Book Drives San Francisco

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!

Book 90: Babylon, South Dakota by Tom Lin

“ A Chinese couple living on a 160-acre homestead in South Dakota begins to notice bizarre and mysterious happenings after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers builds a nuclear missile site nearby.” -New York Times This novel has come up on a few different lists of highly anticipated books this spring. Looking forward to discussing it with this group! -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! \-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\- From the author of the Carnegie Medal in Fiction winner The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu comes a tantalizing, American West saga about a Chinese American family trying to survive on their Dakota farm as a powerful, mysterious, and morally dubious military secret shapes their lives. "Lin's gossamer prose is patient and full of wonders."—Ed Park, author of Same Bed Different Dreams and An Oral History of Atlantis When Saul Keng Hsiu and his wife, Mei Lee, move from China to the United States to take possession of a 160-acre homestead bequeathed to them by a distant relative, all they have are the possessions on their back, some hidden gold, and a pocketful of chrysanthemum seeds. After a rocky start and a long, harsh winter, the couple find themselves successfully raising chrysanthemums and livestock, and soon after, a daughter, Mara. But when representatives from the US Army Corps of Engineers buy an acre of the Hsiu’s farmland and begin building a missile silo, the inexplicable starts to occur: Mara can commune with the animals on the farm, Mei develops a hidden talent for augury, and the chrysanthemums become impervious to everything. When the Hsius learn that the project on their farm is an effort to make America’s nuclear deterrent invulnerable, they see firsthand the long arm of power and empire. In the years and generations that follow, increasingly impacted by the silo and its residue, the Hsius experience strange, wondrous, and tragic events on their farm. An ambitious epic and an ode to the beauty and glory of our connection to the natural world, Babylon, South Dakota upends the idea of "strangers in a strange land" to become a classic American story. It is a daring novel about how choices reverberate across generations and asks us what we owe to one another. TIME Magazine's Most Anticipated Books of the Year \| Town & Country's Best Books of Spring 2026

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

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.

Book club without a book

Let's get together without a book and with food and beverages! Please RSVP Yes only if you're committed to joining us. I can't handle the heartbreak and you'll be marked a no-show. Come right at 6:15 or any time later. See you there!

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!

July · Kuwait · Motorbikes and Camels

For July, we're reading the novel Motorbikes and Camels by Nejoud Al-Yagout (Kuwait). Please see the Goodreads link for the complete description: [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41742499-motorbikes-and-camels](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41742499-motorbikes-and-camels). 280 pages, audiobook and e-book available. There's a good chance I'll be traveling this day, so if I'm gone, my friend and group member Dani will facilitate the discussion in my absence!

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

Single-Story Bonus! "Why Don't We Just Kill the Kid In the Omelas Hole"

**[\[Read free on Clarkesworld Magazine\]](https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/kim_02_24/)** We previously did a single-story meeting for the Ursula K. LeGuin's sci-fi classic "[Those Who Walk Away from Omelas](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://shsdavisapes.pbworks.com/f/Omelas.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjkyISVr7qVAxWkFDQIHUUZFnQQFnoECBIQAQ&usg=AOvVaw15hF0v9fkIY7R_mgLWTR6G)" and had a great talk. Let's read this story, which won both the Locus and Nebula awards for Short Story in 2025! It's a brief and interesting revisit that I found quite entertaining. Just the one story, so this will be a bit more social. Come hang out and chat!

(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.

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.

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. :)