Book Drives San Francisco

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

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.

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.

Captivating Book Club & Yummy Lunch

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

📚✨ BOOK CLUB: The Determined

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.

Whose Cloud Is It Anyway? Take ownership of your data and your costs with BYOC

\*Please sign up on Luma: [https://luma.com/ruft92qf](https://luma.com/ruft92qf) ​SaaS is convenient right up until you need your data out, your vendor raises prices, or you need to connect internal systems. Bring Your Own Cloud splits the difference: the vendor runs the control plane, you keep the data plane in your own account. We'll go deep on design: how the control plane reaches into your VPC, where the shared responsibility line actually falls, leveraging open source databases, and cost reduction tricks that don't kill performance. Our speakers have built BYOC systems at every layer of the stack and will show the plumbing and failure modes. Come with hard questions. Bring your own cloud. ​ ​Food and drinks included 🍻 ​ ​*PS. Want to hear more great speakers? Sign up for the **Open Source Analytics and AI Conference** on Nov 2 (online and in-person).* [Register here](https://luma.com/eis7567t?utm_source=meetupeventdescription). *** # ​**​Agenda** * ​**6 pm** - Networking * ​**6:15 - 8:00 pm** \- Talks * ​**8:00 - 9:00 pm** - Networking

September Book Club: The Bronze Horseman by Paulina Simons

This book has been requested by multiple members and I am excited to read it. Come join us as we transition from summer holidays to autumnal vibes with what promises to be a sweeping and dramatic saga. ABOUT THE BOOK USA Today Bestseller Called “a Russian Thorn Birds,” The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons is a sweeping saga of love and war that has been a monumental bestseller all over the world. The acclaimed author of Tully, Simons has written a stirring tale of devotion, passion, secrets, betray, and sacrifice. “A love story both tender and fierce” (Publishers Weekly )that “Recalls Dr. Zhivago” (People Magazine), The Bronze Horseman is rich and vivid World War II fiction at its finest. The golden skies, the translucent twilight, the white nights, all hold the promise of youth, of love, of eternal renewal. The war has not yet touched this city of fallen grandeur, or the lives of two sisters, Tatiana and Dasha Metanova, who share a single room in a cramped apartment with their brother and parents. Their world is turned upside down when Hitler's armies attack Russia and begin their unstoppable blitz to Leningrad, marking the start of the brutal Siege of Leningrad. Yet there is light in the darkness. Tatiana meets Alexander, a brave young Red Army officer. Strong and self-confident, yet guarding a mysterious and troubled past, he is drawn to Tatiana—and she to him, the beginning of a forbidden love that will be tested by the impossible. Starvation, desperation, and fear soon grip their city during the terrible winter. Tatiana and Alexander's impossible love forms a devastating love triangle that threatens to tear the Metanova family apart and expose the dangerous secret Alexander so carefully protects—a secret as devastating as the war itself—as the lovers are swept up in the brutal tides that will change the world and their lives forever.

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.