Planners’ spirits are especially high this year, as the eighth annual Bay Area Book Festival gears up to bring nearly 100 events to indoor and outdoor stages throughout the coming weekend. That’s because the Berkeley-based literary extravaganza — the largest such festival in Northern California — is finally returning, after two pandemic-plagued years, to letting participating authors and their readers meet and greet in the flesh, at 11 different locations in the downtown area from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
