These are among the new titles with local themes or released by local writers, listed in alphabetical order by author names:
“My Mother’s Daughter: Finding Myself in My Family’s Fractured Past” by Tracy Clark-Flory
Gallery Books, 288 pages, $29, May 5, 2026
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San Francisco journalist Tracy Clark-Flory, author of “Want Me: A Sex Writer’s Journey into the Heart of Desire,” an NPR Best Book of the Year, dives into her family’s history in “My Mother’s Daughter,” her memoir detailing her search for the sister her mother gave up. At the same time, her story addresses issues around adoption, racism and women’s roles.
Rebecca Traister, author of “Good and Mad” and “All the Single Ladies,” says, ” ‘My Mother’s Daughter’ isn’t a mystery, but it reads a little like one, as Tracy Clark-Flory deftly peels back layer after layer of her own family’s story, laying bare much about this country’s history, as well as its relationship to sex, shame, women, race, and the durability of love itself.”
Clark-Flory appears with essayist and scholar Savala Nolan at 7 p.m. May 14 at Green Apple Books, 1231 Ninth Ave., San Francisco.
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“Homebound: A Novel” by Portia Elan
Scribner, 304 pages, $28, May 5, 2026
Bay Area writer Portia Elan, a former librarian and teacher, tells the story of Becks, a 19-year-old programmer who mourns the loss of her beloved late uncle and sets out to complete his half-finished computer game in “Homebound,” her debut novel. Becks’ adventures take her across time (from the 1980s to 2590) and place as she searches for connection.
Madeline Miller, author of “Circe,” calls “Homebound” a “joy–at once a gripping mystery that confidently spans centuries and a hauntingly beautiful exploration of what makes us human.”
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Elan, who earned an master of fine arts degree from the University of Victoria, British Columbia and studied history at Stanford University, is a former Lambda Literary Fellow for Emerging LGBTQ Voices. Elan appears at 7 p.m. May 6 at the San Francisco Jewish Community Center.
“Girl in a Box: A Novel” by Jean Gordon Kocienda
Sibylline Press, 360 pages, $21, April 21, 2026
Marin author Jean Gordon Kocienda, a former intelligence officer and Silicon Valley geopolitical analyst, investigates the female artist’s challenge for freedom in the face of expected gender roles in “Girl in a Box.” The novel is based on the life of poet Yosano Akiko (1878-1942), known as the first person to translate the classical “Tale of Genji” into modern Japanese. Kocienda portrays Akiko as a precocious young woman who perseveres through poverty, pregnancies and natural disasters to become a feminist poet; the character sets out to reconnect with a daughter she left behind.
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Mia Kankimaki, author of “The Women I Think About at Night,” calls “Girl in a Box” a page-turner, saying, “It was pure delight to absorb myself in the life of this extraordinary woman and poet.” Kocienda, president of the California Writers Club Marin Chapter, has lived in Japan and speaks Japanese. Her novel includes translations of Akiko’s poetry.
Kocienda appears at 3 p.m. May 8 at Marin Art and Garden Center in Ross and at 2 p.m. May 17 at Books Inc., 1875 S. Bascom Ave., Campbell.
“Young King: The Making of Martin Luther King Jr.” by Lerone A. Martin
Amistad, 432 pages, $27.20, May 5, 2026
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Lerone A. Martin, the Martin Luther King Jr. Centennial Professor in Religious Studies and Director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University, explores the civil rights leader’s early days as “Little Mike” and his encounters with racism in “Young King.” As the volume follows King’s path from the Auburn Avenue Library in Atlanta, to Morehouse College, to his activist days, it includes little-known early photos of the American hero.
Describing “Young King,” Henry Louis Gates Jr. says Martin “puts to rest the persistent myth that Martin Luther King Jr.’s life was a predestined, divinely ordained climb toward civil rights leadership and martyrdom,” and calls the book an “enriching, powerful, and real story, one that shows how King the person developed his conscience and convictions in the context of family, community, education, love, and struggle.”
Martin appears at 7 p.m. May 14 at Kepler’s Books in Menlo Park.
“The Last Summer at Feather River: A Novel” by Karen Nelson
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Sibylline Press, 312 pages, $20, May 19, 2026
Los Altos author Karen Nelson, co-founder of the nonprofit Writing by Writers and author of “The Sunken Town,” explores guilt and love amid a family mystery in her second novel, “The Last Summer at Feather River.” As the main character Brooke returns home to her family’s ranch 10 years after a tragic accident to care for her grandfather, she discovers what really happened and her true role in the disaster.
Steve Almond, author of “Truth Is the Arrow, Mercy Is the Bow,” calls the book “a genuine page-turner driven by a galloping sense of suspense and delivered in deft and assured prose.”
Nelson, who worked in development for advocacy, health care and environmental nonprofits in her pre-writing career, appears with Writing by Writers cofounder Pam Houston at 7 p.m. May 20 at Kepler’s in Menlo Park.
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“Death Times Seven: A Daniel Pitt Novel” by Anne Perry and Victoria Zackheim
Ballentine Books, 288 pages, $30, April 14, 2026
San Francisco Library Laureate Victoria Zackheim, a friend and editor of the late Anne Perry (who was known as “queen of Victorian crime”), was asked to complete Perry’s unfinished novel “Death Times Seven.” In this final novel of the series, junior attorney Daniel Pitt and his pathologist wife Miriam delve into two violent crimes, as Pitt defends his fellow attorney Toby Kitteridge’s father, a village vicar.
Novelist Jane Smiley says, “Anne Perry and Victoria Zackheim dish out the suspense, the insights, the details of the murders, the feelings and thoughts of the characters, and the setting bit by bit. The more you read, the more you want to know, and you can’t stop.”
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Zackheim, the author of two novels and editor of seven anthologies, teaches creative nonfiction and memoir in the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program.
“Zen Caregiving: How to Care for Yourself While Caring for Others” by Roy Remer
New World Library, 288 pages, $19.95, April 21, 2026
Roy Remer, executive director of the Zen Caregiving Project in San Francisco and creator of Mindful Caregiving Education, has written a practical guidebook for the millions of under-supported caregivers in the U.S. The book, which covers components of the Zen Caregiver’s approach–mindfulness, compassion, loss literacy and self-care –also offers advice on how to expand compassion and prepare end-of-life arrangements.
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Dr. Abraham Verghese, author of “Cutting for Stone” and “The Covenant of Water,” says, “Roy’s many years volunteering in a hospice setting translate to pages suffused with wisdom, love, and immensely practical advice for the caregiver.”
Remer appears with retired hospice physician Scott Eberle at 7 p.m. May 1 at Copperfield’s in Santa Rosa.
“Incorruptible: Why Good Companies Go Bad… and How Great Companies Stay Great” by Eric Ries
Authors Equity, 432 pages, $32, May 26, 2026
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San Francisco entrepreneur and blogger Eric Ries, author of the best-selling “The Lean Startup,” which details a method for creating businesses with short product development cycles, examines how organizations are built and whether principles behind them can remain intact in “Incorruptible.” He argues that companies fail for structural rather than ethical reasons, and that failure can be prevented.
LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman calls “Incorruptible” a “must-read for any founder, board member, investor or consumer who cares about protecting entrepreneurship, innovation and the productive power of capitalism from the dangers of short-term thinking–and for anyone who recognizes the importance of trustworthy and enduring institutions for a thriving democracy.”
Ries, who discusses how to create and run companies for the long-term benefit of society in his self-titled podcast, appears at 6 p.m. June 3 at Book Passage in Corte Madera.
“Moral Economics: From Prostitution to Organ Sales, What Controversial Transactions Reveal About How Markets Work” by Alvin E. Roth
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Basic Venture, 368 pages, $32, May 12, 2026
Stanford University scholar, Nobel Prize-winner Alvin E. Roth unveils controversies and tradeoffs regarding economic decision making in “Moral Economics,” assuring readers that markets can be fine-tuned to be functional and ethical. The book argues that prudent market design can respect people’s rights to pursue their own interests and protect the most vulnerable people from harm at the same time.
Roth, a former economics professor at Harvard University, won the 2012 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences “for the theory of stable allocations and the practice of market design.” Paul Milgram and Robert Wilson, 2020 Nobel Prize winners in economics, call Roth’s book “a clear-eyed guide to understanding where the market ends, where morality begins and how we can design a world that honors both.”
Roth appears at 7 p.m. May 21 at Kepler’s in Menlo Park.
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“Lucky Charms: New and Selected Poems, 2000-2025” by Sunnylyn Thibodeaux
City Lights, 128 pages, $16.95, April 7, 2026
Sunnylyn Thibodeaux, a New Orleans resident and longtime member of the Bay Area literary scene, offers old and new work in “Lucky Charms,” named one of Publishers Weekly’s Most Anticipated Poetry Books for 2026. The prolific poet, author of five full-length collections and a graduate of the San Francisco’s New College poetry program, addresses mortality and magic, motherhood and mourning in her new volume.
Evan Kennedy, author of “Metamorphoses,” calls Thibodeaux’s poems “amulets against ennui,” adding, “Whether watching the sky in the early morning or recording her daughter’s first sentence (spoken in awe of the moon), Thibodeaux beautifully delineates the ‘magic that’s second nature.'”
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“I’m the Undertow: A Novel” by Eric Scot Tryon
Central Avenue, 283 pages, $20, May 5, 2026
San Francisco writer Eric Scot Tryon, founding editor of the literary magazine Flash Frog. focuses on grief and redemption in his debut novel “I’m the Undertow,” about a man who, after accidentally killing a cyclist with his car, goes on to build a friendship with the cyclist’s grieving mother.
Andrew Porter, author of “The Imagined Life,” says Tryon “writes with sensitivity and grace about the fragile, necessary connections that carry us through periods of grief and guide us toward forgiveness.” Tryon’s fiction has been published in more than 50 literary magazines, including Indiana Review, Glimmer Train and Ninth letters.
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Tryon appears with short story writer Kim Magowan at 7 p.m. May 5 at Green Apple Books, 1231 Ninth Ave., San Francisco.
“A Perfect Hand: A Novel” by Ayelet Waldman
Penguin, 304 pages, $28, May 19, 2026
Berkeley’s Ayelet Waldman, author of the memoir “A Really Good Day,” the novel “Love and Other Impossible Pursuits” and essay collection “Bad Mother,” skips across the pond with her latest novel “A Perfect Hand,” which is set in the 19th-century English countryside. The story of a young lady’s maid and the valet of a visiting baronet who plot for their employers to fall in love takes on class, gender and England on the verge of change.
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Meg Wolitzer, author of “The Female Persuasion,” says, “Waldman’s clever, fast-paced historical romp turned out to be not only great fun but also surprisingly stirring.”
Waldman speaks at 7 p.m. May 19 at Bookshop West Portal in San Francisco.
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