Comic Book Collecting San Francisco

November 2026 Book Discussion: Man's Search for Meaning — Viktor E. Frankl

# **Our November Book Has Been Chosen! 📚** Thanks to everyone who voted! Our next **Books & Brew** read is: 📖 ***Man's Search for Meaning* — Viktor E. Frankl** Grab a copy, start reading, and join us for a thought-provoking conversation! **About the Book** Drawing on his experiences as a prisoner in Nazi concentration camps during World War II, psychiatrist Viktor E. Frankl explores how people find purpose and meaning even in the face of unimaginable suffering. Part memoir and part psychological exploration, *Man's Search for Meaning* introduces Frankl's approach to psychotherapy, known as logotherapy, which centers on the human search for meaning as a fundamental source of motivation. Through his reflections on suffering, resilience, freedom, and personal responsibility, Frankl challenges readers to consider what gives life meaning and how we respond to circumstances beyond our control. A powerful and deeply reflective book, *Man's Search for Meaning* offers plenty to think about—and even more to discuss together. ────────── 📸 Follow us on Instagram **@booksandbrew_oakland** for meetup photos, book announcements, and future events.

East Bay Women's Book Club November Meetup: Held

Hello, fellow female readers -- The book for the November meetup is "Held" by Anne Michaels. For those of you who are new, I will send out the address to my house by Monday, November 16. Looking forward to gathering together and discussing the book. Bonnie

Let’s read “Small Things Like These" by Claire Keegan

Coffee & Cameras… analog

**A film photographers event** **All formats welcome and encouraged** **Love good coffee and conversation…** **With a solid day of photography** **This is most likely for you** **No pretense just community** **Coffee & Treats** **Vinyl Records spin by live DJ** **A Mission Walk** [Hedge Coffee ](http://hedge.coffee/)

Automatic Noodle @ Woods Lowside

Come enjoy a drink at Woods Lowside and discuss our November read! In November we meet a week earlier than usual, so we’re officially making November our Novella month. Our Novella for November is Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz. Hope to see you there!

Books Not Bans presents TDoR (Trans Day of Remembrance)

Join Books Not Bans @ Medicine for Nightmares for Trans Day of Remembrance on November 21st. We will be honoring the trans lives we have lost and celebrating the trans lives whose hearts are still beating, dancing, and fighting for a life of dignity and freedom. We will have a smorgasbord of trans artists featuring drag, writers and a visual artist. We will also construct an altar so we can celebrate the lives of those who’ve passed. All are welcome.

🕹️ 🎱 Emporium Arcade - Childfree by Choice

If you’re childfree-by-choice and looking to meet others in our community while having a good time — join us at Emporium SF! ***Note***: childfree-by-choice means you don’t have and won’t have children. Enjoy pool, classic and new arcade games, and a bar if you drink 🎱 👾🕹️ ✅ RSVP on their site to get free tokens at the door 🚎 Accessible by public transportation 🍕 Food options nearby for dinner (you can bring food inside!) 🍹 Non-alcholic/zero-proof drinks available at the bar https://www.emporiumarcadebar.com/events/ Build community! ✨

Craft Beer at Fieldwork Brewing Company

**Event title:** Craft Beer at Fieldwork Berkeley **Location:** Fieldwork Brewing Company 1160 Sixth Street Berkeley, CA 94710 **Time:** 2:00 -4:00 PM **Maximum attendance:** 15 people **Event description:** We had such a great time at our first Fieldwork gathering—and it got rave reviews—so we’re doing it again! I thought it would be fun to keep bringing the beer-loving people in our group together. I love craft beer, and I know there are others who enjoy a really good beer. Fieldwork makes some of the best, and it’s a great place to spend a relaxed afternoon together. We’ll be sitting **in the back under the beer barrels. You will see signs and balloons. We have 2 long tables.** Not a beer drinker? Fieldwork also offers **wine and mocktails**, so there are options for everyone. Come have a drink, meet some people, and enjoy a casual afternoon together at Fieldwork. 🍻 Since attendance is limited, **please update your RSVP if your plans change** so someone else can take your spot. We want to make sure everyone who wants to join us can. Shawn **If you attend any mature singles connections event you hereby release its organizers, leaders, and hosts from all liability, legal claims, or causes of action arising in whole or in part at one of our events.**

Japan · Convenience Store Woman

For November, we're reading the novel Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata (Japan). 163 pages, e-book and audiobook versions available. Publisher's description: "*Convenience Store Woman* is the heartwarming and surprising story of thirty-six-year-old Tokyo resident Keiko Furukura. Keiko has never fit in, neither in her family, nor in school, but when at the age of eighteen she begins working at the Hiiromachi branch of “Smile Mart,” she finds peace and purpose in her life. In the store, unlike anywhere else, she understands the rules of social interaction—many are laid out line by line in the store’s manual—and she does her best to copy the dress, mannerisms, and speech of her colleagues, playing the part of a “normal” person excellently, more or less. Managers come and go, but Keiko stays at the store for eighteen years. It’s almost hard to tell where the store ends and she begins. Keiko is very happy, but the people close to her, from her family to her coworkers, increasingly pressure her to find a husband, and to start a proper career, prompting her to take desperate action…"

Shadow Ticket by Thomas Pynchon

A New York Times Bestseller • A New York Times, Washington Post, and Associated Press Notable Book • Named a Best Book of the Year by The Los Angeles Times, Vulture, TIME, The Guardian, The New Republic, and LitHub The new novel from Thomas Pynchon, author of Gravity's Rainbow, The Crying of Lot 49, Vineland, and Inherent Vice. “A masterpiece.” —The Telegraph “Bonkers and brilliant fun.” —The Washington Post “Late Pynchon at his finest. Dark as a vampire’s pocket, light-fingered as a jewel thief, Shadow Ticket capers across the page with breezy, baggy-pants assurance — and then pauses on its way down the fire escape just long enough to crack your heart open.” —The Los Angeles Times Milwaukee 1932, the Great Depression going full blast, repeal of Prohibition just around the corner, Al Capone in the federal pen, the private investigation business shifting from labor-management relations to the more domestic kind. Hicks McTaggart, a onetime strikebreaker turned private eye, thinks he’s found job security until he gets sent out on what should be a routine case, locating and bringing back the heiress of a Wisconsin cheese fortune who’s taken a mind to go wandering. Before he knows it, he’s been shanghaied onto a transoceanic liner, ending up eventually in Hungary where there’s no shoreline, a language from some other planet, and enough pastry to see any cop well into retirement—and of course no sign of the runaway heiress he’s supposed to be chasing. By the time Hicks catches up with her he will find himself also entangled with Nazis, Soviet agents, British counterspies, swing musicians, practitioners of the paranormal, outlaw motorcyclists, and the troubles that come with each of them, none of which Hicks is qualified, forget about being paid, to deal with. Surrounded by history he has no grasp on and can’t see his way around in or out of, the only bright side for Hicks is it’s the dawn of the Big Band Era and as it happens he’s a pretty good dancer. Whether this will be enough to allow him somehow to Lindy-hop his way back again to Milwaukee and the normal world, which may no longer exist, is another question.

Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker

This November, we’re diving into Chinatown’s darkest corners with a horror novel that blends crime scene mysteries and Chinese folklore with *Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng* by Kylie Lee Baker. Cora Zeng is a crime scene cleaner who has grown numb to the horrors of death, but after witnessing her sister’s murder, she finds herself haunted by two chilling words: *bat eater.* If you are on the waitlist, you're welcomed to come anyways!

East Bay Sketchers at OMCA

Let's sketch at the Oakland Museum of California. 1000 Oak St. There are public gardens and views of Lake Merritt. There are covered areas in case of rain. Reminder from last event. Don't forget to bring your 8x10 artwork for the upcoming show. 11:00-1:00 Sketching 1:00- 1:30 Throw Down