Comic Book Clubs San Francisco

Book Club: "The Life Impossible" by Matt Haig

For our next book club meeting, let's read and discuss "The Life Impossible" by Matt Haig! There are currently 32 copies available at the library (as of 4/3/2026) as well as the audiobook so it should be easy to get! The meeting location is TBD, but will be in the Burlingame/San Mateo area. We'll decide after the April meeting! Everyone will be waitlisted initially. Priority will be given to previous attendees of book club and regular attendees of the group. For details on attendance & waitlist, please see the "About us" description for the group. **Book Summary - "The Life Impossible" by Matt Haig** Publication Year: 2024 Page Count: 324 What looks like magic is simply a part of life we don’t understand yet… When retired math teacher Grace Winters is left a run-down house on a Mediterranean island by a long-lost friend, curiosity gets the better of her. She arrives in Ibiza with a one-way ticket, no guidebook and no plan. Among the rugged hills and golden beaches of the island, Grace searches for answers about her friend’s life, and how it ended. What she uncovers is stranger than she could have dreamed. But to dive into this impossible truth, Grace must first come to terms with her past. Filled with wonder and wild adventure, this is a story of hope and the life-changing power of a new beginning.

May 2026 Book Discussion: Aftertaste - Daria Lavelle

The results are in! The book we'll be reading and discussing for our May meetup is: Aftertaste by Daria Lavelle. ***Summary***: Konstantin Duhovny is a haunted man. His father died when he was ten, and ghosts have been hovering around Kostya ever since. Kostya can’t exactly see the ghosts, but he can taste their favorite foods. Flavors of meals he’s never eaten will flood his mouth, a sign that a spirit is present. Kostya has kept these *aftertastes* a secret for most of his life, but one night, he decides to act on what he’s tasting. And everything changes. Kostya discovers that he can reunite people with their deceased loved ones—at least for the length of time it takes for them to eat a dish that he’s prepared. He thinks his life’s purpose might be to offer closure to grieving strangers, and sets out to learn all he can by entering a particularly fiery ring of Hell: the New York culinary scene. But as his kitchen skills catch up with his ambitions, Kostya is too blind to see the catastrophe looming in the Afterlife. And the one person who knows Kostya must be stopped also happens to be falling in love with him. Set in the bustling world of New York restaurants and teeming with mouthwatering food writing, *Aftertaste* is a whirlwind romance, a heart-wrenching look at love and loss, and a ghost story about all the ways we hunger—and how far we’d go to find satisfaction. Lavelle’s debut is a multi-course tasting menu of a book that will sate, delight, excite, comfort, and inspire even the pickiest of readers.

Bonus Discussion: Sunrise on the Reaping

Let's finish off the series and read the next prequel -- Sunrise on the Reaping! These meetings will happen in addition to our regular book club discussions, so don't worry if you are not into the series. We will still meet regularly for our monthly discussions. ***Book Summary***: When you've been set up to lose everything you love, what is there left to fight for? As the day dawns on the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, fear grips the districts of Panem. This year, in honor of the Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes will be taken from their homes. Back in District 12, Haymitch Abernathy is trying not to think too hard about his chances. All he cares about is making it through the day and being with the girl he loves. When Haymitch's name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He's torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who's nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town. As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he's been set up to fail. But there's something in him that wants to fight... and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.

2nd Saturday "Not quite a book club" in the Richmond District

Show up having read a book\* you want to talk about. Get a beverage and/or food inside the cafe. We will probably meet outside in Bazaar Cafe's back garden.\*\* (The garden is accessible through an alley. There is a door to the alley next to the register inside. You can also go directly to the back garden from the street via the alley entrance on the right side of the right Cafe window.) Once you've spotted the group, we will introduce ourselves and have a brief period of chit chat. Then we will go around our group each talking about the (different!) books we read. Afterwards, you are welcome to stick around and chat. If you have a physical book you are done reading and want to offer other folks in the group, you are welcome to do that, but there is absolutely no obligation to do so. \*Any book! Could be a graphic novel, or non-fiction, or fiction, or a mystery or a romance novel or SciFi or Fantasy! \*\*If it is raining or a really bad air day from wildfires, it may be too crowded inside Bazaar Cafe to find a table, although it was raining during a few meetings early last year and the Bazaar cafe folks helped me stake out a table. In the event of rain and no space inside, I will probably move the event a few blocks away to Ilana Coffee or Royal Ground Coffee on Clement. I will message the group if we meet inside or if the location moves to another coffee shop.

Book Club Too - turn the page with us!

Read in the park: 4th meetup

Grab your book, a blanket, and come read with us in Golden Gate Park 📚 ​Read in the Park is a laid-back, in-person gathering for people who love books and good company. No agenda, no book club assigned reading, just show up with whatever you're currently reading and spend a couple of hours outside with like-minded people. ​Our first event brought together 20+ readers and it was honestly everything. So we're doing it again. ​**What to bring:** ​→ Your current read - physical book, Kindle, or audiobook → A blanket or something to sit on → A jacket! SF weather is unpredictable and Golden Gate Park can get windy → Snacks if you want *** ​**What should I expect?** ​2:00 PM → Arrive, find a good spot, get settled 2:00–3:00 PM → We read! Settle in, get cozy, enjoy the park 3:00–4:00 PM → Conversations - get to know each other, share what you're reading or listening to, swap book recommendations, and chat about genres you love 4:00 PM → Wrap up, linger, make new friends *** ​**Who's invited?** ​Anyone who loves books, being outside, and meeting good people. Lots of folks came solo to our first event, don't be shy, you'll fit right in! *** ​**What about parking?** ​Golden Gate Park on a Saturday can get busy! We recommend arriving by 1:30–1:45 PM if you're driving. Free street parking is available in the area but spots fill up fast. Public transit is also a great option. *** ​**Will this event be photographed?** ​Photos and short video clips may be taken for promotional purposes. By attending, you consent to being photographed. If you'd prefer not to be in photos, just let us know when you arrive and we'll make sure to respect that!

Reading Group #29: Zoom In!

Thank you to everyone who voted for papers! We'll be reading a [Zoom In: An Introduction to Circuits](https://distill.pub/2020/circuits/zoom-in/), by Olah et al. (Anthropic) - an interpretability paper which was a close second for our March session. Please comment if you'd like us to have a videoconference setup to dial into. We tend to keep it open for the first 15-30 minutes then shut it down if no-one has joined (having a huge screen on in the room showing physical attendees is a bit distracting)

Books & Brunch May

Literary Devices: Writers and Hackers for Noisebridge!

San Francisco Writers Workshop collaborates with our hacker friends to raise funds for everyone's favorite local makerspace: Noisebridge! Several of our best authors will produce stories/poems/word-based constructs. Each will share their literary product with a hacker, who will respond with a device/app/gadget/doohickey inspired by the writing. On the night of the event, audience members will vote for the device that best complements the assigned writer's piece. The winning hacker will receive a prize of dubious value! Expect delicious snackies, and other fun additions: in the past we've included a fun raffle!

SFVS Book Club May Meeting

**\*\*\*SFVS Members Only Event\*\*\*** Please RSVP via Partiful (invite sent directly to members, please message us if you didn't receive an invite by 4/12) Our May read is [Beasts of Burden: Animal and Disability Liberation](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24693870-beasts-of-burden) by [Sunaura Taylor](https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5343656.Sunaura_Taylor). Location is TBD: if the weather permits, we'll be outdoors! If not, we'll Plan B to the library. We look forward to another month of great conversation, connection, and community! Book Club is for SFVS Members only. If you are a new SFVS member and Partiful does not let you RSVP, it's because we need to manually add you to the invite. Please reach out to bookclub@sfvs.org and we will add you.

May Book Club: Solaris by Stanisław Lem

East Bay Women's Book Club May Meetup: Best Offer Wins

Hello, fellow female readers -- The book for the May Meetup is 'Best Offer Wins,' by Marisa Kashino, a Good Morning America Book Club Pick and An ELLE Best Mystery/Thriller. For those of you who are new, I will send out the address to my house by Monday, May 18. Looking forward to gathering together and discussing the book. Bonnie