What we’re about
Our mission is to foster feminist community in San Diego primarily via a shared love of books, but also through a shared love of movies, plays, speaker series, food, drink, and whatever other shared loves we discover. We're a social group open to people of all identities who consider themselves feminist and want to expand their feminist network and knowledge.
A $2-3 donation is requested at all of our events, but definitely not required. This group is a labor of love for me, and it's important to me that our events remain free and accessible to as many people as possible. That said, my time is valuable, and organizing is work, so if I collect any money over what is needed to pay the Meetup fees, I keep it. To pay me for the work I do here, you can give in person, or through PayPal or Venmo (@Jessica-Cole-100)
We also have a storefront at https://bookshop.org/shop/SDFBG.
San Diego Feminist Book Group was founded in January 2009 by Keely Hyslop. It has since been organized by Jess Reliford, Rainey Reitman, Angela Thelan, and Christine Grisham, before Jessica Cole took over organizing duties in July 2015. The following is its original description, written by Keely Hyslop, which still holds pretty true, though our ballots are pretty casual so I don't know that they can truly be called secret.
We will read promiscuously from a variety of feminist camps like 2nd wave, 3rd wave, pro-sex feminism, anti-porn feminism, Black feminism (or womanism as coined by Alice Walker), lesbian feminism, MTF/FTM transgender rights, riot grrrl movement, third world feminism, radical feminism, eco feminism, post-modernist feminism, women's suffrage, etc. We're going to look at feminism from a big picture perspective and then take a fine-tooth comb and look for the feminism that is hidden under a rock in the corner. No feminist subject will be taboo! The meetings will be a safe-space for open discussions of different viewpoints where everyone gets a fair chance to express their opinion and no one gets shouted down (unless they're using outright hate speech). Books will be selected democratically with a jury style discussion of book suggestions followed by a secret ballot, so think of a book or two you'd like the group to read and bring it up at the meeting.
Upcoming events (2)
See all- May 2025: The Comfort of CrowsLink visible for attendees
We'll meet on zoom. The zoom link will be posted closer to event date. We'll chat for 15-20 minutes to start, then get into the book. Around 3:15, we'll vote for future books, so please bring suggestions. Captioning and/or ASL interpreting can be arranged by request.
From goodreads:
In The Comfort of Crows, Margaret Renkl presents a literary devotional: fifty-two chapters that follow the creatures and plants in her backyard over the course of a year. As we move through the seasons—from a crow spied on New Year’s Day, its resourcefulness and sense of community setting a theme for the year, to the lingering bluebirds of December, revisiting the nest box they used in spring—what develops is a portrait of joy and grief: joy in the ongoing pleasures of the natural world, and grief over winters that end too soon and songbirds that grow fewer and fewer.Along the way, we also glimpse the changing rhythms of a human life. Grown children, unexpectedly home during the pandemic, prepare to depart once more. Birdsong and night-blooming flowers evoke generations past. The city and the country where Renkl raised her family transform a little more with each passing day. And the natural world, now in visible flux, requires every ounce of hope and commitment from the author—and from us. For, as Renkl writes, “radiant things are bursting forth in the darkest places, in the smallest nooks and deepest cracks of the hidden world.”
SDFBG currently costs the group moderator about $30/month to run, plus her time. It is free to attend, but if you would like to contribute monetarily, it would be appreciated. You can contribute directly through
Venmo: @Jessica-Cole-100
Paypal: paypal.me/SanDiegoFeminist
Shop at our bookstore. 10% of your purchase will support this group. https://bookshop.org/shop/SDFBG - June 2025: The House of the Spirits, by Isabel AllendeLink visible for attendees
We'll meet on zoom. The zoom link will be posted closer to event date. We'll chat for 15-20 minutes to start, then get into the book. Around 3:15, we'll vote for future books, so please bring suggestions. Captioning and/or ASL interpreting can be arranged by request.
From goodreads:
In one of the most important and beloved Latin American works of the twentieth century, Isabel Allende weaves a luminous tapestry of three generations of the Trueba family, revealing both triumphs and tragedies. Here is patriarch Esteban, whose wild desires and political machinations are tempered only by his love for his ethereal wife, Clara, a woman touched by an otherworldly hand. Their daughter, Blanca, whose forbidden love for a man Esteban has deemed unworthy infuriates her father, yet will produce his greatest joy: his granddaughter Alba, a beautiful, ambitious girl who will lead the family and their country into a revolutionary future. The House of the Spirits is an enthralling saga that spans decades and lives, twining the personal and the political into an epic novel of love, magic, and fate.SDFBG currently costs the group moderator about $30/month to run, plus her time. It is free to attend, but if you would like to contribute monetarily, it would be appreciated. You can contribute directly through
Venmo: @Jessica-Cole-100
Paypal: paypal.me/SanDiegoFeminist
Shop at our bookstore. 10% of your purchase will support this group. https://bookshop.org/shop/SDFBG
