Reading the City
May 13 to 20
Welcome back to Reading the City, a weekly newsletter of bookish events in and around NYC.
This week Les Bleus celebrates its 10-year anniversary with a special Greenwich Village salon on Friday. I’ll be there! Also, Miranda July launches a new book, and we have novel debuts from Tessa Fontaine, Wendy Chen, Juli Min, and Anna Noyes. Congrats!
Get in touch with any upcoming launches or events and I’d love to hear about your own Substacks so I can make sure to subscribe. And, as ever, please share the love with your bookish friends.
Monday, May 13
Franklin Park Reading Series
It’s a nonfiction showcase this month at Franklin Park featuring authors Emily Raboteau (Lessons in Survival), Lilly Dancyger (First Love), Annie Liontas (Sex With A Brain Injury), Nina Sharma (The Way You Make Me Feel), Shze-Hui Tjoa (The Story Game), and Uzodinma Okehi (House of Hunger) sharing newly released work. Hosted by founder Penina Roth, expect drink specials and a raffle for the readers' latest books. Otherwise, books are for sale from Unnameable Books.
Free; 8-10pm; 766 Franklin Avenue, 618 St Johns Pl, Brooklyn
Must Love Memoir
Must Love Memoir is a monthly reading series dedicated to telling personal stories, hosted by Krystal Orwig (@then Krystal says). This month features: Meg Pickarski (
), Carly Ann Filbin, Shenequa Golding, Juliana Francis, and Nikki Vargas (Call Me When You Land)Free; 7.30pm; Jake's Dilemma, Oak Cellar Room, 430 Amsterdam Avenue, New York
Alison B. Hart: April May June July
Alison B. Hart, the cofounder of the Pete's Candy Store Reading Series, presents her new novel April May June July, a story of new romance, hope, and understanding, in conversation with Mira Jacob (Good Talk).
Free; 7.30pm; Greenlight bookstore, 686 Fulton Street, Brooklyn
Wendy Chen: Their Divine Fires
Wendy Chen (Unearthings) launches her debut novel, Their Divine Fires—interwoven with folktale and myth, it tells the story of the love affairs of three generations of Chinese women across one hundred years of revolutions both political and personal—in conversation with Alexander Sammartino (Last Acts).
Free; 7-9pm; Powerhouse Arena, 28 Adams Street, Brooklyn
Tuesday, May 14
Miranda July: All Fours
Miranda July (The First Bad Man) returns with All Fours—an irreverently sexy, tender, hilarious, and surprising novel about a woman upending her life—in conversation with The New Yorker’s Jia Tolentino.
$10; 7.30-8.30pm; First Unitarian Congregational Society, 119 Pierrepont Street, Brooklyn, and livestreamed free
No Required Reading
A monthly reading series hosted by Alex Vara.
Free; 7pm; Pete’s Candy Store, 709 Lorimer St, Brooklyn
Kathleen Hanna
Join musician and activist Kathleen Hanna for an evening of conversation exploring her memoir, Rebel Girl: My Life as a Feminist Punk, with Molly Ringwald.
From $16; doors 6pm; Kings Theater, 1027 Flatbush Avenue Brooklyn
Sarah Braunstein & Amy Shearn
Sarah Braunstein and Amy Shearn discuss their newest books: Bad Animals—a sexy, propulsive novel that confronts the limits of empathy and the perils of appropriation—and Dear Edna Sloane—a funny, fast-paced epistolary novel about fame, writers, ambition, and the ups and downs of a creative life.
$5, redeemable in store; 7pm; P&T Knitwear, 180 Orchard Street, New York
Wednesday, May 15
Juli Min: Shanghailanders
Juli Min, the editor in chief and fiction editor of the Shanghai Literary Review, launches her debut novel Shanghailanders—following a cosmopolitan Shanghai household backward in time, beginning in 2040 and moving through our present and the recent past—with Vanessa Chan (The Storm We Made), co-hosted by AAWW.
Free; 6-7.30pm; Yu and Me Books, 44 Mulberry Street, New York
Tessa Fontaine: The Red Grove
Tessa Fontaine (The Electric Woman) celebrates her debut novel The Red Grove—a thrilling and eerie mystery that explores violence and the lengths we go to protect ourselves—in conversation is Julia Phillips (Disappearing Earth).
$10; 7pm; The Center for Fiction, 15 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn, and livestreamed
Ernesto Londoño: Trippy
Ernesto Londoño launches Trippy—a riveting look at the tremendous promise and inherent risks of the use of psychedelics in mental health treatment through the lens of a New York Times reporter whose journalistic exploration of this emerging field began with a personal crisis—in conversation with award-winning reporter Lulu Garcia-Navarro.
$10, redeemable in-store; 7-8pm; Books Are Magic Montague 122 Montague Street, Brooklyn, and livestreamed free
Secret Science Club presents Sean Carroll
The Secret Science Club hosts theoretical physicist, author, and host of the Mindscape podcast Sean Carroll for an adventure through the biggest ideas in the Universe, with Quanta and Fields, the second book in this series, diving into the baffling and beautiful world of quantum mechanics. Cocktails, music, and a Q&A.
$29, including book; bar 5pm, doors 7pm; The Bell House, 149 7th Street, Brooklyn
Open Book
A literary open mic night, this month the non-mandatory theme is I ❤️ NY. Hosted by Becka Olson and Writing Under The Influence (a social group for creatives and writers), sign up starts at 7pm.
Free; 8pm; Fiction Cafe & Cocktail Bar, 308 Hooper St, Brooklyn
Thursday, May 16
Pete’s Reading Series
The lineup this month includes Gina Chung (Green Frog), Griffin Hansbury (Some Strange Music Draws Me In), Crystal Hana Kim (The Stone Home), and Jiaming Andy Tang (Cinema Love), hosted by Temim Fruchter (City of Laughter) and Brian Gresko.
Free; 7.30pm; Pete’s Candy Store, 709 Lorimer St, Brooklyn
Lisa Ko & Lisa Hsiao Chen in Conversation
In Memory Piece, Lisa Ko (The Leavers) offers a visionary novel of friendship, art, and ambition that asks: What is the value of a meaningful life? Ko will be in conversation with friend and fellow novelist Lisa Hsiao Chen (Activities of Daily Living).
Free; 7-8.30pm; 10 Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn
An Evening with David Sedaris
David Sedaris, the author of Calypso and Me Talk Pretty One Day, will be on stage for one night only, following the release of his newest book Happy Go Lucky.
From $68; doors 6.30pm; Kings Theater, 1027 Flatbush Avenue Brooklyn
Melissa Broder: Death Valley
Melissa Broder (Milk Fed) celebrates the paperback release of Death Valley in conversation with Dorothea Lasky (The Shining).
From $8; 7-8pm; Strand Book Store, 828 Broadway 3rd Floor, Rare Book Room, New York
Friday, May 17
Les Bleus Literary Salon
Les Bleus Literary Salon celebrates its 10-year anniversary, having hosted nearly 1,000 writers since March 2014, whether in someone's living room, at a bar, or on the Zoom screen during the weekly COVID salons. The event brings together Helen Benedict (The Good Deed), Jimin Han (The Apology), Uzodinma Okehi (House of Hunger), Julia Phillips (Bear), and De'Shawn Charles Winslow (Decent People), hosted as ever by Paige McGreevy.
free; 7pm; Greenwich Village, RSVP to lesbleusnyc@gmail.com for address
Anna Noyes: The Blue Maiden
Anna Noyes (Goodnight, Beautiful Women) presents The Blue Maiden—a transportive and chilling debut novel of two sisters growing up on an isolated Northern European island in the shadow of their late mother and the Devil—in conversation with Jenny Slate (Little Weirds).
$5 for RSVP, redeemable in-store; 7pm; McNally Jackson Seaport, 4 Fulton St, New York
Saturday, May 18
Monica McClure & Emily Simon
Winter Editions and Topos Present: A reading with Monica McClure (The Gone Thing) and Emily Simon (In Many Ways), followed by a moderated discussion with Annie Lou Martin.
free; 7pm; Topos Too, 5922 Myrtle Ave, Ridgewood, Queens
Sunday, May 19
Mark Harris: Hekate's Return
Mark Harris presents Hekate's Return: A Deep History of Witchcraft, book one in the “Lost City of Witches” series, for an evening of prose and well-researched Wicca.
free; 5.30pm; Taylor & Co. Books, 1021 Cortelyou Rd, Brooklyn
NB. Please check all details before attending, the fact checker went awol.
I’m a Brooklyn-based writer, editor, and teacher, and the author of No Way Home: A Memoir of Life on the Run (St. Martin’s Press) and Amphibian (forthcoming from Virago). I’m here and here on Instagram. Get in touch with any bookish events you’d like me to include!
