By James Salazar | Examiner staff writer
1 hr ago
The San Francisco Public Library hosts Stanford researcher Fei-Fei Li as part of a One City, One Book event at the Main Library’s Koret Auditorium on Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025.
A citywide book club has gone coastal.
San Francisco Public Library will be among the 140 municipal libraries in California, Oregon and Washington taking part through May in One Book, One Coast, a multi-state reading program launched this month by the Los Angeles County Library.
Actor, activist and writer George Takei’s 2019 graphic novel “The Called Us Enemy” — also written by Justin Eisinger and Steven R. Scott, with illustrations by Harmony Becker — is the program’s first entry. Takei’s graphic novel recounts a portion of his childhood spent in an American concentration camp during World War II.
Organizers said they hope the power of shared reading will spark conversations and encourage readers to attend film screenings, panels and other interactive events.
SFPL Adult Engagement Coordinator Lori Talarico said she is “really excited about the idea of building a shared community of readers across the west coast.” Talarico has been working on the initiative since November, when she first heard about the program through LA County Library Director Skye Patrick. She said she thinks “They Called Us Enemy” is “such a strong choice” to kick off the program.
The book “tells a deeply personal story, and it connects to histories that are especially meaningful here on the west coast,” Talarico said. “For me, it naturally opens up conversations about civil liberties, identity and democracy.”
The Friends of the San Francisco Public Library is sponsoring The City's participation in the multi-state affair, just as it does San Francisco’s One City, One Book initiative. The organization’s executive director, Emily Garvie, said it is “incredibly meaningful to be part of a collaboration of this scale.”
She said the new program will give people a deeper understanding of U.S history by inviting patrons to converse and reflect on the topics and subjects discussed. Garvie said she hopes people will feel encouraged to “engage with one another in meaningful ways through the themes of civil rights and injustice.”
SF joins West Coast book club with Takei graphic novel
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