Bay City Books: New Books from Bay Area Authors – September 2022

On the Rooftop

By Margaret Wilkerson Sexton (Oakland)
(Ecco, September 6)

A mother whose dream of musical stardom for her three daughters collides with the daughters’ ambitions for their own lives in gentrifying 1950s San Francisco.

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Mark Bergen (San Francisco)
(Viking, September 6)

An inside look at the chaotic rise of YouTube, the company that upended media, culture, industry, and democracy.

Slouching Towards Utopia

by  J. Bradford DeLong (Berkeley)
(Basic Books, September 6)

An economic history of the 20th century, which made us richer than ever, yet left us unsatisfied.

Wise Gals

By Nathalia Holt (Pleasanton)
(Putnam, Sept 13)

The story of a small cadre of influential female spies who helped create the template for cutting-edge espionage in the precarious early days of the CIA.

Shark Princess

by Nidhi Chanani (East Bay)
(Viking Books for Young Readers; September 13)

Meet Kitana–a Shark Princess and the first of her kind. Her allergy-ridden, best friend, Mack, wants to be one too, but he worries that his sharp teeth and big sneezes make him too dangerous to be a princess.

The House Party

by Rita Cameron (San Jose)
(William Morrow; September 13)

When a house party goes terribly wrong, a suburban town fractures, exposing disturbing truths about the community.

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By Annie Barrows (Berkeley)
(Chronicle Books, September 20)

A picture book sequence of compare-and-contrasts that show how humans are much more like each other than we are different.

Jo Bright and the Seven Bots

By Deborah Underwood (San Francisco)
(Chronicle Books, September 20)

In this futuristic retelling of Snow White, a bot-building princess engineers her own happy ending.

MapMaker

By Lisa Moore Ramée (East Bay)
(Balzer + Bray, September 20)

A Black boy has the magical ability to bring maps to life.

Illustrated Black History

by George McCalman (San Francisco)
(HarperOne; September 27)

145 original portraits celebrating Black pioneers—famous and little-known, in politics, science, literature, music, and more—with biographical reflections.

Captive of the Labyrinth

by Mary Jo Ignoffo (Santa Clara)
(University of Missouri; September 5th)

A reissued biography to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the death of rifle heiress Sarah L. Winchester in 1922.

Year of the Tiger: An Activist’s Life

by Alice Wong (San Francisco)
(Vintage, September 6)

A memoir in essays offers a glimpse into an activist’s journey to finding and cultivating community and the continued fight for disability justice.

The Archer

Shruti Swarmy (San Francisco)
Algonquin (August 9)

A young woman comes of age in 1960s- and 1970s-era Bombay.

All the Tiny Beauties

Jenn Scott (Oakland)
(Acre Books, September 19)

Five characters living in Oakland confront the many ways they’ve failed themselves and others.