These are among the new titles with local themes or released by local writers, listed in alphabetical order by author names:
“How to Live a Meaningful Life: Using Design Thinking to Unlock Purpose, Joy, and Flow Every Day” by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans
Simon & Schuster, 242 pages, $19 paperback, Feb. 3, 2026
Stanford University instructors Bill Burnett and Dave Evans, co-founders of The Life Design Lab at Stanford—which offers courses and conducts research applying principles of “design thinking” to tackling challenges in education, life and work — have written an addendum to 2016’s bestselling “Designing Your Life.” In the new book, they respond to readers seeking more than simply guidance, but greater fulfillment. “How to Live a Meaningful Life: Using Design Thinking to Unlock Purpose, Joy, and Flow Every Day” is for people, even those who are successful, who feel stuck, who feel like something is missing in their lives. Relying on scientific research, the authors provide actionable ideas with their signature warmth and humor. Burnett is also an adjunct professor in mechanical engineering and design at Stanford; Evans is an adjunct lecturer and cofounder of Electronic Arts. The authors discuss the book at 7 p.m. Feb. 3 in a ticketed ($17-$23) event at Kepler’s Books in Menlo Park.
“Bloodfire, Baby” by Eirinie Carson
Dutton, 304 pages, $30 hardcover, Feb. 17, 2026
British-born Petaluma author Eirinie Carson’s notable 2023 memoir “The Dead Are Gods,” which dealt elegantly with the loss of her best friend, won praise from Oprah Daily and The Washington Post. Carson, who has a monthly column in the Petaluma Argus-Courier, is on the board of San Francisco’s Writers Grotto and has contributed to Mother Magazine, addresses motherhood in her debut novel “Bloodfire, Baby.” It’s a gothic tale in which a new mom’s postpartum reality is “overtaken by an ominous figure.” Sleep-deprived and overwhelmed, she learns about a haunting that has plagued the eldest daughters in her family for generations. Oakland novelist Margaret Wilkerson Sexton, author of “On the Rooftop,” calls “Bloodfire, Baby” the “most nuanced examination of postpartum I have ever read” and a book that is “propulsive as it is illuminating” with “expert pacing, exquisite language, depth and scope.” She calls Carson “a refreshing and essential new voice in contemporary fiction.” Carson appears in conversation with writer-scholar Savala Nolan at 7 p.m. Feb. 20 at Copperfield’s Books in Petaluma.
“Restrung: Fatherhood in a Different Key” by Matt Fogelson
Spark Press, 304 pages, $17.99 paperback, Feb. 3, 2026
Oakland writer Matt Fogelson, a former attorney, was raised in Greenwich Village and is an admitted classic rock music junkie who blogs about his passion. On his website, he says, “Truth be told, the most powerful moments in my life are defined not so much by personal interactions, but by specific tracks, albums and performances.” In his debut memoir, he weaves music through a tale of fatherhood as he comes to grips with his workaholic father’s early death and aims to create a better relationship with his own son. Hilary Zaid, East Bay author of “Paper Is White” and “Forget I Told You This,” calls “Restrung” a “Gen X tender and gritty anthem to a life in love with rock ‘n’ roll’ which throbs with the bassline of what it means to become a man.” Fogelson appears with Sophie Bearman, host of The Standard’s podcast “Life in Seven Songs,” at 11 a.m. Feb. 7 at Book Passage in Corte Madera.
“Bridget’s Gambit: A Saga of Family Enterprise in Gold Rush California” by Craig S. Harwood
University of Oklahoma Press, 212 pages, $39.95 hardcover, Feb.10, 2026
Santa Cruz author Craig S. Harwood, an engineering geologist with more than 35 years of consulting experience throughout coastal California, also is an expert in California history. The co-author of “Quest for Flight: John J. Montgomery and the Dawn of Aviation in the West” has a new, highly researched book in volume four of the University of Oklahoma Press’ Women of the West series. It describes the life of his ancestor Bridget Miranda Evoy, who left Ireland for America in 1828 to find herself widowed within two years and raising five children. She made her way to Northern California in the Gold Rush days and with her daughters found success in the patriarchal world of business, leading numerous financial enterprises. Harwood provides a detailed depiction of Evoy’s dangerous overland crossing in the winter of 1849 and discusses her efforts to build an empire as a woman in the Victorian Era. “This story of family enterprise in California challenges the Western myth of individualism,” says Dee Garceau, author of “The Important Things of Life: Women, Work, and Family in Sweetwater County, Wyoming, 1880–1929.”
“Descent in Five (motions)” by Tobey Hiller
Harry K. Stammer Publishing, 101 pages, $10 paperback, Jan. 3, 2026
Berkeley’s Tobey Hiller, a former teacher, consultant and therapist, writes poetry, fiction and flash. She is the author of four books of poetry, a novel, a collection of what she calls “fabulist tales” as well as many flash, fiction and poems published online and in journals and magazines. While her 2020 poetry collection “Crow Mind” explored the relationship between humans and the birds that visited her backyard, the stories in her new “Descent in Five (motions)” conduct the reader through dreams, myths and meditative states, focusing on the idea of escaping using one’s wits. In one sweet story, a couple makes homemade potato chips (recipe included). In a more frightening tale, a woman makes a deal with a kidnapper that reflects the phases of the moon. Hiller also creatively retells Persephone’s story by blurring the lines between fiction and reality. Mary McLaughlin Slechta, author of “Mulberry Street Stories,” says, Hiller’s creativity blooms wildly “in the trembling gap between stories and lies.”
“Her Womanhood of Mine” by Haley Smith Hutchinson
Green Writers Press, 102 pages, $16.95 paperback, Feb. 2, 2026
San Francisco poet Haley Hutchinson, originally from the Mendocino Coast, is editor-in-chief at Write Bloody Publishing, which focuses on poetry. Her poems have been featured in Mendocino Women Poets Anthology, Berkeley Poetry Review and Gather, and in her new first collection, “Her Womanhood of Mine.” In the volume, Hutchinson, who earned a bachelor’s degree in creative writing and psychology from Middlebury College, explores concepts of girlhood and coming into oneself by sharing familiar and unusual experiences and examining intricacies of relationships. Poet Michelle Latvala, author of the collection “Between Latitudes,” says, “Haley Hutchinson’s poems freshen the mind and ripen the heart. … [they] invite us to live deeply with Hutchinson as she creates worlds that become both done and undone, emerging in the hard-won shape of a woman’s life.” Hutchinson appears with Latvala at 7 p.m. Feb. 11 at Green Apple Books in San Francisco.
“The Oxford Affair” by Lynne Kaufman
Measure Publishing, 320 pages, $17.99 paperback, Feb. 24, 2026
Multi-award-winning San Francisco teacher and writer Lynne Kaufman is the author of “Slow Hands,” “Wild Women’s Weekend,” “Taking Flight” and “Divine Madness” as well 20 full-length nationally produced plays. Her 2019 solo show “Who Killed Sylvia Plath?” featuring actress Lorri Holt at The Marsh in San Francisco and Berkeley earned rave reviews. Her new, fifth novel “The Oxford Affair” is a murder mystery and romance set in academia. When Susan Klein arrives at the University of Oxford to direct a summer school course, she’s greeted by a floating corpse, the former college bursar, in the Thames. Also on hand is Nelson Sinclair, a prospective donor to the college, who’s facing attempts on his life. The two work together to solve the crime. Kaufman apparently knows of what she speaks (hopefully not the murder part!) in the new book. She ran the Oxford/Berkeley Summer School for 25 years.
“Brenda Barker’s Next Chapter” by Wendy Tokunaga
Blyden Square Books, 318 pages, $16 paperback, Feb. 2, 2026
Half Moon Bay’s Wendy Tokunaga is the author of “Midori by Moonlight,” “Love in Translation,” “Falling Uphill,” “His Wife and Daughters” and the self-published novel “No Kidding,” which received a Writer’s Digest award. Tokunaga, who has a master of fine arts degree in writing from University of San Francisco and offers fiction writing tutorials online, explores the delights of women’s friendship in her new book “Brenda Barker’s Next Chapter.” Its protagonist, an empty nester whose husband left her, enters a new chapter of life at 64. Despite hearing from a so-called expert that she has no skills or talent, Brenda heads to a coveted writing conference in California’s wine country, where drama, and comedy, begin. Michelle Richmond, author of “The Marriage Pact,” calls Tokunaga’s new book “a delightful satire of the world of writers’ conferences—packed with literary hopes, dashed dreams, writers behaving badly and good pinot,“ adding, “It’s also a compelling story of finding one’s voice, and some romance to boot, well past middle age.”