Bay Area Book World Breaking News!
Coloring books!
The world is a complicated place to live in, and the rules and social protocols can get messy and confusing. Maybe that’s why so many adults these days are turning to adult coloring books. They’re like a combination of easy-to-follow guidelines, plus the child-like rebellion that comes from coloring a lion purple or green. Indeed, according to this article from CBS SF Bay Area, adult coloring books are just starting to climb atop adult bestseller lists.
Book clubs!
Let's take some time to celebrate a pretty cool book club we just learned about from the Contra Costa Times. It’s Oakland-based BookTini Book Club. Every month, the club pairs a book with a thematically related cocktail (now the name BookTini might make sense).
Just for fun, or misery, here's some alcohol related book puns: Tequila Mockingbird, the Old Man and the Seagrams and....we'll stop now.
MONDAY, 2/8 - SUNDAY 1/14
Monday, 2/8
Queer is black
Queer is black. Don’t take it from us, take it from Ajuan Mance, Brontez Purnell, and Arisa White, who will be reading in honor of Black History Month at Books Inc. this Monday. There will be prizes, including, apparently, a copy of President Obama's Birth Certificate.
DETAILS: Books Inc. // 2275 Market St., SF // 7pm
Tuesday, 2/9
A young woman’s pillow whose birthmarks have been stolen
Frank Lima's 'Incidents of Travel in Poetry' is quite a mental commute. Take this excerpt, for instance: "Gertrude Stein is a match flaring on a young woman’s pillow whose birthmarks have been stolen. We cross the green Atlantic into World War One. We are met by Rilke dressed in his Orpheus uniform wearing white sonnet gloves that once belonged to a stone angel." Wooooooow! That's the kind of writing you can find in a new publication of City Lights, 'Incidents of Travel in Poetry: New and Selected Poems.' Come celebrate this new collection at City Lights.
DETAILS: City Lights Booksellers and Publishers // 261 Columbus Ave., SF // 7pm
Wednesday, 2/10
What’s so important about our mothers?
Ann Packer is the kind of author who tries to answer questions like, "Hey guys, how do we become who we are?" and "What's so terrifying about the void?" and "What's so important about our mothers?" Those are the kind of psychological questions she’s been known to explore in books like The Children’s Crusade and Songs Without Words. Lucky for us, Packer’s coming to San Jose University's Center for Literary Arts this Wednesday.
DETAILS: Center for Literary Arts // San Jose State // 7:30pm
Thursday, 2/11
Why there are words
Just the other day, I was wondering, why are there words? Well, that’s not true. But still, a literary series with a name like “Why there are words” has got to be good. This time around, the theme of this literary series is “The Heart of the Matter.” Come down to look at words in a way you never have before.
DETAILS: Studio 333 // 333 Caledonia St., Sausalito // 7pm
Friday, 2/12
Hottest, smartest, most honest
Lip Service West has been hailed as the "hottest, smartest, most-honest literary event in South Florida." Berkeley is a little different than South Florida, but still, when storytellers are given exactly 1,500 words to tell the truth, things get revealing fast. Come see Lip Service West for yourself at Pegasus Books Downtown.
DETAILS: Pegasus Books// 2349 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley // 7:30pm
Saturday, 2/13
The best of the bawdy
Bawdy Storytelling, one of the original sex and storytelling series, is celebrating 9 years of existence. And we get to celebrate with them. The series gets people onstage to tell their sexual exploits, and in doing so, it brings together a mix of porn stars, sex educators, and just general human beings who've had sex before. Wow boy!
DETAILS: Adobe Books Collective // 3130 24th St.., SF. //12 - 1opm
Sunday, 1/7
There are the meshes and there are boxes and there is wanting and there is a reading
The name of the Facebook event is: "There are the meshes and there are boxes and there is wanting and there is a reading!" Well, that sounds quite nice! To explain a bit more, The Meshes is a new book by Brittany Billmeyer-Finn, and There are Boxes and There is Wanting is another from Tesse Micaela Landreau-Grasmuck. To be honest, they both sound really, really good. The Meshes is described as “ambitiously kaleidoscopic”, and There are Boxes makes bold statements like, "any investigation of the skin must start here."
DETAILS: // 5648 Oak Grove Ave., Oakland // 7pm
Got a literary event or some news you think we should share with the world? Email us at thelitographyproject@gmail.com!
