New books from San Francisco Bay Area authors, listed by release date.
New in Hardcover
The Lady and the Octopus
by Danna Staaf (San Jose)
(Carolrhoda Books, October 4)
A middle-grade biography of the pioneering female scientist Jeanne Villepreux-Power who invented aquariums and solved the mystery of argonaut octopuses.
Calling the Wind
Trudy Ludwig (author) & Kathryn Otoshi (illustrator, San Francisco)
(Knopf Books for Young Readers, October 4)
Explores the stages of grief, the healing power of hope, and the unbreakable family bonds that connect us all.
Living While Black
By Ajuan Mance (Oakland)
(Chronicle Books, October 25)
Celebrates the small acts of resistance that comprise the daily lives of Black folks by presenting them in a series of illustrations.
Seen and Unseen
By Elizabeth Partridge (Berkeley)
(Chronicle Books, October 25)
Images of the Japanese-American incarceration captured by photographers Dorothea Lange, Toyo Miyatake, and Ansel Adams, with firsthand accounts of this grave moment in history.
New in Paperback
Democracy of Fire
Susan Cohen (Berkeley)
(Broadstone Books, September 30)
Poems that emerged in the midst of the personal, political, and planetary fires we face.
Parenting with an Accent
by Masha Rumer (San Jose)
(Beacon Press, October 4)
How immigrants honor their heritage, navigate setbacks, and chart new paths for their children.
The Postmistress of Paris
by Meg Waite Clayton (Carmel-by-the-Sea)
(HarperPerennial, October 11)
A love story and a tale of high-stakes danger and incomparable courage about a young American heiress who helps artists hunted by the Nazis escape from war-torn Europe.
Orwell’s Roses
by Rebecca Solnit (San Francisco)
(Penguin, October 18)
A reflection on George Orwell’s passionate gardening and the way that his involvement with plants and the natural world illuminates his other commitments as a writer and antifascist, and the intertwined politics of nature and power.