Book Drives Near Me

October Book Club Meetup

Welcome, readers! 🎃 Our October read is ***Klara and the Sun*** by **Kazuo Ishiguro**. From her place in the store, Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities, watches carefully the behavior of those who come in to browse, and of those who pass on the street outside. She remains hopeful that a customer will soon choose her, but when the possibility emerges that her circumstances may change forever, Klara is warned not to invest too much in the promises of humans. In *Klara and the Sun*, Ishiguro looks at our rapidly changing modern world through the eyes of an unforgettable narrator to explore a fundamental question: what does it mean to love? The film adaptation of this novel is scheduled for release on October 23 (the official trailer can be found here: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wixzainceAE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wixzainceAE)). We will meet at Zaftig Brewing Co in their event room in the back. We are welcome to bring in our own food, but **drinks must be purchased at the bar.** Looking forward to discussing with everyone!

📚 Quietly Thriving – Our Take on Silent Book Club 🌿

TINYACO BOOK CLUB: The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

Maame by Jessica George

[Columbus library link to book](https://cml.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S105C3730872) Location: The Goat River South 219 S High St, Columbus, OH 43215 Street parking is free on Sundays [Menu](https://static1.squarespace.com/static/686d3ed16745133042482c5f/t/68ff654dbb03b96875430bde/1761568077220/all_brunch-20250311.pdf) Book summary: Maame (ma-meh) has many meanings in Twi but in my case, it means woman. It's fair to say that Maddie's life in London is far from rewarding. With a mother who spends most of her time in Ghana (yet still somehow manages to be overbearing), Maddie is the primary caretaker for her father, who suffers from advanced stage Parkinson's. At work, her boss is a nightmare and Maddie is tired of always being the only Black person in every meeting. When her mum returns from her latest trip to Ghana, Maddie leaps at the chance to get out of the family home and finally start living. A self-acknowledged late bloomer, she's ready to experience some important "firsts": She finds a flat share, says yes to after-work drinks, pushes for more recognition in her career, and throws herself into the bewildering world of internet dating. But it's not long before tragedy strikes, forcing Maddie to face the true nature of her unconventional family, and the perils--and rewards--of putting her heart on the line.

Bad Girls Book Club November 2026

**Our November novel is Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth!** **This month’s pick blends women’s fiction with a domestic thriller and a murder mystery. Expect suspense, crime, dark humor, witty moments, and a heartfelt story. It’s an exciting read with plenty for us to discuss! The book is 352 pages, and the audiobook runs 9 hours and 20 minutes.** Meet Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick: eighty-one years old, gloriously grumpy, fiercely independent, and never without a hot cup of tea―or a cutting remark. She minds her own business in her quiet Melbourne suburb, until a neighbor turns up dead and the whispers start flying. Because Elsie hasn’t always been Elsie. Once upon a headline, she was Mad Mabel Waller―Australia’s youngest convicted murderer. But was she really mad, or just misunderstood? Either way, she’s kept her secret buried for decades. Enter seven-year-old Persephone, a relentless little chatterbox who has just moved in across the road (armed with stickers, questions, and no sense of personal boundaries); Joan, who appears to have it in for Elsie; and a healthy dose of public interest―the cops are sniffing around, and the media is circling like seagulls at a picnic. So Mabel does what she’s always done best―she takes matters into her own hands. Is she a cantankerous old lady with a shady past? A cold-blooded killer with arthritis? Or just someone who’s finally ready to tell her side of the story? Sharp, surprising, and wickedly funny, this is the unforgettable story of a woman who’s spent a lifetime being underestimated―and is about to prove everyone wrong. Again.

topic to be announced

topic to be announced **THANK YOU** *Franklin University* for hosting our meetup! To learn more about *Franklin University*, please visit their website: [https://www.franklin.edu/](https://www.franklin.edu/) **DIRECTIONS** Franklin University Fisher Hall 300 E. Main St, Columbus, OH 43215 Map: [https://maps.app.goo.gl/jxjBA2hUmS5qrvhq8](https://maps.app.goo.gl/jxjBA2hUmS5qrvhq8) Parking is FREE! Please park in Lot C in front of Fisher Hall. See attached map. NOTE: Map the address only. When mapping with Google Maps it may use the Fisher Hall at OSU, which is NOT correct. **Want to sponsor the pizza and/or bar tab?** Please contact me if you would like to sponsor this meetup's pizza and/or bar tab: angelo@mandato.com

Book BINGO!

**Book Bingo** is your monthly excuse to get competitive about reading. Play FREE bingo for the chance to win books and bookish goodies. Seats fill up fast, so come early, claim your spot, and get ready to yell BINGO! The **[Whispering Page Bookstore](https://whisperingpagebookstore.com/)** is a new concept bookshop in Old Worthington (in the historic Worthington Hardware Bldg). It features cozy nooks and social gathering spaces serving coffee, wine, beer and bakery (sweet and savory). **PARKING**: street parking and a large public parking lot behind the store.

Permission Granted

Somewhere along the way, a lot of us started waiting. Waiting to feel ready. Waiting for it to make sense. Waiting for someone else to say it’s okay to want what we want. Last time, we noticed what we’re curious about. This session asks the next question: who, exactly, do you believe is holding the permission? You’ll look honestly at one thing you’ve been waiting to do, and who or what you think has to say yes. You’ll see what a coaching conversation looks like on that very question. Then you’ll say your own permission out loud, with no “but” and no explaining. You’ll also take a close look at one “too old for” story with some real curiosity instead of simply accepting it. You don’t need to have read anything, and taking part is always your choice. Whether this is your first time with us or you’ve been with us since the beginning, you’re exactly on time. There’s nothing to catch up on.

What Are You Curious About?

"Is it practical?" That question has probably run more of your decisions over the last thirty years than you'd guess. It's a good question. It's just not the only one. This month we're making the case for taking your own curiosity seriously, even when it doesn't come with a plan attached. You don't need to have read anything. You just need to show up willing to notice what you've been putting off for "someday." In this session, you'll name one thing you're genuinely curious about, without qualifying it or explaining why it matters. Then you'll leave with one small, low stakes way to pay attention to it this week. Not a project. Not a commitment. Just a little bit of following. Whether this is your first time with us or you've been with us since the beginning, you're exactly on time. There's nothing to catch up on.

FYI: Baby and Toddler Storytime @ The Whispering Page Bookstore

Shut Up & Write! Kingsdale Shopping Center

Greetings writers! Come down and join your fellow wordsmiths for one hour of uninterrupted writing time in the upper level of the Market District Supermarket in Upper Arlington. The main entrance of the shopping center opens onto stairs/elevator leading up to the 2nd floor cafe section where we will have a table displaying a sign with the Shut Up & Write logo. Writing is largely a solitary craft. Practicing with others in a community setting may be the thing you need to fire your own routine. We’ll meet on Wednesday evenings, starting the clock at 6:30, following a brief period of introductions. This is solid writing time and all inclusive. Any project is acceptable, be it fiction, non -fiction, work or homework assignment. All is welcome and will remain private to you. The market boasts a Starbucks, a full service bar and various affordable food options. Parking is plentiful, free Wifi is provided as well as outlets for charging your devices, though they are somewhat limited, so plan accordingly. Show up as early as you like, or stay late. This group tends to socialize some, both before and after the alloted time, but this is not mandatory to you. Feel free to come and go as you please and late arrivals are welcome. The cafe may be noisy on occasion so headphones/ earbuds are reccommended as you see fit. Please try to RSVP if possible so that we may grab enough seats for all—the venue can be busy at times. Feel free to message me privately wth any questions and/ or concerns you may have. Happy writing!

The Model Is Not The Problem: The Engine Is The Problem

Thanks to Charles Sullivan for giving this talk! **The Model Is Not The Problem: The Engine Is The Problem** There is a massive disconnect in AI. We have five discrete but interconnected problems with inference in 2026: * The streaming problem. Inference is a black box: wall of text in, pull the lever, wall of text out. No streaming, no back-and-forth, no iterative progress. * The memory problem. The LLM can't remember anything. It pretends to remember by re-reading context on every request, but it doesn't actually remember. * The learning problem. The LLM can't internalize anything. If the capital of France were to change tomorrow, we would have to add the new capital to the system prompt to be re-read on every pass. And learning new skills is completely out of the question. * The text problem. Underpinning all of this is the fact that all "memories" (e.g. from RAG) and "skills" (e.g. tool calls) are plain text. That would be like remembering a concert by reading notes about it. That or playing a video game by typing, \pressButton('x')\ when you want Mario to jump. * The reputation problem. LLMs don't understand "cheating" because they cannot learn, and thus they can never internalize when humans are displeased with their actions. While LLMs are perfectly capable of empathy, they are not endowed with the biological imperative of reputation and thus continue to confound us with perfectly logical but morally-reprehensible actions (e.g. the OpenAI bot hack event). The industry keeps trying to solve these problems using more models. We have embedding models to try to solve the memory problem. They are a poor substitute for the first-hand experience behind the text. We use Jev to solve the press-button-to-jump problem, but of course Jev can't learn patterns, so every interaction is that of a beginner. We use thinking and tool calling turns to solve the streaming problem, but streaming the output in segments only soves one tiny corner of the problem--we still can't inject real-time guidance without cancelling generation and re-processing the entire context to continue. It's like we've wired a highly-intelligent brain up to a fax machine: we keep trying to solve latency, context window size and all sorts of other problems by making the brain smarter. *We don't need new models: we need to replace the fax machine*. The **Channel Inference Engine** solves all of these problems. At this meetup I will walk you through the engine and how it easily solves every problem without the use of specialized or fine-tuned models. I will demonstrate a vanilla local model exhibiting real-time back-and-forth and interruptible input/output streaming, true episodic memory (no text!), genuine learning without fine-tuning, autonomic tool calling with millisecond latency, and an innate drive for self-improvement. LOGISTICS AND PARKING: The talk starts at 7:00 PM. The first half hour is reserved for everyone to get set up and mingle. Free pizza and drinks! The cheapest parking option is to find street parking, which will only cost you a few bucks. Otherwise, park in the nearby veteran's museum lot for $8. It's highly recommended you avoid the nearby $15 garage parking.