After the success of his May 6th reading at Washington Square Park in San Francisco's North Beach, Bob Calhoun has announced another outdoor guerrilla book reading to promote his new true crime history of San Francisco, The Murders That Made Us. The reading will take place in front of the San Francisco Ferry Building on Thursday June 10th at 6:30 p.m. The author will have a few books available for sale and signing and is also more than happy to sign books already purchased from other booksellers.
As San Francisco and the state of California are opening up, there is still uncertainty about the resumption of live book events at bars and bookstores, so Calhoun will take it to the streets as long as readers show up to hear him and get their books signed.
"The May 6th reading in North Beach was just amazing," Calhoun says. "I got to see so many people that I hadn't seen since before the pandemic. Being back in the city again felt more like a homecoming than a book reading really."
"People seem really hungry for this kind of get-together right now," he adds.
"I LOVED it!!" San Franciscan Charles Fracchia wrote in a post on the North Beach reading's Facebook event page. "It reminded me of being at Candlestick Park. It was awesome!!"
On May 6th, Calhoun read the sections from The Murders That Made Us on "Little Dick" the girl hoodlum and Dorothy Ellingson, the "jazz baby mother slayer." Making things even more festive than your usual reading, local freelance journalist Joe Kukura brought fajitas and Twinkies as a quirky homage to San Francisco's disturbing history of junk food related violence.
"All the Twinkies got eaten but only half of the fajitas got eaten. Draw your own conclusions," Kukura later remarked.
Even though Calhoun is primarily hyping The Murders That Made Us these days, he says he will bring at least one copy of his bestselling punk-wrestling memoir, Beer, Blood & Cornmeal with him to the June 10th event.
"I've done two of these meetups already, and there's always somebody who wants a copy of Beer, Blood & Cornmeal," he says. "Men want to buy the murder book for their wives and the wrestling book for themselves it seems--not that I've done an intensive demographic study on the Bob Calhoun book buying habits of straight married couples here."
While an incredible 78% of San Francisco residents 12 and over have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, and 66% have completed their vaccination series, Calhoun asks that everyone who shows up to hear him read or get their book signed still adhere to social distancing.
"I still want to do these events as safely as possible," Calhoun says. The San Francisco Giants have announced that Oracle Park--just down the Embarcadero from the Ferry Building--will open up to full capacity on June 15. Several movie theaters in San Francisco including The Balboa and The Roxie have reopened with limited capacity.
"I'm really hoping I can do some indoor readings before the end of the summer," Calhoun adds. "I'd like to read from the inside of a bar again soon."
Outdoor Book Signing & Reading
with Bob Calhoun
author of The Murders That Made Us
Thursday, June 10th, 6:30 p.m.
outside the San Francisco Ferry Building
1 Ferry Building, San Francisco, CA 94111
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