Happy Fifth Birthday, BookClubSF!

Inspired by a book group I was in back in Philadelphia, I started BookClubSF shortly after moving to San Francisco five years ago.  The idea was to connect with friends, connect friends with each other, and keep myself reading interesting books - and that's exactly what happened.  Over the past five years, a couple dozen rotating members have read and discussed 30 books. While readers have come and gone as they moved in and out of San Francisco, passed in and out of busy periods at work, or had kids (3!), some truths have remained constant: reading is always rewarding (even when the book is bad); discussing a book usually deepens your experience of the text, the friends you discuss it with, and yourself; wine, bread, and cheese go great with literature; benevolent informed dictatorships can work out OK.  Over the next five years I look forward to more great books, more probing discussions, more new members, and perhaps even welcoming back a parent or two.  

Here's our reading list.  It includes some exceptional highs (Kafka on the Shore, Appointment in Samarra, Cloud Atlas, White Noise) and some unfortunate lows (Evidence of Things Unseen, I'm looking at you!).   

The Warmth of Other Suns, by Isabel Wilkerson, February 19, 2013

A Working Theory of Love, by Scott Hutchins, December 13, 2012
Telegraph Avenue, by Michael Chabon, November 1, 2012
Under the Volcano, by Malcom Lowry, August 28, 2012
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler, by Italo Calvino, May 22, 2012
The Untouchable, by John Banville, October 20, 2011
A Single Man, by Christopher Isherwood, September 6, 2011
Everything is Illuminated, by Jonathan Safran Foer, July 26, 2011
A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, by David Foster Wallace, June 9, 2011
The Maltese Falcon, by Dashiell Hammett, April 7, 2011
Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell, January 20, 2011
Kindred, by Octavia Butler, October 28, 2010
Crossing to Safety, by Wallace Stegner, September 9, 2010
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot July 1, 2010
Let the Great World Spin, by Colum McCann May 6, 2010
Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro, March 11, 2010
The Women of Brewster Place, by Gloria Naylor, February 4, 2010
Darkness at Noon, by Arthur Koestler November 17, 2009
A Wild Sheep Chase: A Novel, by Haruki Murakami, September 17, 2009
Appointment in Samarra, by John O’Hara, August 6, 2009
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Díaz, June 25, 2009
White Noise, by Don DeLillo, March 19, 2009
Ficciones, by Jorge Luis Borges, February 12, 2009
Then We Came to the End, by Joshua Ferris, October 30, 2008
Kafka on the Shore, by Haruki Murakami, September 23, 2008
Botany of Desire, by Michael Pollan, August 5, 2008
The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, June 25, 2008
Dreams From My Father, by Barack Obama, April 10, 2008
Evidence of Things Unseen, by Marianne Wiggins, March 2, 2008
The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, January 27, 2008

Mangledfont in the News

Every city must do its part to make housing available to people of all income levels.  That's what I told the Palo Alto Daily News/San Jose Mercury News last week:

Sam Tepperman-Gelfant, a senior staff attorney for the nonprofit Public Advocates, which sued both Menlo Park and Pleasanton, said the group's intention was to ensure housing for lower-income residents.

"When it comes down to it, it's incredibly important that there are affordable housing opportunities in every city in the state," he said.

Peninsula Cities Feel the Heat to Produce More Homes 2/15/13