Sedaris and satire
KQED presents an evening with David Sedaris @ War Memorial Opera House. Monday 11/20, 7:30pm. Tickets from $83.
Join Sedaris in discussion of his newest book Happy-Go-Lucky, his first collection of personal essays since Calypso. He’ll be sharing a selection of all-new readings and recollections, then opening to a Q&A session and book-signing.
3) You want to support the people of Palestine
A Reading for Palestine @ Bird & Beckett Books and Records. Tuesday 11/21, 7pm. Free.
“Join us for an urgent reading in support of the Palestinian people, organized by the poet Deema K. Shehabi. Deema will read beside her colleagues Zeina Hashem Beck, Aracelis Girmay, Nathalie Khankan and Priscilla Wathington, with instrumental interludes by bassist Marcus Shelby.” Nothing pithy to add here.
4) You’re curious about - or all too familiar with - the long haul
The Long COVID Reader virtually via Green Apple Books on the Park. Tuesday 11/21, 6pm. Free.
Zoom in for readings from The Long COVID Reader, an anthology of 45 essays, poetry, stories, and commentaries that explores the challenges of living with Long COVID and humanizes chronic illness.
Without getting too personal, I’m no stranger to chronic illness. If you’re looking for more reading material, I can’t recommend The Invisible Kingdom by Meghan O’Rourke highly enough, and this “Bad Patient” article in last quarter’s issue of The Drift also wowed me.
5) You found Andreesen’s Techno-Optimist Manifesto more than a little unhinged
Anuradha Vikram on Use Me At Your Own Risk @ Et al. Books. Saturday 11/25, 6pm. Free.
Join Vikram to celebrate the release of Use Me at Your Own Risk: Visions from the Darkest Timeline, published as part of X Artists’ Books’ X Topics (XT) series. Equal parts speculative novel and an activist art project, it confronts the ethical challenges inherent in our unprecedented shift to automation in five provocative parts.
Bookish news
City Lights bookseller - for 50+ years! - Paul Yamazaki received the National Book Foundation’s 2023 Literarian Award | The Writing Salon has released its list of winter classes | Sign-ups are open for SF Creative Writing Institute’s four-week workshop Poetry of Healing: The Body
Book-adjacent gatherings
Not *about* books, but around them
📿 Native American Beading Workshop with Kalorie Roanhorse, owner of Navajo’s Dream Authentic Handmade Jewelry, at SFPL’s Eureka Branch. Tuesday 11/21, 5-6:30pm. Free; registration required.
🎶 Record of the Month Listening Party featuring indie-pop band The Umbrellas at Green Apple Books on the Park. Some refreshments provided, but BYOB if you’re so inclined. Saturday 11/25, 7pm.
🎁 Pop-up with Bojagi Home Decor at Black Bird Bookstore and Cafe. Bojagi is a traditional Korean art of wrapping and storing objects using fabric. Saturday 11/25, 12-3pm.
However you choose to wrap them, books make the best gifts. (We’re biased, but we're also right.) Consider this your nudge - not that you needed it - to skip the clicks on Black Friday/Cyber Monday and support a local bookstore this Small Business Saturday for all the 📚🎁 on your list.
Shelfie of the week
New section alert! Here we’ll share a bookish snapshot from our wonderful local bookstores and libraries. This inaugural one features a shelf-talker from Yana at Potrero Hill gem Christopher’s Books (source: their Instagram).
Shelf-talker text:
This is the kind of book that makes you wonder whether the distinction between “romance novel” and “literary fiction” might not have something to do with…sexism more than content. Sure, Happy Place has the characteristic fast pace & happy ending, but it also has thoughtful explorations of navigation adult friendship & disentangling oneself from family expectations. And the slow burn second chance romance is a great time, too :-) - Yana
If you enjoyed this newsletter, I’d be grateful if you’d let me know by sharing it with a bookish friend or two (or more, but let’s be real, we’re all introverts here).
Have an upcoming event you’d like me to include? Want to share an idea or ask a question? I’d love to hear from you! Just reply to this email.
Happy Thanksgiving. I’m thankful for the literary community of my city - including each and every one of you!
Christina
Same Page SF
Book recommendations are my love language.
A bonus for those who reach the bottom: each week I’ll feature one book - sometimes more! - I’ve recently read and wholeheartedly loved.
My friend Leah was in town last week, and she brought me White Horse by Erika T. Wurth. (Like I said, books make the best gifts!) The story of an Indigenous woman who must face her past when she discovers a bracelet haunted by her mother’s spirit, it’s propulsive, tense, and atomospheric in the vein of Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Mexican Gothic. I’ll admit the heavy-metal references were lost on me (my taste in music is not what one might describe as “cool”), and I occasionally had to pause to learn a term like “Generokee”, but I couldn’t put it down.
*That link will bring you to my Bookshop.org page, and I’ll earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase - but I’ll be delighted if you buy directly from one of our indie booksellers or borrow from the SFPL. If you do, please send me a note to let me know - it’ll make my day!