These are among the new titles with local themes or released by local writers, listed in alphabetical order by author names:
“Story Telling: A Writing Life” by Isabel Allende
Ballantine Books, 192 pages, $26 hardcover, Sept. 15, 2026
Bay Area legend Isabel Allende, born in Peru and raised in Chile, has sold more than 80 million copies of her novels (including “The House of the Spirits,” “Eva Luna,” “Daughter of Fortune,” “A Long Petal of the Sea” and “Violeta”) in 42 languages. In her new nonfiction title “Story Telling,” she calls writing not just a craft, but an addiction, “a means of preserving memory and a way to make sense of life.” In the memoir, she discusses how her stories take shape through intuition, discipline, connection to human experience, and understanding literature. Booklist says, “Allende’s uplifting examples, encouraging suggestions, and passion for writing, reading, and literature make this a gem not to be missed.” Allende, who has received 15 honorary doctorates, the PEN Center Lifetime Achievement Award and the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama, speaks about the new book at 7 p.m. Sept.15 at the Jewish Community Center in San Francisco and 11 a.m. Sept. 19 at Book Passage in Corte Madera.
“A Map to Murder: A Serial Killer Guide to San Francisco” by Michelle Chouinard
Minotaur Books, 320 pages, $19, Sept. 22, 2026
East Bay thriller writer Michelle Chouinard’s third volume of her popular Serial Killer Guide to San Francisco Mystery series, “A Map to Murder,” once again features true crime tour guide and serial killer aficionado Capri Sanzio, who hotfoots it across the city searching for clues in a cold case murder from the Summer of Love involving a woman who went missing while trying to solve her aunt’s murder. “Chouinard effortlessly evokes the ambience of hippie-era California, capturing both the buoyant idealism of the time and its savage underbelly,” says Publishers Weekly. In addition to her “Serial Killer’ novels, she has published nine mysteries under the name M. M. Chouinard. She appears at 2 p.m. Sept. 26 at Book Passage in San Francisco’s Ferry Building and at 7 p.m. Sept. 29 at Bookshop West Portal in San Francisco.
“Frenchman Flat: The Rise and Fall of Atomic Bombs” by Jon Else
Harvard University Press, 464 pages, $29.95, Sept. 8, 2026
Documentary filmmaker Jon Else, a professor emeritus in the University of California, Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, covers the origin and legacies of the nuclear bomb in “Frenchman Flat,” a reminder of the costs of nuclear testing. The book focuses on “Priscilla,” a 37-kiloton atomic bomb that was exploded above a custom-built mini town at Frenchman Flat, Nevada, in 1957. Greg Grandin, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “The End of the Myth,” says about the book, “From the blinding flash of Priscilla to the painstaking treaty negotiations that pulled the world from the brink, Else renders this history viscerally human.” Else, a MacArthur Fellow, two-time Oscar nominee and five-time Emmy winner, produced and directed the 1980 film about J. Robert Oppenheimer, “The Day After Trinity.” He speaks about his new book at 7 p.m. Sept. 8 at Mrs. Dalloway’s in Berkeley.
“In the Realm of the Last Man: A Memoir” by Francis Fukuyama
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 304 pages, $29, Sept. 8, 2026
Political theorist Francis Fukuyama, the Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies since 2010, brings longstanding observations of global politics to his memoir, “In the Realm of the Last Man,” in which he charts his own intellectual evolution and personal history. Covering everything from his studies at Cornell University to working in RAND Corporation’s Political Science Department and on the Policy Planning Staff of the U.S. Department of State, and more, Fukuyama reflects on his experiences and reevaluates some of his theories; he also includes his family’s story of internment during World War II. Publishers Weekly says, “Fukuyama offers a shrewd, provocative analysis of politics, society and intellectual currents in tart and lively prose. The result is a sharp overview of contemporary political discontents.” Fukuyama appears at 7 p.m. Sept. 21 at Kepler’s in Menlo Park.
“Hardly Strictly Bluegrass at 25: The Big Twang!” by Tricia Hellman Gibbs, Avery Hellman, Jay Blakesberg and Michael Shapiro
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, 288 pages, $80, September 2026
San Francisco’s beloved, massive free music festival celebrates a quarter century in Golden Gate Park through the lenses of Jay Blakesberg, prolific San Francisco photographer, filmmaker, public speaker and coffee table book publisher, and other local photographers, in “Hardly Strictly Bluegrass at 25: The Big Twang!” The volume includes interviews and essays capturing its sights and sounds through the years. Festival founder Warren Hellman, who died in 2011, was the father of contributor Tricia Hellman Gibbs, a participant in numerous festivals, and a physician and co-founder of the San Francisco Free Clinic, and grandfather of Avery Hellman, a nonbinary poet, alt-country musician and conservationist. Contributor Michael Shapiro is a veteran Bay Area journalist and author of the award-winning book “The Creative Spark.” The book’s makers appear at 4 p.m. Sept. 13 with a slide show and musical performances at Book Passage in Corte Madera in an event that also will stream.
“Still House in the Desert: An Eco-Contemplation” by Brenda Hillman
Wesleyan University Press, 200 pages, $28, Sept. 8, 2026
Bay Area poet Brenda Hillman, professor emerita of English at St. Mary’s College in Moraga, offers meditations on time, space, household objects and the lives of children, mothers and “non-human creatures” in her new poetry collection, “Still House in the Desert: An Eco-Contemplation.” A fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, she has published more than 10 collections of poetry; the last five of her books, including 2018’s “Extra Hidden Life, Among the Days,” focus on nature and utilize what she calls “woodmind,” or deep attention to natural processes as they apply to human action, recollection, imagination and craft. Poets & Writers has included Hillman on a list of Most Inspiring Authors in the World, stating that she “reminds us that the language we use when ordering a sandwich is also the language we use to make art. Her environmental concerns prove writers can offer more than just aesthetic pleasure.” Hillman launches her new book at 7 p.m. Sept. 10 at Pegasus Books Downtown in Berkeley; she appears with her husband, poet Robert Hass, at 7 p.m. Sept. 16 at City Lights in San Francisco; at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 16 at Book Passage in Corte Madera; and 4 p.m. Sept. 26 at Dance Palace in Point Reyes Station.
“Female Life on Planet Earth: A Novel” by Laleh Khadivi
HarperCollins, 240 pages, $28, Sept. 22, 2026
Oakland novelist Laleh Khadivi, a professor of writing at the University of San Francisco, won acclaim for her debut, 2009’s “The Age of Orphans.” Her new title, “Female Life on Planet Earth” is a darkly comic story of a daughter discovering her mother’s past. It’s about a Los Angeles woman who, after her mother’s death, receives an unmarked package containing photos of her mother as a young woman in Iran, robed and pointing a machine gun. A year later, she turns to women in her life to try to determine who her mother truly was. Novelist R. O. Kwon says, “As hilarious as it is profoundly moving, Khadivi’s multitudinous ‘Female Life on Planet Earth’ is so very wise about love and its intimate attendant, sorrow.” Khadivi, recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and Pushcart Prize, speaks about her book with poet/short story writer Preeti Vangani at 6 p.m. Sept. 27 at Mrs. Dalloway’s in Berkeley.
“Morning in Marin: Zen, Drugs and Ewoks on the California Coast” by David Perlis
Heyday, 384 pages, $32.69, Sept. 1, 2026
Longtime Marin resident and pop culture aficionado David Perlis pulls back the curtain on parties on Sausalito houseboats, communes in West Marin and the visionary people behind what become a global commercial empire and super cool place in “Morning in Marin,” his affectionate narrative history of his home county. Taking into account Zen thinkers, Beat poets, mystic feminists and psychedelic rockers, Perlis reveals how Marin took on a lasting American mythology. Perlis, a writer, musician, filmmaker and co-host for 10 years of the late-night talk show “Night People” on WFMU, speaks at 6 p.m. Sept. 1 at Book Passage in Corte Madera and 7 p.m. Sept. 3 at Mrs. Dalloway’s in Berkeley.
“Lotus Leadership: A Modern Playbook of Ancient Wisdom” by Kamini Ramani
Harper Business, 272 pages, $32, Sept. 22, 2026
Silicon Valley tech executive Kamini Ramani, former chief marketing officer at Mayfield Fund, a leading venture capital firm, highlights successful Indian women in American business in “Lotus Leadership,” a guide which draws from dozens of interviews. Ramani reveals how the women benefited using wisdom from their heritage, specifically Hindu goddesses, in approaches encouraging harmony, collective effort, calm and resilience. Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn co-founder, says, “I wish ‘Lotus Leadership’ had been around decades ago; it’s grounded in the best kind of wisdom: the kind that scales.” Ramani, a native of Bombay, India, attended Yale and Stanford universities, worked for four decades in technology marketing and is a founding member of the South Asian women’s network Neythri. She speaks at 7 p.m. Sept. 30 at Kepler’s in Menlo Park.
“Open the Floodgates” by Nina Schuyler
Reverberations Books, 224 pages, $23.25, Sept. 15, 2026
Marin author and writing instructor Nina Schuyler’s new novel “Open the Floodgates” is a work of environmental fiction with a magical spark. It’s a modern fable set in an unnamed California town at a time when rivers have been granted personhood. As one river goes on trial to defend itself, making its case in court against well-funded enemies that want to keep it a toxic dumping ground, townspeople begin to question humans’ interdependence with plants, animals and the Earth. Kate Folk, author of “Sky Daddy,” says, “With lyrical prose and vivid characters–human and non-human alike–Schuyler makes the fight to sustain the natural world feel urgent and intimate.” Schuyler, a multi-award winner for her 2024 short story collection “In this Ravishing World,” speaks about “Open the Floodgates” on Sept. 14 at Green Apple Books on the Park in ‘San Francisco; on Sept. 15 at Book Passage in Corte Madera; on Sept. 16 at Napa Bookmine; on Sept. 17 at Bookshop West Portal in San Francisco; on Sept. 22 at Towne Center Books in Pleasanton; on Sept. 28 at the Mill Valley Library and on Sept. 29 at Books Inc. in Palo Alto.
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