Feldman's Past Events

Magpie Jazz Duo, this Friday, July 26th, from 4 to 6pm at Feldman’s Books, will play jazz piano into the afternoon.

Join us afterwards for a dance party.

"The Discourses of Epictetus." Join us for a second discussion of this classic of Greek philosophy. The Discourses of Epictetus are a series of informal lectures by the Stoic philosopher Epictetus written down by his pupil Arrian around 108 AD. Four books out of an original eight are still extant. The philosophy of Epictetus is intensely practical. He directs his students to focus attention on their opinions, anxieties, passions, and desires, so that "they may never fail to get what they desire, nor fall into what they avoid."

Join us at Feldman's Books for "Poetry with the Petersons," an intimate evening of verse featuring siblings Katie and Michael C. Peterson on July 19th from 6-7:30pm. Katie, author of acclaimed collections like "Fog and Smoke,” “Life In A Field,” and winner of the UNT Rilke Prize, will share her evocative work rooted in California landscapes. Michael, Curator of the George Elliston Poetry Room at the University of Cincinnati, will present selections from his recent edition of Tom Postell's poems, published by Pleiades Press in the Unsung Masters Series.

The Menlo Park natives will read from their respective works, discuss their poetic journeys, and explore the intersections of family, place, and language in their writing. This rare joint appearance offers a unique opportunity to experience the distinct voices of two accomplished poets shaped by shared origins. Don't miss this celebration of sibling artistry and the power of poetry to illuminate our shared experiences.

Join Feldman's Books on July 18th from 6-7:30pm for an enlightening discussion of "The Seven Deadly Sins" chapter from James Hollis' book "A Life of Meaning.” This event will explore the psychological significance of these ancient vices and their virtuous counterparts.

Participants will delve into the etymology of "sin," tracing its roots to the Greek word "hamartia," an archery term meaning "to miss the mark.”

The discussion will focus on ethics and personal growth, examining how we can better align our actions with our values.

Come engage in this thought-provoking conversation about human nature and the pursuit of a more meaningful life.

Colin Hamilton will perform jazz piano, vocals, and violin. Colin has been performing in Northern California and beyond for over three decades.  He appears frequently in the Bay Area as a pianist, vocalist, and string player.  Don't miss an afternoon solo performance of tasteful vocal and piano renditions of American Songbook classics a la Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Thelonious Monk, and others.  Have a look at Colin's website for more information about him.

Come join us for a cozy evening filled with beautiful French poetry readings by the talented Florence Lienhard from the classics department of Université Paris Nanterre and Stanford University.

Join us at Feldman's Books for "Where I'm Calling From: The Literature of Sobriety" on Thursday, July 11th from 6-7:30pm. We'll explore Raymond Carver's powerful short story of the same name, written by the local Cupertino author, as a lens into alcoholism and recovery.

Delving into the 12 steps, the serenity prayer, Tess Gallagher's poignant article "Instead of Dying," and Andrew Huberman's research on alcohol's effects, we'll examine the lived experiences of sobriety alongside literary perspectives.

Local sober authors will share their stories, offering an intimate look at addiction's challenges and the path to healing.

Non-alcoholic beverages provided.

Rory McNamara and Henry Nagles will be entertaining us this holiday weekend at the bookstore starting at 6:00pm. 

A favorite of Feldman’s Books, Rory McNamara has been performing his own personal blend of Irish and American music and song since the 1970s. 

“We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once.”

— Nietzsche.

Come hang out and dance in the bookstore. We'll lower the lights, turn up the volume and have some fun. Join us, will you?

Join us as mimi tempestt returns for a second visit at Feldman's Books along with poets Hector Son of Hector, and Kyra Flores Vasquez for her third visit here.

mimi tempestt (she/they) is a multidisciplinary artist, writer, and daughter of California. She has a M.A. in Literature from Mills College, and is currently a doctoral candidate in the Creative/Critical Ph.D. in Literature at UC Santa Cruz. Her first book, the monumental misrememberings, was published with Co-Conspirator Press//The Feminist Center for Creative Work in 2020. In 2021, she was selected for participation in the Lambda Literary Writers Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Voices & Writers, and was a Creative Fellow at The Ruby in San Francisco. Her works can be found in Foglifter, Interim Poetics, and at the Studio Museum in Harlem. A native of Los Angeles, she currently resides in Berkeley, CA.

Hector Son of Hector is from Long Beach, CA and currently lives in Oakland. He is the child of Mexican immigrants, works in a hospital, dreams of short stories and writes poetry in secret. He was featured last year on San Francisco's KALW Bay Poets with his poem "Notes from the library."

Kyra Flores Vasquez is a student at Menlo College. Hailing from San Jose, California, Vasquez studies Psychology. Passionate about the human mind and feelings, Vasquez pours her heart and soul into her writing, relating it to her own experiences in a way she hopes audiences understand. A Latina, Vasquez feels passionate about overcoming the stigma of showing emotions. She hopes her writing reaches people and opens them up to a world of inner depths.

Colin Hamilton will perform jazz piano, vocals, and violin. Colin has been performing in Northern California and beyond for over three decades.  He appears frequently in the Bay Area as a pianist, vocalist, and string player.  Don't miss an afternoon solo performance of tasteful vocal and piano renditions of American Songbook classics a la Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Thelonious Monk, and others.  Have a look at Colin's website for more information about him.

Come join a morning meditation in the zazen style. After a brief introduction and setting, we will sit in silence for 20 minutes, and try to witness our thoughts passing by. There will be time for questions and sharing afterwards.

Dress comfortably, and bring a zafu or meditation cushion for sitting on the floor if you have one.

Shymala Dason is a first-generation immigrant from Malaysia, and of South Asian descent. Her poetry centers on belonging and unbelonging in family and immigrant life, as well as the search for sustaining grace amid racial and other forms of injustice in all the places diaspora has taken her. She is a finalist for the Flannery O’Connor short fiction collection award, and the AAWW & Hyphen short fiction award.

Allison Burris grew up in the Pacific Northwest and currently lives in Oakland, California. Her poems embrace the whimsical and cozy, explore human connection, and affirm the power of stories. She received her MLIS from San Jose State University and her poetry appears or is forthcoming in After Happy Hour Review, Passionfruit, Opal Age Tribune, Avalon Literary Review, and elsewhere.

Kathie-Louise Clarke is a British raised writer and artist, living in Oakland, California. She is inspired to create pieces that interrogate and illuminate the human condition, with a focus on love, loss and the beauty of the natural world. She has poems published in Mindful (Jan/Feb 2022) and in Seaside Gothic Vol 2 (July 2022) and Seaside Gothic Vol 5 (January 2023) and regularly teaches and exhibits her fine art and relief prints throughout the Bay Area.

Raymond Louis Acevedo is a Bay Area native Californian poet. He works as a speech-language pathologist in post-acute settings with primarily the geriatric population. He was influenced by Richard Maxwell’s Foothill College Creative Writers’ Conferences during the ’90’s. A friend of Feldman’s Books, Acevedo, finds influences in the works of dozens of authors.

Join us for an evening of poetry and celebrating life.

Join us for our sixth monthly Stoic Book Club. This month, we will cover a second examination of Seneca's enduring "Letters from a Stoic." 

The Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium, also known as the Moral Epistles and Letters from a Stoic, is a collection of 124 letters that Seneca the Younger wrote at the end of his life, during his retirement, after he had worked for the Emperor Nero for more than ten years.

Feldman’s Books, in Association with California Writers Club, Presents Hardboiled Truth: A Celebration of Local Crime Authors. 

“It is night, always. The hero enters a labyrinth on a quest.”

—Nicholas Christopher

In appreciation of one of our most beloved genres at the bookstore, tonight we are joined by three eccentric aficionados of mystery, horror, thriller, and crime fiction: enthusiasts of the dark fantasy genre.

Dr. Alfred Jan is an art critic, pulp scholar, and expert on the bibliographies of weird menace genres. Dr. Jan will offer us an overview of the dark fantasy genre, as well as a celebration of several forgotten masters of the form–including Gelett Burgess and Cornell Woolrich.

Mystery writer Steve Latner lives in San Mateo, California. Many of the settings for his books are based on the landmarks, bars, and restaurants on the Peninsula south of San Francisco. His novels include This Taxi For Hire, I Love You To Death, and Nice Guy Bob.

Finally, Author David T. Wolf has spent years joyfully spinning out tales in a variety of genres. Now available: Wolf’s small but tasty collection of crime novels, plus other assorted novels and short stories.

Join us for an examination of this fascinating genre and an exploration of the dark, shadowy sides of our imaginations.  

Illustration:
Arnold Böcklin (1827–1901). Isle of the Dead (German: Die Toteninsel) (1880) [Painting]. Kunstmuseum, Basel.

Come join a morning meditation in the zazen style. After a brief introduction and setting, we will sit in silence for 20 minutes, and try to witness our thoughts passing by. There will be time for questions and sharing afterwards.

Dress comfortably, and bring a zafu or meditation cushion for sitting on the floor if you have one.

The Bike Kitchen with bicycle enthusiast and Shadetree mechanic Clayton Keller is back! Community members are invited on a first-come-first-serve basis to bring in their bicycles for some maintenance—to learn and to enjoy the wonders of bicycles, combined with coffee and doughnuts.

Looks who's back!

From 10am-12pm this Sunday morning, at the same time as our bike kitchen, Sabine, the Therapy Dog will be at Feldman’s Books.

Come by the shop on your way to the farmer’s market, and steal a moment from your busy day inside the bookstore for a free therapy session from Sabine. No questions asked...

Published in 2018, Tish Davidson’s book The Vaccine Debate explains how vaccines work and takes an even-handed look at six vaccine controversies from autism to mandatory vaccination to vaccination scheduling.

Community members on all sides of the vaccine debate are encouraged to attend to examine the science and ethics of vaccination – including a discussion of recent schisms involving the Covid-19 vaccine.

Come join a morning meditation in the zazen style. After a brief introduction and setting, we will sit in silence for 20 minutes, and try to witness our thoughts passing by. There will be time for questions and sharing afterwards.

Dress comfortably, and bring a zafu or meditation cushion for sitting on the floor if you have one.

Come celebrate Feldman’s Books Saturn Return celebration of 28 years in business with us!

Feldman’s Birthday Party will include performances from musicians such as Justin Phipps, Miko Marks, Abshir Miller, Emma Catherine, Nitya Rajeshuni, Chandran Sankaran, Kyle Alden, Susie McKee, Rory McNamara, & Effie Zilch. 

Artwork will be presented by our good friend Lasana. 

Back by popular demand, Chandran Sankaran returns a third time to present his one-man show “Living Life Through A Dozen Songs.” 

Popular music speaks to us at very simple and basic levels. We relate to the love, hurt, anger and loss that these songs speak about. Sometimes, as with all art, we hear in these songs things that were never intended by the artist – because of how it connects to our personal experiences and the memories they evoke.

Guitarist and singer, Chandran Sankaran, will take us on an exploration of a dozen songs, and the stories, memories and poetry that lurk unexpectedly under the surface. You will hear tunes that you may know and love, and some you haven’t heard before, across pop and rock genres spanning the last seven decades.

It’s part music concert, part reflection and conversation that will hopefully leave you savoring songs in new ways.

Chandran performed here in January and March, and it was oversubscribed. He is back at Feldman’s for this show to give others a chance to see it. If you saw the show before, this will be an 80% repeat. 

Feldman’s Books’s team member Gwen Minor, author of Read-Aloud Plays: The Iliad, The Odyssey, and the Aeneid offers a presentation about ancient storytelling. Come and call down the gods through classic stories at Feldman’s Books.

Florence Lienhard from the Classics department of Université Paris Nanterre and Stanford University with recitations from Homer in ancient Greek.

This month, we will be discussing Marcus Aurelius's classic work Meditations for the second time. Meditations is a series of personal writings by Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor from AD 161 to 180, recording his private notes to himself and ideas on Stoic philosophy. Marcus Aurelius wrote the 12 books of the Meditations in Koine Greek as a source for his own guidance and self-improvement.

This week’s Stoic gathering will entail a one-mile walk to San Francisquito Creek. We will walk and talk about the text; once we arrive, we will sit down by the creek under some shade and continue the discussion. Meet at Feldman’s Books, where we’ll open with a quick introduction to the new app, CommonPlace, that we will be using, and then immediately head over to the creek. All are welcome. 

The Chris Sor Jazz Combo, who has played several times here before, returns from 4-6pm to offer a little jazz music. They are a group of Stanford physics students. Chris Sor is a senior this year, and plays both bass and guitar. Michael Robertson is also a senior this year, and plays trombone. Aaron Breidenbach is a PHD student, and is the percussionist for the group. Roman Dimov is also a senior like Chris and Michael, and holds everyone together on the piano.

Then, from 6-7pm, Aaron Thurlow of LuDog Records, who consigns albums at Feldman's Books, joins us to discuss his life passion of collecting vinyl. He will bring a record player up on stage and play some tracks for us, discussing the qualities and eccentricities of this classic medium, as well as the lost art of collecting records!

Join us for an extraordinary event at the bookstore. As a part of Teacher Appreciation Week, we're celebrating the arrival of CommonPlace: a new tool for English teachers.

CommonPlace is an app for iPads and smartphones that emphasizes a text-first and discussion-based Learning experience. Through CommonPlace, teachers host classrooms where students post annotations, along with the relevant quotes, directly into the app, where other students can view and engage with their classmates' insights. Through CommonPlace, teachers encourage a text-first approach, creating student-led discussions, enhancing interactions outside of class.

Educators and students in attendance get a 20% discount all evening.

Join us for a free evening of wine, music, and a presentation of this new technology, as well as a brief discussion of the obstacles faced by English teachers and students in developing literacy skills.

Local label RedTone Records, hosted by Justin Phipps, presents West African Highlife and Afrobeat Dance Party with Soji Odukogbe.

Nigerian artist Soji Odukogbe, former guitarist for Fela Kuti, will be performing West African Highlife and Afrobeat.

Devotees of Feldman’s Dance Parties take note—this is the ultimate dance party music!

Classical Guitarist Abishir Miller will join us for a late afternoon concert featuring a classic repertoire of Bach, Segovia, and many others. Come and browse for books and enjoy the beauty of springtime.

Afterwards, some of us will head across the street together to Kepler's Books to hear novelist Colm Tóibín present on his new work "Long Island."

A Critical appreciation of a classic American polemic. Almost two decades ago, Harry G. Frankfurt published On Bullshit, a work of analytical philosophy that suggests “bullshitters” exist in a category worse than liars. Join us for a discussion of language, communication, and truth in a time when lying and bullshit bleeds into our everyday private and public life. People interested in the Stoic book club and philosophy discussions are encouraged to join. 

Born in the UK, singer Kate Lamont tried to hide her Indiana roots until the heartland inevitably laid the groundwork for her love of collaboration & songwriting. In 2020, Lamont released Konkrete Violet with Mani Draper and NOBL.

Lamont’s vision of music as a unifying force continues to fuel songs about truth, empowerment, spirituality, and vulnerability, with lyrics connecting the dots from personal experiences to the great social issues of our time.

Colin Hamilton will perform jazz piano, vocals, and violin. Colin has been performing in Northern California and beyond for over three decades.  He appears frequently in the Bay Area as a pianist, vocalist, and string player.  Don't miss an afternoon solo performance of tasteful vocal and piano renditions of American Songbook classics a la Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Thelonious Monk, and others.  Have a look at Colin's website for more information about him.

The use of meter and rhyme is unique to poetry; they are two of its most powerful tools. If prose is a form of carpentry, then poetry can be called joinery: no nails, no glue, words held together by sonic forces which can appear magical until you master them—or at least play with them—yourself.

Join Kate Adams to play some games with lines, stanzas, quatrains experimenting with the building blocks of formal poetry. You will leave with your own stanza in hand, and a new appreciation of the rhythms of words.

Born and reared in San Francisco, in a Victorian mansion her father liked to call Mad Manor, Kate Adams has been writing since the age of twelve, when her first short story came to her, filling page after page of a very surprised notebook. Since then, she has maintained a daily writing practice, manifested mostly in sonnet forms. A language lover, she currently has fun teaching Spanish at a private school in San Mateo.

Come sing with us!

An acoustic version of BeatleSong, a band collective of Beatles-loving musicians, will host an all-Beatles singalong on Saturday at Feldman's, from 3-5pm, playing from a setlist of your favorite popular, and some less popular, songs. All feature terrific harmonies, so if you love finding that Paul McCartney part, or prefer John, or just love George, or adore Ringo's rare singing, we'll have songs and harmonies for you!

BeatleSong hosts for the singalong are Palo Altans Cindy Nelson and Dennis Maggard, who are both huge Beatles fans, and play in a band called "Harmony Loves Company" for Bread and Roses, on their front porch, and with a larger Beatles cover band that performed recently in the Campbell Farmers Market, and in Palo Alto at the First Thursday music festival.

Love and death are natural and mysterious events in life that can happen anytime. This is a true story about a surprise encounter with a stranger who was found dying on a busy sidewalk. The unusual and stressful situation ironically gave the gift of love and connection to the strangers, and an almost perfect ending.

Join us to hear Maryclare's story at the bookstore.

“We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once.”

— Nietzsche.

Come and hang out and dance in the bookstore. We'll lower the lights, turn up the volume and have some fun. Join us, will you?

"Shop Class as Soulcraft" by Matthew B. Crawford. Join us for a discussion of a local author's work, a contemporary stoic voice, and friend of the community. On both economic and psychological grounds, author Matthew B. Crawford questions the educational imperative of turning everyone into a “knowledge worker,” based on a misguided separation of thinking from doing. Using his own experience as an electrician and mechanic, Crawford presents a wonderfully articulated call for self-reliance and a moving reflection on how we can live concretely in an ever more abstract world.

Folk songs, original songs and guitar picking! Kyle Alden will be joined by guitar wizard Henry Nagle for this show! Plus it's Kyle’s birthday, so it could get festive!

Effie Zilch will play at the Guild 8pm later that evening, so many of us will head over there together —join us!

Let’s break our silence and openly discuss our questions, hopes, and fears around what is happening in places around the world devastated by constant and consistent conflict: exploitative ideologies, war, terrorism, famine, genocide, and colonialism. What about our own country’s history of slavery and colonialism? How do we know what to do? What does it mean to “think globally while living locally”? What are our obligations to the injustices happening abroad and at home? How may we live with ourselves, balancing compassion with responsibilities to ourselves and to our own cultivation and self-transcendence? How do we keep from lying to ourselves? How to we manage disagreements within fields of apparently unsolvable problems? To what extent is one’s personal experience political? Is it true that it’s impossible to remain neutral, that there is no in-between? What about the loneliness and suicide epidemics plaguing the Silicon Valley and San Mateo County—are these mysteries related? How may we craft our private lives to become beautiful and our public lives as humane? Join us for an open conversation about these dramatic existential questions.

Theme of the discussion inspired by the book Culture and Imperialism by Edward Said as we undertake to incorporate a literary dimension to this discussion.

As a musician and producer Robert M Powell has worked with a diverse array of artists from around the world including Sachiko Kanenobu, Titos Sompa, Ustad Salamat Ali Khan, Shafqat Ali Khan & Sukhawat Ali Khan, Airto Moreira and Flora Purim, Deva Premal, Kingfish and bluesman Roy Rogers. Robert has been a part of many San Francisco Bay Area bands over the years including Shana Morrison & Caledonia, Clothesline Revival, The Venusians, Opafire, Kundalini Boombox and Hologramatron and in recent years with his own band, Everett Tree.

Tragic Gadget will be the opening act.

From 10am-12pm this Sunday morning, at the same time as our bike kitchen, Sabine, the Therapy Dog will be at Feldman’s Books.

Come by the shop on your way to the farmer’s market, and steal a moment from your busy day inside the bookstore for a free therapy session from Sabine. No questions asked...

The Bike Kitchen with bicycle enthusiast and shadetree mechanic Clayton Keller. Alongside Alex Anaya former lead volunteer of BicyCAL (the UC Berkeley Bike Co-Op), community members are invited on a first-come-first-serve basis to bring in their bicycles for some maintenance—to learn and to enjoy the wonders of bicycles, combined with coffee and doughnuts.

Author Simona M. Tahiliani’s mission is to channel the power of storytelling to educate, engage, and empower individuals in their pursuit of health, happiness, and human kindness. Ms. Tahiliani serves as Regional Director for San Francisco at the US Institute of Diplomacy and Human Rights.

Semiretired journalist Ghent reflects on love and loss in this debut memoir.

An engaging and often poignant reflection on finding deep connections later in life.

“This is our last vacation together,” the author recalls telling her husband during a 1988 spring break trip to San Diego. After years of “unspoken tension,” the couple made the decision to break up. This chapter sets the tone for a book that juxtaposes Ghent’s professional life as an award-winning San Francisco Bay Area journalist with societal pressures to find love and get married. When she was a cum laude graduate from Oberlin College in 1964, she notes, her family was proud of her, but also “anxious for [her] to take the next step” in finding a husband. “How does marriage and children fit in with your plans?” asked her mother upon hearing Ghent’s desire to be “a book editor, or a theater reviewer, or at the very least a journalist.” Following her 1988 divorce from her first husband, she spent years, at the height of her career, looking for “late-life love.” Although she’s a realist who acknowledges that her relationship with her second husband continues “to veer off course, exploring new paths,” their story will nevertheless tug at romantic readers’ heartstrings. Ghent is a talented writer who blends a down-to-earth prose style with vivid turns of phrase. For instance, after she describes how she and her current spouse first met in 1999 at FAO Schwarz in San Francisco, where they played together on the toy store’s notable giant floor piano, she writes, “That keyboard is gone, but we’re still playing, still making music.”

Marianne Brems will be our first poet. Marianne is a long time writer of trade books and textbooks, but also loves to write poetry and short stories. She has an MA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. Her poems have appeared in many literary journals including The Pangolin Review, Armarolla, Foliate Oak, La Scrittrice, The Sunlight Press, and The Tiny Seed Literary Journal. She lives in Northern California. mariannebrems.com.

Anne Marie Wenzel will be our second guest. She was born in San Francisco, California, and graduated with a master’s degree in economics from San Francisco State University. She has studied poetry and creative writing through Berkeley’s Left Margin Lit and Stanford Continuing Studies, where she received a certificate in novel writing. Her poetry appears in Humble Pie, the California Writers Club 2022 Literary Review, Phases: Redwood Writers 2023 Anthology, and the forthcoming Fault Zone: Detachment. She lives in Menlo Park, California, where she is at work on an historical novel set in early 20th century Northern California.

Kate Adams will be our third poet. She is a writer living in Mountain View, California. Previous work has appeared in Centennial Review, Zzyzzyva, and the Sand Hill Review. Her work has won awards from the Massachusetts Artists’ Foundation, in poetry and in fiction. Over many years of writing, she has come to enjoy the technical and artistic challenges of writing in ballad and sonnet forms. She is currently serving as the editor-in-chief of Fault Zone, the anthology published by the SF Peninsula branch of the California Writers’ Club. Poets of influence include Matthew Arnold, Wallace Stevens, and Gjertrude Schnackenberg. More of her writing appears at MadManorWoman.com.

Raymond Louis Acevedo is a Bay Area native Californian poet. He works as a speech-language pathologist in post-acute settings with primarily the geriatric population. He was influenced by Richard Maxwell’s Foothill College Creative Writers’ Conferences during the ’90’s. This poet finds influence in the writings of Al Young, Anne Sexton, Edward Fields, Floyd Salas, Robert Creely, John Logan, Robert Hayden, William Carlos Williams, Gary Snyder, Ada Limon, Mark Strand, Li-Young Lee, Sharon Olds, Wallace Stevens, Solmaz Sharif, George Saunders, David Foster Wallace, Billy Collins, Claudia Rankin, Langton Hughes, Amiri Baraka, Malcolm Harris, and George Carlin.

Rory McNamara and Henry Nagles will play in-between the four poets reciting, their songs will form the intervals of that evening.

"The Art of Flower Arrangements," with Aimee O'Donnell Saunders. Aimee is the founder of Two Birds Artistry, Floral Art & Design. Aimee values Nature, Community, and Creativity, cherishing the chance her business provides to support other small businesses and social justice causes, representing the beauty, joy and love she experiences in the world.

Aimee will be teaching us how to arrange flowers for our springtime bouquets. Participants will be guided in creating handmade Springtide wreaths, crafting with herbs, grasses, flowering shrubs, and succulents. Come celebrate the season of rebirth by putting your hands to work with nature.

"The Discourses of Epictetus." Join us for a discussion of this classic of Greek philosophy. The Discourses of Epictetus are a series of informal lectures by the Stoic philosopher Epictetus written down by his pupil Arrian around 108 AD. Four books out of an original eight are still extant. The philosophy of Epictetus is intensely practical. He directs his students to focus attention on their opinions, anxieties, passions, and desires, so that "they may never fail to get what they desire, nor fall into what they avoid." 

You're invited to a private cocktail party in the bookstore, celebrating the pre-premiere and screening of writer/director/producer Dana Moe's short film, "MUTE." Adapted from the Stephen King short story of the same name, MUTE is a thriller about the deadly danger of confessing too much.

Feldman's Books will provide beverages and Namesake Cheesecake will provide sweet treats.

If you prefer to donate directly to the fund, you may kindly send donations to @DanaMoeMute via Paypal.

Feldman's Books will celebrate Saint Patrick's Day with an evening of traditional Irish culture, featuring Vincey Keehan, Kyle Alden, as well as mystery guests from Ireland. Come and celebrate life, relish in poetry, literature, songs and dance—enjoy homemade Irish stew, as well as homemade brown bread, soda bread, and sourdough—plus home-churned butter inspired by Manchán Magan's performance at Feldman's Books last autumn. Cead mile failte!

The Bike Kitchen with bicycle enthusiast and shadetree mechanic Clayton Keller. Alongside Alex Anaya former lead volunteer of BicyCAL (the UC Berkeley Bike Co-Op), community members are invited on a first-come-first-serve basis to bring in their bicycles for some maintenance—to learn and to enjoy the wonders of bicycles, combined with coffee and doughnuts.

Colin Hamilton will perform jazz piano, vocals, and violin. Colin has been performing in Northern California and beyond for over three decades.  He appears frequently in the Bay Area as a pianist, vocalist, and string player.  Don't miss an afternoon solo performance of tasteful vocal and piano renditions of American Songbook classics a la Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Thelonious Monk, and others.  Have a look at Colin's website for more information about him.

Adrian Walker will engage in a philosophical discussion with Matthew B. Crawford on the subject: "Maybe: Why Philosophy Is the Beginning of Wonderment."Adrian Walker is a professor of philosophy and theology at Saint Patrick's Seminary and University in Menlo Park, California.

Matthew B. Crawford is a senior fellow at the University of Virginia's Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture and a New York Times bestselling author. HIs books include Shop Class as Soulcraft, The World Beyond Your Head and Why We Drive. His shorter writings have appeared all over, including his own Substack, Archedelia.

Popular music speaks to us at very simple and basic levels. We relate to the love, hurt, anger and loss that these songs speak about. Sometimes, as with all art, we hear in these songs things that were never intended by the artist – because of how it connects to our personal experiences and the memories they evoke.

Guitarist and singer, Chandran Sankaran, will take us on an exploration of a dozen songs, and the stories, memories and poetry that lurk unexpectedly under the surface. You will hear tunes that you may know and love, and some you haven’t heard before, across pop and rock genres spanning the last seven decades.

It’s part music concert, part reflection and conversation that will hopefully leave you savoring songs in new ways.

Chandran performed here in January and it was oversubscribed. He is back at Feldman’s for this show to give others a chance to see it. If you saw the show in January, this will be an 80% repeat. 

Nitya Rajeshuni will delight us again with her beautiful voice and open for Chandran Sankaran.

Musical artist Emma will be the warmup act. Her set consists mostly of oldies, and she donates proceeds from tips to a different nonprofit every month — this March is The American Cancer Society!

Leonel Saravia will present an exhibition of his Black & White art photography called "Four Seasons of Love," an intimate conversation with Leonel about his traumas, dreams, creativity, and love.

On March 1st, Kyra Flores Vasquez will open for Leonel with an original opening poem, which Feldman's Books has commissioned to celebrate the occasion.

On March 2nd, Justin Phipps and other artists from RedTone Records will open for Leonel with original music. 

Join us on Friday 3/1 in the evening or on Saturday 3/2 in the afternoon.

It only happens once every four years -- so let's party like it's 2020, 2016, 2012, 2008, and so on...
With the release of their new record ‘Angels in the Wreckage’ (produced by Dirk Powell), the Vermont-based American Roots band LOW LILY brings their infectious sound to a new level. With the energy of fiddle music, the introspective quality of contemporary folk, the precision of bluegrass, and the drive of Americana, the members of Low Lily (Liz Simmons, Flynn Cohen) combine their individual talents into one stunning soundscape.

Violet Venners will open for Low Lily from 5-6pm.

Join us for an unusual night at Feldman's Books. We'll be in conversation with Chase Brignac, Chief Engineer and CEO of Chat OpenSource about what Artificial General Intelligence will actually look like. Then, we are joined by author M. Pentz, who collaborated with ChatGPT in composing Choose: Will A.I. Take Over the World? a choose-your-own-adventure exploration of the ethical and existential future of A.I.. M. Pentz is a visionary author, artist, and entrepreneur, whose multifaceted career spans across the realms of technology, fashion, and social impact. As a founder and designer, they have demonstrated a profound commitment to innovation, sustainability, and positive change.

Poet Paul Max Payton will open for Chase Brignac and M. Pentz with some poetry he’s written together with Chat GPT. Paul is a Chief Software Engineer at Visa. He worked at Lockheed Martin for 30 years. Nevertheless, he considers himself a poet and artist, a Renaissance man in training. 

Justin Phipps of RedTone Records will set the vibe beforehand with some original blues music.

Steve Budd wondered what other people knew about sex that he didn’t. So he asked them. Meet a gay man, a polyamorous tantric sex practitioner, a trans man, and a sex-positive octogenarian, and take a wild ride through their stories and secrets—and Steve’s. Satisfy your curiosity about what other people do between the sheets. “What They Said About Sex” has delighted audiences in the Bay Area, L.A., San Diego, Kansas City, and Washington, D.C., and is the newest mashup of personal storytelling and documentary theater from an award-winning solo performer who "sparkles with manic and irrepressible charm."

The Chris Sor Jazz Combo, who played at Jack Feldman's Birthday Party and before Effie Zilch, returns from 4-5pm to offer a little jazz music before Steve Budd’s performance. They are a group of Stanford physics students.

Join us for our second monthly Stoic Book Club. This month we will be discussing Seneca's enduring "Letters from a Stoic." The Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium, also known as the Moral Epistles and Letters from a Stoic, is a collection of 124 letters that Seneca the Younger wrote at the end of his life, during his retirement, after he had worked for the Emperor Nero for more than ten years.

Rory McNamara and Henry Nagles will be going on in Kate's place at 6:15pm. 

A favorite of Feldman’s Books, Rory McNamara has been performing his own personal blend of Irish and American music and song since the 1970s. 

Nitya Rajeshuni and KAI will open for them around 6pm.

First Fridays at Feldman’s – Feldman’s Books Presents in Association with the California Writers Club – a monthly poetry open mic event. Please come and share your work with the community!

Dmitri Manin is a physicist, programmer and award-winning poetry translator. His translations into Russian span the range from Robert Burns to Allen Ginsberg to contemporary American poets. His translations into English have been published in journals and anthologies, including The Best Literary Translations, forthcoming in 2024 from Deep Vellum. 

Nikolai Zabolotsky’s Columns is Dmitri's first solo book in English. Columns, first published in 1929, is a landmark of Russian Modernism. LARB former editor Boris Dralyuk wrote: “The early poems of Nikolai Zabolotsky present to us images of such stark and surprising vividness that they continue to stun nearly a century after their publication. Dmitri Manin's translations retain the freshness of Zabolotsky's vision [...] This book will change the way you see the world around you.”

Lara Arikan will be the moderator. Lara Arikan is a graduate student in electrical engineering, working on representations of meaning in language. She writes poems and essays, and translates Turkish folk poetry into English.

Duo Band Effie Zilch comes back again for another performance at 5:30pm at the shop. All of tonight's proceeds will go directly to Redtone Records, their record label. Effie Zilch is an idea, a muse, a guiding light - it’s also a rock and roll band. Band members Steve Wyreman and Evanne Barcenas have been making music together since they were teenagers living in Northern California.

Singer-songwriter Rory McNamara, with his personal blend of Irish and American music and songs, will be setting the mood at 5pm for us.

The Chris Sor Jazz Combo, who played at Jack Feldman's Birthday Party, returns from 4-5pm to offer a little jazz music. They are a group of Stanford physics students.

Join us for our first monthly Stoic Book Club. This month we will be discussing Marcus Aurelius's classic work Meditations. Meditations is a series of personal writings by Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor from AD 161 to 180, recording his private notes to himself and ideas on Stoic philosophy. Marcus Aurelius wrote the 12 books of the Meditations in Koine Greek as a source for his own guidance and self-improvement.

Popular music speaks to us at very simple and basic levels. We relate to the love, hurt, anger and loss that these songs speak about. Sometimes, as with all art, we hear in these songs things that were never intended by the artist – because of how it connects to our personal experiences and the memories they evoke.

Guitarist and singer, Chandran Sankaran, will take us on an exploration of a dozen songs, and the stories, memories and poetry that lurk unexpectedly under the surface. You will hear tunes that you may know and love, and some you haven’t heard before, across pop and rock genres spanning the last seven decades.

It’s part music concert, part reflection and conversation that will hopefully leave you savoring songs in new ways.

In “What They Said About Love,” his award-winning solo show, Steve Budd wonders why other people can and he can’t—tie the knot, that is. So he asked a bunch of couples what brought them together and keeps them from pulling apart. Meet a New Age couple who swears they met BEFORE they met, a pair of Metal Heads who thought it would be a hoot to get married on 6-6-06, and more. Satisfy your voyeuristic tendencies about how others look for love and, sometimes, find it.

"A hilarious take on how people fall in love." --East Bay Express

Presenting Alison Cupp Reylea's essay collection & memoir Soundtrack: Liner Notes from a Pandemic Mixtape. Soundtrack: Liner Notes from a Pandemic Mixtape captures the full range of emotions, just like a favorite song. In twenty essays and two bonus tracks written during the heart of the COVID-19 crisis, Alison Cupp Relyea evokes the power of music to inspire, heal, and move us even . . . perhaps especially . . . in our most difficult times. Soundtrack acts as a microphone to amplify the intersection of intimate bonds, surprising nostalgia, and universal meaning that were essential to cope with the defining world event of our era.

First Fridays at Feldman’s – Feldman’s Books Presents in Association with the California Writers Club – a monthly poetry open mic event. Please come and share your work with the community!

Kate Adams will be our second guest for this series. Kate is a writer living in Mountain View, California. Previous work has appeared in Centennial Review, Zzyzzyva, and the Sand Hill Review. Her work has won awards from the Massachusetts Artists’ Foundation, in poetry and in fiction. Over many years of writing, she has come to enjoy the technical and artistic challenges of writing in ballad and sonnet forms. She is currently serving as the editor-in-chief of Fault Zone, the anthology published by the SF Peninsula branch of the California Writers’ Club. Poets of influence include Matthew Arnold, Wallace Stevens, and Gjertrude Schnackenberg. More of her writing appears at MadManorWoman.com.

Poet Paul Max Payton will open for Kate. Paul is a Chief Software Engineer at Visa. He worked at Lockheed Martin for 30 years. Nevertheless, he considers himself a poet and artist, a Renaissance man in training.

Kyle Alden and Rebecca Richman will perform a Winter Concert of original folk music. Kyle Alden and Rebecca Richman play traditional music on fiddle, concertina and guitar in the Irish, Welsh, Scottish and American traditions, and perform folk and original songs, and songs made from the poetry of W.B. Yeats, Robinson Jeffers and William Blake, among others.

The band Open Road will open for Kyle and Rebecca. Open Road, a duo featuring veteran songwriters Lucia Comnes and John Palmer, serves up original songs and reimagined acoustic covers as authentic Americana, from ragtime to rockabilly with a dash of R&B. Lucia and John are storytellers who share a passion for songwriting, and enjoy interpreting songs by favorite writers including Emmylou Harris, Townes Van Zandt, and Tom Petty.

mimi tempestt (she/they) is a multidisciplinary artist, writer, and daughter of California. She has a M.A. in Literature from Mills College, and is currently a doctoral candidate in the Creative/Critical Ph.D. in Literature at UC Santa Cruz. 

Her first book, the monumental misrememberings, was published with Co-Conspirator Press//The Feminist Center for Creative Work in 2020. In 2021, she was selected for participation in the Lambda Literary Writers Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Voices & Writers, and was a Creative Fellow at The Ruby in San Francisco. Her works can be found in Foglifter, Interim Poetics, and at the Studio Museum in Harlem. A native of Los Angeles, she currently resides in Berkeley, CA.

 
Rachelle Linda Escamilla will be the the opening act.  Rachelle is a Chicana poet from the Central Coast of California. Rachelle's latest book of poetry is Space Junk from the Heavenly Palace (Nomadic Press, 2023).

Kyra Flores Vasquez will be the warm-up act. Kyra is a student at Menlo College. Hailing from San Jose, California, Vasquez studies Psychology. Passionate about the human mind and feelings, Vasquez pours her heart and soul into her writing, relating it to her own experiences in a way she hopes audiences understand. A Latina, Vasquez feels passionate about overcoming the stigma of showing emotions. She hopes her writing reaches people and opens them up to a world of inner depths. This will be Kyra's second appearance at Feldman's.

The Chris Sor Jazz Combo, who played at Jack Feldman's Birthday Party, return from 4-6pm to offer a little jazz music. They are a group of Stanford physics students. Chris Sor is a senior this year, and plays both bass and guitar. Michael Robertson is also a senior this year, and plays trombone. Aaron Breidenbach is a PHD student, and is the percussionist for the group. Roman Dimov is also a senior like Chris and Michael, and holds everyone together on the piano.

Then, from 6-7pm, Aaron Thurlow of LuDog Records, who consigns albums at Feldman's Books, joins us to discuss his life passion of collecting vinyl. He will bring a record player up on stage and play some tracks for us, discussing the qualities and eccentricities of this classic medium, as well as the lost art of collecting records!

Jack Feldman’s Birthday – Come celebrate the birthday of our favorite independent bookseller and birdwatcher Jack Feldman. Live jazz music, ginger beer, and snacks provided.

Will Knox and his jazz trio (bass, guitar, and piano) will be playing for Jack.

“I Should Have Listened” is the riveting tale of a family with a dangerous legacy of silence, and a fateful crossing of paths with the mushroom: amanita phalloides. Will this mother be able to save her twins, and her sanity? The play has been performed in S.F., Berkeley and Western Michigan, and was a “final four” finalist in the S.F. March Madness Festival in 2019. Written and performed by Carrie Kartman.

You're invited to a private cocktail party in the bookstore, celebrating the production of "You'll Lose A Good Thing," an independent movie that was filmed at Feldman's Books next Tuesday, November 7 at 5:30 PM.

"You'll Lose A Good Thing" is currently in its final editing and post-production phase and needs your help.

Learn about how the project was cast and produced, how the crew raised over $300,000 to film the project across 44 days over two years! Meet key cast and crew members. Afterwards, join us for dinner around the corner at Bistro Vida.

If you prefer to donate directly to the fund and avoid Eventbrite fees, please click here to donate via Paypal. We'll reserve a spot for you!

A favorite of Feldman’s Books, Rory McNamara has been performing his own personal blend of Irish and American music and song since the 1970s. 

From the night spots of Berlin and Hamburg, the folk music clubs of the British Isles, to the festivals and nightclubs of the San Francisco Bay Area, audiences have returned time and time again to hear his heartfelt singing from a well-chosen repertoire of songs.

Helen Popper's talk will guide us through this first of its kind month-by-month guide to gardening with native plants in a state that follows a unique, nontraditional seasonal rhythm.

Helen Popper was recently honored as one of the ten best garden authors of California by Live Outside. Combining delightful prose and beautiful photography, she has collected the insights of dedicated professional and amateur native gardeners into a treasured guide for your own native garden.

At 31, Steve moves back in with his parents. He's always wished his father were different. Less distant. Less gruff. Less critical. More alive. More engaged. Easier to connect with. But when his dad transforms before his very eyes, Steve is in for the ride of a lifetime. “Seeing Stars” is a heartfelt and hilarious exploration of family dysfunction, mental illness, and a son’s desire to connect with his dad.

Join us for a night of poetry at Feldman's Books. Get ready to be inspired by two talented poets, Marianne Brems and Nancy Davenport.

Arán & Im celebrates the Irish language in an engaging, accessible bilingual way, through sourdough bread and home-churned butter.