Book Swaps San Francisco

East Bay Women's Book Club September Meetup: The Correspondent

Hello, fellow female readers -- The book for the September Meetup is The Correspondent by Virginia Evans For those of you who are new, I will send out the address to my house by Monday, August 14. Looking forward to gathering together and discussing the book. Bonnie

Book 91: Endling by Maria Reva

I heard a review of this book on Fresh Air https://www.npr.org/2025/06/23/nx-s1-5440259/endling-review-maria-reva-ukraine *Starting out as a straightforward story about a Ukrainian biologist, this witty, shape-shifting book turns into something trickier and more interesting.* This sounds like the kind of book I love -- Martha \-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\- **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! \-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\- Set in Ukraine, an eccentric scientist breeding rare snails crosses paths with sisters posing as members of the marriage industry to find their activist mother. As Russia invades, they embark on a wild journey with kidnapped bachelors and a last-of-its-kind snail. This darkly comic novel explores survival, love, and hope in times of encroaching darkness. A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: THE WASHINGTON POST, THE NEW YORKER, NPR, GOOD HOUSEKEEPING, PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY, THE GUARDIAN, LIBRARY JOURNAL “Startling and ambitious.”—New York Times • “Virtuosic.”—NPR, Fresh Air • “Brilliant and heart-stopping.”—Los Angeles Times Ukraine, 2022. Yeva is a loner and a maverick scientist who lives out of her mobile lab.She scours the country’s forests and valleys, trying and failing to breed rare snails, while her relatives urge her to settle down and finally start a family of her own. What they don’t know: Yeva already dates plenty of men—not for love, but to fund her work—entertaining Westerners who come to Ukraine on guided romance tours believing they’ll find docile brides untainted by feminism and modernity. Nastia and her sister, Solomiya, are also entangled in the booming marriage industry, posing as a hopeful bride and her translator while secretly searching for their missing mother, who vanished after years of fierce activism against the romance tours. Together they embark across hundreds of miles: three angry women, a truckful of kidnapped bachelors, and Lefty, a last-of-his-kind snail with one final shot at perpetuating his species. But their plans come to a screeching halt when Russia invades. In a stunningly ambitious and achingly raw metafictional spiral, Endling brilliantly balances horror and comedy, drawing on Reva’s own experiences as a Ukrainian expat tracking her family’s delicate dance of survival behind enemy lines. As fiction and reality collide on the page, Reva probes the hard truths of war: What stories must we tell ourselves to survive? To carry on with the routines of life under military occupation? And for those of us watching from over-seas: Can our sense of normalcy and security ever be restored, or have they always been a fragile illusion? Endling is a tour de force from an author who weaves a story of love, loss, humor, and devastation that only she can tell.

September Book Club: A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

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.

September: Lauren Groff - Brawler

**Recommended Stories:** * The Wind * To Sunland * Birdie (Also, the novella "What's the Time, Mr. Wolf?" seems to be highly recommended in reviews) Looking forward to "diving" in to this one! **For First-Timers:** We recommend reading at least one story, but feel free to read as little or as much as you'd like! Discussion is open, informal, and we try to focus on the recommended stories listed above. **About the Author:** Lauren Groff was born in Cooperstown, New York, and studied at Amherst College before earning an MFA at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She lives in Gainesville, Florida, where she opened a bookstore, The Lynx, in 2024, and her sister is the two-time Olympic triathlete Sarah True.

The Island by Ragnar Jonasson

A Nordic murder mystery!

The Left Hand of Darkness

Discuss The Left Hand of Darkness of Ursula K. Le Guin

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.

The Ages of Globalization by Jeffrey D. Sachs

Our book for September is *The Ages of Globalization: Geography, Technology, and Institutions* by Jeffrey D. Sachs For those who are interested, here is the [link](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VcU5k38wVh5tB0eaJ8Akhq7A2HyLOX7a1AauKjPUAx0/edit?gid=1204962740#gid=1204962740) to the detailed results from the voting. *The Ages of Globalization: Geography, Technology, and Institutions* is a 2020 book by economist Jeffrey D. Sachs. Sachs traces the history of human connection across the globe from the Paleolithic era to the present, dividing that history into seven ages: the Paleolithic, Neolithic, Equestrian, Classical, Ocean, Industrial, and Digital. His central claim is that three forces have shaped how societies expand, trade, and interact over time. Geography sets the physical stage of climate, terrain, and resources. Technology, from the domestication of the horse to the steam engine to the internet, changes what people can build and how far they can reach. Institutions, meaning the governments, religions, and economic systems people create, determine how those capabilities get organized and put to use. Sachs walks through each age in turn, showing how a shift in technology or geography reshaped the balance of power and the flow of goods and ideas. He covers the rise of agriculture, the spread of empires, the ocean voyages that linked continents after 1500, and the industrial and digital revolutions that followed. The book closes with the current era, where Sachs turns to questions of inequality, environmental limits, and global governance, and argues that the same three forces will shape how humanity handles challenges like climate change and economic disparity. At roughly 250 pages, it is written for a general audience rather than specialists, and it draws on history, economics, and geography to cover a long span of time in a single volume. 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#

Oakland BYO Book Club (First timers welcome & introvert friendly)

[Partiful RSVP Link for location ](https://partiful.com/u/XzH5cT2AssuzPtiJRwFe) On Wednesdays (new day), we have a book club with a twist. Bring any book you are currently working on or want to start. We spend the first part reading in silence together (until about 8:15 pm) and the last part discussing what we are each reading, what inspired our reading choices, and a nugget from what we read. 📕 Great way to learn about new topics, books, authors, and about each other with our rich discussions 🧠 😌 Newcomers welcome and Introvert-friendly. An Oakland Muslim Bookclub gathering — bringing Muslims together through books, conversation, and adab. Partifull RSVP (we have an average of 5-15 regulars who attend bookclub weekly, most rsvps are via Partiful): [Partiful RSVP Link](https://partiful.com/u/XzH5cT2AssuzPtiJRwFe)

August 2026 Bookclub Discussion: At the Edge of the Haight — Katherine Seligman

# 📚 Our August Book Has Been Chosen! Thanks to everyone who voted! Our next **Books & Brew** read is: ## 🌉 *At the Edge of the Haight* — Katherine Seligman Grab a copy, start reading, and join us for a great conversation! ### About the Book Twenty-year-old Maddy Donaldo has built a life for herself on the streets of San Francisco, finding family, routine, and survival in the hidden corners of Golden Gate Park. But when she witnesses the murder of a young homeless boy—and the killer sees her—her world is turned upside down. As police, grieving parents, and her own estranged family search for answers, Maddy must decide whether to continue hiding from the world or risk letting herself be found. Set against the backdrop of a rapidly changing San Francisco, *At the Edge of the Haight* explores homelessness, belonging, community, and the difficult choices that shape our lives. ────────── 📸 Follow us on Instagram **@booksandbrew_oakland** for meetup photos, book announcements, and future events.

Read/Discuss: TBD September-vote now Book Club