Calendar

Join us for a reading and booksigning with Alysia Abbott, author of Fairyland,  a  vibrant memoir about growing up motherless in 1970s and ’80s San Francisco with an openly gay father.

After his wife dies in a car accident, bisexual writer and activist Steve Abbott moves with his two-year-old daughter to San Francisco. There they discover a city in the midst of revolution, bustling with gay men in search of liberation—few of whom are raising a child.

In Alysia’s teens, Steve’s friends—several of whom she has befriended—fall ill as AIDS starts its rampage through their community. While Alysia is studying in New York and then in France, her father tells her it’s time to come home; he’s sick with AIDS. Alysia must choose whether to take on the responsibility of caring for her father or continue the independent life she has worked so hard to create.

Reconstructing their life together from a remarkable cache of her father’s journals, letters, and writings, Alysia Abbott gives us an unforgettable portrait of a tumultuous, historic time in San Francisco as well as an exquisitely moving account of a father’s legacy and a daughter’s love.

This event is co-sponsored by the Hormel Gay and Lesbian Center and the San Francisco History Center.

The Radar Reading series features underground and emerging writers.  This month features Cathy de la Cruz, Matt Rohrer, Julianna Delgado and Marisa Crawford.  Hosted by Michelle Tea.

Meet author C.W. Gortner, author of the historical novels The Last Queen and Confessions of Catherine de Medici.  He will read and discuss his new book The Queen’s Vow.  This historical novel talks about Isabella of Castile who united Spain and transformed it into a world power and sent Columbus to discover a new world.   A book sale by Readers Books follows the event. Sponsored by the Institute for Historical Study and the Historical Novel Society, Northern California Chapter.

Local historian Jacqueline Proctor presents a view of San Francisco's development from west of Twin Peaks, home to some of the city's most beautiful neighborhoods and influential citizens.  The suburbs that spread from the city's highest point form a unique part of the San Francisco tapestry.

A Vision of Angels (Owl Canyon Press is on one hand, a page-turning thriller) A terrorist threat for Easter Sunday in Jerusalem sets off a chain of events that weave together the lives of an American journalist, Israeli war hero, Palestinian farmer, and Arab-Christian grocer. On the other hand, it's a commentary: There's a lot in the book about torture in the Israeli prison system as well as systematic human rights violations of other kinds. Raised a Zionist, Tim lived in Jerusalem in the mid-1990s, managing a US government multimillion-dollar project to assist Palestinian businesses regain market access. He has said he would like his Angels to do for the Palestinians what Leon Uris's book Exodus did for the Jews: Give them a fair and sympathetic shake.

Timothy Jay Smith's first published novel, Cooper’s Promise, was selected by Kirkus Reviews as one of the Best Books of 2012 and won the 2008 Paris Prize for Fiction; his first staged play won the prestigious Stanley Drama Award.

Join us for an author reading with David Talbot who will talk about his latest bestseller Season of the Witch, the On the Same Page book club selection for May and June. In a kaleidoscopic narrative, David Talbot recounts the gripping story of San Francisco in the turbulent years between 1967 and 1982 - and of the extraordinary men and women who led to the city's ultimate rebirth and triumph. Season of the Witch is the first book to fully capture the dark magic of San Francisco in this breathtaking period, when the city radically changed itself - and then revolutionized the world.

A book sale and signing will follow the program.

Bay Area Beauty by Jacquie Proctor

How did an artistic Englishman become of San Francisco's most creative post 1906 architects? From storybook cottages and Mediterranean villas, to Art Deco masterpieces, historian Jacquie Proctor describes how Harold Stoner played a key role in establishing this "City Beautiful Movement" aesthetic in the western neighborhoods of San Francisco and beyond.

Meet Nyna Pais Caputi , the director of the film Petals In The Dust: The Endangered Indian Girls.   She will discuss how age-old beliefs, intolerance and a preference for sons, combined with growing materialism and technology is leading to increased incidences of discrimination, violence and the horrific and tragic murder of millions of Indian girls and women in India. She will show a short trailer for the film, talk about the work of activists who are working to end the violence and take audience questions.Co-sponsored by the International Museum of Women.

How did an artistic Englishman become one of San Francisco's most creative post 1906 architects? From storybook cottages and Mediterranean villas, to Art Deco masterpieces, historian Jacquie Proctor describes how Harold Stoner played a key role in establishing this "City Beautiful Movement" aesthetic in the western neighborhoods of San Francisco and beyond.

Author Maxine De Felice will read from her book "May The spirit Be Unbroken." Her book is  a story about the resilience of the human spirit, following three generations of activist families and the author as child and adult in the context of radical change movements of the twentieth century. The constant chant from the author's mother, "When all the children in the world are happy, only then do you have a right to be" was character defining, as were her many traumatic experiences growing up during the McCarthy era "witch hunts" of the 1940s and 1950s. The history of her grandparents participation in an educational commune, alternative living styles, and  labor union history provide an exciting backdrop.