Events › One Village, One Book

After a brief 2-year hiatus (ahem), we’ve brought back our book club reading books set in Oakland! Books will be selected from a variety of genres and eras so you’re sure to find something you’re interested in. We’ll get to learn more about our city, meet some neighbors and discuss what we’ve read.

Meetings are the second Tuesday of the month from 6:30-7:30pm. For 2023, we’ve decided to try meeting every month. Come to one discussion, a few or all of them! No pre-registration or commitment is required – all we ask is that you’ve read the book and are ready to discuss it.

Here’s our 2023 schedule:

• January 10, 2023: There There by Tommy Orange
  An encore discussion of this slim but meaty debut novel by a novelist who was born and raised in Oakland
• February 7, 2023: Wife 22 by Melanie Gideon
  A hyper-local (it name-checks the Egg Shop) rom com for Valentine’s Day – note the date change this month to avoid the Valentine’s Day and President’s Day holidays
• March 2023: Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon
  “Chabon lovingly creates a world grounded in pop culture, Kung Fu, 70s Blaxploitation films, vinyl LPs, jazz and soul music; and delivers a bravura epic of friendship, race, and secret histories.” – Michiko Kakutani, New York Times
• April 2023: Martin Eden by Jack London
  We’re taking a step back to the classics with Jack London’s semiautobiographical critique of individualism that touches on contemporary issues like socialism and mental illness.
• May 2023: Blues City: A Walk in Oakland by Ishmael Reed
  This collection of essays is an “evocative portrait of the muticultural landscape of Oakland, California, by the critically acclaimed poet and author [that] explores the city’s complex history, cultural diversity, landscape, architecture, and landmarks.”
• June 2023: Carter Beats the Devil by Glen David Gold
  Set in the 1920s, this mystery novel follows the adventures of a master illusionist along the lines of Houdini.
• July 2023: Book Hunter by Jason Shiga
  In this graphic novel by a former OPL employee, it’s 1973 and “a priceless book has been stolen from the Oakland Public Library. A crack team of Bookhunters (aka. library police) have less than three days to recover the stolen item.”
• August 2023: Listen, World!: How the Intrepid Elsie Robinson Became America’s Most-Read Woman by Julia Scheeres
  For the history fans, we have a new non-fiction book about a self-made advice columnist who got her start at the Oakland Tribune.
• September 2023: Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley
  This debut noel by a former Oakland Youth Poet Laureate touches on themes of addiction, incarceration, mental health and police corruption, but is also “a complex love letter to Oakland and a profound tribute to Black youths and their joy, love, integrity, humanity, frailty, courage and more.” – Lou Fancher in East Bay Magazine
• October 2023: Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey
  For Halloween, we have a witchy sci-fi/fantasy book in which an Oakland PI investigates a murder mystery at The Osthorne Academy of Young Mages, which happens to be in the nearby foothills.
• November 2023: Oakland Noir by Jerry Thompson & Eddie Muller (editors)
  “Readers who know the city will relish its sense of place” (SF Chronicle) in this collection of mysteries set in Oakland.
• December 2023: The Mango Bride by Marivi Soliven Blanco or TBD by members – what book do you recommend?

Previous books:

• December 13, 2022: There There by Tommy Orange
• October 11, 2022: Flavors of Oakland: A Cookbook in 20 Stories by Elazar Sontag and Anya Ku
• March 10, 2020: The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater
• January 7, 2020: Oakland: The Story of a City by Beth Bagwell

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday, December 13, 2022 from 6:30-7:30pm at the library. We'll be discussing local author Tommy Orange's acclaimed debut novel, "There There"; more info here). At that meeting we’ll discuss/select future books and have an opportunity for community members to volunteer to lead future discussions. Join us!