Join us for an evening with Emily Weinstein and Laurel Braitman as they discuss Emily's new book Turn to Stone. Light refreshments will be served and copies of the book will be available for purchase and signing.
Broken by an abusive relationship, Emily Meg Weinstein impulsively tries rock climbing on a California road trip, following strangers into the vertical world. Soon, she is consumed by her addiction to the freedom she feels when she’s up on the wall. Holding on to the rocks, she is free from societal constraints and expectations, free from her own sorrows and longings.
Raw and dark, but also funny, Weinstein describes the steep learning curve of becoming a climber, spending weeks at a time sleeping in the back of her Subaru, and a long, dark night stuck on top of a mountain. As she ascends, Weinstein faces her demons, finding power and grace in risk and adventure. Like Cheryl Strayed’s Wild, but in the vertical, or William Finnegan’s Barbarian Days, if lived by a Jewish woman from Long Island, Turn to Stone tells the story of a journey into nature that becomes a crucible of self-discovery.
Against a tapestry of van-dwellers, anarchists, and Jedi-like Stonemasters, Weinstein explores a world where each leap of faith is an existential lesson. From living on the edge, stepping into the unknown, and falling through thin air, Emily learns to forgive her own failures, heal her deepest wounds, and find courage in the face of fear. Throwing herself at walls of stone, she learns what it means to be human. Fitting her body into the rocks’ broken places, she makes herself whole.
Emily Meg Weinstein is the author of Turn to Stone, her début memoir. An essayist, educator, and activist, Weinstein is a founding member of Climbers for Palestine California and the sole proprietor of her own tutoring company. She holds a Bachelorette of Arts with honors from Brown University in the self-created major "Human Freedom and Education." Her work has been featured in Orion, Literary Hub, Electric Literature, Salon, McSweeney’s, The Rumpus, Longreads, Climbing, Rock and Ice, and other publications, and her essay, “Mating Habits of the Asterisk,” received a notable mention in Best American Essays 2015. Born in New York and raised in Queens and Long Island, Emily lives, writes, and teaches on a houseboat in the San Francisco Bay, roams in her minivan, and roots for the New York Mets.
Laurel Braitman is a New York Times bestselling author, professor and rancher whose work explores the emotional lives of humans and other animals. She is the Director of Writing and Storytelling at the Stanford School of Medicine, author of the memoir What Looks Like Bravery (Simon & Schuster, 2023) and the popular science book Animal Madness: Inside their minds (Simon & Schuster, 2016). She holds a PhD in Science, Technology and Society from MIT and is the founder of Writing Medicine, a global community of writing healthcare professionals. Her work has been featured on the BBC, NPR, Good Morning America and Al Jazeera. Her writing has appeared in The Guardian, on Radiolab, in The Wall Street Journal, Wired, National Geographic and other publications. She splits her time between Ventura County, CA and the Alaskan wilderness where her husband runs a wild salmon cannery. In high school, in the mid 1990s, she was a subpar employee at Patagonia Ventura.
Timbre Books is an independent neighborhood bookstore in Ventura, California with a passion for the magic of stories and the written word. They strive to create a warm, welcoming space where people can discover, share, and celebrate books. The shop curates an intentional and diverse selection of titles, fosters community through book clubs and events, and champions the idea that every story has its own voice and impact. Rooted in a love of literature, Timbre Books inspires connection, conversation, and curiosity among readers of all ages.
