Book Swaps San Francisco

Read Audre Lorde and have fancy cocktails

# We will read poetry together and sip cocktails in a fancy hotel bar. We will read poems together by Audre Lorde. The book we will read from is included in the cost of the $25 ticket and will be there for you on the evening of the event. Join us for this elegant evening and connect with people over a shared love of the written word. Fancy dress - whatever that means to you - encouraged but not required. Register here: [https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1992263309188?aff=oddtdtcreator](https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1992263309188?aff=oddtdtcreator)

Three Books, Zero Pressure: Book Club Kickoff

This is the first meeting for this book club. I have chosen the following three books as they are popular, notorious classics across completely different genres, and most people would've read (or at least heard of) them! > **Please note:** You do **not** need to read all three books! Just having read (or being familiar with) **any one** of these books is more than enough to join the conversation. Here is our inaugural trio: * **[The Alchemist](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18144590-the-alchemist)** by Paulo Coelho * **[The Great Gatsby](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18401910-the-great-gatsby)** by F. Scott Fitzgerald * **[Neuromancer](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6088007-neuromancer)** by William Gibson I will update the event with the actual location shortly!

July’s Book - The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

The Votes are in! Our July book will be a standalone, epic fantasy novel — The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon. Please note that the book is 800+ page length/ 26-hr audiobook so plan accordingly so you can finish in time. :)

Mixed Bag at Belmont Story Swap

Please know that an RSVP here on Meetup MEANS NOTHING. You need to go to www.StorySAC.org to get the details on how to join the Story Swap on Zoom. DO NOT RSVP HERE!! Our Zooming story swap welcomes ready listeners, eager tellers, & would-be tellers. Come try us out. Contact: email Linda Walls: lindaglennlee@yahoo.com

Book, Coffee, Chit Chat, etc. (Wednesday Edition)

ATTENTION: We are now meeting in person again! Please follow current recommendations around mask usage to keep everyone safe. Masks are always welcome and accepted, no matter the current regulations. If you'd like to meet online check out our meeting on the first Wednesday of every month. It's that time again! Let's chit chat about the books we exchanged last time and welcome newcomers bringing their first book. If you've been before you know the deal, otherwise just bring a book to share and expect to say both a few words about it and why you want to share it.

Rosewater @ Woods Lowside

Come enjoy a drink at Woods Lowside and discuss our July read! Our book for July is Rosewater by Tade Thompson. Hope to see you there!

(4th Saturday Richmond District Edition). Books, Coffee, Chit Chat

Bring what you’re reading and we’ll have an interesting group conversation (novels, non-fiction, essays, poetry, romance, cookbooks, science fiction & fantasy, etc.) This “4th Saturday Richmond District Edition” is designed to accommodate the overflow from Emily’s 2nd Saturday Richmond District Book Chat. If you are not able to attend Emily’s Group, then please feel free to join this 4th Saturday version. We meet in the back patio of Bazaar Café (lovely place). If it rains, we’ll meet inside the Café.

Let’s read “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love" by Raymond Carver

July 2026 Book Discussion: Wrong Place Wrong Time - Gillian McAllister

The votes are in, and the winner is **Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister!** *Summary*: Can you stop a murder after it’s already happened? It is midnight on the morning of Halloween, and Jen anxiously waits up for her 18-year-old son, Todd, to return home. But worries about his broken curfew transform into something much more dangerous when Todd finally emerges from the darkness. As Jen watches through the window, she sees her funny, seemingly happy teenage son stab a total stranger. She doesn’t know who the victim is, or why Todd has committed such a devastating act of violence. All she knows is that her life, and Todd’s, have been shattered. After her son is taken into custody, Jen falls asleep in despair. But when she wakes up… it is yesterday. The murder has not happened yet—and there may be a chance to stop it. Each morning, when Jen wakes, she is further back in the past, first weeks, then years, before the murder. And Jen realizes that somewhere in the past lies the trigger for Todd’s terrible crime…and it is her mission to find it, and prevent it from taking place.

Round Table Book Discussion July Meeting

Join us for an in-person, open discussion on the fiction or non-fiction book or podcast/movie/news article/cultural event that most engaged you. Give a brief summary of a book or article that interested you, and we will discuss it, along with the issues other participants select. Or just come to check it out. Find us by the Roundtable sign on the table. Thursday, July 16, 2026 at 6:30 pm **We are at our warm-weather outdoor location:** [Caffe Strada](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=37.869286%2C%20-122.254616), 2300 College Avenue · Berkeley, CA

The Keeper by Tana French

Book #3 in the series but I’m sure just as fun as a standalone!

Rambler Readers July Meeting

Location: Ann's house in Menlo Park. Attendees will receive an email with the address several days prior to the meeting. Potluck, Ann will provide a main dish, we provide everything else. This month's book selection: When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi About the book: At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade’s worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. And just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated. When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi’s transformation from a naïve medical student “possessed,” as he wrote, “by the question of what, given that all organisms die, makes a virtuous and meaningful life” into a neurosurgeon at Stanford working in the brain, the most critical place for human identity, and finally into a patient and new father confronting his own mortality. Future Books: Aug: Julie Sept: SRK Oct: MB Nov: MR Dec: MT