Same Page SF | Zine fests, love triangles, and free books (!)
It's a good week to be a subscriber.
Welcome to the fourth issue of Same Page SF, your home for all things local and literary. Think of us as your friendly, well-informed, and spectacularly nerdy source for book discussions, author talks, writer meet-ups, new releases, and other bookish gatherings.
Before getting in to what’s happening this week (spoiler alert: a lot!), we’re thrilled to share that we’ve got five brand-new copies of Priya Parker’s The Art of Gathering to give away, courtesy of our friends at the SFPL.
If you’d like to join the SFPL’s virtual book club meeting - “part discussion, part reading, part restorative movement” - next Sunday TUESDAY 12/12 from 6:30-7:30pm, you can request your free copy here, while supplies last. Thanks, SFPL!
This week, here are five bookish events you’ll want to attend if…
1) You proudly identify as a “zine-loving weirdo”
East Bay Alternative Book and Zine Fest @ Omni Commons (Oakland). Saturday 12/2, 12-5pm. Free admission.
Back for its 14th year (hooray!), EBABZ ‘23 will feature around 100 local artists selling zines, comics, books, and other delightfully unique goods. Come celebrate our vibrant DIY publishing community just across the bridge! (The venue’s a half-mile walk from MacArthur BART, and if you need extra motivation, it’s just across the street from Burma Superstar.) Note: Masks will be required indoors.
2) You’re in the mood for an unusual love triangle
Sarah Blakley-Cartwright on Alice Sadie Celine @ Book Passage Ferry Building. Wednesday 11/29, 5pm. Free.
Join Sarah Blakley-Cartwright, bestselling author of Red Riding Hood, to celebrate the release of her newest novel. Told from all three women’s perspectives over the course of decades, Alice Sadie Celine explores what happens when a celebrated feminist and Berkeley professor unexpectedly falls for her daughter’s best friend.
Bonus: If you’re looking for more literary fiction featuring a secret queer romance with iffy power dynamics, we loved We Do What We Do in the Dark by Michelle Hart.
3) You laugh-snorted at “If President Snow can invest in trains, so can we”
The Lost Subways of North America @ Manny’s. Monday 11/27, 6-8pm. Free.
Why is it that the mass transit systems of most US cities are so inadequate? Join author Jake Berman and housing expert Professor Chris Elmendorf for a discussion about what happened to North American transit and land use post-WWII, and what can be done to get policy-makers on board (ha) with connecting people and transit.
4) You’re design-curious with a penchant for maximalism
Book-signing with Dabito @ Black Bird Bookstore and Cafe. Saturday 12/2, 1-3pm. Free.
Join LA-based designer, artist, and author Dabito for a talk and signing of his book Old Brand New. It’s a bold and beautiful how-to guide, accessible to home-owners and home-renters alike - and a personal reflection on the relationship between surroundings and security.
5) You’re craving poetry that intertwines the past and present
Erin Marie Lynch on Removal Acts @ Green Apple Books 9th Ave Clement Street (livestream available). Thursday 11/30, 7pm. Free.
Join Erin Marie Lynch, in conversation with Shelley Wong, to celebrate the release of her debut collection. Drawing its title from the 1863 Federal Act that banished Dakota people from their homelands, Removal Acts reckons with the present-day repercussions of historical violence and erasure.
Bookish news
Last week’s NYT Book Review featured Fuchsia Dunlop’s Invitation to a Banquet: The Story of Chinese Food, and Omnivore Books still has a few signed copies | If you’re looking for gift-spiration, you’ll appreciate The Booksmith’s lovingly curated holiday shopping guide | City Lights is commemorating their 70th anniversary (!) with a limited-edition tote
Book-adjacent gatherings
Not *about* books, but around them
💬 This month’s San Francisco Standard’s discussion series at Manny’s - cafe, gathering space, and political bookstore - focuses on policing: will more cops make us safer? Wednesday 11/29, 6:30-8pm. $15, with complementary tickets available.
❄️ SFPL is holding a 3D printing workshop - you’ll learn to design your own snowflake ornament using Tinkercad modeling software. Saturday 12/2, 1-2:30pm. Free; registration recommended.
🧶 If crafting while surrounded by books is your idea of a good time, come by Black Bird Bookstore and Cafe for a casual knitting and crochet circle. And if you work up an appetite, their olive-oil spelt cake with Earl Grey drizzle is exquisite. Sunday 12/3, 5-6:30pm.
Shelfie of the week
A snapshot featuring one of our beloved local bookstores or library branches
This dreamy photograph shows 24th Street gem Adobe Bookshop in its best golden-hour light on Small Business Saturday (source: their Instagram).
If you’re psyched about supporting small businesses - on Saturdays and all days! - now’s a good time to remind you about our favorite independent book-tracker. Italic Type, the refreshingly simple reading app, is free of ads and noise and clutter; in the words of one reader, “Italic Type looks the way reading a book feels.”
Italic Type is available as a web app and - as of last week! - on the iOS App Store. (And unlike Goodreads, it’s not a data harvesting tool for Amazon, so when you use it, you’re not lining JB’s pockets.)
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 or message me on Instagram.
Cheers,
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.
I’m a sucker for a good short story collection, and Happy Like This by Ashley Wurzbacher is hands-down the best I’ve read all year. (My 2022 favorites, for orientation purposes: You Never Get it Back by Cara Blue Adams, Bad Thoughts by Nada Alic, and Bliss Montage by Ling Ma.) It opens with an epigraph from Virginia Woolf’s To The Lighthouse - “They’re happy like that; I’m happy like this” - and it’s aptly organized into two sections, Like That and Like This.
Each story, about a woman at an inflection point, is a world unto itself; I can’t choose a favorite, and I can’t wait to reread, and I’m unreasonably jealous of my past self for getting to read it for the first time. (PS: If my shouting-from-the-rooftops enthusiasm isn’t endorsement enough, you should know that Carmen Maria Machado personally selected this collection for publication.)
These links 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!