Book Drives Sydney

June Books and Bevvies

**Welcome along to Books & Bevvies** — a casual book swap + drinks social in the Sydney CBD. This is *not* a book club with homework. It’s a simple, low-key way to meet people, chat about what you’ve been reading, and walk out with something new. **How it works** *Bring a book you’re happy to part with - Pop it on the swap table when you arrive *Mingle, chat, and swap recommendations - When the swap opens, take a book that catches your eye! *Stay for a drink and a conversation after **What to bring** - 1 book (any genre, any reading level) **Good to know** *All genres and reading levels are welcome - No fee, but please purchase your own food/drinks from the venue - The venue relies on accurate numbers for staffing. If you can't make it please change your RSVP. Repeated no-shows = removal from the group. **Where we’ll be** We’ll be in the **Market Street Garden Bar**, with a table full of books and bevvies.

June Book Club on AI: Empire of AI

Welcome to Meet the Moment Book Club, where we read books that meet the moment and make sense of it all together. Please see our [group page](https://www.meetup.com/meet-the-moment-book-club/) for a list of upcoming books. After discussing collapse, our third book club will examine one of the key drivers of collapse: artificial intelligence. Karen Hao's international bestseller "Empire of AI" is as illuminating as it is brilliantly written. It's precisely the book we need to be clear-eyed about the much-hyped sector of AI. "An eye-opening account of the tech arms race shaping out planet, from an award-winning journalist and AI insider to the world of Sam Altman and OpenAI... In exhilarating prose and with unparalleled access to those closest to Sam Altman, Hao recounts the meteoric rise of OpenAI and shows us the sinister impact that this industry is having on society." https://www.amazon.com.au/Empire-AI-Inside-reckless-domination/dp/1802064656/ We will be meeting at the Erko Hotel, in the open area in the back. There's no fee, but please purchase your own food/drinks from the venue. If you have trouble getting the book, message me. It's okay if you haven't finished the book by the time of the event, but please at least try -- the more the merrier! If the RSVP list is full, please join the waiting list as there will likely be fluctuations closer to the date. If you RSVP'ed and can't make it, please edit your RSVP so that others can attend. No-shows will be noted and barred from the book club. Please try to be on time as we start and end on time. Look forward to seeing you there.

Book discussion: The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leon Tolstoy

First published in 1886, *The Death of Ivan Ilyich* is Leo Tolstoy’s stark and penetrating examination of mortality, self-deception, and the search for a meaningful life. It follows Ivan Ilyich, a high court judge whose orderly and socially approved existence is quietly upended by a terminal illness. As his condition worsens, Ivan is forced into an unflinching confrontation with the life he has lived, exposing the emptiness beneath convention, status, and routine respectability. Isolated from those around him, he grapples with fear, denial, and a growing awareness that he may have lived wrongly. Spare yet devastating, *The Death of Ivan Ilyich* asks what it means to live well in the face of death, and whether clarity, compassion, and truth can emerge when all illusions fall away.

Queer Cinema

Let's celebrate Pride Month together! June's film can't be named due to copyright, however, here is a description to give you a clue: Three drag queens leave Sydney in a bus called 'Priscilla', and travel across half of Australia to climb a rock, in a frock, and put on a show at a resort in the middle of the country. Along the way, they break down, paint the bus lavender, dress up a lot, perform where they shouldn't and encounter hilarity, hostility and incomprehension. This is an iconic Australian classic road movie musical about a collision between three people in the wrong costumes and an environment that does not want them. 1994 M CC 1h 44m Director: Stephan Elliott Stars: Hugo Weaving, Guy Pearce, Terence Stamp, Bill Hunter *Discover everything the library has to offer including free e-books, audiobooks, e-magazines, movie streaming and so much more. Access our e-library 24/7. Join our library [here](https://library.waverley.nsw.gov.au/libero/WebOpac.cls?VERSION=2&ACTION=SIGNUPAGREE&RSN=&DATA=DWL&TOKEN=75KA1hXWhx6590&Z=1&NewBreadCrumb=1)*

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty | Sun 7 Jun 2026

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty | Sat 13 Jun 2026

Western Classics Social

Give the vast success of our last social, this is another social meet-up for those who physically come along to meetings of the Western Classics Book Club. 7.00pm to late. We will be meeting in the Two Tables Room. There will be no set book to discuss. Just a social for people who regularly come along. See you there! Dale

Queer Reads

Reading list for 2026: * Feb: Queer Heroes of Myth and Legend by Dan Jones * Mar: Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead by Emily Austin * Apr: Invisible Boys by Holden Sheppard * May: In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado * Jun: Just by Looking at Him by Ryan O'Connell * Jul: Pageboy by Elliot Page * Aug: Milk Fed by Melissa Broder * Sep: Jack Charles: Born-again Blakfella by Jack Charles * Oct: * Nov: * Dec: Carol by Patricia Highsmith

Pachinko - by Min Jin Lee

Book Club - 'The Names' by Florence Knapp

Inner West Writers Group - Write Club

Sat 13 June is an in-person event at the Library, starting at 10am. This group started in January 2020 in a beautiful private room granted by Marrickville Library. We have continued to meet in person fortnightly at the Library, with alternate weeks via Zoom. To keep up to date - sign up and receive our messages! The group is flourishing! You will need to RSVP each week for the following Saturday so we can organise the right number of Zoom rooms and Library space to ensure good quality feedback. RSVP's will receive the link. The intention is to give a supportive environment to get traction on your writing project, gain useful feedback, and exchange writing and publishing information with each other. Please note that if you are attending for the first time - you are welcome to observe and listen to how we work. Your turn to read and be critiqued will be invited in the second session. So come along, bring up to 1500 to 2000 words of your latest writing - fiction writers of all types, memoirists, biographers, graphic novelists, bloggists, poets - all writers welcome. You will have up to eight minutes to read out your work, an equal time of constructive critique and feedback from the rest of the group. If you want a tribe of fellow writers to be with you as you finish your writing project, build your author profile, want to get inspired by other writers, or want to just listen and give constructive feedback (we all need beta readers), you are very welcome. This is a free event, but membership is essential in wider to attend. Many thanks to Marrickville Library! For more information, contact Maria, mariaissaris@icloud.com, or Jamie Ramjan (jamie.ramjan@gmail.com) or Sunnie Mosphilis via DM.

Gay Ladies First Sunday Bookclub share what you have been reading