There are among the new titles released by Bay Area and Northern California writers, listed in alphabetical order by author names:
“Muddy the Water” by Matt Barrows and Jessica Barrows Beebe
Koehler Books, 258 pages, $27.95 hardcover, $19.95 paper, Jan. 28, 2025
The suspenseful atmospheric thriller set in South Carolina’s Low Country is the debut novel from a senior writer for the sports website The Athletic who has covered the San Francisco 49ers for decades, and his sister, a former journalist and current Burlingame resident. The story, in which a psychopathic killer assumes the identity of his victim, is told from three perspectives: the criminal, a detective and a reporter from a struggling small newspaper. “We wanted to be as authentic as possible when it comes to the expectations and challenges for someone just starting a career as a journalist,” Jessica Barrows Beebe says. “We also treated the book as if we were researching a newspaper story–interviewing experts on everything from autopsies to aquatic biology.” Her brother counters, “Sure, this book is about newspapers and identity. But it’s also a lively detective story, not so much a whodunit but a will-he-get-away-with-it.”
Barrows and Beebe appear at 1 p.m. Jan. 31 at Barnes & Noble, 1232 Burlingame Ave., Burlingame.
Tara Dorabji (screenshot dorabjo.com)
“Call Her Freedom” by Tara Dorabji
Simon & Schuster, 320 pages, $28.99, Jan. 28, 2025
The debut novel from the San Francisco activist, entrepreneur and filmmaker (of “Here, Still,” an award-winning short documentary about human rights violations in Kashmir) is the grand-prize winner of Simon & Schuster’s Book Like Us competition, which promotes diversity and brings visibility to underrepresented writers. Dorabji, the daughter of Parsi-Indian and German- Italian immigrants, has written a sweeping a love story set in a Himalayan village that spans from 1969 to 2022, detailing a woman’s struggle to protect her culture and family amid a military occupation. Kirkus Reviews called it “a compassionate account of endurance” and Publishers Weekly said, “Book clubs will enjoy this character-driven drama.”
Dorabji appears at 5:30 p.m. Jan. 22 at Book Passage, 1 Ferry Building, San Francisco and 6:30 p.m. Feb. 5 at the Mill Valley Public Library, 375 Throckmorton Ave., Mill Valley.
“The Way” by Cary Groner
Spiegel & Grau, 304 pages, Dec. 3, 2024
The Bay Area short story writer and former Writing Salon teacher’s new novel (following 2011’s “Exile”) is a dystopian adventure in which a former caretaker of a Buddhist monestary in Colorado journeys to California, if it still exists, to find a scientist who has the cure to the virus that has decimated the landscape. The story, set in 2048, also involves a raven, a feline and a tough teen girl. Publisher’s Weekly said the book’s “cinematic action … reinvigorates an overworked genre.” The author’s website’s book club section for the novel has recipes for wild chicken soup, ginger and lemon tea and a playlist including four songs by Joni Mitchell, two by Leonard Cohen and Erik Satie’s “Gymnopedies.”
Groner appears at 4 p.m. Jan. 12 at Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista Blvd., Corte Madera and 4 p.m. Jan. 18 at Orinda Books, 276 Village Square, Orinda.
“Too Soon” by Betty Shamieh
Simon & Schuster, 336 pages, $28.99, Jan. 28, 2025
The Palestinian American playwright and San Francisco resident’s debut novel is an often-humorous family saga that moves from war-torn Jaffa in 1948, to Detroit and San Francisco in the 1960s-70s to the New York theater scene post-9/11 and to Palestine in 2012. It describes the travails of a single 35-year-old New York theater director who goes to the West Bank to direct a risqué interpretation of Shakespeare classic, and her mother and grandmother’s matchmaking plot to hook her up with a Palestinian American doctor volunteering in Gaza. Oprah Daily called it “wonderfully brash and sparkling” and “funny, sexy and often furious” as it fills in “gaps in our understanding.”
Shamieh appears at 7 p.m. Jan. 28 at Kepler’s Books, 1010 El Camino Real, Menlo Park.
“Song of a Blackbird” by Maria van Lieshout
First Second Books, 256 pages, $17.99, Jan. 21, 2025
The graphic novel for young adults is fiction but stems from real events in the life of ancestors of the Amsterdam-born author and illustrator, now a San Francisco resident. The saga is both a modern-day family drama and a World War II-era heist. The author was inspired to write it after discovering documents written by her deceased grandparents about their experiences during the Nazi occupation; the papers detailed how a group of artists helped pull off a huge bank heist to fund the Dutch Resistance right under the noses of the Nazis. Van Lieshout says her book’s themes include using the power of art to fight hate and how art and stories can fight hate and division in today’s world. School Library Journal calls it “touching, gripping and heartbreaking.”
Van Lieshout appears at 7 p.m. Jan. 23 at Books Inc., 1344 Park St., Alameda and 7 p.m. Jan. 28 at Mrs. Dalloway’s Bookstore, 2904 College Ave., Berkeley.
The post Bay City Books: New books from Bay Area authors – January 2025 appeared first on Local News Matters.