Sourcing clarity in the fog of ideas. Lighting your way to ideas.
In-person and across the Bay.
The Bay's intellectual scene is rich, varied, and hard to find.
Burnoff brings it into view. Expand your horizon.
86 upcoming book talks and author readings in the East Bay. 25 are in the next seven days; the list is updated daily.
Everything in the East Bay →Book talks across the Bay →The full calendar →Burnoff for iPhone →
More in the East Bay Lectures 280Workshops 44Salons 18
Book talks elsewhere San Francisco 130Berkeley 42Oakland 30Santa Cruz 12North Bay 72Peninsula 12South Bay 19
Fantasy author Kiri Callaghan discusses writing, worldbuilding, and magic, drawing on her USA Today bestselling works including The Hemlock Saga and The Terra Mirum Chronicles. The event includes a Q&A, book signing, and a special treat courtesy of Wingen Bakery. Books available for purchase from Towne Center Books.
Joshua Frank reads from and discusses his book *Bad Energy* in conversation with Scott Parkin at Nomadic Bookshop.
A book discussion for adult children of immigrants exploring mixed cultural identity and belonging. Participants will gather in a small-group salon format to discuss Sahaj Kaur Kohli's memoir and reflect on how bicultural experiences shaped their upbringings and sense of self. The event centers on shared questions about navigating multiple cultural worlds.
We are pleased to host author Linda Drattell for Coffee & Conversation on Sunday, October 25, 2026 at 2:00 pm at Towne Center Books (555 Main St, Pleasanton, CA). We will also be joined by sign language interpreter Becky Kasyanova. This is a free event but RSVP's are appreciated. You can RSVP below or you can call 925-846-8826 during store hours.
A witty, chess-playing stray cat tries to elude a catnapper while helping two tournament-bound schoolkids navigate life's challenges. Authors Ilona Bray and Stephen C.S. Soong discuss their novel.
Brandon Mull discusses his new novel Guardians: Forbidden Mountain, sharing insights into his writing process and answering questions from readers. The bestselling author of The Fablehaven series and Beyonders returns to Rakestraw Books for an after-school event.
A book talk on China's prison camps, their Soviet roots, and the threats to journalists investigating them. Orville Schell, Arthur Ross Vice President of the Center on U.S.-China Relations at Asia Society and former Berkeley Journalism dean, discusses his research with Adam Hochschild, author of *The Unquiet Ghost* and *King Leopold's Ghost* and lecturer at Berkeley Journalism. Welcoming remarks from Sasha Schell, supervising reporter at the Human Rights Center. Hosted by the Human Rights Center at Berkeley Law.
Fatimah Asghar discusses her debut poetry collection *Daughter of the Mountains*, which explores exile, displacement, belonging, spirituality, and lineage through meditative, formally inventive verse. The collection grapples with fulfillment, betrayal, love, loss, and longing, using vivid imagery and disruptive form to examine how place and environment inform spiritual practice. Asghar appears in conversation with poet Hieu Minh Nguyen.
A release-night celebration for the new ACOTAR novel featuring wine tasting with a special guest winemaker, book & wine trivia, costume prizes, photo opportunities, and the Suriel's Prophecy Board for reader predictions. Attendees are encouraged to dress in character — Night Court black, Spring Court florals, full Illyrian leathers, or power wear of choice. NA options available.
A discussion of Jenn Scott's debut novel *All the Tiny Beauties*, which spans 90 years in Oakland and explores shifting notions of self across generations through interconnected stories: a reclusive man, his estranged daughter, and a young housemate who form an unlikely friendship that defies age and expectation. Scott and facilitator Andrea Gough examine how the novel grapples with the fragility of identity, societal constraints on authentic selfhood, and the question of who we might become under different circumstances. Scott's work has appeared in *Fiction*, *Gettysburg Review*, and *Alaska Quarterly Review*; her debut collection *Her Adult Life* was longlisted for the PEN America/Bingham Award. Gough is an educator specializing in discussion-based curricula and the transformative power of literature to unsettle and expand thinking.
Screenwriter Matthew Aldrich discusses his debut novel about a billionaire tech visionary who discovers a method to stop aging. A propulsive exploration of ambition, mortality, and the ethics of technological transcendence, featuring a book signing.
A book talk and launch celebration for critical theorist and UC Berkeley author Grace Lavery's new work, *Personal Demons*. Lavery discusses her writing with Damon Young.
Historian David Henkin (UC Berkeley) discusses *Out of the Ballpark* (Oxford, 2026), a reconsideration of baseball's character and meaning that challenges familiar mythologies about the sport. Rather than treating baseball as uniquely American or examining only on-field action, Henkin traces the game's history across borders and centuries, exploring its structures, rituals, and resonances with labor, imperialism, race, media, and modernity. He's joined in conversation by philosopher Alva Noë (UC Berkeley), followed by audience questions.
A discussion of decolonial approaches to human rights practice, examining the power imbalances between Global North and Global South advocacy organizations. The authors of *Decolonial Human Rights Practice: Tactics, Obstacles, and Futures* explore how domination persists within transnational human rights work and strategies for transforming it.
A conversation with Professor Emeritus Charles P. Henry about his new memoir exploring his involvement in pivotal social movements—the search for social identity and the fight for civil and human rights. Drawing on personal experiences of place, memory, family, and Black Studies, Henry's narrative expands to broader issues including the Black diaspora, global community, and intersectionality. Henry is Professor Emeritus of African American Studies at UC Berkeley, former chair of Amnesty International U.S.A., and author of eight books on Black politics, public policy, and human rights.
Award-winning author Erika Krouse, the 2026 Joyce Carol Oates Prize recipient, reads from her work and discusses writing, storytelling, and the art of paying attention in conversation with Hannah Onstad. Krouse's most recent collection, *Save Me, Stranger*, was longlisted for The Story Prize; her memoir *Tell Me Everything* won the Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime and was a New York Times Editors' Choice. Her fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Esquire, and The Kenyon Review, and her story "Eat My Moose" won the 2025 Edgar Award for Best Short Story. She teaches at Lighthouse Writers Workshop in Denver.
Author-researcher Ashia S. Ajani and community organizer Keala Uchôa discuss *Tending the Vines*, which unpacks the rhetorical and ethnobotanical lives of plants moved across the Western Hemisphere. The book examines how plants have served as metaphors for Black incursion and symbols for Black liberation, while complicating notions of "invasive" species and belonging. Ajani contextualizes plant migration through an eco-griot and abolitionist lens, while Uchôa brings her work at the intersection of abolition and environmental justice. A conversation on diasporic plant relatives and tender living amid the decline of empire.
A discussion of Mark Danner's essay collection *Crossing the Rubicon*, which examines the erosion of American democratic institutions and the rise of authoritarianism from the 2000 election through 2026. Danner, a renowned political journalist and contributor to The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books, traces how the U.S. arrived at its current state of polarization, offering portraits of key figures like Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld and critiquing mass media's role in politics. He is joined in conversation by Emeritus Professor Michael Pollan, followed by audience Q&A.
Eric Beck Rubin discusses his fictional account of the final stages of pursuing the right to die. A deeply personal exploration of end-of-life autonomy and mortality through narrative.
A monthly poetry and literary reading series curated by Sharon Coleman, featuring local and visiting writers. Hosted at Pegasus Books Downtown.
A lunchtime conversation with Professor Anna Spain Bradley, Distinguished MacArthur Foundation Chair in International Justice and Human Rights at UCLA School of Law, discussing her forthcoming book *Global Racism: A Challenge for the World* (Oxford University Press, October 2026). Bradley examines racism as a global phenomenon operating across continents and centuries, arguing it poses a serious threat to humanity and human rights. She draws on two decades of legal scholarship on peace, dignity, and human rights worldwide. Executive Director Savala Nolan moderates. Attendees enter a raffle for a signed copy.
Two Bay Area novelists discuss their new works. Tomas Moniz presents *The King of Aloe Vera*, a novel about the Mission, intergenerational friendship, and aging. Laleh Khadivi discusses *Female Life on Planet Earth*, exploring mothers, daughters, and family secrets. Khadivi chairs the creative writing MFA at USF and is author of *The Age of Orphans* and *A Good Country* (New York Times Editors' Choice); Moniz teaches at Berkeley City College, Antioch MFA, and USF, and his novel *All Friends Are Necessary* won the 2024 California Golden Poppy Award.
Three Bay Area writers read and discuss flash fiction and short stories. Claudia Monpere, Senior Lecturer at Santa Clara University, will read from her forthcoming collection *The Periodic Family* (Cowboy Jamboree, 2026). Kathryn Silver-Hajio, whose upcoming collection *Spinning* draws on years lived in Beirut, will share her work. Patricia Bidar, moderator and author of *Pardon Me for Moonwalking* (Unsolicited Press, 2025), a collection of short stories and flash fiction, will frame the conversation.
An evening celebrating David Maisel's career survey *View from the Precipice*, a comprehensive monograph spanning forty years of photography, painting, and video. Maisel's aerial works address landscapes transformed by mineral extraction, resource reclamation, and military testing—sites rendered as destabilizing abstractions that use beauty to force attention on environmental catastrophe. His large-scale paintings respond to wildfire and flood; his immersive installations layer spatial ambiguity with human-altered geographies. Maisel will appear in conversation with art historian Alexander Nemerov (Carl and Marilynn Thoma Provostial Professor at Stanford, author of *Fierce Poise*) and Clio's founder Timothy Don to discuss the artist's practice and the monograph's development.
Adam Plantinga, author of the Kurt Argento thriller series and nonfiction books on crime and policing, discusses his latest novel *Dark Country*. The story follows Argento, a former Detroit cop living undercover in small-town South Dakota, who becomes entangled with a Syrian refugee teenager fleeing powerful pursuers. Plantinga, an investigator with the San Francisco Police Department's Internet Crimes Against Children unit, brings authenticity from his law-enforcement background to his crime fiction, which has earned Agatha and Macavity nominations and USA Today bestseller status.
Erika Krouse, the 2026 Joyce Carol Oates Prize winner, discusses her collection of short stories *Save Me, Stranger* (Flatiron Books), longlisted for The Story Prize. Krouse is a two-time Edgar Award winner and author of four books of fiction and nonfiction, including the memoir *Tell Me Everything: The Story of a Private Investigation*, a New York Times Editors' Choice. In conversation with Hannah Onstad, NewLit's Communication director.
A book launch talk on the strategic gaps between AI ambitions and organizational readiness to deploy automation effectively. Stefanie Hutka, design leader and author of *What Your Machines Should Do: The Science and Strategy of Human-Centered Automation*, examines what she calls the "Automation Strategy Gap"—the distance between companies' AI plans and their actual capability to implement them usefully. Drawing on human factors, cognitive science, and management theory, she argues that automation accelerates existing organizational systems and beliefs, making it essential to map your organization's foundational assumptions before automating anything. Essential for anyone navigating AI roadmaps and deployment strategy.
Tommy Orange, author of *There There*, discusses the new Indigenous horror anthology *Back for Blood: Never Whistle at Night Part II* with co-editor Shane Hawk. This collection features 21 stories by established and emerging Native and First Nations writers—including Stephen Graham Jones—drawing on Indigenous experiences, histories, and traditions to showcase horror as a vehicle for survival and transformation. The editors describe the work as 'sustained dread, sustained appetite, sustained consequence.'
Emmy Award–winning investigative journalists Michael Rey and Oriana Zill de Granados of 60 Minutes discuss their book investigating the Havana Syndrome attacks that have wounded hundreds of U.S. intelligence officers, diplomats, and special operators. Drawing on nearly a decade of reporting, more than 70 victim interviews, and evidence of Russian intelligence operations, the authors reveal whether a mysterious energy weapon was deployed or whether the U.S. government has covered up a multi-year mystery. A tour de force of investigative journalism examining how government prioritizes its own interests over those who serve the country.
An intimate evening with chef and food writer Rachel Gurjar celebrating her debut cookbook, East to East: Recipes and Stories from Mumbai to New York. A Culinary Institute of America graduate who cooked at New York's ABC Kitchen and served as food editor at Bon Appétit, Gurjar brings a produce-forward, market-driven sensibility to 101 Indian-inspired recipes that fuse Mumbai and New York pantries—Caesar salad meets chicken kebab marinade, shrimp biryani finished with pineapple raita. Part cookbook, part memoir, East to East tells stories of leaving home and building a life between two cultures.
A launch celebration and conversation with Bay Area poet and writer Truong Tran discussing his memoir *How to Exi(s)t*, in conversation with Esmé Weijun Wang.
Stacey Gordon discusses her debut novel *The Pearl Farm*, a multigenerational family saga about three estranged sisters navigating the collapse of their freshwater pearl farm in rural Tennessee while reckoning with family secrets and inherited legacies. Gordon, who grew up in Appalachian Ohio and spent her early career as a trade journalist covering the cultured pearl industry before transitioning to Silicon Valley tech, brings both intimate family insight and industry knowledge to this exploration of love, loss, ambition, and resilience. In conversation with Bronwyn Emery.
Lisa Hanawalt discusses her memoir *I Can't Stop Thinking About Horses and Sex*, a candid, humorous exploration of sexuality, relationships, and self-discovery. In conversation with cartoonist and author Julia Wertz. Hanawalt is the cartoonist behind Netflix's *BoJack Horseman* and *Tuca & Bertie*.
An evening discussion on *The Havana Syndrome*, the investigative book by Emmy-award-winning 60 Minutes producers Michael Rey and Oriana Zill de Granados, in conversation with Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Lowell Bergman. Rey and Zill de Granados recount their decade-long investigation into a mysterious weapon that has targeted U.S. diplomats, intelligence officials, and military personnel from Havana to Vienna. They discuss how they interviewed victims, uncovered suppressed government documents, and identified evidence of a highly specialized technology—all while the U.S. government denied the attacks. Bergman, a legendary investigative journalist and professor of journalism at UC Berkeley, will explore their groundbreaking reporting and the obstacles they faced breaking through classified material and institutional resistance.
Oakland librarian and public historian Dorothy Lazard discusses her memoir *Behind the Desk at Main: A Librarian's Memoir*, an insider's account of modern American library work. Through personal stories spanning decades at the Oakland Public Library's flagship branch, Lazard reveals how libraries serve as vital civic hubs defending knowledge, connection, and community life. Drawing on her experience as keeper of Oakland's public history archives, she shares the joys and dilemmas of serving one of the nation's most diverse cities.
Kirk Lombard, author of the award-winning *Sea Forager's Guide to the Northern California Coast*, reads from his new children's novel *The Shadow Stream*, an epic family adventure following Gabriel, a boy in juvenile detention, and a cast of talking animals who must save their river from being dammed. Lombard is an angler, sustainable fishmonger, tuba player, and former juvenile rehabilitation counselor whose work has been praised by NPR for its poetic approach to nature.
Tech critic Paris Marx discusses his book *Hyperscale*, which exposes how tech companies exploit vulnerable communities to power their data infrastructure while pursuing digital dominance. The conversation explores the industry's deceptive practices around energy and water resources, the growing public backlash—including Oakland's recent moratorium on new data centers—and pathways toward technology that serves the social good rather than billionaire profits. Marx, host of the podcast *Tech Won't Save Us*, is joined by Dr. Alex Hanna, a sociologist of technology and labor at the Distributed AI Research Institute and co-author of *The AI Con*.
A reading and generative workshop celebrating Emilie Lygren's anthology *How to Get Home in the Dark: Poems on Mental Health and Healing*. Lygren reads alongside poets Alegria Barclay, Zeina Hashem Beck, Melissa Fowlks, and Antwan Linton Penn, followed by a brief panel discussion. Attendees then write their own pieces in conversation with the anthology—paper, pens, and journal space provided. A space for poetry, reflection, and shared creative practice around healing and mental health.
An evening exploring how artist and activist Harry Belafonte used fame as a force for political change. Geographer and writer Joshua Jelly-Schapiro discusses his book *Daylight Come: Harry Belafonte and the World He Made*, tracing Belafonte's pivotal role in the civil rights movement, his friendship with Sidney Poitier and Martin Luther King Jr., and how he brought Caribbean music into American consciousness. UC Berkeley English professor Nadia Ellis, author of *Territories of the Soul: Queered Belonging in the Black Diaspora*, joins the conversation alongside cultural anthropologist and Clio's founding member Cari Borja, who brings her own fieldwork from Jamaica. Together they explore the intersections of music, migration, race, and activism, asking what it means when an artist becomes a force capable of changing the world.
A conversation with journalist Jordan Ritter Conn about his New York Times Editors' Choice book *American Men*, a narrative nonfiction work exploring what it means to be a man in America through the intimate stories of four diverse men navigating identity, heritage, and modern masculinity. Conn, a Senior Staff Writer at The Ringer and host of narrative podcasts including *What If? The Len Bias Story*, spent five years reporting on men across institutions of power and precarity. In conversation with Jennifer Kahn, staff writer for the New York Times Magazine and lecturer in UC Berkeley's Magazine Program.
Join Book Society's Romantasy Fan Book Club for discussion of *The Knight and the Moth* by Rachel Gillig, a gothic fantasy romance set in the kingdom of Traum. The group explores Gillig's moody narrative of Sybil Delling, a Diviner whose nine years of service at Aisling Cathedral are disrupted by a heretical knight and the mysterious disappearance of her fellow Diviners. This recurring book club gathers to read and discuss speculative fiction with romance elements in an intimate, participatory setting.
Oakland author and librarian Dorothy Lazard discusses her work in conversation with Jeneé Darden, Sights & Sounds host and author at KALW. Lazard shares insights into her career at Oakland's main library and her writing on the Bay Area literary and library landscape.
An intimate evening with Joyce Maynard, author of seventeen books including the novel *To Die For* and the bestselling memoir *At Home in the World*. Maynard, who captured national attention at 18 with a New York Times cover story, discusses her decades-long career as a journalist, NPR contributor, Moth storyteller, and novelist. She will reflect on the art of storytelling, her novels and memoirs, and her latest book, *In Wonderland*.
What happens when the desire to know becomes inseparable from the desire for something to be true? Scott Lambridis and Yance Wyatt, authors of the debut novels *St. Ulphia's Dead* and *The Watersmith*, explore how grief, love, memory, and loss complicate the boundaries between evidence, belief, obsession, and hope. Their conversation moves between psychology, science, faith, and mythology to ask what makes a belief reasonable, where skepticism becomes its own certainty, and whether emotion distorts inquiry or gives it urgency. At stake: when ordinary explanations fail us, what are we willing to believe in order to keep making sense of the world?
David D. Schmidt discusses his California Book Award–winning environmental history of the San Francisco Bay Area, tracing how natural forces and human choices have shaped the region's landscape over thousands of years. Schmidt will present his research with particular focus on Oakland and the East Bay, followed by audience Q&A and book signing.
A writing workshop on embodying memoir, led by Savala Nolan, author of *Good Woman: A Reckoning* and *Don't Let It Get You Down: Essays on Race, Gender, and the Body*. Nolan explores how writers draw from and contend with the body to craft honest, fresh memoir — what our bodies can tell us that minds cannot, how to work with embodiment when we live in a society hostile to our bodies, and concrete approaches to honest representation. The session includes examples of embodied writing from celebrated authors and a skills-building exercise. Bring pen, notebook, or laptop.
Journalist and activist George M. Johnson discusses their adult memoir *And If I Die Before I Wake*, which recounts 15 transformative years navigating an HIV diagnosis, alcoholism, grief, and the fight against book banning. Johnson's previous work, *All Boys Aren't Blue*, remains a frequent target of censorship despite critical acclaim. In conversation with Maggie Tokuda-Hall, children's and YA author and co-founder of Authors Against Book Bans. Doors at 6 p.m.
A reading and signing featuring three acclaimed poets and fiction writers published by Black Lawrence Press. Taayba Kanwal reads from *Talking with Boys*, a collection of linked stories exploring the Pakistani diaspora in Houston, Dubai, and Lahore. James Cagney presents *Ghetto Koans: A Personal Archive*, poems capturing Bay Area urban life through monologue and documentary narrative. Tureeda Mikell shares work from *The Body Oracle of Memory*, visceral poems of healing and ancestral connection. All three authors will be available to sign copies of their latest collections.
A conversation on staying present through the holiday season's overwhelm. Cecily Mak, author of *Undimmed: The Eight Awarenesses for Freedom from Unwanted Habits*, and Libby Stockstill, integrated life and leadership coach and author, discuss how intuition helps us recognize early signs of distraction and busyness, and how to return to what matters most when the calendar fills and our minds drift to tomorrow's agenda.
A conversation celebrating Jae Nichelle's poetic musical collection *Grownfolk Blues: A Musical in Poems*, a cross-genre work blending narrative verse with musical theater. Nichelle discusses this dynamic experiment in form and the queer Southern blues influences that inspired it, in conversation with local literary icon KB Brookins.
A book talk featuring Dashka Slater, bestselling author of *The 57 Bus* and *Accountable*, discussing her latest children's adventure *The Wild Season: The Remarkable True Story of A Rabbit Rescue*. Set in a San Francisco park, the book explores nature, community, and neighbors working together to solve a problem—inspired by a real rabbit rescue. Slater will be interviewed by 10-year-old Flora Madrigal, a fan of her work. Designed for ages 8–12 and adults alike.
A gathering of cookbook enthusiasts, food lovers, and home and professional chefs celebrating Ukrainian chef, food stylist, and writer Anna Voloshyna and her new cookbook *Ukraïne: Recipes and Stories from Kyiv to the Black Sea*. The event features Voloshyna discussing her culinary journey across Ukraine—from Carpathian peaks to the Black Sea—and the recipes, stories, and traditions she collected. Hosted by the Cookbook Lovers Club in collaboration with food stylist and cookbook author Bebe Carminito, the evening combines conversation, food, and wine.
An intimate salon featuring novelist Marie Darrieussecq in conversation with Transit Books publisher Adam Levy about her novels *How to Make a Woman* and *Our Life in the Forest*, published by Transit Books. Part of Transit's ongoing Book Club Salon series, which brings readers and authors together for behind-the-scenes discussions of Transit titles.
A conversation between award-winning authors Tanaïs and Carvell Wallace exploring what it means to write an archive of the past to imagine a more loving, liberated future. Tanaïs launches *Stellar Smoke*, a novel about Qamar, a musician who returns to her birth island after losing her apartment in a fire, only to discover VEDA—an artificial intelligence created by her late mother to hold their family's archive. The novel weaves climate change, refugee crises, fascism, and technological upheaval through intimate human experiences of family secrets, spirituality, and the mother-daughter bond. Wallace is author of the Kirkus-finalist memoir *Another Word for Love*. Tanaïs's *In Sensorium* won the Kirkus Prize and their novel *Bright Lines* was a finalist for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize.
Ignacio Navarrete (UC Berkeley, Spanish & Portuguese) discusses *Sneaking into Print*, his forthcoming book examining how early printing technology transformed narrative literature in Spain. The study integrates historical bibliography, material book features, and literary analysis to reveal how new print capabilities enabled circulation of older texts, translations, and newly written works alongside one another, giving rise to a distinct narrative culture. Through close readings of hagiography, the epic, and sentimental fiction, Navarrete illuminates the intersections of literature, materiality, and the early print marketplace. He is joined in conversation by Nicholas Paige (UC Berkeley, French), followed by audience questions.
Pulitzer Prize–winning author Miriam Pawel discusses her new book *California Dreams: The Making and the Remaking of the University of California*, an institutional history of how the UC system was built, transformed, and shaped by forces of politics, economics, and social change across the state.
Two mystery authors discuss their work: Carmela Dutra, author of *A Murder Most Fowl*, and Michelle Chouinard, USA Today and Publishers Weekly bestselling author of *The Serial-Killer Guide to San Francisco* and the Detective Jo Fournier series. Dutra's debut cozy mystery features food-truck owners and has been praised by Kirkus Reviews and Criminal Element for its blend of humor and clever plotting. Chouinard explores darker territory with a granddaughter of a serial killer leading tours in San Francisco, navigating copycat crimes and family secrets. Both authors craft mysteries set in and around the Bay Area, blending local color, humor, and intricate plots.
Journalist and author Jori Lewis explores how the living world carries traces of human history—migration, colonialism, memory, and belonging—through objects like seashells, plants, and places. Moving between scientific discovery, myth, and folklore, Lewis examines how nature holds spiritual and cultural meaning. In conversation with Idrissa Simmonds-Nastili, Oakland-based writer and curator of the literary salon Brunch & Word. Cultural anthropologist Cari Borja, Clio's founding member, opens with reflections on how cultures read meaning into the natural world. Lewis is author of Slaves for Peanuts (Whiting Award, Harriet Tubman Prize) and A Natural History of the Spirits.
A conversation on how Bay Area tech culture has shaped global politics, featuring two definitive books on the subject. Paulina Borsook, former Wired editor, discusses *Cyberselfish: A Critical Romp Through the Terribly Libertarian Culture of High Tech* (reissued 26 years after its original publication), a prescient critique of tech's toxic ethos and lack of compassion. Jonathan Weber, founding editor in chief of The San Francisco Standard and former editor of The Industry Standard, explores *City on the Edge: Technology, Politics, and the Fight for the Soul of San Francisco*, a sweeping history drawn from 200 interviews examining how the city's transformation into the global tech capital sparked the culture wars now playing out worldwide.
Lyrics & Dirges is a monthly reading series hosted and curated by Sharon Coleman featuring poetry and literary work. This August 26th session brings together writers to share and discuss their work in an intimate bookshop setting.
A book talk with Esha Niyogi De, UCLA Senior Lecturer, on her new monograph examining the overlooked histories of women directors, producers, performers, and "star-authors" across the film industries of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. De traces how these women used stardom, collaboration, and creative labor to claim authority over filmmaking and challenge structures that obscured their contributions to South Asian cinema. The talk covers two eras—the "star-authors" of the 1950s–90s and the "woman director" period from 2000 onwards—and includes rare archival footage from films by Kohinoor Akhtar Suchanda, Babita, Nargis Akhter, Shamim Ara, and Kanan Devi. Discussant: Maya Sidhu (UC Berkeley, film and media studies); moderated by Elora Shehabuddin (UC Berkeley, Gender & Women's Studies).
Latinx writer Tomas Moniz discusses his debut novel *Big Familia* (a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway and Lambda awards) and his second novel *All Friends Are Necessary* (winner of the 2024 California Golden Poppy Award), alongside his forthcoming novel *The King of Aloe Vera*, due from Algonquin Books in September 2026. The conversation explores his writing process, the role of community in his work, and his editorial legacy on the *Rad Dad* and *Rad Families* anthologies. Moniz teaches at Berkeley City College, the Antioch MFA program, and St. Mary's College.
A gathering of the ACOTAR Book Club to discuss Sarah J. Maas's newest novel *A Court of Splintered Harmony*. This is the club's first read of a new installment without prior knowledge of the ending — no rereading, no hindsight, only first-hand reactions and live theories. Attendees are invited to bring predictions, annotations, and observations as the group explores the latest chapter of the Prythian saga together.
Three Bay Area poets share new work in an intimate evening at Solano Cellars. Dorianne Laux, Joseph Millar, and Chris Martin read and discuss their poetry over wine. Part of a new series pairing literary voices with wine.
A conversation on how farmers and ranchers adapt to climate change beyond the politics of belief. Margiana Petersen-Rockney, environmental studies professor at University of Montana and political ecologist, draws on seven years of research in Northern California to explore the social, economic, and personal forces shaping agricultural adaptation—what it means to change how we farm when it touches land, family, identity, and generations of knowledge. She joins award-winning journalist Anna Sale, host of Slate's Death, Sex & Money and People Trying, for a dialogue on where climate science meets lived experience. Anthropologist Cari Borja, who works at the intersection of food, agriculture, and education, will introduce the conversation: How do we ask people to change without first understanding what we are asking them to risk?
Sports journalist Marcus Thompson II discusses his book *Game Changers*, which makes a series of bold cases for the elite players who fundamentally transformed basketball. Featuring figures from both the NBA and WNBA—Michael Jordan, Dirk Nowitzki, Candace Parker, Steph Curry, and others—Thompson examines how these athletes' contributions went beyond statistics to reshape the trajectory of the game itself. A lead columnist at The Athletic with over two decades of experience, Thompson is also author of *Golden: The Miraculous Rise of Steph Curry* and *Dynasties: The 10 G.O.A.T. Teams That Changed the NBA Forever*.
A celebration of Bex Frankeberger's debut novel *Antigone at the Rot Party*, a queer-theory-inflected reimagining of Sophocles's *Antigone* that asks what we owe the dead and what courage demands of us. Frankeberger, a writer and horticulturist, will discuss the work with Lizzie Davis, executive editor of Transit Books, exploring translation, modern myth-making, and the philosophy underlying this playful, intimate adaptation. Published by Oakland's Cantine Press.
Three Bay Area authors share their favorite holiday book recommendations and sign copies of their latest works. Tomas Moniz discusses *King of Aloe Vera*, a novel about intergenerational friendship and Latinx identity in San Francisco's Mission District. Vincent Chu presents *Nice Places*, a philosophical travel narrative that subverts the "find yourself" story. Children's author and illustrator Jerrold Connors shares *Stampede*, a global adventure featuring two adventurous calves. A chance to connect with local writers and discover their literary recommendations.
Anthropologist Harjant Gill discusses his book *Coming of Age in Macholand*, an ethnographic and memoir-based exploration of how young Punjabi men navigate rigid patriarchal systems—submitting, rebelling, trying to escape, or breaking under its constraints. Drawing on a decade of research, Gill examines how patriarchy claims to empower men while stripping them of emotional, sexual, and intimate freedom, while brutalizing women and queer people. He argues for what men must relinquish to become truly free. In conversation with David Vine, political anthropologist and author of *The United States of War* and *Base Nation*.
A book talk on anticolonial development, examining the history of schooling, race, and emancipation in twentieth-century West Africa. Elisa Prosperetti will discuss her forthcoming Cambridge University Press work and its argument about how education functioned within and against colonial systems in the region.
A book launch by Harjant S. Gill, professor of anthropology at Towson University and award-winning documentary filmmaker, discussing his ethnographic study *Coming of Age in Macholand* (University of Chicago Press, November 2026). Based on four years of fieldwork in Indian Punjab, Gill examines how boys learn to become men within patriarchal systems shaped by violence, migration, and economic change—and how patriarchy constrains not just women and queer people, but also men's emotional and intimate lives. The event is moderated by Lawrence Cohen, professor of anthropology and South & Southeast Asian studies at UC Berkeley.
A 1930s Hollywood-themed evening celebrating audiobook narrator and publisher Daniel Henning, a three-time Audie Award finalist and narrator of over 300 audiobooks including TJ Klune's The House in the Cerulean Sea. Henning will discuss Queer People, Carroll and Garrett Graham's 1930 satire of early Hollywood that he is rescuing from obscurity—a gin-soaked romp through the studios and starlets of the Jazz Age written by two industry insiders. Attendees are invited in cocktail attire for an evening evoking a 1930s movie palace.
A celebration of cookbooks and baking culture with Susan Spungen, founding food editor at Martha Stewart Living, culinary consultant for Julie & Julia, and author of Cookie Queen. Spungen will discuss her years shaping one of publishing's most influential food brands and the stories behind her latest book—80+ cookie recipes from a baker The New York Times called 'the Babe Ruth of Cookies.' The intimate gathering, co-hosted with food stylist and cookbook author Bebe Carminito, brings together cookbook enthusiasts for conversation, tasting, and savoring good company.
A conversation about Marie Harrison, an environmental activist who fought for housing, energy, and employment justice in San Francisco's Bayview Hunters Point, and the environmental injustices her community endured—from contaminated water at Geneva Towers to radiation exposure near a major Superfund site. Freelance journalist Tom Molanphy, whose environmental reporting won a 2023 California News Publishers Association award, speaks with Arieann Harrison, Marie's daughter and Founder of the Marie Harrison Community Foundation. Half of book proceeds support the Foundation's continued work for environmental and economic justice in District 10.
Local cartographer and nature writer Obi Kaufmann celebrates the release of his book *California Inside Out: Mapping an Ecology of the Mind*, a manifesto on deepening connection with California's landscapes and ecosystems. Kaufmann's distinctive illustrated maps and lyrical approach to bioregional narrative have made him a Bay Area fixture; this event offers an opportunity to hear directly from him about the book's themes and creative process.
Investigative journalist Julia Harte discusses her book *Americans Without Borders: The Radical Activists Who Fought for US Ideals Abroad While Facing Political Persecution at Home*, which traces two centuries of Americans who joined revolutionary liberation movements abroad—from Black veterans of the Spanish Civil War to participants in Nicaragua's Sandinista conflict and the Algerian National Liberation Front—and examines how the U.S. security state branded them as threats. Harte will be joined by Sonia Paul, an award-winning independent journalist and producer who investigates power hierarchies and transnational issues for outlets including WIRED, Mother Jones, Harper's, and NPR.
Martha Freeman reads from and discusses *Kitty's Christmas*, her picture book about a finicky feline's unexpected discovery of holiday spirit. Freeman is the author of 31 children's books, including *Stink Bomb Mom* and the protest guide *If You're Going to a March*. She has worked as a newspaper reporter, magazine writer, and college lecturer.
A book release event for 'We Live in Public' at Tamarack, a café and community event space in Oakland housing a free lending library focused on critical theory, social movements, and local history.
How did a colossal 1892 ballet flop become an unshakeable holiday tradition? Janine Kovac, former professional ballet dancer and author of The Nutcracker Chronicles: A Fairytale Memoir, explores the ballet's unlikely journey from artistic debacle to pop culture phenomenon in conversation with novelist Shanthi Sekaran (Lucky Boy, Boomi's Boombox). They discuss how The Nutcracker—first performed in the United States by San Francisco Ballet in 1944—evolved into a rite of passage for dancers and audiences alike, examining power dynamics, women's bodies in dance, and the cultural forces that transformed vague narratives and culturally insensitive motifs into an enduring American tradition.
Book Society's "WTF Did I Just Read?!" Book Club discusses Shark Heart by Emily Habeck, a novel about newlyweds Wren and Lewis, whose marriage undergoes a metamorphosis when Lewis transforms into a great white shark over nine months. The facilitated discussion explores this intergenerational love story's themes of marriage, motherhood, and letting go. Attendees enjoy lively conversation with a glass of house wine included.
A celebration of cookbooks and cookbook culture centered on Debbie Berne's *Cookbooking: A Fan's Guide*, a pop history of the genre Berne designed and loved before writing her own book. Kate Leahy, cookbook author and host of the Everything Cookbooks podcast, leads a conversation with Bebe Black Carminito, author of *The Curated Board*, and Dianne Jacob, author of *Will Write for Food*, the standard guide to food writing. For cookbook enthusiasts, food lovers, and home or professional chefs.
Book Society's Leading Ladies Book Club discusses Arundhati Roy's debut memoir *Mother Mary Comes to Me*, a candid and sweeping account of Roy's relationship with her single-mother activist Mary Roy, who founded a school in Kerala and advocated for women's property rights. Roy explores grief, ambivalence, and love across her own life from Kerala childhood through her years in Delhi and her career as a novelist and essayist.
Stacey Lindsay, author of *Being 40*, explores the Autumn Queen—a mythological archetype embodying courage, creativity, intuition, and power that has been conspicuously absent from how we narrate women's lives. Historically, the Maiden, Mother, and Crone dominated storytelling; Lindsay argues this erasure was deliberate and shows how to reclaim this missing stage. The event combines conversation about the Autumn Queen with hands-on creative practice: guided journaling, sketching, and crafting to uncover your own inner Autumn Queen, including designing a tarot card and making a personal ornament.
A practice-based workshop anchored in Katherine May's Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times. Rather than a book report, this session explores rest as a radical practice — reframing winter (both seasonal and personal) not as failure but as necessary dormancy. Drawing on May's reframing of fallow, slowed-down seasons as integral to a whole life, participants reflect on how to integrate rest into their own rhythms and resist the cultural pressure to perpetually produce. The workshop provides space, ideas, and guidance to move from understanding the concept to actually practicing it.
A book club for readers interested in yoga philosophy and ethics, held at Book Society. The group gathers to discuss texts that deepen understanding of yoga's philosophical foundations and ethical teachings, integrating meditation and journaling for reflection. This month focuses on the origins and sources of yoga's ethical teachings. Open to teachers, students, and anyone curious about the practice.
The UC Berkeley Center for Korean Studies honors the 2026 winner of the Hong Yung Lee Book Award: I. Jonathan Kief, assistant professor at UNC Chapel Hill, for *Triangle Republics: Cross-Border Literary Transits between the Cold War Koreas and Japan* (Columbia University Press, 2025). Kief's groundbreaking work traces how North and South Korean literature circulated through Japan's diaspora communities between 1945 and the 1980s, revealing creative transnational exchanges that challenge conventional Cold War narratives of division. The ceremony includes remarks, book signing, and refreshments. Established in 2022 to honor Berkeley political scientist Hong Yung Lee's legacy, the award recognizes exceptional English-language scholarship advancing Korean Studies.
No events match your filters.
1.png)
