Welcome back to Reading the City, a weekly newsletter of bookish events in and around NYC.
It’s a short week, but there’s still a couple gems stuffed into a few, hot nights. On Tuesday alone you have to choose between the launch of Maris Kreizman’s essay collection, a performance and panel for Benedict Nguyễn’s Hot Girls With Balls, and “Florida Night” at P&T Knitwear in honor of Laura van den Berg’s paperback launch.
Also, for paid subscribers, the monthly Booking Ahead section is at the end with a selection of upcoming events that are likely to sell out.
Enjoy the long weekend for those that get one, and as ever, please share the love with your bookish friends.
Monday, June 30
LAUNCH: Hala Alyan: I'll Tell You When I'm Home
Award-winning Palestinian-American poet and novelist presents her debut memoir I'll Tell You When I'm Home—a rich and deeply personal account about the experience of motherhood via surrogacy that forces her to reckon with her own past, and the legacy of her family’s exile and displacement, all in the name of a new future—in conversation with writer and visual artist Anna Marie Tendler (Men Have Called Her Crazy and
).Free; 7.30pm; Greenlight bookstore, 686 Fulton Street, Brooklyn
SALON: World Transexual Forum
At this month’s World Transsexual Forum, an open mic and refined intellectual symposium for trans/GNC writers and artists hosted by Anton Solomonik (Realistic Fiction) and Jeanne Thornton (A/S/L), they’ll be talking about high school and high school tropes with Eisner-nominated comic book writer Mags Visaggio, author of YA graphic novel, Girlmode.
Free; 7.30pm sign-up, 8pm readings; Franklin Park, 618 St Johns Place, Brooklyn
LAUNCH: Julia Phillips: Bear
(Disappearing Earth) celebrates the paperback release of Bear—a spellbinding tale of family, obsession, and a mysterious creature in the woods—in conversation with Marie-Helene Bertino (Beautyland).
$5; 7-8pm; Strand Book Store, 828 Broadway 3rd Floor, Rare Book Room, Manhattan
DISCUSSION: Michael Grunwald: We Are Eating the Earth
(The Swamp), author of We Are Eating the Earth - The Race to Fix Our Food System and Save Our Climate, sits down with CNN's to discuss his groundbreaking piece of reportage from the trenches of the next climate war: the fight to fix our food system.
Free, with RSVP; 7-8pm; NYPL, Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library, 455 Fifth Avenue, Manhattan
Tuesday, July 1
LAUNCH: Maris Kreizman: I Want to Burn This Place Down
Inimitable cultural critic launches her debut essay collection—I Want to Burn This Place Down—an introspective, searing account of the life experiences that have pushed this former “good Democrat” even further to the political left—in conversation with Books Are Magic co-owner and novelist .
Free, with RSVP; 6-7pm; Brooklyn Public Library - Brooklyn Heights Branch, 286 Cadman Plaza West, Brooklyn
PANEL: Florida Night! with Laura van den Berg
Love this. At Florida Night, celebrate the paperback release of 's newest novel, State of Paradise, with the author and four other writers with deep ties to the sunshine state: (The Float Test), Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya (Helen House), (With Teeth), and Gabriella Burnham (It Is Wood, It Is Stone). They'll read briefly from their work and then discuss how Florida, with its unique wonders and extreme perils, has shaped their imaginations and their approach to story.
$5, redeemable in store; 6.30-8pm; P&T Knitwear, 180 Orchard Street, Manhattan
LAUNCH+PERFORMANCE: Benedict Nguyễn: Hot Girls with Balls
Benedict Nguyễn presents a new short dance work, DEFENSE, a duet between Nguyễn and dancer/musician . Following this performance, Benedict is joined by special guests Leah Abrams (co-host of the Limousine podcast and reading series), , Jasmine Gibson (A Beauty Has Come), and Jeanne Thornton (A/S/L) to launch her debut novel Hot Girls with Balls—an outrageous and deeply serious satire about two star indoor volleyball players juggling unspoken jealousies in their off-court romance ahead of their rival teams’ first rematch in a year. This event is co-sponsored by Catapult, Yu and Me Books, Chinatown Basketball Club, Lunar, and Poets & Writers.
Free; 7pm; address with RSVP
LAUNCH: André Aciman: Room on the Sea
André Aciman (Call Me by Your Name) presents Room on the Sea—a collection of three hypnotic novellas about obsessional love, missed connections, and enduring regret—with Kanishk Tharoor (Swimmer Among the Stars).
Free; 7.30pm; Greenlight bookstore, 686 Fulton Street, Brooklyn
Wednesday, July 2
LAUNCH: Dr. Shelley Sella: Beyond Limits
Dr. Shelley Sella celebrates and discusses her new book, Beyond Limits—a compassionate perspective on late-term abortion, from the first woman to openly provide third-trimester abortion care in the US, and a call for a paradigm shift that moves beyond Dobbs, beyond Roe, beyond limits to provide care. Dr. Sella will be joined in conversation by Jia Tolentino (Trick Mirror).
$5, redeemable in store; 6.30-8pm; P&T Knitwear, 180 Orchard Street, Manhattan
STORYTELLING: Written in Brooklyn Storytelling Series
Written in Brooklyn, a live storytelling show, returns this time with the theme “You've Got the Wrong Person.” Featured storytellers include Corina Leske, David Christian, Sofia Sparta, and Jaclyn Lacroix, hosted by .
$28.52; doors: 7pm, show: 8pm; Farm.One, 625 Bergen Street, Brooklyn
LAUNCH: Ruben Reyes Jr.: Archive of Unknown Universes
Ruben Reyes Jr. (There Is a Rio Grande in Heaven) celebrates the launch of his debut novel, Archive of Unknown Universes—a stunning exploration of the mechanisms of fate, the gravity of the past, and the endurance of love, following two families in alternative timelines of the Salvadoran civil war—in conversation with Santiago Jose Sanchez (Hombrecito).
Free; 6.30-8pm; Yu and Me Books, 44 Mulberry Street, Manhattan