Litseen

Edna in a Bottle (tastes funny)
2019-07-18 20:00 - 22:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | The Bindery, 1727 Haight St, San Francisco , 94117, United States
Edna in a Bottle (tastes funny) is a new San Francisco comedy hour at The Bindery in the Haight district. Edna and her friends are trapped in a bottle and dying to perform! A colorful splash of sketch scenes, story-telling, circus talent and wacked-out adult comedy. And there’s nothing wrong with an eating contest here and there. Mark your calendars and come let us out of the bottle!
Tickets are $12-25, sliding. Seating is limited, and this show often sells out — there’s no guarantee tickets will be available at the door, so arrive early. Online sales close at 4pm the day of the show.

Please note: this event will be held at The Bindery, 1727 Haight.
This event is 18+.
Doors open at 7:30pm. Show starts at 8pm.
RSVP appreciated but not required.
More details coming soon — save the date and join us!

Lily Bernheimer: The Shaping of Us
2019-07-18 19:30 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Green Apple Books on the Park, 1231 9th Ave, San Francisco , CA, 94122, United States
Lily Bernheimer discusses her new book, The Shaping of Us: How Everyday Spaces Structure Our Lives, Behavior, and Well-Being.
About The Shaping of Us
Spaces we live in define our identity and sense of community. Using international examples of environmental architecture and design, The Shaping of Us reveals the often imperceptible ways that our surroundings influence our behavior and quality of life. Lily Bernheimer explores productivity in work environments, biophilia, and pop culture phenomena such as “the IKEA effect,” NIMBYism, and “ruin porn.”
From woonerfs and roundabouts to the ubiquity of traffic lights, Le Corbusier’s unrealized plan for Paris, and innovations in affordable housing, Bernheimer demonstrates that the environments we inhabit define us, from the earliest moments of our evolution to today. In understanding this, we can better plan and build environments that promote improved productivity, sustainable economies, and increased happiness and well-being.

Jan Steckel at Third Thursdays at Willow Glen Library
2019-07-18 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Willow Glen Library, 1157 Minnesota Ave, San Jose , CA, 95125, United States
Featured reader: Jan Steckel!
Open mic to follow.
Free and open to the public.
Jan Steckel is a former pediatrician who stopped practicing medicine because of chronic pain. Her latest poetry book is Like Flesh Covers Bone (Zeitgeist Press, December 2018). Her poetry book The Horizontal Poet (Zeitgeist Press, 2011) won a 2012 Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual Nonfiction. Her fiction chapbook Mixing Tracks (Gertrude Press, 2009) and poetry chapbook The Underwater Hospital (Zeitgeist Press, 2006) also won awards. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in Scholastic Magazine, Bellevue Literary Review, New Verse News, November 3 Club, Assaracus and elsewhere. Her work was nominated three times each for the Pushcart and Sundress Best of the Net anthologies, won the Goodreads Poetry Contest three times, and won various other awards. She lives in Oakland, California.
If you wish to be included in the Willow Glen Poetry Project, please email it to willowglenpoetry@gmail.com. If you cannot email your poem see Dennis Richardson. It’s still okay to just read your poem and not blog it.

Marin Poetry Center Summer Traveling Show
2019-07-18 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | O’Hanlon Center for the Arts, 616 Throckmorton Avenue, Mill Valley, CA, 94941
Marin Poetry Center Summer Traveling Show

July 18 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Hear local poets read their poems!

READERS: TBA

Click here for more information about the Marin Poetry Center.

FREE – Donations accepted

THE RACKET!
2019-07-18 19:00 - 20:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Adobe Books, 3130 24th St., San Francisco, CA, 94110, United States
Details soon!
https://www.facebook.com/theracketseries/

Bruce Conforth on Robert Johnson
2019-07-17 19:30 - 21:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Green Apple Books on the Park, 1231 9th Ave, San Francisco , CA, 94122, United States
Bruce Conforth discusses his new book, Up Jumped the Devil: The Real Life of Rovert Johnson.
Praise for Up Jumped the Devil
“This is the book the blues world has been waiting for. Authored by two uniquely qualified scholars following years of extensive interviews and exhaustive research, the result is fascinating, important, and factual, without agenda or embellished narrative. . . . It is in my view a far more moving account than many others that have been obscured by so much fantasy. It’s a can’t-put-it-down kind of book—an exciting, great read.” —Rory Block, celebrated acoustic blues guitarist/singer and five-time Blues Music Award winner
“Finally an in-depth biography of one of the greatest blues musicians ever. The clearing up of the myths and mysteries is a relief. The work of the authors is meticulous. They detail Robert Johnson’s journey with facts, creating a full view of his life and times, his friends and influences, so the reader has a comprehensive understanding of how he came to be the greatest of the Delta bluesmen. I am blown away!” —John Hammond, Jr.
“Some people will tell you that blues legend Robert Johnson lived under a curse, but it’s actually research into Johnson’s life that’s been bedeviled. Three of my friends died before publishing their books on him, and for a long time I’ve feared we might never get a reliable account of this artist’s life and times. Finally the curse has been lifted. Bruce Conforth and Gayle Dean Wardlow started researching Robert Johnson and the Delta blues tradition more than a half-century ago, and they are now sharing their hard-won insights into the most mysterious man in the annals of American music. If you want the straight story on Robert Johnson, this is where you start.” —Ted Gioia, author of Delta Blues and The History of Jazz
About Up Jumped the Devil
Robert Johnson’s recordings, made in 1936 and 1937, have profoundly influenced generations of singers, guitarists, and songwriters. Yet until now, his short life—he was murdered at the age of 27—has been poorly documented. Gayle Dean Wardlow has been interviewing people who knew Johnson since the early 1960s, and he was the person who discovered Johnson’s death certificate in 1967. Bruce Conforth began his study of Johnson’s life and music in 1970 and made it his mission to fill in what was still unknown about him. In this definitive biography, the two authors relied on every interview, resource, and document, much of it material no one has seen before. This is the first book about Johnson that documents his lifelong relationship with family and friends in Memphis, details his trip to New York, uncovers where and when his wife Virginia died and the impact this had on him, fully portrays the other women Johnson was involved with, and tells exactly how and why he died and who gave him the poison that killed him. Up Jumped the Devil will astonish blues fans worldwide by painting a living, breathing portrait of a man who was heretofore little more than a legend.

Brandon Brown presents The Apollo Chronicles: Engineering America's First Moon Missions
2019-07-17 19:30 - 21:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Mrs. Dalloway’s Bookstore, 2904 College Ave, Berkeley, CA, 94705, United States
Brandon Brown

presents The Apollo Chronicles: Engineering America’s First Moon Missions, a uniquely earthbound story of space travel that follows a handful of surviving engineers from the time through their longest days, tightest deadlines, and most confounding challenges.
[Brown] has captured the soul of what was arguably the most challenging and significant engineering accomplishment of the 20th century…a great read for all audiences…I learned things about ‘my era’ that I never knew!”–Gerry Griffin, Former Director of the Johnson Space Center, and former flight director for the Apollo Program
To reserve your seat, purchase a copy of The Apollo Chronicles by speaking to a bookseller or ordering through our website.

Wednesday, July 17, 2019 – 7:30pm

The moon landing of 1969 stands as an iconic moment for both the United States and humankind. The familiar story focuses on the journey of the brave astronauts, who brought home Moon rocks and startling photographs. But Apollo’s full account includes the earthbound engineers, mounds of their crumpled paper, and smoldering metal shards of exploded engines. How exactly did the nation, step by difficult step, take men to the Moon and back?
In The Apollo Chronicles, fifty years after the moon landing, author Brandon R. Brown, himself the son of an Apollo engineer, revisits the men and women who toiled behind the lights. He relays the defining twentieth-century project from its roots, bringing the engineers’ work and personalities to bright life on the page. Set against the backdrop of a turbulent American decade, the narrative whisks audiences through tense deadlines and technical miracles, from President John F. Kennedy’s 1961 challenge to NASA’s 1969 lunar triumph, as engineers confronted wave after wave of previously unthinkable challenges.
Brown immerses readers in key physical hurdles–from building the world’s most powerful rockets to keeping humans alive in the hostile void of space–using language free of acronyms and technical jargon. The book also pulls back from the detailed tasks and asks larger questions. What did we learn about the Moon? And what can this uniquely innovative project teach us today?
Brandon R. Brown is a Professor of Physics at USF. His research includes work on superconductivity and sensory biophysics. He enjoys writing about science for general audiences, including articles and essays in New Scientist, SEED, and the Huffington Post, as well as a biography, Planck, that won the 2016 Housatonic Award for Nonfiction.

Event address:

2904 College Avenue

Berkeley, CA 94705

Bruce Conforth on Robert Johnson
2019-07-17 19:30 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Green Apple Books on the Park, 1231 9th Ave, San Francisco , CA, 94122, United States
Bruce Conforth discusses his new book, Up Jumped the Devil: The Real Life of Robert Johnson.
Praise for Up Jumped the Devil
“This is the book the blues world has been waiting for. Authored by two uniquely qualified scholars following years of extensive interviews and exhaustive research, the result is fascinating, important, and factual, without agenda or embellished narrative. . . . It is in my view a far more moving account than many others that have been obscured by so much fantasy. It’s a can’t-put-it-down kind of book—an exciting, great read.” —Rory Block, celebrated acoustic blues guitarist/singer and five-time Blues Music Award winner
“Finally an in-depth biography of one of the greatest blues musicians ever. The clearing up of the myths and mysteries is a relief. The work of the authors is meticulous. They detail Robert Johnson’s journey with facts, creating a full view of his life and times, his friends and influences, so the reader has a comprehensive understanding of how he came to be the greatest of the Delta bluesmen. I am blown away!” —John Hammond, Jr.
“Some people will tell you that blues legend Robert Johnson lived under a curse, but it’s actually research into Johnson’s life that’s been bedeviled. Three of my friends died before publishing their books on him, and for a long time I’ve feared we might never get a reliable account of this artist’s life and times. Finally the curse has been lifted. Bruce Conforth and Gayle Dean Wardlow started researching Robert Johnson and the Delta blues tradition more than a half-century ago, and they are now sharing their hard-won insights into the most mysterious man in the annals of American music. If you want the straight story on Robert Johnson, this is where you start.” —Ted Gioia, author of Delta Blues and The History of Jazz
About Up Jumped the Devil
Robert Johnson’s recordings, made in 1936 and 1937, have profoundly influenced generations of singers, guitarists, and songwriters. Yet until now, his short life—he was murdered at the age of 27—has been poorly documented. Gayle Dean Wardlow has been interviewing people who knew Johnson since the early 1960s, and he was the person who discovered Johnson’s death certificate in 1967. Bruce Conforth began his study of Johnson’s life and music in 1970 and made it his mission to fill in what was still unknown about him. In this definitive biography, the two authors relied on every interview, resource, and document, much of it material no one has seen before. This is the first book about Johnson that documents his lifelong relationship with family and friends in Memphis, details his trip to New York, uncovers where and when his wife Virginia died and the impact this had on him, fully portrays the other women Johnson was involved with, and tells exactly how and why he died and who gave him the poison that killed him. Up Jumped the Devil will astonish blues fans worldwide by painting a living, breathing portrait of a man who was heretofore little more than a legend.

Peg Alford Pursell with Caille Millner / Launch for A Girl Goes into the Forest
2019-07-17 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | The Bindery, 1727 Haight St, San Francisco , 94117, United States
The Bindery hosts the launch for Peg Alford Pursell‘s new book, A Girl Goes into the Forest. She’ll be in conversation with Caille Millner, and there will be live music bySugartown! More information to be announced soon, but please save the date and join us!
Following her acclaimed debut, Show Her a Flower, A Bird, A Shadow, award-winning author Peg Alford Pursell explores and illuminates love and loss in 78 hybrid stories and fables. A Girl Goes into the Forest immerses readers in the complex desires, contradictions, and sorrows of daughters, wives, and husbands, artists, siblings, and mothers.
In forests literal and metaphorical, the characters try, fail, and try again to see the world, to hear each other, and to speak the truth of their longings. Powerful, lyrical, and precise, Pursell’s stories call up a world at once mysterious and recognizable.

Peg Alford Pursell is the author of A Girl Goes into the Forest and of Show Her a Flower, A Bird, A Shadow, the 2017 Indies Book of the Year for Literary Fiction. Her work has appeared in Permafrost, the Los Angeles Review, Joyland Magazine, and other journals and anthologies. She is the founder and director of the national reading series Why There Are Words and of WTAW Press.
Caille Millner is the author of a memoir, The Golden Road: Notes on my Gentrification. Her fiction has appeared in Zyzzyva, the Cimarron Review, and Best American Short Stories 2016. Her nonfiction has appeared in the Paris Review Daily, Longreads, and many other publications. She is also a cultural columnist at the San Francisco Chronicle.
Sugartown bio coming soon.

Please note: this event will be held at The Bindery, 1727 Haight.
This is an all ages event. The bar opens at 6:30pm; event starts at 7pm.
As with all of our events, seating may be limited; you can guarantee a seat by pre-purchasing the book below — when checking out, just be sure to include a note that you’d like to attend the event. If you cannot attend the event but would like to request a signed copy of A Girl Goes into the Forest, order below and put your request in the comments field; to order a signed copy of any of Peg’s other books, order here and be sure to include your request in the comments field; for Caille’s book, here.
RSVP appreciated but not required.

Litquake 20th Anniversary Party
2019-07-16 19:00 - 22:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Make-Out Room, 3225 22nd St, San Francisco, CA, 94110, United States
Help the Bay Area literary community celebrate two decades (to the day) of the world-famous festival known as Litquake. Founded in a dive bar 20 years ago, Litquake returns to its roots to host this action-packed literary bash. Hear highlights for the upcoming 20th anniversary festival. Mingle with the word nerds. Hear readings and stories from LQ veterans. Slake your thirst on discounted specials from Fort Point Beer Company. Watch in amazement as five author bands take the stage in a Battle Royale to the death.
Litquake Veterans:
Tamim Ansary
Devorah Major
Merle Kessler
Alan Black
April Sinclair
Author Bands:
Vata & the Vine (Evan Karp and Maw Shein Win)
Heather Bourbeau & Raman Osman
Tongo Eisen-Martin & Steven Gray
Delco (A Delaware Corporation)
The Deadliners
More info: https://sched.co/QnC6

Get Lit Reading Series
2019-07-16 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Ale Industries, 3096 E 10th Street, Oakland, CA, 94601, United States
July 16:
August: 20:
September 17:
October: 15:
November 19:
December 17:
Suggested donations of $10-25 will be kindly requested at the door, though no one will be turned away for lack of funds (NOTAFLOF).
Safe Space Statement
Nomadic Press events are safe spaces for those who have been silenced and marginalized. There is no room for racism, misogyny, homophobia, or transphobia whether in the content of one’s reading or in one’s interactions with members of the community. We will protect the safety of this space by revoking a reader’s access to the microphone if we feel they have violated these guidelines, and we encourage community members to come to us if someone has violated these guidelines away from the microphone. We are a community, and we will work together to ensure that the safety of our most vulnerable members is prioritized above all else.
Get beer. Get lit. Then get tacos.
Past performers:
April 16 lineup: Jan Steckel, Gary Turchin, Barbara Saunders, Anna Allen, Yume Kim, LadiRev, Gamal Abdel Chasten, Beverly Parayno, Michael Gallagher, Caesar Kent, Josiahluis Alderete, Gaia Thomas, Charlie Getter, Leticia Garcia Bradford, and music by Kiva Uhuru.
February 19: Maggie Tokuda-Hall, Ricardo Tavarez, Jordan Wilson-dalzell, Hilary Brown, Jenee Darden, Chad Koch, Jeanne Lupton, Lorenz Damuk, Emily Podhorcer, Becca Gomez Farrell, Phyllis Oscar, Esmerelda Mezcal, Katie Aliferis, Dee Allen., Kimi Sugioka, Kai Sugioka-Stone, Giavanna Ortiz de Candia “The Open Minds” (music)

The B Stands for Bi, a Perfectly Queer Reading
2019-07-16 19:00 - 20:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Dog Eared Books Castro, 489 Castro Street, San Francisco , CA, 94114, United States
There are many ways to be Queer, being Bi, for instance. Does being Bi influence an author’s writing–what they write about, who their characters are, what genre they choose, how they write about sex? Come hear three authors who are Bi read from their latest work Tuesday, July 16, 7pm at Dog Eared Books Castro, 489 Castro St. in (you guessed it) The Castro. Free refreshments, free admission. Door prizes for the prompt at 7pm!
Meg Elison is a science fiction author and feminist essayist. Her series, The Road to Nowhere, won the 2014 Philip K. Dick award. She was a James A. Tiptree Award Honoree in 2018. She has been published in McSweeney’s, Fantasy & Science Fiction, Catapult, and many other places. Elison is a high school dropout and a graduate of UC Berkeley. Find her online, where she writes like she’s running out of time. megelison.com @megelison
Michele Harris received the 2011 David A. Kennedy prize and was selected as a finalist for the 2018 New Millennium Award in poetry. Her debut book Blackdamp was published by David Robert Books this year. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in The Tishman Review, New Millennium Writings, The Prose-Poem Project, Anderbo, Cicada, Dirtflask, Sheepshead Review, The Columbia College Literary Review, Stirring, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Massachusetts Boston, where she teaches Literature for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. She works at MIT and lives in Cambridge, MA.
Jan Steckel is a former pediatrician who stopped practicing medicine because of chronic pain. Her latest book Like Flesh Covers Bone (Zeitgeist Press, December 2018) was a finalist for the poetry category of the Bi Book Awards. Her poetry collection The Horizontal Poet (Zeitgeist Press, 2011) won a 2012 Lambda Literary Award. Her fiction chapbook Mixing Tracks (Gertrude Press, 2009) and poetry chapbook The Underwater Hospital (Zeitgeist Press, 2006) were also award winners. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in Scholastic Magazine, Bellevue Literary Review, Yale Medicine, and elsewhere. She works as a medical editor and lives in Oakland.

Karl Marlantes
2019-07-15 19:30 - 21:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Green Apple Books on the Park, 1231 9th Ave, San Francisco , CA, 94122, United States
Karl Marlantes discusses his new novel, Deep River.
Praise for Deep River
“Marlantes poignantly depicts the intimacies of personal dramas that echo the twentieth century’s unprecedented political storms and yet in surprising ways reprise Finland’s oldest mythologies…An unforgettable novel.”—Booklist (starred review)
“Inspired by family history, Marlantes offers a sprawling, painstakingly realistic novel about Finnish immigrants in the Pacific Northwest during the first half of the 20th century… Marlantes’s epic is packed with intriguing detail about Finnish culture, Northwest landscapes, and 20th-century American history, making for a vivid immigrant family chronicle.”—Publishers Weekly
About Deep River
Karl Marlantes’s debut novel Matterhorn has been hailed as a modern classic of war literature. In his new novel, Deep River, Marlantes turns to another mode of storytelling–the family epic–to craft a stunningly expansive narrative of human suffering, courage, and reinvention.
In the early 1900s, as the oppression of Russia’s imperial rule takes its toll on Finland, the three Koski siblings–Ilmari, Matti, and the politicized young Aino–are forced to flee to the United States. Not far from the majestic Columbia River, the siblings settle among other Finns in a logging community in southern Washington, where the first harvesting of the colossal old-growth forests begets rapid development, and radical labor movements begin to catch fire. The brothers face the excitement and danger of pioneering this frontier wilderness–climbing and felling trees one-hundred meters high–while Aino, foremost of the books many strong, independent women, devotes herself to organizing the industry’s first unions. As the Koski siblings strive to rebuild lives and families in an America in flux, they also try to hold fast to the traditions of a home they left behind.
Layered with fascinating historical detail, this is a novel that breathes deeply of the sun-dappled forest and bears witness to the stump-ridden fields the loggers, and the first waves of modernity, leave behind. At its heart, Deep River is an ambitious and timely exploration of the place of the individual, and of the immigrant, in an America still in the process of defining its

Helen Phillips with Sarah Rich / The Need
2019-07-15 19:30 - 21:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | The Bindery, 1727 Haight St, San Francisco , 94117, United States
The Bindery hosts Helen Phillips for her new novel The Need. She’ll be in conversation with Sarah Rich. Please join us!
When Molly, home alone with her two young children, hears footsteps in the living room, she tries to convince herself it’s the sleep deprivation. She’s been hearing things these days. Startling at loud noises. Imagining the worst-case scenario. It’s what mothers do, she knows.
But then the footsteps come again, and she catches a glimpse of movement.
Suddenly Molly finds herself face-to-face with an intruder who knows far too much about her and her family. As she attempts to protect those she loves most, Molly must also acknowledge her own frailty. Molly slips down an existential rabbit hole where she must confront the dualities of motherhood: the ecstasy and the dread; the languor and the ferocity; the banality and the transcendence as the book hurtles toward a mind-bending conclusion.
In The Need, Helen Phillips has created a subversive, speculative thriller that comes to life through blazing, arresting prose and gorgeous, haunting imagery. Anointed as one of the most exciting fiction writers working today, The Need is a glorious celebration of the bizarre and beautiful nature of our everyday lives.

Helen Phillips is the author of, most recently, the novel The Need. Her collection Some Possible Solutions received the 2017 John Gardner Fiction Book Award. Her novel The Beautiful Bureaucrat, a New York Times Notable Book of 2015, was a finalist for the Los Angeles TimesBook Prize and the NYPL Young Lions Award. Her collection And Yet They Were Happy was named a notable collection by The Story Prize. She is also the author of the middle-grade novel Here Where the Sunbeams Are Green. Helen has received a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer’s Award and the Italo Calvino Prize in Fabulist Fiction, and her work has appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Times, and Tin House, and on Selected Shorts. She is an associate professor at Brooklyn College and lives in Brooklyn with her husband, artist Adam Douglas Thompson, and their children. Visit HelenCPhillips.com. Author photo by David Barry.
Sarah Rich is the Global Editorial Director at IDEO. She co-edited the book Leave Me Alone With the Recipes: The Life, Art and Cookbook of Cipe Pineles (Bloomsbury, 2017), which tells the life story of the legendary yet unsung designer Cipe Pineles, alongside her original paintings and recipes. Sarah was formerly a senior editor at Dwell and managing editor of Worldchanging, where she co-authored the bestselling book, Worldchanging: A User’s Guide for the 21st Century (Abrams, 2006), a celebrated book about sustainability and social change. She is also the founding managing editor of Inhabitat; co-founder of the Knight-Batten Award-winning Longshot Magazine and the Foodprint Project; and created and edited Medium’s design criticism publication, re:form. Sarah received her BA from Stanford University in Cultural and Social Anthropology and began her career in the world of food. She worked as a food justice community advocate, a television production assistant for the Food Network, and a chef at the Berkeley Art Museum café. She is a founding editor of James Beard Award-winning Civil Eats, and author of the book Urban Farms(Abrams, 2011). Sarah’s work has been published in Wired, The Atlantic, AFAR, Gourmet, BusinessWeek, Details, the Globe & Mail, Huffington Post, Creative Review and elsewhere. She has lectured in Brazil, India, the United Arab Emirates, and throughout North America, and has been a new media and sustainability expert commentator on NPR, BBC World Service, and Current TV. She serves on the board of directors for Project H and Girls Garage, a non-profit design/build program for girls ages 9-13. She lives with her husband, son, and daughter in Oakland, California.

Please note: this event will be held at The Bindery, 1727 Haight.
This is an all ages event. The bar opens at 7pm; event starts at 7:30pm.
As with all of our events, seating may be limited; you can guarantee a seat by pre-purchasing the book below — when checking out, just be sure to include a note that you’d like to attend the event. If you cannot attend the event but would like to request a signed copy of The Need, order below and put your request in the comments field; to order a signed copy of any of Helen’s other books, order here and be sure to include your request in the comments field; for Sarah’s book, here.
RSVP appreciated but not required.

Jasmine Guillory - - The Wedding Party
2019-07-15 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | East Bay Booksellers, 5433 College Avenue, Oakland, 94618
EAST BAY BOOKSELLERS is excited to welcome our friend Jasmine Guillory to celebrate the publication of her third novel, The Wedding Party, on Monday, July 15th at 7pm.
The new exhilarating romance from The New York Times bestselling author of The Proposal, a Reese Witherspoon x Hello Sunshine Book Club Pick!
Maddie and Theo have two things in common:
1. Alexa is their best friend
2. They hate each other
After an “oops, we made a mistake” night together, neither one can stop thinking about the other. With Alexa’s wedding rapidly approaching, Maddie and Theo both share bridal party responsibilities that require more interaction with each other than they’re comfortable with. Underneath the sharp barbs they toss at each other is a simmering attraction that won’t fade. It builds until they find themselves sneaking off together to release some tension when Alexa isn’t looking, agreeing they would end it once the wedding is over. When it’s suddenly pushed up and they only have a few months left of secret rendezvouses, they find themselves regretting that the end is near. Two people this different can’t possibly have a connection other than the purely physical, right?
But as with any engagement with a nemesis, there are unspoken rules that must be abided by. First and foremost, don’t fall in love.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jasmine Guillory is a lawyer, a graduate of Wellesley College and Stanford Law School, and a Bay Area native who lives in Oakland, California. She has been published in The Toast and The Hairpin, has towering stacks of books in her living room, a cake for every occasion, and upwards of fifty lipsticks. She is The New York Times bestselling author of The Wedding Date and The Proposal. Visit her online at jasmineguillory.com and twitter.com/thebestjasmine.

Event date:

Monday, July 15, 2019 – 7:00pm

Event address:

East Bay Booksellers
5433 College Avenue

Oakland, CA 94618

POETS! - David Holper + 1 followed by an open mic
2019-07-15 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Bird & Beckett Books and Records, 653 Chenery St, San Francisco , CA, 94131, United States
David Holper is a performing poet and Professor of English at College of the Redwoods in Eureka, California. He recently published his second book of poems, The Bridge, with (Sequoia Song Publishing). Many of the poems in that collection have already been published, and a number of have won prizes. Times Standard article, April 5, 2019

POETS! - featured readers followed by an open mic
2019-07-15 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles)

Short, Shorter, Shortest Fiction, an Odd Mondays Reading
2019-07-15 19:00 - 20:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Folio Books, 3957 24th St, San Francisco , CA, 94114, United States
Short stories are back in vogue now. Collections are being published by large, medium, and small publishers alike. Short stories also come in large, medium, and small–from 20,000 words to flash fiction of a few hundred. Monday, July 15, three excellent short story authors read from their newest collections, 7pm at Folio Books San Francisco, 3957 24th St. in San Francisco.
Rita Bullwinkel is the author of the story collection Belly Up, which won the 2018 Believer Book Award. Bullwinkel’s writing has been published in Tin House, Conjunctions, BOMB, Vice, NOON, and Guernica and has been translated into Italian and Greek. She is a recipient of grants and fellowships from The MacDowell Colony, Brown University, Vanderbilt University, Hawthornden Castle, and The Helene Wurlitzer Foundation. Both her fiction and translation have been nominated for Pushcart Prizes. She is an Editor at Large for McSweeney’s. She lives in San Francisco.
Barb Johnson worked as a carpenter in New Orleans for more than twenty years before she began writing. She is the author of the award-winning short story collection, More of This World or Maybe Another. Her work has also appeared in such magazines as Guernica, The Southern Review, Baltimore Review, and Oxford American, as well as in a number of anthologies, including Don’t Quit Your Day Job: Acclaimed Authors and the Jobs They Quit, and The Booklover’s Guide to New Orleans. She won the Glimmer Train and Washington Square Review fiction competitions. Barb lives in New Orleans.
Jon Sindell wrote the story collections The Roadkill Collection and Family Happiness and is working on a major project to be announced soon. His humor has appeared dozens of times in humor zines and before curious barnyard animals. He’s also a full-time personal humanities tutor, the curator of the long-established reading series Rolling Writers, and used to practice law, with a civil-rights emphasis. He’s married with kids and lives in San Francisco. jonsindell.com

LOTERÍA READING SERIES, No. 4: El Gallo, La Calavera
2019-07-14 16:30 - 17:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | 3rd Floor McRoskey Mattress Loft, 1687 Market Street, San Francisco, 94103
INSTITUTE OF advanced UNCERTAINTY is pleased to present:
LOTERÍA READING SERIES, No. 4: El Gallo, La Calavera
With CASSANDRA DALLETT & JAMES CAGNEY
Curated by MK CHAVEZ
Hosted by McRoskey Mattress Company
SUNDAY | JULY 14th| 4:30 – 5:30 PM | DOORS: 4 PM
McRoskey 3RDFloor Factory Loft
1687 Market Street, S.F., CA

BART ➬Van Ness Station
MUNI METRO ➬F | K | L | M | N | 6 | 7

GEARS TURNING w/ Kim Shuck
2019-07-14 16:00 - 18:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Adobe Books, 3130 24th St., San Francisco, CA, 94110, United States
Join us for an afternoon of wonderful poetry by SF Bay Area based poets, artists, and musicians with your host Kim Shuck.
To participate in the open mic session, please arrive by 4 and plan to listen to all of the featured poets. Seating/space is limited.

Writers with Drinks
2019-07-13 19:30 - 21:30 UTC | Make-Out Room, 3225 22nd St, San Francisco, CA, 94110, United States
Saturday, July 13, 2019:

Gabby Rivera (Juliet Takes a Breath, America)
Sarah Gailey (Magic For Liars)
Troy Jollimore (Syllabus of Errors: Poems)
Grace Lavery (Quaint, Exquisite: Victorian Aesthetics and the Idea of Japan)
Natasha Dennerstein (Anatomize)
Cost: $5 to $20, no-one turned away
All proceeds benefit a local nonprofit, TBA.
At The Make Out Room 3225 22nd St., San Francisco CA, from 7:30 PM to 9:30 PM, doors open at 7 PM.

Kalyn Josephson with Tara Sim
2019-07-13 15:00 - 17:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Kepler’s Books, 1010 El Camino Real, Menlo Park , CA, 94025, United States
We’re launching Kalyn Josephson’s debut novel, The Storm Crow a thrilling new fantasy that follows a fallen princess as she ignites a rebellion to bring back the magical elemental crows that were taken from her people.

In the tropical kingdom of Rhodaire, magical, elemental Crows are part of every aspect of life until the Illucian empire invades, destroying everything. That terrible night throws Princess Anthia into a deep depression. Her sister Caliza is busy running the kingdom after their mother’s death, but all Thia can do is think of all she has lost. But when Caliza is forced to agree to a marriage between Thia and the crown prince of Illucia, Thia is finally spurred into action. And after stumbling upon a hidden Crow egg in the rubble of a rookery, she and her sister devise a dangerous plan to hatch the egg in secret and get back what was taken from them.

“The Storm Crow is everything we love about YA fantasy, with an enchanting world and original magic that keeps the story fresh. Clashing kingdoms, thrilling action, and an imperfect heroine makes this book a must-read” Adrienne Young (Sky in the Deep)
Kalyn will be chatting with Tara Sim, author of the Timekeeper series and we couldn’t be more excited

Lila Savage
2019-07-11 19:30 - 21:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Green Apple Books on the Park, 1231 9th Ave, San Francisco , CA, 94122, United States
Lila Savage discusses her new novel, Say Say Say.
Praise for Say Say Say
“I cannot think when I Iast read a novel which moved me so deeply. Savage is almost supernaturally alert to the little gestures and transactions we all make as we negotiate our place in the world, and our relations to each other. Her approach is both unflinching and extraordinarily tender, so that I came away feeling I had undergone an examination which was somehow both painful and kind. I loved it, and it has remained with me in a way few other books have ever done.”
—Sarah Perry, author of The Essex Serpent
“Powerful, thought-provoking—an impressive and affecting debut that had me reflecting on compassion, gender roles—and what it means to love.”
—Claire Fuller, author of Swimming Lessons
“A gem of a book. A lyrical, tender, and profoundly insightful dive into the act of caregiving and its highly charged nexus of love, duty, and longing. Lila Savage is an enormous talent; Say Say Say is a mesmerizing tour de force.”
—Abraham Verghese, author of Cutting for Stone
About Say Say Say
Ella is nearing thirty, and not yet living the life she imagined. Her artistic ambitions as a student in Minnesota have given way to an unintended career in caregiving. One spring, Bryn–a retired carpenter–hires her to help him care for Jill, his wife of many years. A car accident caused a brain injury that has left Jill verbally diminished; she moves about the house like a ghost of her former self, often able to utter, like an incantation, only the words that comprise this novel’s title.
As Ella is drawn ever deeper into the couple’s household, her presence unwanted but wholly necessary, she is profoundly moved by the tenderness Bryn shows toward the wife he still fiercely loves. Ella is startled by the yearning this awakens in her, one that complicates her feelings for her girlfriend, Alix, and causes her to look at relationships of all kinds–between partners, between employer and employee, and above all between men and women–in new ways.
Tightly woven, humane and insightful, tracing unflinchingly the most intimate reaches of a young woman’s heart and mind, Say Say Say is a riveting story about what it means to love, in a world where time is always running out.

Why There Are Words Presents: So You Think You Can Tell
2019-07-11 19:00 - 21:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Studio 333, 333 Caledonia Street, Sausalito , CA, 94965, United States
Think and Tell with Why There Are Words on July 11, 2019, at Studio 333 in Sausalito for a remarkable night of readings from six acclaimed authors on the theme of “So You Think You Can Tell.” Robin Behn, Heather June Gibbons, Meredith May, Cynthia Phoel, Tanya Rey, and Gary Singh.
Doors open at 7pm; readings begin at 7:15pm. $10 entry fee at the door. Cash bar.

Jay Wexler
2019-07-11 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Green Apple Books, 506 Clement St, San Francisco , CA, 94118, United States
Jay Wexler will be joining us to discuss his new book Our Non-Christian Nation: How Athiests, Satanists, Pagans, and Others are Demanding Their Rightful Place in Public Life.
About Our Non-Christian Nation
Less and less Christian demographically, America is now home to an ever-larger number of people who say they identify with no religion at all. These non-Christians have increasingly been demanding their full participation in public life, bringing their arguments all the way to the Supreme Court. The law is on their side, but that doesn’t mean that their attempts are not met with suspicion or outright hostility. In Our Non-Christian Nation, Jay Wexler travels the country to engage the non-Christians who have called on us to maintain our ideals of inclusivity and diversity. With his characteristic sympathy and humor, he introduces us to the Summum and their Seven Aphorisms, a Wiccan priestess who would deck her City Hall with a pagan holiday wreath, and other determined champions of free religious expression. As Wexler reminds us, anyone who cares about pluralism, equality, and fairness should support a public square filled with a variety of religious and nonreligious voices. The stakes are nothing short of long-term social peace.
About the Author
A Professor at Boston University School of Law, Jay Wexler is also a humorist, short story writer, and novelist. A one-time clerk to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and former lawyer at the US Department of Justice, he has written for National Geographic, The Boston Globe, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Salon, and many other outlets. His books include When God Isn’t Green (2016) and Holy Hullabaloos.

phren-Z Live Reading
2019-07-11 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Bookshop Santa Cruz, 1520 Pacific Ave, Santa Cruz , CA, 95060, United States
Join Santa Cruz’s online literary magazine phren-Z who will host local writers as they read their new and recent work. Reading authors will be announced soon. Refreshments will be served!
phren-Z—a quarterly online literary magazine dedicated to showcasing Santa Cruz writers—is a publication of Santa Cruz Writes, a grass roots organization dedicated to promoting the local literary community. Santa Cruz Writes is a sponsored project of the William James Association, a 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation. Visit www.phren-z.org for more information.
This free event will take place at Bookshop Santa Cruz. Chairs for open seating are usually set up about an hour before the event begins. If you have any ADA accommodation requests, please e-mail us at info@bookshopsantacruz.com by August 3rd, 2019.

Voz Sin Tinta: Our monthly bilingual poetry series and open mic.
2019-07-11 18:30 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles)

Ronald E. Purser: McMindfulness
2019-07-10 19:30 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Green Apple Books on the Park, 1231 9th Ave, San Francisco , CA, 94122, United States
Ronald E. Purser discusses his new book, McMindfulness: How Mindfulness Became the New Capitalist Spirituality, with Gary Gach.
Praise for McMindfulness
“Far from being either a harmless form of New Age self-indulgence or meditation dressed up as a medicalized antidote to the ubiquitous stresses of modern life, Ron Purser sees the mindfulness movement as epitomizing a malignant trend of contemporary Western individualism, one that is blinding us to the social problems of inherent in neoliberalism and capitalism, providing an anodyne where what is needed is rigorous analysis and political action.”
—Barry Magid, author of What’s Wrong With Mindfulness
“Ron Purser cuts through the comforting New Age jargon used to promote mindfulness, enabling us to distinguish between the practice and its marketing.”
—Richard Payne, Institute of Buddhist Studies
“Spiky, witty, meticulously researched and thoroughly engaging, McMindfulness is the best assessment of ‘Mindfulness’ to date.”
— Manu Bazzano, author of Zen and Therapy: Heretical Perspectives and editor of After Mindfulness: new Perspectives on Psychology and Meditation
About McMindfulness
A lively and razor-sharp critique of mindfulness as it has been enthusiastically co-opted by corporations, public schools, and the US military.
Mindfulness is now all the rage. From celebrity endorsements to monks, neuroscientists and meditation coaches rubbing shoulders with CEOs at the World Economic Forum in Davos, it is clear that mindfulness has gone mainstream. Some have even called it a revolution.But what if, instead of changing the world, mindfulness has become a banal form of capitalist spirituality that mindlessly avoids social and political transformation, reinforcing the neoliberal status quo?
InMcMindfulness, Ronald Purser debunks the so-called “mindfulness revolution,” exposinghow corporations, schools, governments and the military have coopted it as technique for social control and self-pacification.
A lively and razor-sharp critique, Purser busts the myths its salesmen rely on, challenging the narrative that stress is self-imposed and mindfulness is the cure-all. If we are to harness the truly revolutionary potential of mindfulness, we have to cast off its neoliberal shackles, liberating mindfulness for a collective awakening.

Ruchika Tomar: A Prayer for Travelers
2019-07-09 19:30 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Green Apple Books on the Park, 1231 9th Ave, San Francisco , CA, 94122, United States
Ruchika Tomar discusses her new novel, A Prayer for Travelers.
Praise For A Prayer for Travelers
“Sometimes characters come along that demand a new kind of novel. The young women at the center of Ruchika Tomar’s A Prayer for Travelers – elusive Penny and wounded Cale – are two spirits hitchhiking through geographies of dislocation and desire. The human collisions in Tomar’s novel are emotionally seismic, and they leave us haunted and unsettled.”--Adam Johnson, author of The Orphan Master’s Son
“Ruchika Tomar is an ace cartographer of the heart and its urgent, wild, unruly ways. Radiant with longing, A Prayer for Travelers is an unforgettable debut.” —R.O. Kwon, author of The Incendiaries
“A Prayer for Travelers is a novel haunted by missing persons and lost souls, written in telepathic prose. Ruchika Tomar sees through walls, around corners, and into the deep heart of what matters, and moves us, the most. A beautiful debut.”—Ben Marcus, author of The Flame Alphabet
About A Prayer For Travelers
Cale Lambert, a bookish loner of mysterious parentage, lives in a dusty town near the California-Nevada border, a place where coyotes scavenge for backyard dogs and long-haul truckers scavenge for pills and girls. Cale was raised by her grandfather in a loving, if codependent, household, but as soon as she’s left high school his health begins an agonizing decline. Set adrift for the first time, Cale starts waitressing at the local diner, where she reconnects with Penélope Reyes, a charismatic former classmate running mysterious side-hustles to fund her dreams. Penny exposes Cale to the reality that exists beyond their small town, and the girls become inseparable—-until one terrifying act of violence shatters their world. When Penny vanishes without a trace, Cale must set off on a dangerous quest across the desert to find her friend, and discover herself.
An audacious debut, told in deftly interwoven chapters, A Prayer for Travelers explores the complicated legacy of the American West and the trauma of female experience.

Poetic Tuesdays with Litquake at Jessie Square
2019-07-09 12:30 - 13:30 UTC | Jessie Square, 736 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA, 94103, United States
Lines and lyrics from Litquake Nation! Enjoy line breaks during your lunch break, as some of the Bay Area’s best poets and musicians share their work in the great outdoors.
The monthly collaboration between Litquake: San Francisco’s Literary Festival and the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival features an array of Bay Area poets and musicians.
