New books, from Bay Area and Northern California authors, listed by release date.
Portrait in Red: A Paris Obsession
By L. John Harris (Berkeley)
Heyday Books, Nov. 5, 2024
Berkeley food writer L. John Harris went to Paris to write about the croque monsieur sandwich but got waylaid when he found a mysterious painting of a young girl in a red hat on the street. It was unfinished and unsigned but was dated January 12, 1935. The discovery led Harris on a decades-long quest to learn more about the piece of art, the artist, and the subject. Portrait In Red: A Paris Obsession, is the story of Harris’ search for answers and his encounters with art appraisers, psychics, string theorists, and Russian painters and others along the way.
The Teller of Small Fortunes
By Julie Leong (San Francisco)
Ace Books, Nov. 5, 2024
Tao tells fortunes, but only small ones like whether it will hail next week or when the cow will calve. As a wandering fortune teller who goes from town to town, she knows from bitter experience that telling big truths can lead to unhappiness. But soon Tao finds that a small fortune spins into something larger. She will need to rely on her new companions — a reformed thief, an ex-mercenary recruit, a baker and slightly magical cat — to locate a missing child. The Teller of Small Fortunes is Julie Leong’s debut fantasy fairytale.
The Coit Tower Murals: New Deal Art and Political Controversy in San Francisco
By Robert W. Cherny (San Francisco)
University of Illinois Press, Nov. 12, 2024
The Depression-era murals that adorn the interior of Coit Tower are some of San Francisco’s most beloved landmarks. The history of their creation and the backlash that ensued when one artist painted a Communist hammer and sickle is the subject of Robert Cherny’s book, The Coit Tower Murals: New Deal Art and Political Controversy in San Francisco. Cherny, a San Francisco State history professor emeritus, has written extensively about the labor and Communist movements in the Bay Area in the 1930s, and he points out how San Francisco’s 1934 general strike heightened tensions that contributed to the controversy. The book has 60 full-color photographs, including ones that show Diego Rivera and other artists at work.
Call Me Carmela
By Ellen Kirshman (Redwood City)
Open Road Media, Nov. 26, 2024
Ellen Kirshman has written five novels featuring Dot Meyerhoff, a police psychologist who treats first responders suffering from stress. It’s a profession that the Redwood City writer has practiced (as a lay person) in real life. In the psychological thriller Call Me Carmela, Meyerhoff helps an adopted teenager locate her birth parents. Soon Meyerhoff stumbles into the murky world of illegal adoptions. The more she probes and the closer she comes to uncovering some dark family secrets.
Sundown in San Ojuela
By M. M. Olivas (Dublin)
Lanternfish Press, Nov. 19, 2024
M.M. Olivas’s website describes her debut novel, Sundown in San Ojuela, as “a gothic spaghetti western that follows Aztec Vampires in California’s Inland Empire.” It features Liz Remolina, who goes back to San Ojuela with her sister Mary after her aunt dies. Liz doesn’t like returning to the isolated desert town. She got into a terrible accident there when she was a child. It left her clairvoyant, seeing wraiths and ghosts. When she returns, Liz realizes that monsters and ancient gods stalk the night. She must grapple with her past to make peace with a dark family history.
The post Bay City Books: New Books from Bay Area Authors – November 2024 appeared first on Local News Matters.