These are among the new titles with local themes or released by local writers, listed in alphabetical order by author names:
“The Natural Order” by Matthew Aldrich
Atria Books, 352 pages, $29, Oct. 27, 2026
Northern California screenwriter Matthew Alrdrich’s debut novel “The Natural Order” introduces 122-year-old tech visionary Paul Whitmore, who devises a way to stop aging. The world’s wealthiest man starts each day with exercise and a proprietary nutritional drink on his secluded Marin property in a protocol known as the Method, which arrests the aging process. To stop him from bringing his discovery to market, his enemies threaten his estranged 85-year-old son, who lives in a nursing home and hasn’t spoken to his father in years. The novel, a page turner, asks: Is it ever too late to be a father? Is it ever too late to be a son? Aldrich, cowriter of Pixar’s Oscar-winning animated feature “Coco,” launches “The Natural Order” in conversation with Jason Headley, cowriter of Pixar’s “Lightyear” and “Onward,” at Mrs. Dalloway’s in Berkeley on Oct 27.
“Friends and Family” by Natalie Baszile
Pamela Dorman Books, 384 pages, $30, Oct. 6, 2026
Bay Area writer-filmmaker Natalie Baszile, author of “Queen Sugar,” which inspired the acclaimed TV series produced by Ava DuVernay and Oprah Winfrey, returns with “Friends and Family.” Named a Best Book of Fall 2026 by Oprah Daily, the novel explores community, friendship, privilege and race, as two friends–one Black, one white–must deal with conflicting views about their teen children that arise Says Booklist, “Baszile deftly employs San Francisco itself, with its staggering wealth disparities and craggy physical landscape, as both the setting and the perfect metaphor for the nuanced challenges even the closest friends and family face.” Baszile, whose nonfiction titles include “We Are Each Other’s Harvest: Celebrating African American Farmers, Land, and Legacy,” appears with writer Julia Scheeres at Kepler’s in Menlo Park on Oct. 6; in a Litquake program with director Cheryl Dunye at the San Francisco Main Library on Oct. 11; and with author-activist Julie-Lythcott-Haims at Rakestraw Books in Danville on Nov. 4.
“California Inside Out: Mapping an Ecology of Mind” by Obi Kaufmann
Heyday, 112 pages, $25.99, Oct. 6, 2026
East Bay environmentalist and painter-poet Obi Kaufmann in “California Inside Out: Mapping an Ecology of Mind” offers a new interpretation of the Golden State’s history through the lens of economic exploitation, destruction of land and attempts to erase Native histories. The pocket-size guide, which includes watercolor maps and illustrations, is a call to action in which Kaufmann asks pointed questions such as: What if a watershed can think? What if a forest has a mind of its own? Kaufmann, a longtime California resident and author of 2017’s The California Field Atlas,” 2019’s “The State of Water” and 2020’s “The Forests of California” launches “California Inside Out” at Bookshop West Portal in San Francisco on Oct. 6 and at Copperfield’s in Santa Rosa on Oct 8.
“The Girl Who Became King: A Memoir” by Melissa King
The Dial Press, 336 pages, $30, Oct. 6, 2026
San Francisco chef-TV personality Melissa King, winner of Bravo’s “Top Chef: All Stars L.A.” and 2026 James Beard Award winner for “Cook Like a King: Recipes from My California Chinese Kitchen” shares her life stories in her new memoir “The Girl Who Became King.” The book dives into her experiences with family, food and finding her voice as a queer Chinese American chef: “Embracing my love of food has empowered me to embrace every layer of who I am,” King says. The Shanghainese Cantonese American and LGBTQ activist who grew up in Los Angeles’ San Gabriel Valley appears at Williams Sonoma in Palo Alto on Oct. 10; Book Passage in San Francisco’s Ferry Building on Oct. 11; and the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on Nov. 5.
“The Cosmos and Me: New and Selected Poems” by Lucille Lang Day
Trio House Press, 374 pages, $24.99, Oct. 1, 2026
Bay Area author-editor Lucille Lang Day’s new poetry collection “The Cosmos and Me” explores the vast universe alongside everyday persons, places and things. She delves into issues of existence, wonder, justice and love, her Wampanoag heritage underlying the poems’ powerful themes. Denise Low, former Kansas poet laureate and author of “House of Grace, House of Blood,” says of “The Cosmos and Me”: “The effect is to have a deep conversation with the entire lifetime of this important poet in a way that renews wonder.” In addition to poetry, Lang Day is the author of children’s books and the memoir, “Married at Fourteen: A True Story.” A winner of the 2013 PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Literary Award and a finalist for the 2013 Northern California Book Award in Creative Nonfiction, Lang Day appears with Low at Mrs. Dalloway’s in Berkeley on Oct. 1.
“Blockers: Rebels in the Deep State” by Michael Lewis
W. W. Norton & Company, 256 pages, $29.99, Oct. 6, 2026
Best-selling Berkeley author Michael Lewis, in “Blockers: Rebels in the Deep State,” investigates the early days of Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency through the eyes of public workers who were “blockers” or holdovers, people who thought they were making valuable contributions to society only to discover they were no longer wanted. Lewis’ subjects include a data worker dealing with sensitive tax information, a compliance officer; a wildfire specialist; a scientist; and even a security guard. Lewis, author of popular books-into-films “Moneyball,” “The Blind Side” and “The Big Short” and creator and host of the podcast “Against the Rules,” discusses “Blockers” with University of San Francisco law professor Lara Bazelon in a City Arts & Lectures event at Sydney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco on Oct. 30.
“The Wall Is Also a Road” by Annalee Newitz
Tor Books, 304 pages, $28.99, Oct. 6, 2026
San Francisco journalist and science fiction writer Annalee Newitz, author of the “Automatic Noodle,” explores a far-out world in “The Wall Is Also a Road” in which an alien student (and slime mold!) named Gardenpath goes on an adventure driven by the pursuit of high-level academic achievement. CB Lee, author of “Coffeeshop in an Alternate Universe,” calls the book “All at once a beautiful cluster of navigating the perils and pitfalls of academia and scientific ambition, a sweet romance on finding love amidst the stars and oneself, and a rollicking good ride into space and our own history.” Newitz, also author of “Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age” and “Stories Are Weapons: Psychological Warfare and the American Mind,” appears with Bay Area horror writer M.M. Olivas at Green Apple Books on the Park in San Francisco on Oct. 6.
“How to Exi(s)t: A Poet’s Memoir” by Truong Tran
City Lights, 240 pages, $11.87, Oct. 20, 2026
Award-winning San Francisco poet, visual artist and teacher Truong Tran experiments with nonlinear autobiography in the new memoir “How to Exist,” a collection of poetic essays which begins in the present at a writing residency and moves back and forth in time. Tran asks: How does a poet separate himself from the academic career, and what does being a teacher mean? Esmé Weijun Wang, author of “The Collected Schizophrenias,” calls the book “a gift of a collection; a marvel of words” and says, “To read it felt like sitting at a noodle house with a friend I’ve just met, and one I’ve known forever, listening to story after story until the lights go out and the owner tells us that we must be on our way.” Tran, winner of the American Book award for his 2021 poetry project “Book of the Other: Small in Comparison” and instructor at Northeastern University in Oakland, launches the memoir at City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco on Oct. 18 and appears with Wang at Pegasus in downtown Berkeley on Nov. 4.
“Murder at Hotel Gloriosa” by Victoria Zackheim
Level Best Books, 226 pages, $17.95, Sept. 15, 2026
Bay Area writer Victoria Zackheim’s “Murder at Hotel Gloriosa,” the second title in her mystery series featuring American journalist Aria Nevins and French homicide inspector Noah Roche (following 2025’s “The Curtain Falls in Paris”) takes readers to the high desert of New Mexico near the Navajo Nation and a remote hotel hosting an international conference for homicide investigators and forensic experts. The pair arrives to find a much-disliked Chicago detective with a bullet hole in his forehead in their suite, and Noah is named a suspect. Zackheim, a San Francisco Library Laureate, also penned 2001’s historical novel “The Bone Weaver” and was chosen to complete “Death Times Seven,” the final title in her friend Anne Perry’s Daniel Pitt mystery series.
“Heirs of Infamy” by Kyla Zhao
G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 352 pages, $19, Oct. 13, 2026
Silicon Valley author Kyla Zhao, known for books about women and girls of color who challenge stereotypes, follows proteges from rival gangs in 1940s San Francisco’s Chinatown in her new young adult title “Heirs of Infamy.” Zhao’s debut historical novel centers on teens who form an uneasy alliance in hopes of pulling off a dangerous heist; Xiran Jay Zhao, author of “Iron Widow,” calls it “a lush, gripping story of navigating a violent heritage borne by life on the margins and making one’s own destiny.” Zhao, a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree and Stanford University graduate who lectures on bridging science, technology, engineering and mathematics with the arts and using storytelling as a tool for empowerment, also is author of the middle grade novel “May the Best Player Win” and adult novels “The Fraud Squad” and “Valley Verified.”