Book Drives San Francisco

Trivia Tuesday at Shotski’s Alpine Lodge | Sunset Trivia

Looking for **Trivia Tuesday** in San Francisco? Join us every Tuesday at 7 PM for Sunset Trivia at **Shotski’s Alpine Lodge!** 🧠🍻 Bring your smartest friends, come solo and find a team, or recruit that one person who knows a suspicious amount of random facts. Expect questions covering everything from pop culture and music to sports, history, and general knowledge. It’s free to play, hosted live, played right from your phone, and there are prizes for the top teams. Grab a table and get ready to Think. Drink. Win.! 🏆

Book 92: The True True Story of Raja the Gullible by Rabih Alameddine

NOTE: we had a conflict on the first Wednesday of October so we have two meetings in September. This one was recommended by a fellow book club member. A tragicomic love story set in Lebanon, a modern saga of family, memory, and the unbreakable attachment of a son and his mother. Excited to read it! \- Jessica \-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\- **How it works:** We’ll meet at a local brewery for some drinks and conversation. Finishing the book is not a requirement to attend—as long as you don't mind spoilers! We’ll have an unstructured, informal discussion of the book and the themes that the book brings up. We hope to see you there! \-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\- WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD “Alameddine is a writer with a boundless imagination.”—NPR From the winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction comes a tragicomic love story set in Lebanon, a modern saga of family, memory, and the unbreakable attachment of a son and his mother In a tiny Beirut apartment, sixty-three-year-old Raja and his mother live side by side. A beloved high school philosophy teacher and “the neighborhood homosexual,” Raja relishes books, meditative walks, order, and solitude. Zalfa, his octogenarian mother, views her son’s desire for privacy as a personal affront. She demands to know every detail of Raja’s work life and love life, boundaries be damned. When Raja receives an invite to an all-expenses-paid writing residency in America, the timing couldn’t be better. It arrives on the heels of a series of personal and national disasters that have left Raja longing for peace and quiet away from his mother and the heartache of Lebanon. But what at first seems a stroke of good fortune soon leads Raja to recount and relive the very disasters and past betrayals he wishes to forget. Told in Raja’s irresistible and wickedly funny voice, the novel dances across six decades to tell the unforgettable story of a singular life and its absurdities—a tale of mistakes, self-discovery, trauma, and maybe even forgiveness. Above all, The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) is a wildly unique and sparkling celebration of love.

Captivating Book Club & Yummy Lunch

Let’s read “How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water" by Angie Cruz

Book, Coffee, Chit Chat, etc. (Tuesday 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.

The Lies of Locke Lamora @ Southern Pacific Brewing

Come enjoy a drink at Southern Pacific Brewing and discuss our September read! Our book for September is The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch. Hope to see you there!

October Book Club

Calling all book lovers!

Calling all book lovers! Unplug and join us on the beach with a book you would like to read. Don't forget your book, beach chair/towel, mask, and a bottle of water. While we love to watch children run and play, it's an adults only kind of day. We will be on Alameda Beach (Shore Line Drive between Fair Haven Road and Sand Beach Road). Directions From Oakland: https://goo.gl/maps/77XFVvLqJa72 From San Francisco: https://goo.gl/maps/9fYAbGc7ozo From San Jose: https://goo.gl/maps/6wdEuX8K9xA2

Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare by Edward Fishman

Our book for October 4 is Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare by Edward Fishman (**note the first Sunday in Oct)** For those who are interested, here is the [link](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1bLDOHblc82ZnGcmmDpUodvav_yUZyqDSd5AtVn1AMKY/edit?gid=1204962740#gid=1204962740) to the detailed results from the voting. In this book, Edward Fishman examines how the United States has increasingly used its central position in the global economy as an instrument of foreign policy. Rather than focusing on traditional military power, Fishman traces the development of tools such as financial sanctions, export controls, restrictions on access to technology, and limits on energy trade. He describes how the dominance of the U.S. dollar, the importance of American and allied financial institutions, and Western control over critical technologies and supply chains have created economic “chokepoints” that can be used to exert pressure on other countries. Drawing on episodes involving Iran, Russia, and China, Fishman recounts how these tools evolved from relatively limited measures into major components of U.S. national security policy. The book covers the campaign of financial pressure that preceded the Iran nuclear agreement, the sanctions imposed on Russia after its actions in Ukraine in 2014 and its full-scale invasion in 2022, and the expanding use of technology controls in the strategic competition with China. Fishman also considers the limits and longer-term consequences of economic warfare, including efforts by targeted countries to reduce their dependence on the dollar, Western technology, and other parts of the global economic system that give the United States and its allies leverage. This event will be hybrid. I will host the meeting in person at my house in Berkeley which is near the intersection of College Ave and Woolsey St. I will email people the address the Saturday before the meeting. Here are the Google Meet details: Google Meet link: [https://meet.google.com/zem-xnbw-tuh](https://meet.google.com/zem-xnbw-tuh) Or dial: ‪(US) +1 641-854-0146‬ PIN: ‪637 012 874‬#

Practical AI for Documentation

​AI and docs — everyone's talking about it, but what does it actually look like in practice? Join Write the Docs Bay Area and GitBook for an evening focused on real, applied workflows: using AI to draft, structure, and maintain documentation, with GitBook demoed live as the publishing platform. ​You'll hear how a real docs team runs AI in production, then roll up your sleeves in a hands-on workshop. **​What to expect** ​🍕 6:30 PM — Doors open: pizza, drinks, and informal networking 👋 7:00 PM — Welcome & intro (plus the Tech Writer Scouting Report) 🎤 7:10 PM — Talk: Ian Alton, Head of Technical Writing at Airbyte — *AutoDoc: How Airbyte self-heals and auto-merges docs for 600+ open source connectors* 💻 7:45 PM — Hands-on workshop: Working on documentation with AI, led by Addison Schultz & Sarah Duggan (GitBook) 🗣️ 8:35 PM — Wrap-up, Q&A, and open networking ​ **Who should come** ​Technical writers, docs engineers, developer advocates, and anyone curious about how AI is changing documentation work. Bring a laptop for the workshop portion. Food and drinks provided. Space is limited — RSVP to save your spot! **Shout out to our sponsors** ​Thank you, GitBook, for your continued support of the technical writing community! GitBook is generously sponsoring the food, beverages, and beautiful event venue. ​Learn more about GitBook and its documentation solutions by visiting:[ ](https://www.gitbook.com/?utm_source=chatgpt.com)[https://www.gitbook.com](https://www.gitbook.com/?utm_source=luma)

Books Not Bans presents Read the Room @ City Lights

Join us for Read the Room: a Celebration of Books! An afternoon filled with connection, music, games, and stories; and help us send popular LGBT books to communities around America.

September Book Club: The Ten Year Affair

The end of summer is quickly approaching, so it’s time to jump into a new book! For the next meet up in September, we’ll be reading The Ten Year Affair by Erin Somers. The Marin library system has plenty of copies available. Happy reading!