Summer Reading Bingo Challenge for All Ages!
June–August
Stop by Folio Books to pick up a free Summer Bingo game board or download one now by clicking this link! Here’s how it works: Read at least 5 books in a bingo line (diagonal, vertical, or horizontal), write down the titles, and bring it back to Folio to collect your prize by the end of August, or whenever you fill up the board. For students, the center space is for any book that is on your school’s summer reading list to help you get ahead on your summer assignment! Non-students: that space can be used for a favorite book or one that doesn’t fit in a category. Note: A book title may only appear once on the board even though it may fit more than one category. For younger readers, this is a fun activity to do with an adult—getting read to counts. Have fun reading this summer! BONUS: Fill the entire board for something extra special!
Odd Mondays | LGBTQ Pride Reading
Monday | June 17 | 7PM
Odd Mondays is a reading series and community event in Noe Valley which re-occurs almost every odd Monday. In honor of Pride, writers Chris Delyani, Chuck Forester, Julian Mithra, and Cass Sellars will read from new books. Admission is free and so are the refreshments, including rainbow cake!
Launch Party, Reading & Book-signing | The Unseen by Lisa Towles
Thursday | June 20 | 7PM
Lisa Towles is an Oakland crime novelist whose latest thriller, The Unseen, is a story of betrayal and family secrets come to light. Boston Herald investigative journalist, Alex Careski has been hiding from the truth about his dead father for eight years, but a day of reckoning comes down upon him in the form of an email about an ancient scroll—and the kidnapping of Alex’s wife. Towles’s 2017 medical thriller, Choke, won an IPPY and a NYC Big Book Distinguished Favorite award. Her other books, published under the name Lisa Polisar, include Knee Deep, Blackwater Tango, The Ghost of Mary Prairie, and Escape. A book-signing and Q&A follow the reading. Join us!
Bookworms | Craft Night
Friday | June 21 | 6–7PM
Middle-grade Readers, ages 8–12! Join our Bookworms Book Club on third Fridays for author readings, pizza, and other fun activities! This month, we’re featuring a special project: Book Cover Redesign! How would you design the cover of your favorite book? Join us and dream up your own version of a book you love. You’ll also get to write your own Bookworms “staff” pick review! BONUS: Every Bookworm goes home with a free advanced reader’s copy of a middle-reader book! RSVP REQUIRED by Thursday, June 20. There is a $5 deposit to RSVP. If the child attends, the $5 will come back to them in the form of a store gift certificate. If they’re not able to attend or RSVP in advance, the money will be donated to The Children’s Book Project, a foundation that builds literacy by providing free books to children. Next up: Bookworms will taking a break for July, but we’ll see you again in August! RSVP via tiny.cc/folioworms.
Story Time | Strong & Wonderful: Two Children’s Books Promoting Positivity!
Sunday | June 23 | 2PM
Folio Books is pleased to host two picture-book authors for this Sunday Story Time—Danielle Dufayet and Merriam Sarcia Saunders. Dufayet is the author of You Are Your Strong, which reassures kids that they can handle big emotions and highlights the benefit of developing inner strength and confidence in oneself. In My Whirling, Twirling Motor by Saunders, Charlie feels like he has a motor running inside him…all the time! He doesn’t want to have so much energy, but sometimes he just can’t settle down. When his mom wants to talk to him, he figures he’s in trouble…but she has a surprise for him instead. Join us for a double reading, book-signing, and snacks! Parents are welcome to browse our adult sections while kids enjoy the reading.
Odd Mondays| Poetry Times Three
Monday | July 1 | 7PM
Three excellent Bay Area poets kick off July with new poetry collections. The poems in Black Steel Magnolias in the Hour of Chaos Theory by James Cagney explore “identity, family, loneliness, and the expectations of masculinity.” “Through pigment and ink” in Turn and Face the Strange, author Natasha Dennerstein and illustrator Kaye Freeman “map femininity around the world.” David Hathwell, Author‘s new collection The Power of Telling includes the illuminating commentaries he is well-known for his public readings. This is a free event and a book-signing follows the readings.
Reading & Book-signing | What Color Is Your Medicine? by Regina Powers
Thursday | July 11 | 7PM
As a UCSF-trained family practitioner, Regina Powers found her way into the teachings of the five elements of Chinese medicine. This is when everything related to how she saw and treated people began to shift. Then came the study of energy medicine which again opened her eyes to the various understandings of how to prevent and avoid illness. After losing everything in the recent Glen Ellen fire, she decided to write and share her own healing journey, along with cases and experiences of others for whom she has cared, all while utilizing the wisdom of the five elements. Join us for an engaging discussion.
Odd Mondays| Midsummer Readings
Monday | July 15 | 7PM
Odd Mondays Reading Series occurs every odd Monday of each month. This week, we welcome Rita Bullwinkel with Belly Up; Barb Johnson author of More of This World or Maybe Another; and Jon Sindell of The Roadkill Collection.
Reading & Book-signing | Murder in Bel-Air by Cara Black
Thursday | July 18 | 7PM
We are so pleased to welcome back Noe Valley’s own Cara Black for a reading and discussion of her riveting 19th installment in her New York Times bestselling Parisian detective series. Private investigator Aimée Leduc is entangled in a dangerous web of international spycraft, post-colonial Franco-African politics, and neighborhood secrets in Paris’s 12th arrondissement. She’s about to go onstage to deliver the keynote address at a tech conference that is sure to secure Leduc Detective some much-needed business contracts when she gets an emergency phone call from her daughter’s playgroup: Aimée’s own mother, who was supposed to pick Chloe up, never showed. The reading will be followed by a Q & A and a book-signing. Join us!