The first creepy cult to take root in California, about 25 years after statehood, had its origins in upstate New York in the 19th Century, which was a hotbed of religious zealotry and cults.

It was called the Brotherhood of the New Life, and it was led by Thomas Lake Harris, a Christian mystic and charismatic preacher who moved from New York to Sonoma County in part because of his interest in winemaking.

Harris established his utopian community in 1875 on 400 acres in the area of Fountaingrove, north of the town of Santa Rosa. As the Press Democrat recounts, Harris claimed to be a longtim celibate, but he was also clearly preoccupied by sex. His followers stayed in gender-separated dormitories on the Fountaingrove property, and there would come to be allegations of husbands and wives forced to have sex with other people, and coerced intergenerational sex.

Harris also claimed that God was bisexual — which could certainly be read as a projection and indicator about Harris's own sexual desires — and that every living person had a celestial counterpart on Earth who was the only person they should have sexual relations with. Reportedly, Harris was the one who declared who should be matched with whom.

The story of the Brotherhood of the New Life is recounted in a new book, Unholy Sensations: A Story of Sex, Scandal and California’s First Cult Scare by Joshua Paddison (Oxford University Press, 2025).

Paddison tells of the Brotherhood's beginnings on the shore of Lake Erie, in a town called Brocton, NY, where Harris first established the group at a place he called Mountain Cove — a phonetic echo of Fountain Grove. It appears Paddison was run out of town, so to speak following a scandal involving a British writer and member of Parliament, as KQED explains, named Laurence Oliphant. Oliphant caused a scandal by leaving England to join the cult, but he later became disenchanted with harris, after moving his wife and mother to Brocton around 1873, and accused Harris of swindling them out of money — specifically his mother's jewels, filing a lawsuit to get the money back.

This forced Harris to sell the compound in New York, and he and his remaining followers relocated across the country in Santa Rosa.

Paddison's book then recounts the later eruption of scandal after one woman, Alzire Chevaillier, launched a campaign to try to expose Harris as a cult leader — saying he was trying to supplant the Bible with a "new sexology" that was "worse than Mormonism." (Interestingly, Harris and his cult had arisen in what was called the "Burned-over District" of upstate New York of the mid-19th Century, which also gave rise to Joseph Smith and the Mormons, the Shakers, and the Millerites, who were the precursors to Seventh-Day Adventism.)

Chevallier also accused Harris of forcing sexual relations, with "old men... given to comely young women, and young men to old women, according as Harris directs."

Harris dismissed Chevallier's attacks as "simply the revenge of a scorned, detested, and infuriated female." But not long after, Harris decamped for England and later landed in New York City, where he died in 1906 — about a month before the Great Earthquake.

Harris wrote, around 1891, "For nearly half a century I have been dreaming a lovely dream of the New Harmonic Civilization; of the ending of all feuds, the vanishment of all diseases, the abolishment of all antagonisms, the removal of all squalors and poverties, in a fulfilled Christian era; a new golden age of universal peace: as one."

Harris's legacy lived on in the form of Fountain Grove Winery, which long outlived him. It was built and led by one of his acolytes, the Japanese born Kanaye Nagasawa, who led the Brotherhood until his own death in 1934. Nagasawa reportedly made excellent wine — Harris encouraged both the drinking of his own wine as well as smoking tobacco — and the remains of the Fountain Grove Winery and its famous Round Barn lingered on as ruins until the last decade — as KQED documents — until the Tubbs Fire destroyed them both in 2017.

Most of what Chevallier alleged about the Brotherhood of the New Life and Harris can't be corroborated 150 years later, but later examples of groups that have been called cults around the Bay Area show that this region remains a magnet for nonconformist thinkers, and those looking for enlightenment of many kinds.

In an ironic twist indicative of our times, authors Joanna Ho and Caroline Kusin-Pritchard were about to go on stage to discuss their new kids’ book The Day the Books Disappeared at a San Ramon elementary school when they were told not to mention banned or queer books.

As KRON4 reports, the authors say their visit to Country Club Elementary School in the East Bay city of San Ramon on October 17 was cut short when they were told at the last minute by school officials that they couldn’t talk about certain themes in their presentation, which addressed scenarios surrounding the banning of books, including “uncomfortable historical truths, race or racism, and diverse family structures.”

As the site Book Riot explains, the authors frame the concept of book-banning in an age-appropriate manner in the book using individual preferences as an example. The main character uses his newfound ability at making books disappear to get rid of books on topics he doesn’t find interesting, and before he knows it, even the books he likes start disappearing.

Per Book Riot, the authors’ presentation consisted of 45 slides that mainly featured pages from the book along with a few informational graphics about books that have been banned nationwide.

When the authors refused to censor their presentation, they were asked to leave. ​​“Our book was literally written because of book banning; we could not leave that out of our presentation,” Ho told KRON4.

The school district released a statement saying the students who were attending the program — ages four to nine — were too young to understand the concept of book-banning. Per KRON4, the district claims that they contacted the authors’ management with the request in advance, which the authors dispute.

“We were not asked to adjust for younger audiences despite what the district statement says. They told us not to talk about book bans or mention queer books. We did not choose to leave, we were told to leave when we wouldn’t agree not to talk about book bans or mention gay books,” said Ho.

“Caroline was like this is completely out of our integrity like, we won’t be changing our presentation if we’re giving the presentation,” Ho added.

Book Riot notes that there’s an active chapter of Moms For Liberty in Contra Costa County where San Ramon is located, which puts political pressure on public schools and libraries to censor topics on race, sexuality, and gender. The outlet also writes that in 2023, a high school in San Ramon received backlash for including in its library the book Gender Queer and other LGBTQ+ themed books, along with various books by and about Black, Indigenous, and other people of color, which SFist covered at the time.

“Book banning is real, it’s happening everywhere, it’s happening in California,” Kusin-Pritchard told KRON4.

Image: ‘The Day the Books Disappeared’

Related: San Ramon Parents Want To Jump On The Public School Book-Banning Bandwagon

This week: Michelle Tea’s Valencia turns 25, and California turns 175; Boozie Brunch boosts local restaurants while Culinary Cinema pairs films with three-course meals; a state park thrives post-wildfire and Point Molate is opening to the public; plus, puppy yoga, cat Pilates, and Bay Area makers.

Boozie effect

Local influencer Novi Mitchell, who’s Oakland born and raised, has built a 169,000-strong Instagram following with her Boozie Brunch account by spotlighting Bay Area restaurants big and small.

Between a full-time job at Microsoft and weekend filming, she turns casual food adventures into a platform that boosts mom-and-pop spots. One rave review can transform business overnight — Samara’s Southern Creations says reservations haven’t slowed since she posted their deep-fried waffles with peach cobbler butter. — KGO

Dinner and a movie, elevated

At Pruneyard Cinemas in Campbell, classic movies come with a side of chef-crafted flair. The Culinary Cinema series pairs films with three-course dinners inspired by the story, characters, or setting.

Think pink-hued appetizers for Legally Blonde, or a cannoli nod for The Godfather. Mixologist Jacqueline Aguirre tops it off with specialty cocktails echoing the films’ moods, providing a full sensory experience. — Bay Area News Group

New shoots, old giants

Five years after the CZU Lightning Complex fires, much of Big Basin Redwoods State Park’s forest floor is exposed to full sunlight where old-growth redwoods once formed a dense canopy. The trees are tapping into decades of stored energy, sprouting green shoots in a “bottlebrush” effect that hints at their resilience.

Down below, tiger lilies, California lilacs, huckleberry, blackberry, Pacific madrone and tanoak seedlings fill the gaps, stretching toward the sun. Birds, pollinators, and other small critters have moved in to stake their claim. As the canopy slowly rebuilds, the forest’s plant and animal communities continually respond and adapt. — Santa Cruz Sentinal

Michelle Tea’s Valencia, 25 years later

In her 2000 novel, Valencia, Michelle Tea captured San Francisco’s 1990s butch-dyke lesbian scene with a raw, immediate voice, gaining her widespread acclaim. The 25th-anniversary edition revisits the book’s impact, highlighting its cast of real-life characters and its portrait of a generation.

Valencia was later adapted into a feature film, which premiered at Frameline Film Festival in 2013, per SFist. Fast, chaotic, and unflinching, Valencia captures the streets, bars, and poetry readings of an iconic era in San Francisco. The book remains a touchstone of lesbian history, art, and rebellion. — Autostraddle

Point Molate preserved

After decades of plans, proposals, and lawsuits, 82 acres of Richmond shoreline at Point Molate have officially become open to the public. The East Bay Regional Park District bought the land from the Guidiville Rancheria for $40 million, securing space for trails, open access, and environmental preservation.

The site includes Ohlone shellmounds, the Winehaven castle, and former Navy warehouses. A 2.5-mile trail is in the works, connecting the area to the Richmond–San Rafael Bridge. Once complete, visitors will be able to explore a new stretch of Bay front open space. — SFGate

Sixteen artists in SOMA

September at Arc Gallery in SOMA blends small-scale art, music, and conversation. The FourSquared exhibition features sixteen Bay Area artists, each showing sixteen works under $800.

Events include Art & Sound with the Berkelium String Quartet on September 10, a SOMA West CBD Happy Hour on the 18th, and an Artists Talk and Reception on the 20th, all in the heart of Arc’s multi-gallery, studio, anyone d arts hub.

The show continues through October 4, alongside Arc’s supportive artist community, Kearny Street Workshop, and Café Suspiro. — Arc Studios, Cafe Suspiro

Berkeley vendor who gives

If you’ve ever bought an African hat or basket on a Berkeley corner, there’s a good chance it came from veteran street vendor Viveca Jones, who's been part of the community for nearly four decades. Jones tells Berkeleyside she was the first to use a cash register at the Berkeley Flea Market back in the ‘70s. These days, she can be found at Shattuck & Vine, Monterey Market, and the downtown farmers’ market.

Jones spends her earnings feeding people twice a day, setting out food boxes and fruit she’s picked from neighbors’ trees: “Helping others keeps me going.” — Berkeleyside

Puppy planks & cat pilates

Move, stretch, and find your balance—sometimes with a paw in the mix. The Bay Area’s animal-assisted fitness scene includes puppy yoga at The Puppy Sphere and Puppies & Yoga, cat-centered Pilates at KitTea Café, goat yoga at Lemos Farm in Half Moon Bay, and even early-morning sessions among zebras at the San Francisco Zoo.

Mats, cuddles, and unexpected companions included — just be ready for a little animal-assisted improvisation. — 7x7

Presses, prints, and local makers

The Box SF’s historic 1920s building opens September 6–7 for its monthly fair, where local artists and makers fill two floors with handmade goods, crafts, and vintage finds. The ground-floor Pressroom and Mercantile, a museum-like antique letterpress shop, adds another layer of curiosity with restored printing presses and millions of pieces of printed history.

Free and open to the public, the fair turns the space into a hands-on, browse-and-shop experience celebrating Bay Area creativity. — The BoxSF, teresa.sw

California turns 175

California celebrates 175 years of statehood on Tuesday, September 9, at the State Capitol in Sacramento, featuring family-friendly activities, food trucks, birthday cake, and California-grown treats. A laser display follows 30 minutes after sunset. The State Library marks its own 175th birthday that same day with tours and cake.

Additionally, the California Museum will host a Statehood Celebration on September 6 with historic artifacts — including the original 1850 California Constitution — live music, dance, crafts, and a film screening.

The anniversary is part of a broader slate of in-person and virtual events throughout the month across the state. — CA.gov

Top Image: Lily Moon/Flickr

Previously: Field Notes: Muttville's New HQ, Tactile Maps, Pavement Plants, ‘Fairyland’ Flick, and a Hidden Mansion

This weekend: Scenes from Carnaval and Chinatown Pride. Last week: A BART wedding, a Muni tram, a Seth Rogan rom-com, and AI bots on the fritz; This week: book festival, menstrual dignity day, pro-wrestling, and SF LGBT Center block party.

Weekend Highlights:

Here are some last-minute additions before we close out the weekend. Scroll ahead for last week's round-up, followed by things to do in the coming week.

• The Chronicle and Mission Local posted some galleries showcasing the weekend-long Carnaval celebration in the Mission.
• And some lively scenes from Saturday’s Chinatown Pride:

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• A bright streak over the Bay Area Saturday night was the SpaceX Dragon returning from the International Space Station and touching down off California’s coast, NASA confirmed, as reported by KRON4.
• According to California Academy of Sciences, the next few weeks are prime Tidepool time, as the tide is low enough for searching for star fish and other intertidal creatures. See their Tidepooling 101 guide, as well as some of the best tidepooling spots in the Bay Area.

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Week in Review:

Wrapping up the week of May 19–25.

Transit Highs and Lows

• Muni’s boat tram is back for the summer.
• A couple got married on BART (!).
• Muni hit a maintenance snag at Embarcadero Station on Wednesday, halting service between Embarcadero and Van Ness.
• An electrical fire at San Leandro BART caused major delays Tuesday and shut down the Green Line through May 27.

Scandals and Legal Trouble

• A Sonoma County real estate mogul was arrested in a gym parking lot after allegedly scamming nearly 200 investors out of millions.
• The Parks Alliance is under fire — its own chair called it a “dumpster fire.”
• The rookie cop who got a DUI has been fired and charged with multiple counts.

Politics and Public Safety

• Barbara Lee was sworn in as Oakland mayor.
• Organizers behind the Recall Joel Engardio Campaign are moving forward.
• Speed cameras are catching 1,000 drivers a day.
• There were two suspicious fires at Lafayette Elementary School in Outer Richmond.
• ICE agents were seen inside Bay Area courthouses, with one man arrested outside Concord court.

Crime and Cannabis

• A Glendale woman was arrested at SFO for allegedly trying to fly with 151 pounds of cannabis.
• Synthetic cannabis is reportedly being smuggled into prisons via doctored legal paperwork.
• Two people were fatally shot at the same Oakland intersection within two days.
• One person was shot (non-fatally) in SF’s Potrero Hill neighborhood.
• The killer in the 42-year-old murder case of a Vacaville teen got a life sentence, and he’s already serving a sentence for a different murder..
• Three suspects were arrested in Berkeley after a failed carjacking attempt in SF’s Potrero Hill led to a police pursuit across the Bay Bridge on Friday afternoon.

Film, Art, and Tech

• Seth Rogen and Olivia Wilde were seen filming a rom-com in the Mission.
• Artist Armand Vaillancourt flew in from Montreal to defend his 1971 Brutalist fountain at Embarcadero Plaza, which is at risk of being removed in the city’s proposed redesign.
• Square is moving into the old Lucca Ravioli space — turning it into a product store.
• Musk’s AI chatbot went on the fritz, talking about fictional South African “white genocide.”
• Amazon-backed AI model, Claude Opus 4 reportedly attempted to blackmail engineers, and earlier versions were willing to assist with harmful activities.

The Week Ahead

Things to do during the week of May 26–June 1.

Tuesday:

Comic-actor David Dean Bottrell (Modern Family, Frasier) presents Teenage Wasteland: Thirteen Fourteen Fifteen, a one-man show featuring five hilariously raw stories of adolescent heartbreak and awkwardness. Tuesday, May 27, 7–8:30 p.m. // Eclectic Box SF, 446 Valencia St // $15

Wednesday:

Celebrate Menstrual Dignity Day with a screening of the documentary Periodical, hosted by DailyBasis and Haus of Flow. The evening includes wellness mocktails, light bites, a Q&A on menstrual health, and a donation drive for PERIOD., a nonprofit fighting period poverty. Attendees are encouraged to bring menstrual products to support local women in need. Wednesday, May 28, 6–8:30 p.m. // NEON, 1974 Union St // $7

Friday:

West Coast Pro Wrestling returns to The Foundry for When The Lights Go Down In The City, an all-ages night of high-impact action. Featured wrestlers include Lee Moriarty, Starboy Charlie, Adam Priest, Vinnie Massaro, Jiah Jewell, and Maggie Lee, with more to be announced. Friday, May 30, 6–10 p.m. // The Foundry, 1425 Folsom St // $25

Saturday:

The SF LGBT Center kicks off Pride season with Building the Block: House Party at their iconic purple building on Market Street. This all-ages, official SF Pride event features live entertainment, an art exhibit, Queer & Well workshops, a free clothes closet, bang trims, a fat-positive flea market, community resources, and more. Saturday, May 31, Noon–6 p.m. // SF LGBT Center, 1800 Market St // free, all ages

The 11th Annual Bay Area Book Festival returns to Downtown Berkeley with two packed days of literary programming, headliner events, and a vibrant outdoor fair. Presented by the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, the festival features Family Day (co-hosted with the Social Justice Children’s Book Fair), writers’ workshops, six indoor stages, a Bookworm Block Party, and more. Saturday May 31–Sunday, June 1 // Downtown Berkeley // free, all ages

Sunday:

Join fellow film lovers for the Bay Area Indies 2025 Film Festival, featuring 18 short films from local independent filmmakers. Expect a powerful mix of storytelling styles—from noir to satire to heartfelt drama. Sunday, June 1, 11 a.m.–5 p.m. // Delancey Street Screening Room, 600 The Embarcadero // $25, 14+

Previously: Last Week, This Week: Chinatown Pride Silent Disco and Drag Procession

San Francisco author Kate Folk is releasing a new book, Sky Daddy, which deals with the taboo subject of objectophilia set against the backdrop of SFO and Silicon Valley. The main character, an online content moderator, gets her thrills via AirTrain rides around SFO, fantasizing about encounters with aircraft.

KQED notes that Sky Daddy balances dark humor with an empathetic look at objectophila, an obsessive-compulsive disorder in which someone forms a romantic or sexual attraction to inanimate objects, such as buildings, vehicles, or furniture.

Its unique premise, as detailed by Kirkus Reviews, provides a deeper look into a rare mental health disorder and how it intersects with the under-appreciated job of online content moderation, in which underpaid workers are exposed to relentless traumatic online content.

Sky Daddy is scheduled for release on April 8 through Random House.

Update: This post was revised to include information about objectophilia.

Image: Good Reads

A newly released book, Left in the Hands of Fate, tells the story of a 1959 incident involving Magid Bateh, the 12-year-old Arab immigrant who the author says was wrongfully accused of burning down Jefferson Elementary School in the Sunset District, which was predominantly Irish at the time. The book, co-authored by Bateh’s niece Raine Bajalia-Evans, details the prevailing impact the incident had on Bateh up until his death in 2017.

Newspaper reports from the time claimed that Bateh started the fire while trying to burn his spelling test because he received a bad grade. Decades later, the incident continues to cast a shadow over Bateh‘s legacy, as the story gets periodically retold in online groups such as the popular San Francisco Remembered group on Facebook.

Despite being unfairly targeted by police, Bateh was friendly with local law enforcement throughout his life. This 2005 tribute to local mounted police officer Owen Kenny noted Bateh’s attendance at his funeral and how the pair’s lifelong friendship formed when Kenny helped Bateh after a fall from a skateboard at Golden Gate Park at age eight.

Based on the Left in the Hands of Fate's glowing reviews, Bajalia-Evans presents a compelling case for her uncle’s innocence while challenging readers to witness the profound loss of his youth.

San Francisco police sergeant Adam Plantinga’s new novel ‘The Ascent’ is in some ways autobiographical, with one major exception — the protagonist cop is forced to break out of a maximum security prison.

It’s pretty unusual for  a cop to write a book. But SFPD sergeant Adam Plantinga had previously written two; 400 Things Cops Know: Street-Smart Lessons from a Veteran Patrolman (2014, and the winner of the 2015 Silver Falchion award for best nonfiction crime reference), and it sort-of sequel Police Craft: What Cops Know About Crime, Community and Violence (2018). But the Bay Area News Group reports today that Plantinga just published his first novel, called The Ascent.

The initial reviews are promising, with Kirkus Reviews calling its “A meat-and-potatoes thriller, sure—but they're delicious meat and potatoes.”

Now Plantinga’s debut novel is suddenly bigger news, as Deadline reported Tuesday that The Ascent has been picked up to be developed as a TV series. The TV production company Universal Television won something of a bidding war over the rights. Universal Television is also the production company behind the hit series The Gilded Age and the (frustratingly recently canceled) Schmigadoon!, as well as the recent reboots of Bel-Air and The Equalizer.

The Ascent tells the story of Detroit ex-cop Kurt Argento, who in a case of bad luck and mistaken identity, finds himself incarcerated in a maximum security prison. When a security flaw allows for an inmate uprising, Argento and a band of civilians are forced to improvise an escape that only gets more dangerous as they ascend each level, each with different categories of hardened criminals.

“I’ve always been fascinated by prisons: that forbidding silence and boredom punctuated by violence,”  Plantinga told the Bay Area News Group. “It helped me understand not just prison layout, but prison culture. Talking to staff there, I learned there are inmates who legitimately feel sorry for crimes they committed and will try to do better. Some actually had victims who come visit them. There’s a spectrum, but mine, even the best are still on the outs. It’s not a place where anyone’s getting better.”

So when is The Ascent going to be on TV? Difficult to say. Hollywood is littered with ideas that get bought up but never made, like the time that Guillermo del Toro was going to make a movie based on the video game Halo. Even if The Ascent gets cast and made, it could end up on a big network, or a streaming platform like Netflix or Apple TV. Universal Television is owned by NBCUniversal, so Peacock is a possibility too.

That could all take years to sort out. So in the meantime, just grab a copy of The Ascent at your favorite local bookstore and dig in.

Related: Rainy Weekend Reads: Three New(-ish) Books Set In San Francisco [SFist]

Image: @AdamPlantinga via Twitter

The Bay Area's own 40-game Jeopardy! champion Amy Schneider has been at work on a book in the 20 months since her historic run on the game show ended, and it is set to land in stores on October 3.

It's titled In the Form of a Question, and it's a book of essays, both personal and not, about her experience of newfound fame, about figuring out that she was trans in her 30s, and other topics including polyamory and "What Is the Greatest Animated Television Show of All Time?” Naturally, each essay's title is in the form of a question.

There's an excerpt from the book on Esquire's website, and it's an essay about how she's enjoying being famous. "My belief in my own modesty had been getting shakier for years," Schneider writes. "Looking at myself in the mirror felt so good that it became harder and harder to believe that other people didn’t get some enjoyment out of looking at me."

Schneider recounts that the "fourth and fifth" random strangers to recognize her were fellow shoppers at the Safeway on Pleasant Valley Avenue in North Oakland.

"I walked out the door of that Safeway grinning," Schneider writes. "I’d loved what had happened, both for the ego boost and for how nice it felt to have brightened people’s days by doing nothing more than buying groceries. This was all amazing!"

Schneider's prose is as plainspoken and candid as you'd expect from her onscreen persona — as her wife Genevieve tells the Chronicle this week, "Amy is always her genuine self. I think a lot of the reason she was so popular as a Jeopardy! contestant was that she was just being who she is — a likeable, curious, funny person."

The book also contains some frank discussions of sex and drug use, which Schneider tells the Chronicle was a deliberate choice.

"So many people told me that I was the first trans person that they’d been really exposed to. And while that was gratifying, I also worried about setting a standard that could be used to judge other trans people who weren’t, you know, that nice Jeopardy! lady from TV," Schneider tells the paper. "I wanted to show the same things that a lot of trans people have gone through, especially around sex and drugs, are not incompatible with being successful. That way, when those truths are found out about other people, it’s not a reason to write them off."

Schneider will be making another appearance at the Commonwealth Club tomorrow, Thursday, at 6 p.m., and tickets are available for both in-person attendance and online viewing.

Previously: NorCal Represent! Oakland's Amy Schneider Leads All-NorCal Tournament of Champions Finale

Top image: Amy Schneider performs onstage during a taping of P&G & iHeartMedia's Can't Cancel Pride 2022 – PROUD and TOGETHER at iHeartRadio Theater on May 12, 2022 in Burbank, California. The full event will stream on June 14 at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT on iHeartRadio's TikTok, YouTube and Facebook, pages as well as iHeartRadio's PrideRadio.com and Revry. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for iHeartRadio)

Lest you think the Bay Area is immune to the sort of fights that are raging in school districts across the country, we are not, and a school board meeting in the East Bay was just this week filled with vitriol over books for LGBTQ kids.

Right-wing pundits and politicians have succeeded in riling up otherwise apolitical parents of schoolchildren all over the U.S., and dragging reading materials for queer youth into the culture wars. It's part of a larger strategy to recruit more voters to the Republican Party — which might otherwise die under the weight of its own racism, xenophobia, and conservative out-of-touch-ness.

It's also just the next phase in the movement now that parents aren't fighting viciously about masks and COVID restrictions in schools anymore — which was another tactic that right-wing strategists saw as a terrific wedge issue to divide progressive parents from otherwise maybe centrist ones who hated masks.

But don't tell that to a group of parents in San Ramon, who have taken the bait and showed up Tuesday to a meeting of the San Ramon Valley Unified School District board to argue for some LGBTQ books to be banned from school libraries. Would these parents even have known about these books if they hadn't been singled out on right-wing radio, TV, and blogs? Probably not.

Book-banning has all kinds of history in this country, and one of the titles that has come up in recent book-banning debates is one that dates back to censorship debates from the 1950s: Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita.

Now, though, books are part of a larger argument casting all sexual minorities and gender non-conforming people as "groomers," inciting panic across the nation at a time when kids are increasingly rejecting heteronormative, binary identities, and freaking-out parents are looking for someone to blame.

As UC Berkeley philosopher and gender theorist Judith Butler told CNN last year, "There’s a fantasy going on that children are being indoctrinated. Parents and communities want to exercise forms of censorship to stop their children from knowing about how the world is being organized and how different people are living their lives."

The San Ramon uproar may be a relatively small one, all things considered, in the otherwise progressive and broadly tolerant Bay Area. But it's worth noting that the debate made it here at all.

Bay Area News Group reports that "emotions ran high" Tuesday in a room full of "dozens" of community residents in San Ramon, some of whom brought signs about the "scandal" of "pornographic material" being available in San Ramon's high schools.

It appears a rumor spread that a student was given a "zero" grade for refusing to read one of the books that's been popularly part of this banning narrative, Maia Kobabe’s memoir Gender Queer. Per the Bay Area News Group, the schoold district hasn't confirmed whether the incident even occurred — and the library in question reportedly only has one copy of Gender Queer which has been checked out all of twice in the three years it's been there. But they had resolved, when this rumor reached the board in January, to have a fuller discussion of the school library's book policies on February 21.

"What was once a plea for tolerance has become a demand for LGBTQ porn, allegedly because LGBTQ students need to see themselves in library books, including depraved, explicitly illustrated how-to sex manuals like the books ‘This Book is Gay,’ and ‘Lets Talk About It,'" said one commenter at the meeting, Mike Arata, noting two more favorite titles from the right-wing media. It's not clear whether Arata has children in the school district, and Bay Area News Group notes that some number of the speakers at the meeting did not.

"Those who are trying to ban books in our district are fighting a non-existent problem," said Daniel Gross, a junior at Monte Vista High School, per the news group. "They’re trying to put an end to something that’s not happening in the first place. The books are for students who are interested in them and those students only."

Anyway, this is all part of a long arc of conservative American politics trying to vilify LGBTQ people — with politicians using the passions of under-informed people and calls for "saving the children" to round up votes for themselves. And it shouldn't be ignored that it's only been a few decades since sex ed has been standard in schools — and in many places in the country, surely, it still is not, let alone any discussion of the fact that gay sex exists.

Over 50 years ago, in 1972, Marlo Thomas produced Free to Be... You and Me in order to counter the gender stereotypes being foisted on children in books of the time, and that faced evangelical and conservative backlash too.

At least, maybe in San Ramon, they're not debating about books like Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye and the idea that children shouldn't be taught that racism exists. Because that's happening in this country too.

Top image: RICHMOND, CALIFORNIA - MAY 17: Newly donated LGBTQ+ books are displayed in the library at Nystrom Elementary School on May 17, 2022 in Richmond, California. California State Superintendent of Schools Tony Thurmond celebrated the donation of thousands of LGBTQ+ books from Gender Nation to 234 elementary schools in nine California districts. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Angry parents have taken to Facebook to condemn a handful of books carried in San Ramon Valley Unified School District libraries, and the pitchforks are coming out for an upcoming school board meeting at which the board is set to discuss banned books.

The current right-wing pushback against public schools carrying books addressing topics of race issues and LGBTQ identity can be summed up with the recent LA Times headline “School librarians vilified as the ‘Arm of Satan’ in book-banning wars.” This all may seem like it’s happening a million miles away (or in Florida), but it takes on a new light with a Bay Area News Group report on a book banning attempts underway at San Ramon Valley Unified School District.

Much of the brouhaha goes back to a January incident, which according to the News Group, happened, “after a video circulated online with unfounded claims that a San Ramon Valley High School teacher disciplined a student with a zero grade after the student refused to read Gender Queer.” That refers to Gender Queer: A Memoir, a graphic novel about coming out as a teen, which has been singled out nationwide as an allegedly ‘obscene’ book in parent complaints around the country. Though paradoxically, this has only made the book more popular.

But the story of a student being punished for not reading it appears to itself be a flimsy tale. “The school was not able to verify the claim and told this news organization no complaint has been filed,” according to the News Group. Moreover, they could find no evidence that this was part of any teacher in the district's curriculum.

Further, the News Group adds that “San Ramon Valley High School’s one copy of Gender Queer was placed in the library in October 2020 and has only been checked out twice, the district confirmed.”

The school board called the hearing at Tuesday night’s meeting to clarify their policy on banning books. No books are scheduled to be banned at the meeting. The district has not banned any books. But one new board member is said to be interested in banning some books, so for better or worse, the district may turn a page.

Related: Group of Alleged Proud Boys Spew Vitriol at Bay Area Library's Drag Queen Story Hour; Hate Crime Investigation Is Underway [SFist]

Image: Suad Kamardeen via Unsplash

If you're at all like me, you consider yourself "a reader," but in today's culture of non-stop new content, you find yourself consuming more streaming series, Instagram stories, and podcasts than picking up an actual book.

But winter, especially the cold and wet variety of winter we've been having, is a perfect time to catch up on reading. Or, it's a time to reconnect with your reading self and remember that, yes, books are good, and getting away from screens is, indeed, very soothing.

So we bring you three ideas to jumpstart your reading list this year, because we could all use a few more books in our lives and a few less wasted hours of scrolling. These books are all set in San Francisco, or SF figures prominently in them, and two of the authors have lived much of their lives here.

Tell Us When to Go (2022)
by Emil DeAndreis

The year is 2010, and recent college dropouts Isaac Moss and Cole Gallegos have been wasting time in San Francisco, waiting for the economy to improve, trying to get whatever jobs they can. Isaac lands a temp gig at a tech startup called GO, and quickly accumulates more money than he expected to. Cole, meanwhile, who ran away from college and a promising career as a baseball pitcher due to a case of the "yips" and a loss of confidence, ends up becoming a tutor at a local high school. His wards at the school are misfits, on the spectrum, or in the foster-care system — like Dizzy Benson, who becomes his sole student.

Over a few months, Cole and Dizzy form a bond, with Cole trying to take Dizzy's well-established aggression and strong arm and mold her into a pitcher. Their lives intersect in a meaningful way, however briefly, while Cole begins to grow up and see himself as a mentor. Isaac's path takes a familiar tour of SF semi-adulthood of the last decade, free lunches and elderberry IPAs, and young people feeling very important about the first company they work for and its tech mission. And Tell Us When to Go turns out to be a compelling and unusual two-perspective tale about modern San Francisco, the early days of social media, and the modes in which twentysomethings find meaning and purpose in a cluttered, chaotic culture.

On the Rooftop (2002)
by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton

Both a family story and a period portrait of a village/neighborhood, Margaret Wilkerson Sexton's newest novel brings us to the Fillmore during its 1950s heyday as a hub of jazz and Black culture. Sexton's earlier work focuses on her hometown of New Orleans, but this novel takes on a moment in time for a specific part of San Francisco that was about to see some major upheaval from which it arguably never recovered.

The novel focuses on three singing sisters on the rise as a music act called The Salvations. Ruth, Esther, and Chloe are coached by their mother, rehearsing on their Fillmore neighborhood roof and performing every week at the Champagne Supper Club, when they’re suddenly given an opportunity to go national. Their mother Vivian works to secure their futures and hold them together as a family, and meanwhile the girls are growing up, falling in love, and learning about the turbulence in the world around them — including the looming threats from white men looking to buy up property in the neighborhood, perhaps seeing dollar signs when “urban renewal” arrives. It’s a social novel about an important, and still relevant piece of SF history, as well as a poignant tale about coming of age in the Harlem of the West.

At the Edge of the Haight (2021)
by Katherine Seligman

For those seeking a fictional window into the lives of homeless youth in San Francisco, Katherine Seligman's novel At the Edge of the Haight is a sympathetic portrayal of rough life that many lead, sleeping in parks and in doorways of our city.

The central plot point of the book is a death that 20-year-old homeless woman Maddy Donaldo witnesses in the park, and how she and others around her cope with the situation. Seligman said she was inspired to write the novel after, a decade ago, she was driving through Golden Gate Park when a young man jumped in front of her car, stopping it and saying someone was trying to kill him. By the time police arrived, the young man was found dead in the grass, as she told NPR.

As a writer for the Chronicle Magazine, Seligman covered homelessness in the city for over two decades, and she's lived in the Haight for over 25 years. This well qualifies her to tell such a tale, which is more about the real lives behind the figures sleeping on sidewalks than it is about this one tragic death.

Find these books at Books Inc., Green Apple Books, Fabulosa Books, or another local bookstore.

As this week sees the much awaited publication of a brand new, previously undiscovered Mark Twain children's story, one scholar at UC Berkeley is talking about the day he found evidence linking it to the legendary, prolific writer.

Robert Hirst, professor at UC Berkeley and General Editor and archivist of the Mark Twain Project, described to ABC 7 the discovery of a small note in the margin of an unfinished Twain manuscript. The note read, "Karoo hostess ain't she -- Susie." Given that Susie is the name of one of Twain's daughters, Hirst believes this to be proof that the funny handwritten manuscript, titled "Oleomargarine," can be directly linked to the author. Further, Hirst believes that "Oleomargarine" was one of Twain's many unwritten bedtime stories demanded constantly by his two daughters.

The unfinished manuscript was originally unearthed in the UC Berkeley archive by scholar John Bird in 2011, as he explained to the New York Times earlier this year. It was just 16 pages long, and it was only that tiny note that provided a connection to the bedtime stories Twain talked about making up in his autobiography, but never actually wrote down.

Hirst believes it was chance that he happened upon the note. He said, "A lot of people look through this and didn't tumble to that. And I've transcribed it — and I didn't tumble to that."

The manuscript might have remained unfinished if not for the efforts of author Philip Stead, who worked to complete the story. Along with his illustrator wife Erin Stead, he was able to create The Purloining of Prince Oleomargarine, which hit bookstores earlier this week. In a chat with NPR, Philip Stead said, "It was never entirely clear to us if there was never an ending, or if Twain just never got around to writing it down. That said, we had to make a book, so we had to provide an ending to the story."

The book tells the story of a young boy named Johnny who eats some magical seeds and discovers he's then able to talk to animals. In addition to a few changes to the animal characters, Stead also made Johnny, the main character, a young black boy. NPR asked him about that particular decision, to which Stead replied, "Three years ago, when we began the project, it wasn't a political decision. The character of Johnny was based in part on a real boy that we know. That said, I think it's very unfortunate that if we had chosen a white character as the main character, I'm not sure that we'd be answering these questions."

Of course, Twain may take issue with the book for another reason completely, as Hirst pointed out to ABC 7. Hirst said, "We have plenty of evidence that he did not like people tinkering with his stuff."

Related: Inventor of Dothraki Language Teaching A 'Game of Thrones' Class At UC Berkeley

Well loved Church Street new and used bookstore, Aardvark Books, will be calling it quits after 39 years at some point in the near future as the landlord is selling the building for potential development. Hoodline has the news via a tip about the real estate listing — 227 Church Street, which is home only to the bookstore, is listed at $2.85 million, with the promise it will be "delivered vacant," and all development feasibility will have to be confirmed by the buyer.

The Castro neighborhood was once home to several bookstores, but this will now leave Dog Eared Books, which opened a new location in a long-ago bookstore's space on Castro Street last year, as the only bookshop in the area.

Aardvark Books store manager David L. confirms with Hoodline that he expects the store will close when a sale is complete, though there is no timeline for that — and it could be that the contingencies about the site's development potential could hold up a deal for quite a while.

That means that lovers of this bookshop should pay it some visits in the coming weeks and months — the store's longtime practice of buying used books may slow down if they don't need the extra inventory.

Also, the resident orange tabby cat named Owen, whom the manager admits is "more popular than any employee," will be needing a new home.

Related: The 12 Best Independent Bookstores In SF

Berkeley's grande dame of local eating, sustainability and Cal-Med cuisine, Alice Waters, has as of today released her first memoir, titled Coming to My Senses: The Making of a Counterculture Cook. The book covers her slightly wild teenage years, complete with pregnancy scares, getting kicked out of a sorority on "morals" grounds, backpacking through Europe in the 1960s, her first (and only) acid trip, and her fateful move to Berkeley in 1964, where seven years later she would open her "little French restaurant" Chez Panisse. It would be another decade or so before Chez Panisse would enter the national conversation and become known as one of the touchstones of "California Cuisine." And Waters's story since that rise to fame is a familiar one — complete with letters to our last two Democratic presidents urging them to plant organic gardens at the White House, honors from President Obama, Time Magazine, and countless others, and grand public gestures like her recent open letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos about doing something more sustainable with the Whole Foods model.

But fans have longed for the intimately personal story she gets to tell now, at age 73, since for many years Waters's story has been told by others — and they were mostly men. One-time employee and collaborator Jeremiah Tower, for instance, published a widely read (in the food world) memoir called California Dish in 2003 in which he largely took credit for Chez Panisse's fame and the early innovations in simplicity in the kitchen. He has for years tried to discredit the renown of his old friend Alice by suggesting that she was always more restaurateur than chef, and in his time at the restaurant he says she only ever set foot in the kitchen for some lunch shifts. (Tower subsequently put out a revised edition of the book with a new introduction, the immodestly titled Start the Fire: How I Began a Food Revolution In America, which came out in April of this year.)

"I feel reassured about the content because it is what I experienced,” Waters said in a recent interview with the New York Times. “I couldn’t not be honest."

To that end, Waters recently told Berkeleyside, "I’ve never thought of myself as a chef-chef. I’ve never thought of myself as a really good cook. I’m a taster. I’m engaged. I’m a co-producer with the farmer." But, she sort of corrected herself, "Yes, I’m a chef … because I can run a kitchen. But it’s always been a cooperation, [and] we, hopefully, create something that’s better than the sum of the parts."

"No question I’m an activist," she added, noting that by writing the book she "hoped to empower the counterculture of this country."

The book is filled with photographs and recipes as well as stories about her and her restaurant's history. But there have been plenty of lovers to recount as well, including a relationship that just ended a few years ago.

She admitted in that NYT interview, “Younger men are my Achilles’ heel,” and the memoir brings to light some of those stories too.

She's dedicated the book to the Free Speech movement, and, appropriately, she will be making an appearance Thursday night on the UC Berkeley campus at the Free Speech Movement Cafe, in Moffitt Library at 6 p.m. (seating is limited and it's first-come, first-served.)

Related: What's In Alice Waters's Fridge?

Remember Caitlyn Jenner? The Trump-supporting trans woman who used to be an Olympic athlete and reality TV star and recently decided maybe Trump isn't such a hero because of his administration's decision to allow discrimination against trans youth in schools? Well, she has a memoir coming out called The Secrets of My Life, and she'll be doing an event with the Commonwealth Club here in SF to promote the book at the Castro Theatre on May 3. Tickets, which start at $40 for non-members of the Commonwealth Club (or $15 for students) can be found here, but is this really going to be a hot-ticket event? When We Rise scribe and local LGBT activist Cleve Jones quips on Facebook, "Is this for real or a joke? If real, I don't think it's going to go well..."

Jenner, 67, is not particularly known for her insightfulness, so one can only hope that a ghostwriter helped her out with the new book, which comes out on April 25.

A promo video for the book that came out in January begins, "Imagine denying your core and soul. Then add to it the most impossible expectations that people have for you because you are the personification of The American Male Athlete."

Last week, Jenner posted the video below to Instagram calling President Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions' directive that reversed an Obama directive regarding protections for trans students "a disaster." Further, she said to the administration, "You’re losers and you’re going to keep on losing. Because you’re weak, you pick on kids or you pick on women or anyone you think is vulnerable." She added, "Apparently even becoming the Attorney General isn’t enough to cure some of you of your insecurity."

I have a message for the trans kids of America. You are winning. I know it doesn’t feel that way today or every day, but you _ are _ winning. You are going to keep on winning so much you’re going to get sick of winning. Very soon, we'll win full freedom nationwide, and it’s going to happen with bipartisan support. For all our friends out there, If you want to be part of this winning side, you can help by checking out the National Center for Trans Equality and letting Washington hear how you feel loud and clear. (Link in bio!) Now…I also have a message for the bullies. You suck. You’re losers and you’re going to keep on losing. Because you’re weak, you pick on kids or you pick on women or anyone you think is vulnerable. Apparently even becoming the Attorney General isn’t enough to cure some of you of your insecurity. As proof that you can’t stop our progress, the Supreme Court will soon hear an important Title Nine case thanks to the courage of a brave young man named Gavin Grimm. See you in court!

A post shared by Caitlyn Jenner (@caitlynjenner) on Feb 23, 2017 at 5:17pm PST

Critics of Jenner nonetheless thought she took too long (two days) to respond to the administration's directive.

Jenner previously came to San Francisco, mostly incognito, to meet with trans activists here shoot a portion of her short-lived 2015 reality TV show. She later had a speaking tour planned, with an SF stop included in early 2016, but that was ultimately canceled due, presumably, to poor ticket sales — though her reps blamed "scheduling conflicts."

Does a year and a new, terribly regime in Washington mean that she can sell out the Castro Theatre? We shall see.

Previously: Caitlyn Jenner Reportedly Cancels Speaking Tour, Won't Be Coming To SF After All