Bay Area Literary Scene 2019 by MediaNews Group Targeted Products

bookish BAY AREA LITERARY SCENE 2019

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rom the heady days of the Gold Rush, when Mark Twain and Bret Harte roamed the mining camps, notebooks in tow, to the days of Jack London, Dashiell Hammett and Jack Kerouac, the Bay Area has been the home of some of the greatest writers of our time, including Gertrude Stein, Ursula K. Le Guin, Eugene O’Neill and more. And the Bay Area’s modern literary scene continues to inspire and enchant authors and readers alike, plunging \Z PU[V [OL ^VYSKZ VM 5L[ÅP_ KHYSPUN @HUNZaL Choo, the hilarious Dave Eggers and former Twitter employee-turned-best-selling author Robin Sloan.

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Litquake

Hidden treasures

The Beat goes on

Mysterious doings

Take a glimpse inside San Francisco’s eccentric literary pub crawl.

Explore six of California’s most unexpected literary spots.

Rediscover North Beach, ground zero for counter-culture poets.

What happens when six mystery authors are locked in an escape room?

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Trace the trail of Jack London from Oakland to Sonoma. PAGE 19

Top authors, summer reads.

‘Big Little Lies’ takes root in Monterey.

PAGES 10, 12, 28, 40 AND MORE

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Big crowds, major chefs and delicious book events PAGE 60

C O V E R I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y G I N A T R I P L E T T A N D M AT T C U R T I U S E D IT O R : J A C K I E B U R R E L L , D E S I G N E R S : S H A R O N K I L D AY, C H R I S G O T S I L L , J E N N I F E R S C H A E F E R , C O PY E D I T I N G : S U E G I L M O R E

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F E S T I VA L

Litquake Inside the West Coast’s grandest homage to books BY ANGELA HILL

itquake’s co-founders — writers Jane Ganahl and Jack Boulware — remain as surprised as anyone that a half-lit idea, hatched in 1999 over a couple of beers at Edinburgh Castle (the pub in San Francisco’s Tenderloin, not the actual Scotland one), has since swelled to the largest independent literary festival on the West Coast. But it’s true. With an abiding philosophy to shake things up with words and celebrate everything by the book, the nonproﬁt Litquake is now in its 20th year and still growing. Litquake produces year-round literary programming plus its annual namesake event – the 10-day Bay Area-wide Litquake, a celebration of the written word held each October with hundreds of author readings, writing workshops, ﬁlms, panels, discussion groups and so much more. And of course, since 2004, the festival always closes with the super-popular Lit Crawl, a one-night boozy, bookish pub crawl of epic proportions (this year scheduled for Oct. 19). The literary bacchanal draws about 10,000 people to the city’s

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Litquake co-founder Jane Ganahl, above.

People squeeze inside Rebound Bookstore to hear readings from travel writers.

Mission district for bevs, books and readings, set in venues that range from pubs and galleries to tattoo parlors and laundromats. And always with literary luminaries. Past presenters have included the likes of Dave Eggers, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Michael Chabon, Isabel Allende and Ishmael Reed. We recently chatted with Ganahl about this wild and wacky wordy world:

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PHOTO BY ALAN DEPP/MARIN INDEPENDENT JOURNAL, LEFT PAGE COURTESY OF LITQUAKE

F E S T I VA L

Q A

So this all started at the humble Edinburgh?

Q A

Tell us about Lit Crawl.

TOP: PHOTO COURTESY OF CHRISTINE KRIEG, BOTTOM LEFT: PHOTO COURTESY OF SHELLEY EADES

Yep. Back in 1999, it was one of the only pubs in the Bay Area that was doing literary events, mainly because the manager was from Scotland and had connections with a lot of great Scottish writers. Jack and I were kind of inspired by that, and we thought about how we could do a little festival with all the writers we knew that had books coming out. We called it Litstock back then, and we had 22 people do 10-minute readings in the bandshell in Golden Gate Park on a Friday afternoon. We really didn’t think anybody would come, but something like 400 people showed up. It was just a big success, and we realized we were kinda onto something there.

The Lit Crawl was a separate thing at ﬁrst. We thought of the idea of just doing a free kind of ramble through the Mission, but it was another crazy idea people just jumped on. And before we knew it, it became sort of an export for us – we had people in different cities asking to do Book lovers surround an impromptu stage at the Ritual Roasters coffee house. The baby sleeps, but everyone else gives an author their attention. Author Amy Tan joins a few of the Rock Bottom Remainders band, including Roger McGuinn, formerly of The Byrds.

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TOP PHOTO: COURTESY OF LITQUAKE, BOTTOM: WILLIAM MERCER MCLEOD

Lit Crawls. Now they’re all over the U.S. and places like Helskini, England, New Zealand. Maybe one this year in Australia. We are now officially the octopus literary festival with tentacles around the world.

Q A

Why the unusual event venues?

That kind of happened organically. While it sounded charming to do all these readings in bars, it can be fraught with potential chaos and noise. In fact, for our very ﬁrst Lit Crawl, we were scheduled to do a reading at an Irish bar on Valencia. But when our team got there, the manager said he didn’t know what they were talking about and wouldn’t turn down the TV.

Author Michele Tea’s appearance at Litquake included an artsy collaboration with Scott Wells Dance company. An Ambush Review happening packs the Muddy Waters coffee house on Valencia Street in 2011.

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PHOTO COURTESY OF SHELLEY EADES

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So they took a chair and went out on the sidewalk in front of an appliance store and had the readers do their readings standing on the chair. It was amazing. I happened to be walking by with my clipboard, checking on things, and there was this huge crowd, spilling into the street. It was kind of the official launch of the Lit Crawl mayhem.

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It all came out in the wash when a Mission district laundromat subbed as a literary venue for a “Loads of Prose” Lit Crawl reading.

Q A

What’s the weirdest location you’ve used?

Well, the Mission changes all the time, so it’s always something new. A few years ago, we did one in a beekeeping-supply store. We did a reading for dogs once, for books about dogs, in a bookstore near Market and Valencia. We had about 20 people and about 30 dogs. The readers

really had to project over all the barking. It was really cute. Oh, and there was a gourmet sausage store on Valencia. I heard there was a hilarious moment with the people, who were standing in line to buy their sausages. Someone told them to be quiet and one man shouted out, “I don’t give a (expletive) about books, I’m here to buy my sausage!”

With hundreds of events during Litquake, what’s the best way to navigate it?

Believe it or not, I’ve heard the complaint that there’s too much to choose from. To me, that’s kind of a ﬁrst world problem if I ever heard one. In the last few years, we’ve started using something on the website where you can click on a date

IF YOU GO The 2019 Litquake festival is scheduled for Oct. 10-19 with events across the Bay Area. Find details at www.litquake.org. The 2019 Lit Crawl will be held at the close of Litquake, from 5 to 9 .m. Oct. 19 in San Francisco’s Mission District; www. litquake.org/lit-crawl-sf.html.

and it will spit out all events that are happening that night. We also have things listed by genre.

Lots of folks know about the October events, but many don’t realize you have programs year-round.

Yep, all year. We have writing classes, workshops, just a variety of things. Plus we now have Kidquake and Teenquake for public school kids and the Elder Project. We have Lit Cast podcasts. We also present things at other festivals, at everything from the NoisePop music festival to the Silent Film Festival. Are there special moments that stand out over the years?

Well, for Kidquake, we have authors come and talk to the kids about writing. We always give away free books. For some of the kids, especially the little ones, it’s the ﬁrst book that they own. Lots of times, teachers will have the kids write thank-you notes, and one of them really grabbed my heart. One little girl said that up until that day, she didn’t know that books came from people. I hadn’t thought of that before. To a kid, a book is just a thing that’s just there. They don’t think about the creative process that goes into it. But for a young brain to suddenly go, “Oh my gosh, a person creates a book. I’m a person, and I can do that, too.” That’s pretty special.

A burst of blossoms provides an artsy backdrop for an intimate reading at the Wildhawk bar in the Mission. PHOTOS COURTESY OF LITQUAKE

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The Beauty Bar in San Francisco’s Mission hosts A Litquake Lit Crawl, held each year on the last night of the festival.

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Robin Sloan: Satire grounded in affection BY L I N DA Z AVO R A L

fun of us in a way that says “I know you deeply,” it’s not unpleasant. It’s the opposite– a form of love!

akland author Robin Sloan, 39, didn’t let Twitter limit his creativity to 140 characters. After stints there and at Current TV, he used Silicon Valley as the setting for his debut novel, “Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore” – and the 304-page work landed on the New York Times best-seller list. His second novel, “Sourdough, or Lois and Her Adventures in the Underground Market,” ﬁnds his protagonist at the intersection of technology and food culture. It’s now out in paperback.

Where does the inspiration for your protagonists and plots come from?

Your writing is concise and clever. Did your time at Twitter alter your writing style?

Deﬁnitely! In its heyday, before the character limit was relaxed, Twitter’s limitations made it an ideal training ground. A poetry factory.

Q A

How do Silicon Valley techies respond to your portrayals of them and their world?

Generally, the reception has been warm. I think satire – good satire – has to be grounded in affection. When our friends make

My protagonists are all me, or a version of me. The plots come straight out of the Bay Area’s natural weirdness and drama, its fusion of technology and craft, wealth and counterculture ... all of it. This place is thick with people who seem like characters out of novels, so I just do the obvious thing and write them in.

You now produce olive oil in Sunol. How did that get started?

My partner, Kathryn Tomajan, is an olive miller, and through her work, we were given the rare opportunity to lease a very small grove. So that’s become our shared project.

So can we expect your next book to be “Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Olive Oil Mill” or “Lois and Her Adventures Dipping Sourdough in EVOO?” Seriously, what’s next?

I’m working on a new novel that’s closer to real science ﬁction than anything I’ve written before – a story that makes some predictions about the future of California. But, like all my novels, it takes place in a shared universe, so readers can expect to see some familiar characters.

Q A

Do you have a favorite Bay Area bookrelated event?

I’m partial to the deeply weird and wonderful readings organized by City Lights in San Francisco. You can walk up the steps to the Poetry Room and encounter conversations that could happen literally nowhere else.

“The Bird King” by G. Willow Wilson: This historical fantasy takes a time period that’s passed into (the distant age of Muslim Spain) and makes it new and strange again. It’s quite a magic trick. 10

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“Tentacle” by Rita Indiana: I love (a) short novels, (b) novels in translation and (c) novels about time travel – and ‘Tentacle’ is the trifecta. For me, it’s been the most delightful surprise of 2019 so far.

“Empress of Forever” by Max Gladstone: Reading this novel, you can feel your brain stretching to match its scale. It’s dizzying and thrilling, an ultra-widescreen sci-fi adventure.

“See You in the Cosmos” by Jack Cheng: This Young Adult book is a sensitive classic-inthe-making from a Detroit-area writer – who went to the same high school as I did!

“Tomorrow I’ll Be Brave” by Jessica Hische: Jessica is a legendary lettering artist here in the Bay Area whose first children’s book is gorgeous and captivating, with a next-level message.

PHOTO BY DAI SAGANO/STAFF

5 BOOK PICKS FROM SLOAN

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Charlie Jane Anders: ‘I don’t NOT believe in magic’ B Y R A N DY M Y E R S

peculative ﬁction writer Charlie Jane Anders knows how to send readers’ minds soaring into orbit. The San Francisco author’s newest book, “The City in the Middle of the Night,” deposits us on the rather unforgiving planet of January. Magic squares off against science in her Nebula award-winning “All the Birds in the Sky.” Anders also spearheads Writers With Drinks, a frisky monthly literary gathering, and Bookstore & Chocolate Crawls, which ﬁnds bibliophiles hopscotching to indie bookstores with stops for chocolate. Naturally, we had questions — about planets, bookstores and what Anders thinks we should read this summer.

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What do you think accounts for the recent boom in speculative fiction There’s been a trend over the last 20 years of “mainstream” literary authors dipping into speculative fiction — Margaret Atwood, John Updike. (But) we’re living in a time where everything is a little more science fictional. Technology has transformed lives in a short time, things like smartphones, medical technologies. A third thing is that speculative fiction is finally opening out and including authors who had previously been kept out of the genre: people of color, women, queer people, transgendered people, disabled people. That, I think, leads to an explosion of creativity and a ton of really interesting stories.

Which planet in our solar system would you most want to visit?

I’m pretty fascinated by Mars, obviously. It’s close, and there’s been so much great stuff written about it. I would love to actually ﬁnd out the truth about whether there’s still water beneath the surface and what kind of conditions really exist on Mars. To be one of the ﬁrst people to visit Mars would be an amazing trip.

A Q

I don’t NOT believe in magic.

What’s your favorite independent bookstore here on Earth — in the Bay Area?

It’s like trying to ask which one of my friends is my best friend. I love all of the Bay Area bookstores so much. I have a special place in my heart for Borderlands Books (in San Francisco) because they’re one of the last remaining science ﬁction specialty stores in the country. Part of the reason we do the Bookstore & Chocolate Crawl is because we’re trying to make people aware that the Bay Area is so lucky to have so many independent bookstores. This place would be a wasteland without them.

Do you believe in magic along with science?

PHOTO BY DAI SAGANO/STAFF

5 BOOK PICKS FROM ANDERS

“The Gilded Wolves” by Roshani Chokshi: (This YA pick is) a super fun, actionpacked heist novel in the gilded age – 19th-century Paris. The characters are amazing.

“The Calculating Stars” by Mary Robinette Kowal: Set in an alternate version of the 1950s, it’s kind of a feminist story of recovering from a horrible disaster, exploring space, and heroic astronauts. It’s just amazing.

“The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein” by Kiersten White: It’s a retelling of Frankenstein from the viewpoint of Elizabeth, Frankenstein’s friend. It’s definitely a little bit darker, but it’s a lot of fun. It’s another feminist retelling of a story that’s often told without the women being at the center of it, even though it was originally written by a woman.

“Fangirl” by Rainbow Rowell: It’s basically about a girl who goes away to college. She’s a well-known writer of fan fiction, but nobody knows her at this college. It’s about having this community that you’re connected to online but doesn’t give you a connection in the real world.

“Trail of Lightning (The Sixth World)” by Rebecca Roanhorse: It’s about Native American people living on a reservation — the only thing that survived the apocalypse that has happened in the rest of the United States — and all these creatures from folklore have come back. I love it.

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Haunts

for lit lovers

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S TO R Y B Y A N G E L A H I L L P H OTO S B Y K A R L M O N D O N /S TA F F

alifornia’s literary gems aren’t always found under cover. Some lie beyond the book, like the trove of literature-inspired artwork in a library in San Jose. Or the byzantine adventures in one of the world’s best bookstores – maybe the last? – in Los Angeles. You can take a crawl through San Francisco’s Mission District to imbibe inspiration – from books as well as booze. Or go where people take literature literally, with an intricate re-creation of 221B Baker St. in a Gold Country shop. If you love a good read but still yearn for more, here are some book-eriffic activities for the worms in all of us:

A perch on the seventh ﬂoor of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Library gives this sagacious owl statue the proverbial bird’s-eye view of the philosophy section.

LIT GEMS

A R T A M O N G T H E S TAC KS The amazing works of conceptual artist Mel Chin are scattered needle-in-haystack-style throughout the nine stories of book stacks in the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library, San Jose’s main public library which also serves San Jose State University. Nearly three dozen sculptural “insertions” are all over the place, both in style and location. And ﬁnding them is a fun, free, erudite expedition. There’s a herd of branded leather chairs on the second ﬂoor, a tiny ornate door at the base of an elevator cab and a secret-passageway bookcase that’s totally Scooby-Doo. On one wall, an opening reveals the “Owl of Minerva” — a reference to an observation by 19th-century idealist philosopher

The Tectonic Tables installation, above, overlooks a panoramic view of San Jose. It is the work of artist Mel Chin, as is the funky bicycle table, left, and a detail from it, right.

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LIT GEMS

Treasure Nguyen, a docent at the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, is reﬂected in a mirror set up in the library’s selfhelp section. A hidden bookcase, below, swings open on the 1st ﬂoor.

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G.W.F. Hegel — poised to take ﬂight over the philosophy and psychology sections. This permanent collection of 33 works, titled “Recolecciones,” has been here since the building opened in 2003 “to surprise you and add a sense of mystery and wonder,” according to Chin. Pick up a map at the front desk in the ground-ﬂoor central atrium, then go explore. Details: Open daily at 150 E. San Fernando St., San Jose. Find details on the library’s art docent tours held on Thursdays at www.sjlibrary.org.

PHOTO COURTESY OF HEATHER ALLEN

AT H O M E W I T H H O L M E S Head upstairs at the Hein & Company bookstore in the small Gold Country town of Jackson, and you’ll enter a scene straight from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This is Baker Street West, a “tip of the deerstalker” homage to the greatest consulting detective who ever ﬁctionally lived, with a lovingly detailed re-creation of Sherlock

Holmes’ sitting room, accompanied by Dr. Watson’s Apothecary, Mrs. Hudson’s Tea Shop, a pub, secret passageways, revolving bookcases and more. Two uber-Sherlock fans – bookstore co-owner Linda Hein and her friend Beth Barnard – dreamed up this novel idea and gradually brought it to life in 2013. They also host special events, including

The door of the faux Baker Street West swings open to reveal a replica of Sherlock Holmes’ London ﬂat.

murder-mystery dinners, theatrical productions and meetings of a Sherlockian literary society. Elementary details: It’s instructive to note that “Baker Street” isn’t the actual address. It’s actually 204 Main St. in Jackson. Open daily; docent tours are available; www.bakerstreetwest.com.

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in the City by the Bay, thousands of book and beverage lovers worm their way through San Francisco’s Mission district, sipping sweet libations and savoring meaty conceptions. This is Lit Crawl. It’s the perfect epilogue – a nightcap, if you will – to the annual 10-day Litquake festival. Since Lit Crawl began in 2004, it has become the world’s biggest free pop-up literary event, a massive pub crawl with more than 500 authors simultaneously giving readings or holding discussions in all manner of venues – from bookstores, cafes and galleries to tattoo parlors, pet stores and laundromats. And yes, pubs. Localized editions of the Lit Crawl have now sprung up all over the world, in Austin, Seattle, New York City, Iowa City, Los Angeles, Portland, London and Helsinki. But the original is right here.

PHOTO BY JACKIE BURRELL/STAFF

Details: This year’s San Francisco Crawl will weave through the Mission from 5 to 9 p.m. on Oct. 19; www.litquake.org. YO U A N D SA M U E L C L E M E N S – T H E T WA I N SHALL MEET

E N DA N G E R E D S P E C I E S So a bookie named Josh Spencer – not the gambling kind of bookie, but the book-obsessed kind – laid a bet on the enduring appeal of hard-copy literature, opening an independent bookstore in downtown Los Angeles in 2005. He named it – ironically, he hopes – The Last Bookstore, and it has since swelled into a 22,000-square-foot destination as the mother of all bookstores, often appearing on lists of the most beautiful bookstores in the world. There’s even a documentary about the place. The store houses more than 250,000 new and used books on two ﬂoors, including an Arts & Rare Book Annex, tens of thousands of vinyl records and graphic novels and a huge mezzanine level that encompasses the Labyrinth Above the Last Bookstore, the Gather Yarn Shop and the Spring Arts Collective gallery shops. There’s also a raised stage 18

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where readings and book signings take place. Details: Open daily at 453 S. Spring St., in the Spring Arts Tower, Los Angeles; www.lastbookstorela.com. B O U N D TO LOV E B O O KS Merely entering San Francisco’s Book Club of California seems like the setup for a novel. You step with trepidation into a small, bland lobby just off Union Square and take an even blander elevator to the fifth floor, wondering all the while if you’re in the right place or about to interrupt someone’s tax audit. And then, in the magical equivalent of passing through the back of a wardrobe, you emerge in a gracious, bookwalled room of leather chairs, a fireplace, a bar and a hushed realm of gentility. This is no Oprah book club. Rather, the century-old nonprofit is a haven for bibliophiles, where

they can research and honor the history of books and the book arts – from the printing process, illustrations and typography to bindings and paper quality – through the club’s collections of about 12,000 rare books and ephemera. The club may be one of San Francisco’s best-kept secrets to passersby, but it’s well-known as a hub in the vibrant Bay Area bookarts community. Though membership-based, it holds literary events and public programs year-round, and you’re also welcome to stop in during business hours to take a peek. Details: Public programs are typically held on Monday evenings from 5 to 7 p.m. at 312 Sutter St., San Francisco; www. bccbooks.org. B O O K I S H BAC C H A N A L One night each year in October, when it’s rarely dark and stormy

The Last Bookstore is a temple of books, with labyrinthine bookshelf layouts, a literary tunnel and a vault that holds horror and true-crime tomes.

In the Bancroft Library on the UC Berkeley campus, you’ll ﬁnd the Mark Twain Papers archive, housing the single largest collection of original documents by and about Samuel Langhorne Clemens, the impressively mustached author you know as Mark Twain. There are thousands of letters by him and his family, 50 of his notebooks and hundreds of manuscripts, as well as related working notes, typescripts and proofs, ﬁrst editions, books from his own library, scrapbooks, photographs and other important Twain-related documents. They were bequeathed to the University of California by his daughter, Clara Clemens Samossoud, in 1962. This amazing collection is amazingly open to the public, though not quite as accessible as your city library down the street. Visitors must make an appointment to view approved materials. Details: The Mark Twain Papers reading room is located in The Bancroft Library, room 475, at UC Berkeley; www.lib.berkeley.edu/ libraries/bancroft-library/marktwain-papers.

JAC K LO N D O N

Jack London was here Visit the favorite haunts of the Bay Area’s early literary star S TO R Y B Y M A R T H A R O S S P H OTO S BY JA N E T YS K A /S TA F F

he Bay Area has long been home to famous writers of every genre, but Jack London was one of its original literary stars. Born in San Francisco, the best-selling writer of “White Fang” and “Call of the Wild” grew up on the streets and waterfronts of Oakland and Benicia. He discovered books at the Oakland Library and found adventure and inspiration for many of his masterpieces right here. Follow London’s footsteps

across the Bay Area, and you’ll enjoy beautiful scenery and local culture as well as literary history in locations as varied as a historic Oakland waterfront saloon and Santa Clara’s Carmelite Monastery. The latter, a ranch owned by Judge Hiram Graham Bond from 1895 to 1909, was the starting location for “Call of the Wild,” and the Bond family dog inspired the book’s Buck. Here are a few to visit.

Inquisitive visitors peer inside a replica of the cabin the author inhabited while prospecting for gold in the Klondike.

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JAC K LO N D O N OA K T R E E , O G AWA P L AC E , OA K L A N D

This famous live oak wasn’t planted just to commemorate the city’s namesake. The tree honors London, who lived in Oakland on and off from early childhood until 1905, when he moved to his Glen Ellen ranch. The oak was rededicated in 2017 with a new plaque. London likely would have been amused by the City Hall location; the Socialist Party member was arrested here in 1897 at a free speech protest.

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H E I N O L D’ S F I R S T A N D L A S T C H A N C E SA LO O N , JAC K LO N D O N S Q UA R E , OA K L A N D Oakland’s waterfront square is the East Bay epicenter of Jack London appreciation. Heinold’s famous bar, constructed from lumber from an old stern-wheel paddle steamer, opened in 1884. London studied here as a schoolboy in the late 1800s. Owner John Heinold became so fond of his brilliant young customer that he loaned him tuition money for UC Berkeley; London only lasted a

Last Chance Saloon founder John Heinold, right, was an early supporter of Jack London’s short-lived academic pursuits. Customers at Heinold’s famous sloping bar, below, don’t seem to mind a little slant.

semester there. But the saloon and its patrons appear in “The Sea Wolf” and other London tales. 48 Webster St., Oakland; http:// heinoldsﬁrstandlastchance.com. JAC K LO N D O N CA B I N , OA K L A N D

Follow the bronze wolf tracks across Jack London Square for more historic sights. The cabin London occupied during his 1897 gold-prospecting adventure in the Klondike was dismantled some 60 years later, and its logs were used to build this replica that stands near Heinold’s First and Last Chance Saloon; www.visitoakland. com/listing/jack-london-cabin/555/ JAC K LO N D O N S TAT U E , OA K L A N D

Stop by this life-size bronze statue at the end of Broadway to read the author’s famous words, engraved on the plaque at its base: “I would rather be ashes than dust. I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stiﬂed by dry rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magniﬁcent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist.” LO N D O N ’ S B I R T H P L AC E , SA N F R A N C I S C O

A plaque marks the location of the South of Market home where London was born on Jan. 12, 1876. The house at Third and Brannan streets was destroyed in the ﬁres that followed the 1906 earthquake. When he was 30, London traveled from his Glen Ellen ranch to San Francisco to cover the aftermath of the earthquake for Collier’s magazine. JURGENSEN OLD CORNER S A LO O N , B E N I C I A

In his teens, London worked as an oyster pirate — the term given to poachers who raided oyster beds on San Francisco Bay — and lived near the waterfront of California’s one-time capital. Originally located at the foot of First

Street, the Jurgensen saloon was a favorite hangout for the teenage London, providing material for “John Barleycorn,” his memoir about his boozy misadventures. The book includes London’s harrowing tale of drunkenly stumbling off a sloop docked at the wharf and being swept away by the tides in Carquinez Strait, where he was rescued by a Greek ﬁsherman. ALAMO ROOMS, BENICIA

During London’s time in Benicia, this boarding house and bordello was located on property

A mural on the back of Heinold’s saloon contains a famous Jack London quote about man’s purpose. (top left) Bartender Sam Wheelwright lights an original gas lamp. (top right) A vintage stereoscope machine.

at the end of First Street known as Semple Slips. The building now houses Sailor Jack’s seafood restaurant. Look for a marker commemorating London’s time in Benicia on a boulder in front of the historic train depot, which now serves as the headquarters for the Benicia Main Street organization. JAC K LO N D O N S TAT E PA R K , G L E N E L L E N

Using the proceeds from his blockbuster 1903 novel, “The Call of the Wild,” and other works, London and his second wife,

Charmian Kittredge, purchased nearly 130 acres on the slopes of Sonoma Mountain to establish their Beauty Ranch in 1905. Today, it’s a state park where visitors can hike, bike and visit London’s home and ranch buildings. Highlights include: ﬁre-ravaged Wolf House and London’s winery cottage, where he lived and wrote until his death in 1916 at age 40. You’ll also ﬁnd the House of Happy Walls, the house Charmian built and lived in after London’s death; the Londons’ grave sites; and the winery ruins, where musical performances are staged every summer. https://jacklondonpark.com. BAY AREA NEWS GROUP

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B E AT S

The beat goes on for Kerouac and company hangouts S TO R Y B Y TO M B E N T L E Y

From left, Sandra Woodall, Edmond Gaible and Sally Ann Parsons have a lively conversation inside City Lights Books.

P H OTO S B Y DA I S U G A N O/S TA F F

n the 1970s, because I’m that kind of a guy, I hitchhiked barefoot from L.A. to Seattle. Because I didn’t bring along any of my size 13 shoes, I was traveling light. But like many hairy tramps in those days, I did bring Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road.” Back then, the book felt like an anthem to freedom, friendship and the open road — and I was among the hordes that fell under its words-spillingover-a-cliff spell. A posse of the original Beats — Allen Ginsberg, Neal Cassady, Gregory Corso, William Burroughs and Kerouac — met in New York in the ‘40s, and most of them made their winding ways west to San Francisco. Kerouac’s crisscrossing drives across the country, often with the frenetic Cassady behind the wheel, form the pumping heart of “On the Road.” In the West, the open, permissive atmosphere of San Francisco melded well with the exploratory, rejectors-of-convention Beats, who were pouring out as much poetry and tale-telling as they were jug wine.

GM Sukara, left, and a longtime customer of Vesuvio Cafe, Sherry O’Donnell, chat beneath the bar’s lavishly decorated facade, far left.

The later ‘50s saw the publication of Ginsberg’s epic poem “Howl,” for which publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti was arrested on obscenity charges. A few years before the poem’s debut, Ferlinghetti had started City Lights Publishers, which made a ﬁne outlet for the Beat works that later ﬁlled the shelves of his landmark City Lights Bookstore. The pulse of the Beats thrummed, with writers like Gary Snyder, Michael McClure and Philip Whalen infusing new blood. Ferlinghetti turned 100 in March, and part of the celebration was the release of his new autobi-

ographical novel, “Little Boy.” Perhaps not surprisingly, a number of the San Francisco Beat hangouts are almost as venerable as Ferlinghetti. Those guys couldn’t live by words alone — booze and coffee had to fuel many of their mad metaphors. In the North Beach area where their words resonated, the joints where the beats wined and dined are still bopping; stroll around, and maybe you can even get a bite of “Naked Lunch.” But if you’re going to make a personal “On the Road” trip to see all things Beat, don’t do it barefoot. The streets of San Francisco can bite back.

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B E AT S

City Lights was the ﬁrst bookstore in the country to sell only paperbacks, and there still are stacks and stacks to choose from, below.

Beat Bastions C I T Y L I G H T S B O O KS TO R E

aying something is an institution damns it in some way, suggesting an arthritic edifice. Not so for City Lights, which remains vibrant, quirky and bookish in the best of ways. Salute the first bookstore in the country to sell only paperback books and its standing as an incubator of progressive — if not transgressive — thought. And the spiritual home, a veritable Coney Island of the Mind, of one L. Ferlinghetti, who at 100 isn’t an institution, but more of a beacon. He still glows. Be sure to take a peek at the plaques and artwork that adorn Jack Kerouac Alley, which flanks the store. Details: Open daily from 10 a.m. to midnight at 261 Columbus Ave. at Broadway, San Francisco; www. citylights.com.

VESUVIO

saloon in the most appealing of senses. Built in ‘48, and still great. There are lots of photos of Beat luminaries and eye-popping art. These are digs where “diverse crowd” doesn’t mean “has a tattoo.” Don’t forget the booze — none of the Beats did. Have a tot and knock on the walls. You might hear a story whispered back at you. Details: Open daily from 8 a.m. to 2 a.m. at 255 Columbus Ave.; www.vesuvio.com.

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A Tiffany lamp casts a muted glow on a dark corner of Vesuvio’s, above, and longtime customer Winston Smith enjoys a cocktail, right.

THE BEAT MUSEUM

he Library of Alexandria of the Beats, the Beat Museum houses scads of period memorabilia, original manuscripts, photos and personal effects of our favorite bohemian hedonists. Jerry Cimino, the museum’s founder, says, “The motto of The Beats seemed to be: ‘We don’t care who you are, what you look like or what you’re into, as long as you’re not hurting anyone else, come join our party.’ Bottom line, our entire focus nets down to helping people realize it’s OK to live an authentic life and to truly be who they are and want to be.” The Museum’s served up the legacy of the Beats since 2003, but an upcoming earthquake retroﬁt has them uncertain of the museum’s future, and even where they will house the extensive collection of artifacts while the retroﬁt is ongoing. As Cimino says, “My number-one priority is to keep The Beat Museum alive in some way, shape or form. My greatest desire is to remain in the city of San Francisco in an updated and expanded facility.” Check out their site, make a donation and keep the Beats alive. A “Lawrence Ferlinghetti: Live” photo exhibit by Chris Felver runs through June 30. Details: Admission is $8 for adults, $5 for students and seniors. Open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily at 540 Broadway; www. kerouac.com.

The Beat Museum’s location on Broadway in San Francisco is scheduled for an earthquake retroﬁt.

TOSCA CAFE

ven the drinks at Tosca have atmosphere — the place practically drips it. Tosca’s almost as old as Ferlinghetti, but it’s probably had more work. But the 2013 renovation, which included restoring those redleather booths and opening a kitchen that had been shuttered

since 1953, was respectful of Tosca’s good bones. The beer-andshot Beats would have sneered at the notion of today’s mixology, but the discussion would have prompted another round. Details: Open from 5:30 to midnight daily, until 1 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays at 242 Columbus Ave.; http://toscacafesf.com.

CAFFE TRIESTE

pen since 1956, the West Coast’s ﬁrst espresso coffeehouse arrived just in time to sober up some of the local poets. Many artists and most of the Beats got their jolts here, so Trieste was likely to have contributed some lively lines to their work. You can see photos of Beats and other writerly scribes on the walls. Details: Open from 6:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily at 601 Vallejo St.; http://coffee.caffetrieste.com.

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AU T H O R P R O F I L E

Christian Robinson: ‘Making things was my escape and the thing that grounded me’ BY R A N DY M Y E R S

amazing authors, and I love being a visual storyteller — and I knew that any book I illustrated or wrote, I’d want it to be inclusive (so) all types of children could see themselves in it.

ith a resume that includes stints at Pixar and Sesame Street Workshop and a chest full of awards — Caldecott and Coretta Scott King illustration honors among them — Sacramento artist Christian Robinson is a busy man. His ﬁrst solo visual storytelling venture, “Another,” couldn’t be more of the moment. Published in March, the wordless picture book ﬁnds a young girl scurrying after a curious tabby, then smacking into her double and venturing into another world below the stairs. Sound familiar? In Robinson’s hands, it’s a gentle tale about appreciating one another’s uniqueness. We caught up with Robinson recently to talk books, art and inspiration.

Q A

What spurred you to create “Another”? I’ve been an illustrator of books for seven years. I’ve been able to work with some

What’s the best thing about being an

illustrator/storyteller?

All of us start off drawing and making pictures, but somewhere along the line, we maybe are not encouraged enough or don’t feel it’s like our strength. For me, making things was my escape and the thing that grounded me. I was raised by my grandmother, and drawing was the one place where I had some control or say over what the world looked like. I’m particularly grateful that I get to work in

children’s books, because I get out in the world and go to libraries and book festivals and talk with kids. Children are literally the future, and these stories they’re hearing are shaping the way they see the world. That’s a responsibility I don’t take lightly.

Q A

Who are your heroes?

Q A

What’s your favorite indie bookstore?

When dealing with life questions, I pretend to be in a board meeting with these three people: Oprah, Beyonce and Michelle Obama. And creatively? I’d say Jim Henson and Fred Rogers.

I love so many. In San Francisco’s Noe Valley, Charlie’s Corner, this really cool children’s bookstore. There’s Kepler’s (in Mountain View), which is amazing. And here in Sacramento, Underground Books — it’s this black-owned bookshop that just has an amazing selection.

PHOTO BY DAI SUGANO/STAFF

5 BOOK PICKS FROM ROBINSON

“My Heart” by Corinna Luyken: (A story that tackles) how to describe love and all the emotions you feel, but does it in a way that is accessible to children and not afraid to be real with them.

“Becoming” by Michelle Obama: Her life story is the embodiment of it not mattering where you come from. For all of us, there are infinite unbelievable possibilities in life.

“Kindred” by Octavia Butler: It’s one of those books — grounded in historicalness but also science fiction — that does all the things I hoped it would.

“Maus” by Art Spiegelman: One of my all-time favorite graphic novels. It opened history up to me in a different way.

“The Art of Power” by Thich Nhat Hanh: It’s a book that I always go back to. It’s my spiritual grounding book. It reminds me to let go of those things that I have no control over. BAY AREA NEWS GROUP

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A FINAL HARBOR Eugene O’Neill’s Tao House proved a sanctuary for his creativity

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BY MARTHA ROSS

inning the Nobel Prize in 1936 thrust Eugene O’Neill back into the spotlight of an already illustrious legacy, with reporters besieging the playwright for interviews at his Seattle hotel after news came of this prestigious honor. But there were questions about whether O’Neil’s best work was behind him. Some thought the

The Eugene O’Neill National Historic Site is the home dubbed “Tao House,” where the Nobel-winning playwright lived from 1937 to 1944.

once proliﬁc author of 35 plays had become “a spent force,” according to one historian, too plagued by ill health, exhaustion and alcoholism to continue writing. It turned out that O’Neill was not done writing. In fact, his best and most famous works were still ahead of him. O’Neill, then 48, just needed a quiet place where he could live and work in his characteristically

obsessive way – where he could reﬂect on the painful memories of his past and, as he told his wife, Carlotta Monterey, “confront my dead at last.” O’Neill found his “ﬁnal harbor” on the slopes above the thensmall East Bay town of Danville. Using his $40,000 Nobel Prize money, the O’Neills purchased 158 acres of land and built Tao House, a 22-room, whitewashed adobe with a graceful courtyard, Asian

IF YOU GO Eugene O’Neill National Historic Site: Free guided tours are available by advance reservation Wednesday-Friday and Sundays at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Free self-guided tours are Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Catch the Tao House shuttle at Danville’s Museum of the San Ramon Valley at 205 Railroad Avenue; www.nps.gov/euon. The O’Neill Festival: This year’s production — “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” — runs Aug. 30-Sept. 29, in the barn at Tao House. Find details at www.eugeneoneill.org.

contemporary audiences: family dysfunction, opioid addiction, long-simmering resentments and the burdens of the past. “O’Neill is brilliant at setting up dramatic situations and conﬂicts between characters who are battling with guilt, trauma and other conﬂicts within themselves,” said foundation artistic director Eric Hayes. But as dark as O’Neill could get in his plays, life at Tao House

O’Neill’s plays are performed in the old barn at Tao House every summer Visitors can view O’Neill’s office, as well as the rest of Tao House, on guided tours.

offered him long-sought serenity and a sense of home. A restless nomad, the prize-winning playwright had three tumultuous marriages and difficult relationships with at least two of his children, including daughter Oona, from whom he became estranged after she married the much older actor Charlie Chaplin. At Tao House, O’Neill could write, swim in his pool, raise chickens, enjoy music from his

player piano “Rosie” and share walks with Carlotta and their Dalmatian Blemie on the property’s grassy slopes. A Parkinson’s-like illness eventually made it impossible for him to live in such a secluded spot and forced him to give up writing in 1943. The couple left Tao House the following year, and O’Neill died nine years later in a Boston hotel room. But O’Neill’s legacy largely rests on what he wrote at Tao House, and revivals of these plays are always taking place somewhere in the world. Jessica Lange won a Tony for playing Mary Tyrone in “Long Day’s Journey” on Broadway in 2015. Denzel Washington starred in a hit revival of “The Iceman Cometh” in 2018. And every production of “A Moon for the Misbegotten” reminds audiences of O’Neill’s Danville property; its barn inspired the play’s farm setting.

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PHOTOS BY DAN HONDA/ STAFF ARCHIVES, HISTORICAL PHOTO COURTESY OF NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, PLAYWRIGHTS’ THEATRE

NATIONAL PARK SERVICE PHOTO

touches and spectacular views of Mount Diablo to the east and Las Trampas wilderness to the west. In 1976, 23 years after O’Neill’s death, Tao House was designated a National Historic Site to honor his inﬂuence on world literature and his introduction of psychological and social realism to the American stage. Theater fans — and people who like visiting scenic Northern California places — can tour the house and attend programs hosted by the Eugene O’Neill Foundation, such as the O’Neill Festival held each September. This year, the foundation will present the soul-stirring “Long Day’s Journey Into Night,” one of O’Neill’s great Tao House plays. First staged in 1956, the play posthumously brought O’Neill his fourth Pulitzer and is regarded as his most personally revealing work. “I give you the original script of this play of old sorrow, written in tears and blood,” O’Neill wrote in a note to Monterey in 1941. “I mean it as a tribute to your love and tenderness which gave me the faith in love that enabled me to face my dead at last and write this play –write it with deep pity and understanding for all the four haunted Tyrones.” The Tyrone family is modeled after O’Neill’s own family, headed by a hard-drinking, traveling actor father and a morphine-addicted mother. James and Mary Tyrone and their two troubled adult sons deal with issues in the 1910s that will nevertheless be familiar to

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E S CA P E

escape 34

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S TO RY BY A N G E L A H I L L P H OTO S BY K A R L M O N D O N /S TA F F

t was a bright and sunny afternoon — but the deceptive kind that seems swell but sends shadows looming large and hides riddles inside enigmas wrapped tight in conundrums and stuffed in the trunk of an old Chevy Corvair. Well, actually, those puzzles were stuffed in a cave of a building, the back of the old exhibit hall at San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts, where the Exploratorium once was. Now the space houses Palace Games, a diabolical den of escape

rooms crammed with tricks, traps and trepidation, a place where you have to puzzle your way out or die trying – or at least end up looking lame in front of your friends. We assembled a mysterious group to face the challenge— a cadre of Conan Doyles, a cache of Christies, a huddle of Hammetts, a squad of Spillanes, Bay Area mystery writers all. Among them, Carole Price, author of “Vineyard Prey”; Margaret Dumas, “Murder at the Palace”; Simon Wood, “Saving Grace”; Ann Parker, “A Dying Note”; and Janet Finsilver, “Murder at the Marina.” Plus the group’s ringleader, Penny Warner —”The Code Busters Club” and “The Official Nancy Drew Handbook” — and

room

A group of mystery writers trying their hand at solving the Edison Escape Room at the Palace Games ﬁnally ﬁnd the exit. At left, Mystery writer Penny Warner looks for clues.

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her husband Tom (not a mystery writer, but probably a decent Joe in his own right. Or Tom, as the case may be). All (except maybe Tom) are pros at dropping clues, and they already pack a Carolyn Keene sense of adventure. But could they turn it around, reverse engineer a plot, solve the mystery and get out without looking lame? Indeed, the gumshoe was on the other foot. The game was afoot, too. Combined, these made 36

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for a challenging feat. “We’re very good at solving the puzzles that we write, but that’s a different story,” joked Penny, clad in an apropos “Clue” T-shirt. On a recent Wednesday morning, they checked in at the Palace Games front office and chose a team name: “Writers Cramped.” Perfect. A quick pit stop and they were ready to go. “We managed to escape the restroom, at least,” Dumas said with a wry grin. A guide, known only as Greg

– an alias, perhaps? – led them down blood-red hallways to a tiny room that ﬁt their “cramped” moniker. Staged to resemble a Victorian-era parlor, The Edison Room is one of three “escape rooms” at the Palace, and, Greg said, it’s rated sixth-best in the world. With the game about to begin, nerves and neck hairs were on edge. You could slice through the tension like a blade through a carotid artery.

A grinning quide named Greg lays out the challenges ahead for the “Writers Cramped” team.

In the Edison Room, there were, as expected, Edison lightbulbs. Plus a gramophone, a tin ceiling, corner cabinets with apothecary jars and padlocks on top of padlocks. Were these the clues? Was everything a clue? “Not the rug,” Greg warned, “so don’t pull up the rug.” Check. No rug. But probably everything else meant something else. A cryptic audible message – ostensibly from Edison himself

E S CA P E

– crackled over the gramophone: “Within my hidden laboratory lies the secret to my success.” Helpful. Not. The team set to work, tugging on drawers, moving chairs, turning up pieces of a wooden puzzle. Then hunched over a desk, heads together like a pack of dogs on the scent of juicy meat, they assembled the image. There were symbols. A code? “This looks like a horse. This

looks like water,” Wood announced with glee. “This one either means ﬁre or the Rebel Alliance.” Finsilver took charge of the paper and pencil conveniently — and mysteriously — stashed on the desk, keeping notes of various clues. Others knocked on walls, checking for secret panels. There were no secret panels. But having laid such traps themselves in literary realms, the mystery writers

Sleuth Simon Wood hopes the lantern he carries will bring some clues.

knew this one room wasn’t the whole shebang. Surely a passage would emerge. Someone pointed to a large photo of Edison on the wall, guessing it was the door. “I’m suspicious of anything so obvious,” Finsilver said, suspiciously. It was the door. It was obvious. Someone did something – they weren’t sure what – and the lights suddenly ﬂickered. Edison’s photo slid into the wall, revealing a lab-

oratory with all manner of dials, wheels, schematics and test tubes. The team had been told they had 100 minutes to complete the whole escape. They’d be alerted to the fast-passing time by the ring of an old-fashioned telephone, the kind you’d ﬁnd on the battered desk in the seedy office of a sketchy private eye. The phone rang. Already? The amateur sleuths began spinning wheels, on the wall and

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in their minds. They activated various light tubes trying to find a pattern, but to no avail. They needed a sign. Luckily, there was a sign. “When all else fails, read the sign!” Wood said. Lights flickered again. Another secret passage opened, leading into an even larger room filled with illuminated jars and gizmos. More and more complex, the riddles became. More and more annoying, the ringing phone became. Time ticked a swift staccato. When Price found a set of keys, they all charged back to the first room with the still-locked cabinets and locked desk drawer. Eureka! Inside, a puzzle box with jars. Symbols. Patterns. What 38

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Colored bottles offer clues to the way out of the Edison Escape Room. Thomas Edison himself seems to be supervising as the scramble to escape his room goes on.

could they mean? More puzzles and codes, more rooms, more tricks. Time closed in like the lid of that Chevy trunk, slamming down on top of them. They took heart from a framed Edison quote, which also turned out to be a clue: “I have not failed. I have just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Finally, time ran out like a perp from a crime scene. Greg, if that’s his real name, popped in out of nowhere to offer some cryptic help. “It was a hint, not help,” Wood said. “Besides,” Parker added, “when do writers ever meet their deadlines?” The hint enabled the ﬁnal solution, only about seven-percent late. Victory, without murder, most foul or otherwise. No crime, no punishment. Just a time to chill and make the long goodbyes.

ESCAPE INTO A BOOK Penny Warner has written more than 50 award-winning books for adults, teens and kids, including “The Code Busters Club” mystery series and three food-centric San Francisco mysteries; www.pennywarner.com. Carole Price’s “Shakespeare in the Vineyard” series, which includes “Vineyard Prey,” mixes Livermore’s wine country with plenty of Shakespearean drama and murderous mayhem; https://carolepricemysteries.com.

Mystery writers Janet Finsilver, left, and Penny and Tom Warner listen to clues on a Gramophone.

Margaret Dumas’ just-published “Murder at the Palace” uses a vintage San Francisco movie theater as the setting for murder, mayhem and ghostly sightings; www. margaretdumas.com.

Ann Parker’s 19th-century mysteries — including “A Dying Note,” which involves a San Francisco music store and a madam called Frisco Flo — take place during the Wild West’s Silver Rush; www.annparker.net.

Simon Wood’s latest thriller, “Saving Grace,” places a former reporter and his family in peril as a San Francisco kidnapper threatens the city; http://simonwood.net.

Janet Finsilver’s mysteries — including “Murder at the Marina,” which was published in April —revolve around an innkeeper-turnedamateur sleuth in the Mendocino-esque town of Redwood Cove; http://janetfinsilver.com.

ESCAPE AT THE PALACE San Francisco’s Palace Games offers three types of Victorian-era escape rooms ($400 for up to 10 people) inspired by Thomas Edison, Harry Houdini and Theodore Roosevelt at the Palace of Fine Arts. Find details and book an escape room at https://palacegames.com.

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AU T H O R P R O F I L E

Laurie R. King: ‘As a child of the ’60s, I feel oddly at home in the ’20s.’ BY J OA N M O R R I S

anta Cruz’s Laurie R. King, whose awards span the alphabet from Agatha (Christie) to Nero Wolfe, has gone where no other writer has before, pairing the unﬂappable Sherlock Holmes with a wife who is his equal. Her 1994 “Beekeeper’s Apprentice” introduced us to the indomitable Mary Russell, and the 15th volume of Mary’s best-selling “memoirs” – “Island of the Mad” – was published last year.

What sparked the idea of giving Sherlock Holmes a brilliant wife?

In the Conan Doyle stories, Holmes shies away from women, not because he disapproves of intimacy, but because he fears that love would be as distracting to his

work as grit in a sensitive instrument. He is also Victorian enough to ﬁnd women “insoluble puzzles” and invariably in need of protection. Still, I wondered what would happen if this aloof individual were to encounter a woman whose mind was as sensitive an instrument as his, who had no need of protection, who was no more of a puzzle than the face in his shaving mirror.

You mix historic settings with modern relevance. What era resonates for you?

As a child of the ‘60s, I feel oddly at home in the ‘20s. Both decades see the effects of a devastating war, the growth of women’s rights, the rebellion of drugs and wild music, really short skirts. I also love how I can play with modern

issues in historical novels. On the one hand, the time and its issues seem distant and curious, but ideally, as the story goes along, what the reader thought was a static image caught inside a frame begins to feel more like a mirror.

If you could have a quiet dinner with any of your creations, who would it be?

Q A

What are you working on now?

Well, interestingly enough, I’m working on a novel centered around Mrs. Hudson. In a recent book (“The Murder of Mary Russell”), we saw Holmes’ long-time housekeeper ﬁnally leave Sussex for Europe, after a startling revelation about her past. Who knew the lady even had one?

Q A

Wouldn’t it be fabulous to have a long, well-lubricated dinner with Mrs. Hudson? What that woman must have seen!

Favorite Bay Area book event?

Mystery Week, the annual week-long series of events sponsored by the NorCal Chapter of Mystery Writers of America, starting October 19 with Noir at the Bar during Litquake and spreading out across the Northern California area.

PHOTO BY DAI SUGANO /STAFF

5 BOOK PICKS FROM KING

“Foxglove Summer” by Ben Aaronovitch: A rare country excursion for London police constable Peter Grant, who trades his native beat for the wilds of Herefordshire.

“Brat Farrar” by Josephine Tey: Set in the timeless English countryside, “Brat Farrar” is a gorgeous song to England, to family, to loyalty.

“A Summer in the Twenties” by Peter Dickinson: Brings to life the General Strike, the subtleties of class warfare, the proper ways to make tea and to drive a train and the death of Rudolph Valentino, all in Dickinson’s trademark wry, dry British voice.

“A Month in the Country” by J. L. Carr: In a novel set in high summer in a Yorkshire village just after the Great War, a young ex-soldier is hired to restore the mural in a tiny church, only to find a disturbing masterpiece.

“Beekeeper’s Apprentice” by that Laurie R. King person. A young Mary Russell meets, outsmarts and partners up with The Great Detective and drags him, protesting, into the 20th century.

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P O D CA S T S

Training the

VOICES behind audiobooks and podcasts S TO RY BY J I M H A R R I N G TO N P H OTO S BY K A R L M O N D O N /S TA F F

he slight brunette approaches the microphone, steeling herself as she casts a glance at the script sitting on a clear acetate music stand. “Bow, my servants,” she says. She clears her throat and repeats the line — commandingly, imperiously. And then — “Bow, my servants!” she bellows. “Kill them all!” It’s just another day of murder and mayhem at San Francisco’s Voice One, the voice-over acting school where today’s game plan clearly involves some Lannister-level Game of Thrones-ian menace. Depending on the day and class, those voices could just as easily be channeling pipsqueak toons, perky ad copy or quirky ﬁctional personalities. Some of these students are lawyers. Others are former techies. There’s even a professional dancer or two among the ranks learning to create funny voices, interesting characters or highly accented international men — or women — of mystery. Voice One owner Sally Clawson was one of those professional dancers back in 2002, dancing with the Bay Area-based Margaret Jenkins Dance Company when she was sidelined for a few months. “I was on tour in Chicago, and I injured my hip,” she remembers. “I started answering phones while healing, and BAY AREA NEWS GROUP

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P O D CA S T S

people told me I had a nice voice.” So when she picked up a magazine at her doctor’s office and started reading about Voice One and its founder, Elaine Clark, it seemed like a sign. “I checked (the school) out, and I loved it,” Clawson says. “I studied with Elaine for about a year, made my demo and met a talent agent in one of the classes – and I got signed and started booking work.” She’s been there ever since. This year, Clawson bought the training school from Clark, who still runs a recording studio on site. Of course, voice-over acting — where you hear the voice, but don’t see the person — is nothing new. It’s long been a mainstay in the entertainment business. Think Tom Hanks playing the voice of Woody in “Toy Story” and every movie trailer that starts with the words “In a world...” It was a bit of a niche ﬁeld in 1986, when Clark founded Voice One on the bottom ﬂoor of the KPIX building, says Clawson,

whose own resume includes voice-over work for Toyota, Pixar, Apple, Google and Lucas Film. “Elaine was an actress – a theater and teaching major – and started doing voice over. People started asking her for advice and tips, so she started teaching,” Clawson says. “She built it up to what it is now, really the premier school in San Francisco for voice over and acting.” The voice-over realm has expanded dramatically in the last decade. It’s not just movies and TV, now. These narrators drive audio books, podcasts and video games, and they voice Alexa, Siri and your car’s navigation system. “With this digital age, there’s so much. Audio books are all the rage right now. Our devices speak to us,” Clawson says. And those serious, baritone “in a world” voices no longer resonate. “That announcer sound – that purely technical, deep, male voice that speaks perfectly – is an antiquated sound,” she says. “(Instead) it’s really real voices,

Here and on previous page, Voice One owner Sally Clawson leads a class of trainees in voiceover work.

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very diverse voices. The skill is learning the technique, then learning how to vary the technique to sound real.” Ironic as it is, it takes considerable training and practice to sound authentic. Hence the range of classes that students and alumni, such as Angeli Fitch, take. Voice-over requires a speciﬁc skill set. You have to know how to hold a listener’s attention, breathe life into characters and do different kinds of voices. There are articulation exercises, dialect and accent mastery and recording skills to learn. Step into a soundproof WhisperSoft recording studio, and it’s just you and the microphone, says Fitch. It helps to have a coach, no matter how long you’ve been doing this. A criminal defense trial attorney, Fitch does a range of voiceover work, including corporate

narration videos for companies such as Intel, Panasonic, Salesforce, Mastercard and Coldwell Banker. The Paciﬁca resident says she was drawn to both the business end and “the craft of voice acting and all the different areas, corporate narration, animation, commercial, audio books.” “I took all the core curriculum classes, so I could explore where I

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thought my voice ﬁt in the industry,” says Fitch, who now teaches a class on the business aspects of voice-over. “The essence of voice over is acting, not the sound of your voice. It is important to get continuous coaching, as there may be things that I’m not aware of when I’m alone in my WhisperRoom vocal booth.” The profession draws a wide variety of people, Clawson says.

Above, Clawson listens to Adriana Echandi expound. At right, she demonstrates an exercise that enhances vocal delivery.

Some are entering the ﬁeld as a second career; they’ve raised their kids or worked in the tech industry or want a creative outlet. Fitch isn’t the only lawyer in the group, either. San Mateo attorney Pam Kelly may have a background in information technology, but she’s hoping to make a transition into voice-over work in commercials and narration, she says. And then, Clawson adds,

“There’s the younger generation, who is listening to video games and watching Cartoon Network, who want to come in and learn how to do (this for) animation or video games.” To them, Clawson has just one thing to say: Step up to the microphone. The future awaits – and those servants are at your command.

LOOKING FOR A NEW PODCAST? HERE ARE FIVE POSSIBILITIES. Winnetka This hot new memoir-meets-podcast by “Suspiria” star Jessica Harper made its debut in February with a tale of Eisenhower-era Illinois, posttraumatic stress disorder and family secrets. Harper and her five siblings recall their childhood over 10 episodes, starting with their father’s funeral and the discovery a few days later of “an awful piece of our history that none of us can change, misremember or deny.” Read more at www.winnetkapodcast. com. Modern Love In 2015, the popular New York Times column about contemporary love and romance teamed up with NPR to create an equally popular podcast, with actors as varied as Catherine O’Hara (“Home Alone,” “Schitt’s Creek”), Christina Hendricks (“Mad

Men,” “Good Girls”) and Stanley Tucci (“A Private War”) narrating Modern Love columns. Best part? They bring the writers on the show to provide an epilogue to their tales. www.wbur.org/ modernlove LeVar Burton Reads If you grew up on Reading Rainbow — or your kids did, in which case you spent many hours watching the charming children’s book series, too — here’s some happy news. Actor LeVar Burton (“Roots,” “Star Trek Next Generation”) brings that same literary enthusiasm to an adult audience with this 2-year-old podcast, which showcases eclectic short fiction — sci-fi, fantasy, mystery — and authors that range from Neil Gaiman and Haruki Murakami to Octavia Butler and Charlie Jane Anders. It’s Reading

Rainbow for grown-ups. www. levarburtonpodcast.com You Must Remember This Film critic Karina Longworth shares stories about classic Hollywood from a cultural and historic perspective in this addictive podcast that spans Tinseltown’s first glitzy century, from Elizabeth Taylor’s heyday to Charles Manson’s Hollywood, Howard Hughes’ love life and Madonna’s cinematic debut. www. youmustrememberthispodcast.com Bear Brook If you’re a fan of true-crime fiction or the Serial podcast, this coldcase podcast, which began airing in October, may be just your cup of poison. The Bear Brook case involved four unidentified female murder

Taylor Quimby and Jason Moon of the podcast “Bear Brook.”

victims discovered at Bear Brook State Park in New Hampshire in 1985 and 2000. Six podcast episodes unfurl this chilling mystery about two barrels, four bodies and a serial killer; two follow-up episodes — and more to come — bring the story up to date. www.bearbrookpodcast.com — JACKIE BURRELL AND MARTHA ROSS

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Yangsze Choo: Drawn to ‘strange and odd’ tales Q

Your books lean into dark intrigue – ghosts, murder, superstitions, Chinese folklore. What drove you in this direction?

B Y C H U C K BA R N E Y

t wasn’t all that long ago that Palo Alto resident Yangsze Choo, 45, wrote only for herself — late at night, as her husband and children slept. It was her way, she says, of “escaping to another world and having an interior life.” Sharing her gift with others wasn’t the plan. But now the Harvard grad is a twice-published author with a quickly expanding audience. Choo’s ﬁrst novel, “The Ghost Bride,” is being made into a Netﬂix drama series. Her most recent, “The Night Tiger,” was the April selection for Reese Witherspoon’s Book Club.

Q A

First Netﬂix, then Reese Witherspoon. Just how cool is that?

It’s pretty unbelievable. I’m verklempt. I’m overawed. It all seems a little unreal and makes me feel like I want to have a good cry and eat lots of peanut butter and chocolate.

I’ve always been interested in strange and odd tales — things that perk your ears up and make you say, “Oh, wow.” Growing up in Asia, there are a lot of peculiar customs and traditions. As a curious kid, I’d always ask, “But why?”

Q A

So you must enjoy spooky movies, right?

No, I’m too chicken to watch scary stuff. I’d rather read a book. That way, you can ﬂip the pages when a passage gets too frightening. Or you can hide behind a fat sandwich.

We hear that your mother hopes that you eventually gravitate toward more “uplifting” stories.

She occasionally wonders, “Why don’t you write things that make people cheerful?” Of course, she also asks, “Why do you wear such dark clothes?” or “Why don’t you put some lipstick on?” Overall, she’s very supportive, but I think she really would like me to write a selfhelp book.

Q A

How does writing fulﬁll you?

I believe people, in general, have a desire to create something with their own hands, whether it be knitting a sweater or making model boats. There is personal gratiﬁcation in that. I think I would still write if no one ever read another word of mine. The other way writing fulﬁlls me is that it allows me to be a researcher and explore a strange idea.

“My Family and Other Animals” by Gerald Durrell: Someone gave me this very funny book as a child. Durrell (a British naturalist) wrote often about collecting rare animals. We had a lot of pets growing up. My father had a great knack for rescuing animals. 48

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“The Likeness” by Tana French: Reading (French’s crime mysteries), I felt like I’ve become an Irish cop! Her prose is so tight, and she really knows how to drive a story forward. This book is full of longing, and it says a lot about what it means to have a home.

“Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World” by Haruki Murakami: I’m a big, big fan of his. He does a great job of bringing the supernatural into everyday mundane life, which is something I try to do.

“Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell” by Susanna Clarke: This is a very fat (782 pages) and wonderful book, especially if you enjoy English fantasy. It takes you to an interesting and inventive — yet playful — world.

“Indian Cooking” by Madhur Jaffrey: Am I allowed to pick a cookbook? Jaffrey writes very well, and I enjoy how she shares stories of her childhood. Also, all of her recipes come out really great.

PHOTO BY ARIC CRABB/STAFF

5 BOOK PICKS FROM CHOO

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Shanthi Sekaran: ‘Lucky Boy’ and the immigrant experience B Y J OA N M O R R I S

ills College adjunct professor Shanthi Sekaran soared to fame with the 2017 publication of “Lucky Boy,” which was named a best book of the year by NPR and Library Journal. Set in Oaxaca, Berkeley’s Gourmet Ghetto and Silicon Valley, the book explores issues of immigration, government-ordered family separation and cultural clashes through the eyes of two mothers linked by their love of one young boy.

Q A

How much was “Lucky Boy” inspired by what’s going on in the United States today?

The issue of undocumented parents being separated from their American-born children was something I started to learn about in 2011, when I found out that American families were trying to adopt the children of detained immigrants without their consent. The issue felt urgent to me in 2011 and only seemed to grow in magnitude. Of course, Trump’s policies have heightened the family separation crisis to unparalleled levels.

Q A

As a child of immigrants, how much of your life is reﬂected in your books?

despite what we’ve been telling ourselves for decades.

I wouldn’t say that “The Prayer Room” (2016) depicted my life, exactly, but the house in that novel was inspired by my childhood home in Sacramento. And of course, I dipped into my own experiences and stories my parents told me of their own lives in the U.S. I also used my own memories of childhood trips back to India to tell that part of the novel’s narrative. In “Lucky Boy,” Kavya comes from an Indian community that wasn’t too different from the one I grew up in. And of course, I thought a lot about what it means to be an immigrant, to give up a life that’s safe and known to pursue something larger.

Q A

Do you think the immigrant experience has changed?

I think, in general, the immigrant experience is less lonely than it used to be, but I can’t imagine arriving in this country as it is now, hearing the hateful anti-immigrant rhetoric spewed by our president, knowing that people might actually agree with him. America is not a hospitable place for immigrants,

Q A

What are you working on now?

I’m working on a middle-grade novel, still in the early drafts. It takes on themes of xenophobia and immigration in a way that will hopefully be empowering, adventurous and accessible for kids.

Q A

What’s your favorite Bay Area bookstore?

Pegasus Books on Solano Avenue in Berkeley. I always ﬁnd something surprising and wonderful, especially in the kids/YA section. It’s one of those places that make me feel like I have a home.

PHOTO BY DAI SUGANO/STAFF

5 BOOK PICKS FROM SEKARAN

“The Serpent’s Secret” by Sayantani Dasgupta: My son loved this story of an Indian anti-princess. It’s adventurous and funny and incorporates Hindu mythology.

“Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations” by Mira Jacob: This graphic memoir is simultaneously funny and profound, and it explores the nuances of the Indian American experience in a way I’ve never seen before.

“Exit West” by Mohsin Hamid: This is a book about two refugees in exile. It’s a love story that plays with the boundaries of reality. It’s spare and beautifully written and cuts right to the bone.

“The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald: This is a perennial favorite. I go back to it again and again for its writing, its wisdom and its melancholy.

“Beloved” by Toni Morrison: This is another of my lifelong favorites.

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Inset: Shailene Woodley, left, Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman meet over coffee in Episode 1 of “Big Little Lies.” Big Sur’s towering Bixby Creek Bridge offers a picturesque background for the show. 52

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Where

‘Big Little Lies’ were told

Immerse yourself in the HBO drama with a tour in and around Monterey B Y C H U C K BA R N E Y

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MONTEREY HERALD PHOTOS

PREVIOUS PAGE: COURTESY OF HBO; BRIDGE: MONTEREY HERALD

TV BIG LITTLE LIES

’m just about to dig into a hearty lunch with my wife Diane at Paluca Trattoria on Old Fisherman’s Wharf in Monterey when she sighs and asks: “Where are my girls?” She means Madeline, Celeste and Jane, the gal pals at the center of “Big Little Lies.” In the crazy-popular HBO series, these women – played by Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman and Shailene Woodley – meet regularly over coffee at this harbor-side spot to dish some juicy gossip. But today, the “girls” are nowhere to be found. “I guess I’ll have to be a cheap substitute,” I offer. If you’re a fan of “Big Little Lies,” which launches its second season on June 9, you’re likely not only addicted to the show’s scandalous intrigue and A-list cast, but its enchanting scenery. In fact, the series is so perfectly

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Randy’s Fishing Trips on Monterey’s Fisherman’s Wharf are a tourist attraction.

Actress Reese Witherspoon, center, gets instructions as a crew prepares to ﬁlm a scene for the HBO series “Big Little Lies” at Wharf No. 2 in Monterey.

immersed in Monterey and the surrounding area that it’s difficult to imagine the action unfolding anywhere else. But the subversive novel that

inspired the show is actually set in a ﬁctional Australian town called Pirriwee. It was there that Aussie author Liane Moriarty spun her tale about a group of

“sleek and skinny” women who “take their mothering so seriously.” When screenwriter David E. Kelley set out to adapt Moriarty’s page-turner for television, he shifted things to Monterey, largely because of what he calls its “hypnotic beauty.” “Aesthetically,” he said, “we were looking to draw the audience in and say, ‘I want to go there on vacation.’” And so they have. Ashley Tedesco, who runs Paluca Trattoria with her husband Sal, claims she has met numerous travelers — many of them from outside the U.S. — who come to the area specifically because they’ve fallen in love with picture-perfect images of Pacific Coast beaches and Big Sur’s towering Bixby Creek Bridge. Paluca Trattoria, a rustic Italian eatery that became a coffee shop on the show, has benefitted. In fact, so many fans arrived at the

MONTEREY HERALD PHOTOS

wharf wanting to replicate the coffee-fortiﬁed chat sessions of “Big Little Lies” that Ashley and Sal were forced to buy a bigger espresso machine to handle the demand. “We weren’t prepared at ﬁrst for the onslaught,” she says of the visitors who descended on Monterey shortly after the show’s Season 1 run. “We thought it would be a little blip — that it would be over in a week or so. But the show has a broad reach, and we’re starting to see an uptick again now that Season 2 is about to start.” If you’re looking to form your own “Big Little Lies” tour, the wharf is a great place to start. From there, may we suggest a relaxing drive – without texting –

along Ocean View Boulevard. This lovely stretch of road is where, early in “Big Little Lies,” Madeline nearly rear-ends a car and proceeds to accost a clueless teen for driving while on her cell phone. Ocean View Boulevard is bracketed by the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Lovers Point in Paciﬁc Grove. The former is visited by Jane and her son Ziggy and is a great way to come face-to-face with marine life without leaving dry land. The latter is where mom and son enjoy a shoreline picnic. The charming little Lovers Point park, a popular site for kayakers, surfers and scuba divers, provides an awesome view of the bay. We’re told that it will also appear in Season 2 of “Big Little Lies.”

Lovers Point Park in Pacfic Grove is a popular attraction for both tourists and filming for HBO’s “Big Little Lies”. At left, James Tupper films a scene for the HBO series.

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Fisherman’s Wharf Lovers Point Park Del Monte Beach

Monterey Bay Aquarium and Cannery Row

Carmel-by-the-Sea

Monterey City Hall

Garrapata State Beach

Bixby Creek Bridge

I L LU S T R AT I O N BY DAV E J O H N S O N

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On our tour, Lovers Point offered some welcome chill-out time after logging a good workout on the hiking trails of Garrapata State Beach Park, where the rugged coastline vistas are more astounding around every bend. It’s there – just south of Carmel – that the “Big Little Lies” cameras captured so many of those scenes of meaty waves crashing against jagged rocks, as if to symbolize the turbulence of the characters’ lives. Other “Big Little Lies” sites include Point Lobos State Natural Reserve, Del Monte Beach (See

Jane run!) and historic Colton Hall, where the women squabble over Madeline’s controversial production of “Avenue Q.” But if you’re looking to ﬁnd those fabulous mansions featured in the show, you may be out of luck. Only Celeste’s home, with its spacious deck overlooking the Paciﬁc, is in the area – Carmel Highlands – and “Big Little Lies” producers have strived to keep the exact location a secret. As for the other fabulous homes, they’re in Malibu. Consider that big little lie to be a case of “artistic license.”

COURTESY OF HBO

Season 2 will bring back Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern and Shailene Woodley.

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Clearing skies hang over Del Monte State Beach in Monterey, where Shailene Woodley’s character Jane would go for runs.

5 MORE GREAT BOOK-TO -TV ADAPTATIONS More than ever, television producers are turning to books for their source material. Often, the shows that result get it all wrong and mangle the tomes they’re based on. But occasionally, they strike gold. Here are some examples in which the marriage between books and TV succeeded. To curb the list, we’ve stuck to fictional page-turners, so a memoir such as “Orange Is the New Black” doesn’t qualify.

“Killing Eve” (BBC America) British author Luke Jennings wanted to have some fun and turn the espionage thriller genre on its head with his “Codename Villanelle” novella series about two mutually obsessed women — one a brainy MI-6 agent and the other a sociopathic assassin. Adapted for TV by Phoebe Waller-Bridge (“Fleabag”), it quickly became a fast-paced, sexy, suspenseful and hilarious hit.

“Game of Thrones” (HBO) George R.R. Martin once believed that his fantastical tale — stuffed with countless characters, epic battles, castles and dragons — was too expensive and expansive to film. But executive producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, bolstered by TV’s biggest budget, not only proved him wrong, but zoomed past the events of his novels. Along the way, they shattered our notions of what TV could be.

“Outlander” (Starz) On-screen characters aren’t always what the author envisioned. But from the start, Diana Gabaldon loved the casting of Caitriona Balfe (Claire) and Sam Heughan (Jamie) in TV’s version of her time-traveling historical novels. “They are much, much better than I thought they would be,” she said. “I didn’t believe this was actually possible.”

“The Handmaid’s Tale” (Hulu) Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel about a dystopian era in which women are treated as property of the state has a chilling resonance in the #MeToo era. Elisabeth Moss earned an Emmy Award for her blistering portrayal of Offred, a “handmaid” who strikes out against the restrictions imposed on her. “A Series of Unfortunate Events” (Netflix) The 2004 feature film starring Jim Carrey was an unfortunate misfire. Luckily, this spellbinding adaptation of Daniel Handler’s Lemony Snicket stories is superior in nearly every way. The production values are eye-boggling, and Neil Patrick Harris shines as the dastardly Count Olaf, who schemes to separate the Baudelaire siblings from their inheritance. — CHUCK BARNEY

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Janet Fletcher: ‘My eyes opened to the world of cheese’ BY J E S S I CA YA D E G A R A N

They’re my fantasies, based on years of improv cooking from my garden and local farmers markets and from dining around in Bay Area restaurants. My goal was to showcase California produce, but also to reﬂect the cultural diversity in California kitchens.

apa cookbook author Janet Fletcher is a longtime advocate of California farms and locavore eating. Her weekly blog, Planet Cheese, is a must-read for cheese reviews and recipe ideas, and the three-time James Beard award winner has authored or coauthored 30 cookbooks. The newest is “Wine Country Table,” which celebrates California’s sustainable harvest with recipes and stories about 23 trailblazing farmers and wineries.

Q A

How did you choose the farms and wineries featured in “Wine Country Table?”

You’re a certiﬁed master gardener. What all do you grow?

I chose leaders in sustainability. They all have different challenges and innovative approaches. For instance, the dried plum grower Taylor Brothers Farms in Sutter County has developed a clever earthworm-powered water-treatment system that yields huge energy savings. In California, you have to be on the cutting edge, or you’ll be left behind.

We eat at home so much. I garden year-round, and we love to cook. My husband, winemaker Doug Fletcher, is an amazing bread baker. Currently, I have 20 fruit trees and grow 24 vegetables, plus about a dozen herbs.

Where do the book’s mouth-watering recipes come from?

Sommeliers have wine ah-ha moments. What was your cheese a-ha moment?

When I was a college student, I spent a semester in Provence, where I’d go to the farmers market in Aix-en-Provence and visit the cheese trucks. The selection was something I’d never seen. They had so many goat cheeses; some were soft as butter, and some were hard as rocks and meant for grating. I just had my eyes opened to the world of cheese.

Q A

What’s your next project?

Q A

Favorite indie bookstore or book event?

Living in Napa Valley, I’ve noticed all the beautiful culinary gardens that wineries are planting as part of their hospitality programs. I’ve also seen how these gardens elevate the food that’s coming out of the winery kitchens. So that might be next for me.

I love Book Passage and their Cooks with Books events. Of course, I would! Great way for the public to connect with cookbook authors over a delicious meal.

“Becoming” by Michelle Obama: So open, so honest. She’s not only an engaging person, she’s an engaging writer, which I didn’t really expect. Full disclosure: I’m still reading.

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“All the Light We Cannot See” by Anthony Doerr: I just finished this best-seller. The story is gripping, and Doerr writes like a poet.

“Reinventing the Wheel” by Bronwen and Francis Percival: An insightful read about the impact of industrial processes on traditional cheesemaking. OK, maybe only for cheese nerds.

“Theft by Finding: Diaries 1977-2002” by David Sedaris: It was fun to read what David Sedaris was thinking before he became THE David Sedaris.

The New Yorker: Not a book, but The New Yorker is why I don’t read more books. Every week, there’s a lengthy gem or two that I have to read. I’ve been a subscriber since college. I read only the nonfiction, but I would be seriously uninformed without it.

PHOTO BY ARIC CRABB/STAFF

5 BOOK PICKS FROM FLETCHER

Bay Area food writer and cookbook author Janet Fletcher signs copies of her recent book “Wine Country Table” during a book signing and dinner event at Insalata’s restaurant in San Anselmo.

famous chefs delicious food sold-out crowds GETTY IMAGES; FOOD NETWORK

PHOTO BY RAY CHAVEZ/STAFF

Cookbook affairs In the era of reality TV, chefs and cookbook authors have taken center stage B Y J E S S I CA YA D E G A R A N

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C O O K B O O K A F FA I R S

They also leave with a signed copy of the cookbook, which is included in the ticketed price, and often a selﬁe with the author. No two events are the same: One could be an intimate Q&A with 20 people; the next might be a 200-person fete. Most are held in the spring or fall, when publishers release cookbooks and send their authors on tour, be it on site at an indie book store or in collaboration with a restaurant, such as Larkspur’s Left Bank, where Ruth Reichl recently did a Cooks with Books appearance for “Save Me the Plums: My Gourmet Memoir.” Last month, at Insalata’s in San Anselmo, Janet Fletcher fans got to meet the Planet Cheese blogger and feast on Grilled Lamb Shoulder Chops with Pomegranate Marinade from her new cookbook, “Wine Country Table: Recipes Celebrating California’s Sustainable Harvest.” “Heidi really outdid herself,” Fletcher says of Insalata’s chef-owner Heidi Krahling, also a beloved cookbook author. “I think she must’ve brushed the lamb chops forever to get that sweet-tart glaze. Everything was amazing.” Castanera has watched the interest in food-driven book events rise in the past two decades and credits reality TV with the boom. “Historically, there’s pre-Food Network chefs and authors, like Janet or Ruth, who’ve paid their dues and worked hard to earn the respect, sales and household names,” she says. “And then there’s the new generation. It’s interesting to see who’s a TV star and who’s been cooking or writing for years in the trenches.” In some ways, Book Passage’s

(Previous page) Top: Celebrity chefs Martina McBride, Nigella Lawson, Emeril Lagasse and Ina Garten. Middle: Dinner at the “Wine Country Table” book signing event consisted of warm salmon salad with asparagus, eggs and ﬁngerling potatoes, along with wine and potato focaccia. Bottom: Celebrity chef book signings are very popular. At left, fans ﬂock to Ina Garten’s signing at Pier 92 in New York City. At right, Lawson’s cookbook “Feel Good Food” is on display in Miami Beach, Florida.

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PHOTO BY RAY CHAVEZ/STAFF

ountry pop singer Martina McBride’s sold-out appearance at Napa’s Calmére Estate Winery last fall was nothing short of a spectacle. The Grammy winner delighted her fans, who came from far and wide to catch a glimpse and maybe an autograph, before tucking into a multicourse lunch against the rolling Carneros hills. Despite the ticket price — $145 per person — this wasn’t a concert. It was a Book Passage event for “Martina’s Kitchen Mix: My Recipe Playlist for Real Life,” the Food Network star’s second, highly-anticipated cookbook, and the party featured her down-home recipes prepared by the winery’s culinary staff. “It was almost like a wedding,” recalls Marguerita Castanera, director of the independent chain’s Cooks with Books program, which started 23 years ago. “We had assigned seats. I wrote the guest’s names on placecards. Everyone has such a great time at these cookbook events, including the authors, who get to connect with their fans in an intimate space.” Fans? Oh yes. Ina. Emeril. Samin. In the era of reality TV, chefs and cookbook authors have attained their own brand of mononymous fame that has transformed book signings and readings — through shops like Book Passage, Omnivore Books and Rakestraw Books — into events with delicious food that draws eager home chefs and line-cook fan boys alike. “You essentially get to meet and break bread with the person you watch (on TV) or read all the time,” Castanera says. “People leave there hugging us.”

Last month, at Insalataâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s in San Anselmo, Janet Fletcher fans got to meet the Planet Cheese blogger and feast on delicious entrees.

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Fava bean toast with sheep’s milk ricotta and mint served at the Janet Fletcher “Wine Country Table” book signing and dinner event at Insalata’s in San Anselmo, right.

“Even though they couldn’t hear anything, they just stood there for the whole hour looking inside,” Sacks recalls. Sacks is expecting mobs when Southern chef and cookbook author Sean Brock, who was recently featured on Netﬂix’s “Chef’s Table,” visits. In addition to resurrecting indigenous Southern ingredients, he speaks and writes openly about his path to sobriety. His follow up to “Heritage” debuts this fall and he’ll be heading west for book signings. “It’s going to be packed,” Sacks says. “He’s a big inﬂuence on young chefs and someone that they idolize so much.”

IF YOU GO Book Passage: This indie bookstore holds author events at its shops in the San Francisco Ferry Building, as well as Larkspur and Corte Madera, and Cooks With Books events and locations in Marin County and Wine Country. Upcoming events include a dinner with Jamie Purviance, author of “Weber’s Ultimate Grilling,” on June 2. Find out more at www.bookpassage.com/cookswith-books. Omnivore Books on Food: This cookbookcentric San Francisco shop hosts author events throughout the year, primarily at the store at 3885A Cesar Chavez St. Upcoming author events include Tyler Malek discussing the new “Salt & Straw Ice Cream Cookbook” and dishing up scoops on May 20. Find details at omnivorebooks.myshopify.com.

PHOTO BY RAY CHAVEZ/STAFF

once-or-twice monthly events paved the way for San Francisco’s Omnivore Books, where owner Celia Sacks focuses solely on cookbooks — and holds 120 events a year in the 600-squarefoot Noe Valley bookshop and at restaurants or community centers. Word of mouth and social media have helped put her shop on the international map. “The ﬁrst time Nigella Lawson came from London to speak at Omnivore, she said, ‘(Yotam) Ottolenghi has told me so many wonderful things about your shop,’” Sacks recalls. “That was huge.” Sacks has hosted everyone from Eric Ripert and Samin Nosrat to the late Anthony Bourdain. Her in-store events are free, intimate and often standing-room-only affairs, often with wine or nibbles provided by the author or Sacks. No need to RSVP or even buy a book. But most customers do. “I recognize that you can’t have that in a lot of cities,” Sacks says. “People have the ﬁnances and conscientiousness here to back up an independent shop like mine, instead of buying the book for less online.” And look at what they’re getting in return. Sipping mezcal with Cala’s Gabriela Cámara, San Francisco and Mexico City author of the new “My Mexico City Kitchen: Recipes and Convictions.” Nibbling cookies with Christina Tosi of New York City’s Momofuku Milk Bar. Indulging in ice cream with Salt & Straw’s Tyler Malek when his cookbook debuts May 20. Or eating Ottolenghi’s legendary Middle Eastern food ... with Ottolenghi. “People have been idolizing him for years, and to have him talk to a room of 60 people and answer all their questions was so exciting,” Sacks says. “To connect directly with fans, make eye contact. I think this format means the world to the authors, too, not just the guests.” When Deb Perelman of Smitten Kitchen came to Omnivore Books, people lined up all the way down and around the block.

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Jandy Nelson: ‘It’s glorious and terrifying ... living in the head of a teenager’ B Y L I N DA Z AVO R A L

uthor Jandy Nelson is a crossover artist. Much like a musician who appeals to more than one audience, she started writing books for the Young Adult (YA) crowd – only to discover a huge adult fan base. Both her debut, “The Sky Is Everywhere,” and her second best-seller, “I’ll Give You the Sun,” landed this San Francisco writer on numerous prestigious “best books of the year” lists.

You spent several years as a literary agent. Did you feel like you always had a book in you?

PHOTO BY DAI SUGANO/STAFF

Strangely, not fiction. At 40 years old, I’d never written a word of fiction, only ever poetry, and I pretty much got tricked into writing my first novel “The Sky Is Everywhere” because I thought I was writing a YA verse novel. I just didn’t see myself as a fiction writer. But I fell head over heels in love with having this fictional world perpetually occurring alongside the real world. Suddenly, there were all these extra lives squeezed into my one life. It felt like magic.

As a child or teen, which book had the strongest impact on you?

I was a voracious reader as a kid, but kind of an equal opportunity one. There really wasn’t young adult literature back then in the Stone Age, except for the work of Judy Blume, S.E. Hinton and J.D. Salinger, all of whom I loved, but I was also obsessed with D.H. Lawrence’s novels for some reason, no idea why, maybe all the smoldering passions. I remember stealing pulpy,

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forbidden books off my mother’s shelves like Sydney Sheldon’s “The Other Side of Midnight” as well as reading and rereading “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues” by Tom Robbins and Rilke’s “Letters to a Young Poet,” which I kept under my pillow for a while. I think reading itself had the strongest impact, the escape of it, but also the treasure hunting for bits and pieces of myself in the words.

Your novels have found crossover appeal with adult readers. Your thoughts on why?

It’s glorious and terrifying and maddening and mortifying and exhilarating living in the head of a teenager. Life feels so calamitous/joyful/crazy/tragic/alive at that age when you’re experiencing everything – love, loss, sex, death, friendship, betrayal – for the ﬁrst time. Makes for a kinetic, urgent and wildly emotional reading (and writing) experience.

Q A

How do readers react to your characters?

I get some really incredible letters from both teens and adults about the characters. The funniest ones are from kids, usually on the younger side, who want to know in detail what the characters have been doing since the book ended, as if this were knowable, like they’re asking after my relatives, not imaginary beings.

How can parents get their teenagers to put down the cellphones and other gadgets and READ?

Me! Please take my phone away! For starters, I suspect it’s on us YA authors to write amazing, un-put-downable stories. And perhaps parents can lead by example? Get away from their own screens and have family reading hours or family book clubs or go to the library or bookstore or to see favorite authors with their kids.

We hear you grew up in a superstitious family. Do you have any superstitions regarding your writing routine?

Well, I wrote “I’ll Give You the Sun” in a pitch-black room with earplugs in and a sound machine blasting. Years in the dark, like a loon. But maybe that was more weird ritual than superstition. My mother does send me a lot of ribbons for luck that I must (according to her) tape to my computer, which makes it embarrassing to work in a café. Oh, and I have a writing blanket, which is also quite embarrassing now that I’ve put it in writing. It’s very ﬂuffy, more like a pet.

Q A

How does the Bay Area inform your work, your ideas?

dramatic Northern California elements: roaring rivers, skyscraping redwoods, thick old-growth forests. That landscape is in the DNA of the Walker family. And it’s the same in “I’ll Give You the Sun” with the cliffs and surf and redwoods in the imagined town of Lost Cove, where it rains biblically and the fog’s so thick at times, everything disappears. In both books, the Northern California landscape is almost a spiritual force in the lives of the characters.

Q A

What’s next?

I’ve been working on a multigenerational novel about a Northern California family living in the same hot, dusty, half-magical vineyard town for more than a hundred years.

It informs my work possibly more than anything. The imagined town of Clover, where “The Sky Is Everywhere” takes place, has

5 BOOK PICKS FROM NELSON

“There There” by Tommy Orange: (It) blew me away with its prismatic, lyrical storytelling and extraordinary characterization. Just a stunner. So alive.

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“We Are Okay” by Nina LaCour: A gorgeous, heartstirring reverie of a YA novel. There’s an intimacy to Nina LaCour’s writing that I adore, like she’s telling you a novellength secret.

“Less” by Andrew Sean Greer: I listened to the audio and laughed so hard at times in my car, I forgot to go at green lights and ended up finishing it at the supermarket, sobbing down the aisle. It’s joyful, poignant and just hilarious.

“I Have Lost My Way” by Gayle Forman: My favorite of Forman’s YA novels. A song sung in a round by three distinct characters, who save themselves by saving each other.

“The Friend” by Sigrid Nunez: A brilliant, moving rumination on writing, grief and love that pushes the boundaries of what a novel is and, surprisingly, centers around an utterly charming, enormous Great Dane.

EVENTS

S.F. Bay Area book events you won’t want to miss BY LISA HERENDEEN

ook lovers looking for fun ways to indulge their literary cravings will ﬁnd plenty to do at libraries, bookstores and beyond this spring and summer, from book signings to vineyard lunches — with your favorite cookbook author! — to a cozy read-aloud spot on wheels. Here’s just a sampling of possibilities. Find more at your favorite independent bookstore or library. Bookstore & Chocolate Crawl: 1-6 p.m. May 19, starts at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave., Berkeley. Stroll through some of the city’s best bookstores with fellow book lovers, complete with stops along the way for chocolate. Free. http://bit.ly/2W1zEiP Thank-o-Rama! Bus Tour: 4:306:30 p.m. May 19, Books Inc., 1875

Bascom Ave., Suite 600, Campbell. Featuring photo ops with Elephant & Piggie, a cozy reading corner and a craft station with themed activities. Free. http://bit.ly/2UBGiee Cookbook author event: 6:30-7:30 p.m. May 23, Omnivore Books, 3885a Cesar Chavez St., San Francisco. Meet Nandita Godbole, author of “Roti: 40 Classic Indian Breads & Sides,” as she chats about roti and chapati, as well as classic festive dishes. http://bit. ly/2VlrXXJ Poetry reading: 7-9 p.m. May 24, Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave., Berkeley. Award-winning poets Jericho Brown and Dexter L. Booth will read from their latest volumes. Brown is an associate professor and director of the creative writing program at Atlanta’s Emory University. Booth

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EVENTS

teaches poetry and English composition at Arizona State University. http://bit. ly/2GqzbjD Book talk: 2 p.m. May 25, Oakland Asian Cultural Center, 388 Ninth St., Suite 290, Oakland. Gordon H. Chang will talk about his newest book, “Ghosts of Gold Mountain,” the story of the Chinese laborers who built the Transcontinental Railroad and helped remake America. A Q&A and book signing follows. Free, $5 donation appreciated. http://bit.ly/2VinEfN Book signing: 7 p.m. May 28, Books, Inc., The Pruneyard, 1875 S. Bascom Ave., Suite 600, Campbell; and noon June 15, Book Passage, 1 Ferry Building, San Francisco. Renowned florist and floral designer Teresa Sabankaya, founder and owner of Santa Cruz’s Bonny Doon Garden Company, is releasing her first book, “The Posy Book,” which explains how to create floral designs with Victorian appeal. www.teresasabankaya.com/ Pok Pok Noodles event: 6-7:30 p.m. May 31, San Francisco Cooking School, 690 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco. Join Andy Ricker, the owner of Portland’s Pok Pok restaurants and author of “Pok Pok Noodles,” as he talks about his love for Thai culture and cuisine and what drew him to noodles specifically. Enjoy wine, a cooking demonstration and book signing. $40. http://bit. ly/2DtTpZp Book exchange: 2-5 p.m. June 1, Novel Brewing Company, 6510 San Pablo Ave., Oakland. If you enjoy books and beer, bring a copy of a favorite novel and exchange it for a new favorite novel and a chance to chat over suds. http://bit.ly/2Uva6JE Kids’ ‘Sparky and Spike’ book event: 1 p.m. June 1, Charles M. Schulz Museum & Research Center, 2301 Hardies Lane, Santa Rosa. Meet Barbara Lowell, author of the new picture book “Sparky & Spike: Charles Schulz and the Wildest, Smartest Dog Ever,” based on the childhood of Charles Schulz and his dog Spike. http:// bit.ly/2XBojq3 Writers with Drinks — Special Latin American Night: 7 p.m. June 8, Make Out Room, 3225 22nd St., San Francisco.

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Writers With Drinks is a frisky variety show that combines literature, stand-up comedy, science ﬁction, mystery, romance, rants and “other.” $5-$20. www.writerswithdrinks. com Contra Costa County Library Summer Reading: June 8-Aug. 8. This summer reading program for kids of all ages includes summertime activities and a reading time tracker, plus prizes. guides.ccclib.org/ srf Children’s book, toy and puzzle swap: 9-11 a.m. June 9, Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin Ave., Albany. Help your family pick out books, toys and puzzles that they no longer use and bring them down to the community center to swap for a few new-to-you items. http://bit.ly/2KQKreG Author talk: 7:30 p.m. June 13, Mrs. Dalloway’s 2904 College Ave., Berkeley. Louise Aranson’s book “Elderhood: Redeﬁning Aging, Transforming Medicine, Reimagining Life” is a look at a vital stage of life. https:// www.mrsdalloways.com/events Cookbook talk: 6-9 p.m. June 13, Room & Board, 685 Seventh St., San Francisco. Join Teri Turner, the Whole30-endorsed author, and Danielle Walker as they launch Turner’s new cookbook, “No Crumbs Left: Whole30 Endorsed Recipes for Everyday Food Made Marvelous.” The evening includes nibbles, bites, cookbooks and a Q&A. $35. http://bit.ly/2US0nCd An Evening with Shannon Watts: 7-9 p.m. June 14, Rakestraw Books, 3 Railroad Ave., Danville. Watt’s book “Fight Like a Mother” is about one mother’s cry for change and the driving force behind gun safety progress. $29. http://bit.ly/2Pqmt8Q Cannabis and CBD book event: 6:308:30 p.m. June 14, Salvio Residence, 3158 Gloria Terrace, Lafayette. Meet the authors of the new book “Cannabis and CBD for Health and Wellness” by Ellementa CEO Aliza Sherman and Dr. Junella Chin. Learn how cannabis interacts with your body so you can identify what you need to feel better. $15-$30. http://bit.ly/2VdPzgQ Kids’ rainbow reading event: 10 a.m. June 22, Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista

Blvd., Corte Madera. Celebrate Pride at a special story time for tots to kids up to age 8. Storyteller Clare will be joined by guest author and clinical psychologist Michael Genhart to read picture books for children on the theme of LGBTQ families and Pride and make rainbow ﬂags. www.bookpassage. com San Francisco Art Book Fair: 6-10 p.m. July 19, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. July 20 and 11 a.m.-5 p.m. July 21, Minnesota Street Project, 1275 Minnesota St., San Francisco. Browse the booths of artist books, art catalogs, monographs, periodicals, artists, collectors and enthusiasts and enjoy live performances at this festival. https://sfartbookfair.com Long Novel Weekend 2019: 9 a.m. July 27-1 p.m. July 28, Vallombrosa Center, 250 Oak Grove Ave., Menlo Park. This year’s book discussion will be about Fyodor Dostoevsky’s “The Brothers Karamazov,” a novel that includes a murder mystery, courtroom drama and a series of triangular love affairs. This weekend event includes lodging, three discussion periods, four meals, a wine and cheese reception and a showing of the 1958 movie version of the book. $200-$250. https://conta.cc/2UrGIUs Books by the Bridge authors event: 11 a.m. July 27, Fairmont, 950 Mason St., San Francisco. This book-signing event showcases more than 40 local and international authors. Come for the door prizes, raffles and, of course, the chance to chat with your favorite author. $27-$50. http://bit. ly/2L4Er1U Boots to Books literary walking tour: 12:45-3 p.m. Aug. 10, City Lights Books, 261 Columbus Ave., San Francisco. This onemile excursion through North Beach covers more than 60 years of literary history on a free, two-hour tour. Maps and posters available for purchase. http://bit.ly/2W5XiuV Pasta Friday cookbook event: 2 to 4 p.m. Sept. 28, Market Hall Foods at Rockridge Market Hall, 5655 College Ave., Oakland. A lively book signing with Allison Arevalo and the Market Hall Foods culinary team sampling recipes from Arevalo’s new “The Pasta Friday Cookbook: Let’s Eat Together.” Free. rockridgemarkethall.com

PHOTO BY JOSE CARLOS FAJARDO /STAFF

Shaun Morris, of Concord, reads to his son Isaac, 4, from the book “Three Pebbles and a Song” by Eileen Spinelli at the Ignacio Valley Library in Walnut Creek.

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