This Week at Commonplace.NYC — Oct 18 – Oct 24
2026-10-19
This Week's Book Clubs
Oct 18 – Oct 24 — here's what's happening with Commonplace.NYC book clubs this week.
Giallo Disco
A Screaming Mimi themed book club at Giallo Disco — Fredric Brown's 1949 pulp noir is the uncredited source for Dario Argento's The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, the film that kicked off the giallo craze. Read the American paperback that became Italian horror, then hear Kellen303 play New Wave, Italo, and EBM against a blood-soaked backdrop of giallo films. Black gloves. Red lights. Body music.
Giallo Disco: Sunday, Oct 18 · 7:00 PM–11:59 PM EDT — Rock Bar, 185 Christopher St, New York, NY 10014
Reading is a System
A free public presentation and group discussion at Brooklyn Central Library on treating reading as a system — learning to read more widely and deeply without relying on motivation alone, reducing phone distractions, juggling multiple books, building a commonplace book, and balancing print, ebooks, and audiobooks. Paired with Mortimer J. Adler's How to Read a Book, the 1972 classic (co-authored with Charles Van Doren) on critically reading great books across genres, from poetry and history to science and fiction. Event details.
Reading is a System: Monday, Oct 19 · 5:30 PM–7:30 PM EDT — 10 Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn, NY 11238
Critical Nightlife Studies: Nightlife Cities — Gentrification + Urban Life
A Times Square Red, Times Square Blue themed book club at Critical Nightlife Studies: Nightlife Cities — Gentrification + Urban Life, hosted by DJ, writer, and psychotherapist Zephyr Ann Doles at Head Hi in Fort Greene. Samuel R. Delany's account of how the 1990s redevelopment of Times Square wiped out the porn theaters and the cross-class 'contact' they made possible is the sharpest book ever written about what a city loses when it cleans up its nights. $20 per session, sliding scale available.
Critical Nightlife Studies: Nightlife Cities — Gentrification + Urban Life: Tuesday, Oct 20 · 7:00 PM–9:00 PM EDT — Head Hi, 146 Flushing Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11205
Protecting Kids Online in the Age of AI
An Alone Together themed book club at Protecting Kids Online in the Age of AI at Brooklyn Heights Library — a free public conversation from The TAG Movement, Reset Tech, The Tech Oversight Project, Common Sense Media, and Brooklyn Public Library featuring Jonathan Haidt, Sen. Kristen Gonzalez, Sacha Haworth, Julianna Arnold, Danny Weiss, Dr. Raashid Khan, and Nick Plante. Sherry Turkle spent years watching children bond with sociable robots and digital pets long before chatbots became confidants; her findings read like a field report from the future we're now living in. Registration encouraged.
Protecting Kids Online in the Age of AI: Wednesday, Oct 21 · 10:30 AM–12:00 PM EDT — Brooklyn Heights Library, Multipurpose Room, 286 Cadman Plaza West, Brooklyn, NY 11201
Biomolecules Aren't Rocks: Temperature Sensing and Protein Dynamics
A Life's Ratchet themed book club at Biomolecules Aren't Rocks: Temperature Sensing and Protein Dynamics, a Simons Foundation Presidential Lecture by Flatiron Institute biophysicist Sonya Hanson. Peter Hoffmann's book argues that life runs on molecular machines harnessing the thermal chaos around them — the perfect primer for a talk on how proteins change shape with tiny shifts in temperature, and how cryo-EM, simulation, and machine learning are moving biology from rigid structures to dynamic ensembles. Registration closes at 2 p.m. day-of.
Biomolecules Aren't Rocks: Temperature Sensing and Protein Dynamics: Wednesday, Oct 21 · 6:00 PM–7:00 PM EDT — Simons Foundation, 160 5th Ave, New York, NY 10010
FUTURE FORUM: Science for Society
An Invention of Nature themed book club at the FUTURE FORUM: Science for Society at the New York Academy of Sciences — a transatlantic US–German convening on public trust, science communication, and international collaboration. Andrea Wulf's biography of Alexander von Humboldt, the Prussian naturalist who traded ideas with Jefferson and was once the most famous scientist alive, is the original case study in science as a public, cross-border, society-shaping enterprise. Free; registration required.
FUTURE FORUM: Science for Society: Wednesday, Oct 21 · 6:30 PM–8:30 PM EDT — New York Academy of Sciences, New York, NY (venue details on registration)
Bygone Gothic Book Club: Dracula
A The Beetle themed book club crashing the Bygone Gothic Book Club with Jordan at McNally Jackson SoHo, where this month's text is Dracula. Richard Marsh's shape-shifting, gender-slipping 1897 horror novel came out the same year as Stoker's and outsold it for decades — the ideal shadow text for a night devoted to the ghosts, gays, and gargoyles of Victorian Gothic. RSVP here.
Bygone Gothic Book Club: Dracula: Wednesday, Oct 21 · 6:30 PM–8:00 PM EDT — McNally Jackson SoHo, 134 Prince St, New York, NY 10012
Vietnamese Boat People 2026 Story Slam
A Ru themed book club at the Vietnamese Boat People 2026 Story Slam, the 7th annual live storytelling night with Think!Chinatown at its Pike Street studio. Kim Thúy fled Vietnam by boat as a child and wrote this luminous fragment-novel in French — its title means 'lullaby' in Vietnamese and 'a small stream' in French, a book that literally lives between two languages, just like this year's theme of mistranslation, code-switching, and names that don't survive the crossing.
Vietnamese Boat People 2026 Story Slam: Wednesday, Oct 21 · 6:30 PM–8:00 PM EDT — Think!Chinatown Studio, 1 Pike St, New York, NY 10002
Phantom of the Opera w/ Live Organ Accompaniment
A Flicker themed book club at Phantom of the Opera w/ Live Organ Accompaniment at Stone Circle Theatre, a historic Ridgewood church — the 1925 Lon Chaney silent scored live by David Biko on a real church organ and Mike Nowotarski on guitar. Theodore Roszak's cult novel follows a film scholar who discovers sinister messages buried in the frames of a forgotten silent-era director, and will make you watch every flicker of the Phantom's unmasking twice.
Phantom of the Opera w/ Live Organ Accompaniment: Wednesday, Oct 21 · 7:00 PM–10:00 PM EDT — Stone Circle Theatre, Ridgewood, Queens, NY
NYC's Secrets and Lies: Transit Tales
A The Mole People themed book club at NYC's Secrets and Lies: Transit Tales at the New York Transit Museum — three true stories, one lie, and the audience has to find the fake. Jennifer Toth's 1993 account of communities living in the tunnels beneath New York became a bestseller and then one of the city's great debates over what was real and what was embellished: the perfect warmup for a game of spot-the-liar. (Currently sold out — check for returns.)
NYC's Secrets and Lies: Transit Tales: Thursday, Oct 22 · 6:00 PM–7:30 PM EDT — New York Transit Museum, 99 Schermerhorn St, Brooklyn, NY 11201
The City Speaks: An Interactive One-Man Show of New York Slang & Speech
A You Talkin' to Me?: The Unruly History of New York English themed book club at The City Speaks, an interactive one-man show of New York slang and speech from New York Adventure Club and Studio Dérive at the historic Henry Street Settlement. E.J. White traces how waves of immigrants built the city's famously stigmatized accent; Nic Reale then performs the Lower East Side's whole cast of voices and gets the audience talkin' too. Watch a preview. Second floor, no elevator.
The City Speaks: An Interactive One-Man Show of New York Slang & Speech: Thursday, Oct 22 · 6:00 PM–7:30 PM EDT — Henry Street Settlement, 265 Henry St, New York, NY 10002
Solder Your Own Gear: The Glitchy Video Mixer
A Handmade Electronic Music: The Art of Hardware Hacking themed book club at Solder Your Own Gear: The Glitchy Video Mixer, a hands-on workshop from Telepathy where Jonathan Sims teaches you to build Karl Klomp's classic Dirty Video Mixer (sync signals be damned). Nicolas Collins' beloved manual is the circuit-bender's bible: an open invitation to pick up a soldering iron, break things on purpose, and make art from the glitch. Materials included; you walk out with a working mixer.
Solder Your Own Gear: The Glitchy Video Mixer: Thursday, Oct 22 · 7:00 PM–10:00 PM EDT — The Active Space, 566 Johnson Ave, Brooklyn, NY
Startup Scaries
An Uncanny Valley themed book club haunting Startup Scaries, a Halloween takeover of Fonzi's Williamsburg office sponsored by Menlo Ventures and M13. Anna Wiener's eerie memoir of the startup monoculture is the right companion for a night with a Startup Graveyard, a Founder Mode mad science lab, a tarot reader, a DJ, and plenty of engineers and founders in costume. Drinks on the house; nightmares included.
Startup Scaries: Thursday, Oct 22 · 7:00 PM–11:00 PM EDT — 25 Kent Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11249
The Substrate of Extraction: Opening Reception and Performance
A The Mushroom at the End of the World themed book club at The Substrate of Extraction: A Bio Art Show, presented by Underground Art and Design and Mesh Art Center with WAN: Art & Tech Creators Global Network at the Old American Can Factory. Anna Tsing follows the matsutake — a mushroom that thrives in ruined forests and travels global supply chains to Japan — to ask what life grows in the wreckage of extraction, the same question these works pose through cells, mold, mealworms, plastics, and scent. Artists: Marina Lisa Komiya, Tsuyoshi Anzai, Shahira Hammad, William Takao Eliot, and Yan Shao; curated by Amy Xiaofan Jiang.
The Substrate of Extraction: Opening Reception and Performance: Friday, Oct 23 · 7:00 PM–9:00 PM EDT — The Old American Can Factory, Gallery C302, 232 3rd St, Brooklyn, NY 11215
The Substrate of Extraction: Artist Panel: Saturday, Oct 24 · 2:00 PM–4:30 PM EDT — The Old American Can Factory, Gallery C302, 232 3rd St, Brooklyn, NY 11215
Connectivity Through Cinema: Generational Traces – Trazos Generacionales
A The Man Who Could Move Clouds themed book club at Generational Traces – Trazos Generacionales, a Connectivity Through Cinema screening at Mono No Aware with Colombian-Finnish filmmaker Paola Fernanda Guzmán Figueroa in person and live sound by Theo af Enehielm. Ingrid Rojas Contreras' memoir of amnesia, migration, and a gift passed down through generations of Colombian women pairs beautifully with a film made from 16mm photograms of the artist's own hair, performances with her grandmother, mother, sister, and nieces, and the waterways that carried them. Free; limited to 40.
Connectivity Through Cinema: Generational Traces – Trazos Generacionales: Friday, Oct 23 · 7:00 PM–9:00 PM EDT — Mono No Aware, 33 Flatbush Ave, 3rd Floor Rear, Brooklyn, NY 11217
Toi, moi, Tituba… (US Premiere)
An I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem themed book club at the US premiere of Toi, moi, Tituba… by Dorothée Munyaneza & Kadidi Company at New York Live Arts, presented with BAM, L'Alliance New York's Crossing The Line, and Villa Albertine. Maryse Condé's novel gives the enslaved woman accused at Salem the voice history denied her; Munyaneza's 'collective solo,' built from Elsa Dorlin's essay on Condé's heroine and scored by Khyam Allami, uses the dancer's body as an archive to summon her back. Tickets from $30.
Toi, moi, Tituba… (US Premiere): Friday, Oct 23 · 7:30 PM–8:30 PM EDT — New York Live Arts, 219 W 19th St, New York, NY 10011
Toi, moi, Tituba… (US Premiere): Saturday, Oct 24 · 7:30 PM–8:30 PM EDT — New York Live Arts, 219 W 19th St, New York, NY 10011
Wetlab Look-ins
A Manahatta: A Natural History of New York City themed book club at Wetlab Look-ins, Hudson River Park's free research aquarium at Pier 40. Eric Sanderson reconstructs the island block by block as it was in 1609 — marshes, oyster reefs, and tidal creeks right where the pier now stands — before the River Project team introduces you to the oyster toadfish, lined seahorses, and blue crabs still living there, collected through the Park's Fish Ecology Survey. Can't make it? Browse the Virtual Wetlab.
Wetlab Look-ins: Saturday, Oct 24 · 11:00 AM–5:00 PM EDT — Pier 40, Hudson River Park, New York, NY
Museum on Wheels: Kensington — Día de los Muertos
A The Labyrinth of Solitude themed book club at Museum on Wheels: Kensington, where the Brooklyn Museum joins Casa Cultural for its 10th annual Día de los Muertos celebration — a puppet parade, dance, live music, face painting, sugar skull and marigold art making, and a communal ofrenda. Octavio Paz's essay 'The Day of the Dead' is the classic meditation on why Mexico laughs at, feasts with, and courts death rather than hiding from it. Free and outdoors, rain or shine; follow the Museum on Wheels route.
Museum on Wheels: Kensington — Día de los Muertos: Saturday, Oct 24 · 1:00 PM–6:00 PM EDT — Avenue C Plaza, 556 McDonald Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11218
The NYC Medieval Armored Combat Experience
A Flower of Battle themed book club at The NYC Medieval Armored Combat Experience, a New York Adventure Club × Gladiators NYC pop-up tournament beneath the Manhattan Bridge. Fiore dei Liberi's illustrated c. 1409 combat manual is the actual playbook for armored dueling — grapples, half-swording, and dagger work drawn panel by panel — so you can watch eight real-steel fighters and recognize the moves. Watch a preview. 21+, waiver required.
The NYC Medieval Armored Combat Experience: Saturday, Oct 24 · 2:00 PM–4:00 PM EDT — the Ground, 130 Madison St, New York, NY 10002
Shadow of the Unhinged
An Asylums themed book club at Shadow of the Unhinged, a Cantonese-language production (with Chinese and English subtitles) by the Four Seas Players, New York's Chinatown theater company since 1970, at Abrons Arts Center. Erving Goffman's 1961 study of 'total institutions' — the fieldwork that shaped the asylum stories that followed — explains exactly how a ward strips people of who they are, and why one rebel like Ng Ka-Kui terrifies the system so much.
Shadow of the Unhinged: Saturday, Oct 24 · 3:00 PM–5:00 PM EDT — Abrons Arts Center, Underground Theater, 466 Grand St, New York, NY 10002
Shadow of the Unhinged: Saturday, Oct 24 · 7:00 PM–9:00 PM EDT — Abrons Arts Center, Underground Theater, 466 Grand St, New York, NY 10002
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