This new crop of books hits all the sweet spots we expect from Bay Area creators: delicious food, astute cultural commentary, and intriguing novels.
Dive into these eight new fall titles.
Handmade Utopia: Back-to-the-Land Architecture in Northern California, edited by David Jacob Kramer
In the 1960s, when young and idealistic “back-to-the-landers” fled Bay Area cities and created a patchwork of utopian communities up and down the length of Northern California, the folk architecture they built defined a radical new style. Handmade Utopia travels down dirt roads to explore these communities, discovering and documenting hidden handmade homes and capturing oral histories of the now-elderly residents who have stuck it out in their otherworldly creations. Presented alongside a collection of archival materials, the homes shine as rugged, experimental works of art. // $65, Artbook
One of the homes features in 'Handmade Utopia' edited by David Jacob Kramer(Courtesy of @aperturefnd)
Ukraine: Recipes and Stories from Kyiv to the Black Sea, by Anna Voloshyna
Chef Anna Voloshyna was born and raised in southern Ukraine and later immigrated to the Bay Area, where she teaches cooking classes and hosts pop-up dinners focusing on food from her homeland. Her latest cookbook features 100 traditional and modern recipes for dishes from the region, including grilled sardines with dilly potatoes, lamb plov with apples and chickpeas, bay leaf kefir panna cotta, and no-churn sunflower-seed-butter ice cream. Alongside the recipes and photographs, Voloshyna’s stories bring you to food carts on the streets of Kyiv, root cellars stocked with fermented and preserved goods, and the front lines of the war where she cooked a meal for soldiers. // $40, Chronicle Books
Open the Floodgates, by Nina Schuyler
In Schuyler’s inventive new environmental novel, real-world laws have granted personhood to rivers. In an unnamed California town, the River now has the right to fight powerful enemies who want to keep it polluted. Intrigued? Us too. Schuyler is the author of four other fiction books and teaches creative writing at Stanford Continuing Studies and Book Passage. She is also the author of How to Write Stunning Sentences and has an extensive following for her Substack newsletter of the same name. // $25, Chin Music Press
Pastries from 'Bake Sum' by Joyce Tang with Soleil Ho(Courtesy of @cherrybombe/@thejoycetang)
Bake Sum: Asian American Pastries, Breads, and Other Treats, by Joyce Tang with Soleil Ho
Oakland’s Bake Sum bakery is a local favorite for creative, stunning, and truly delicious treats. This new cookbook reveals the techniques and unique flavors of Asian Americana they’ve championed. From classic Asian puddings & jellies like almond Jell-O and mango pudding to sesame-studded and matcha-scented cookies to the bakery's famous croissubi (a Spam musubi-croissant hybrid), the 75 recipes cross a range of skill levels, with step-by-step photography and clear instructions on technique. Essays on culture and Tang’s journey to pastry chef and bakery owner are interspersed throughout the book. // $35, Hardie Grant
Friends and Family, by Natalie Baszile
Bay Area author and filmmaker Baszile’s highly acclaimed debut novel Queen Sugar was the inspiration for a TV show of the same name, co-produced by Ava DuVernay and Oprah Winfrey. Her latest novel is an exploration of race, friendship, and privilege. Booklist says, “This cinematic story is about family, and friends who become family… the pages fly by. 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.”// $30, Penguin Random House
'Korean Soups' by Clara Lee and Eddo Kim(Courtesy of @claraandeddo/@queens__universe)
Korean Soups: Recipes for Soups and Stews That Nourish, Restore, and Delight, by Clara Lee and Eddo Kim
With recipes for a cold cucumber soup and spicy braised chicken stew, this new cookbook from the co-founders of uber-cool San Francisco-based Korean food company Queens features 50 classic recipes from the heart of Korean cuisine. Lee and Kim offer an expert guide to curating a well-stocked Korean pantry and include 13 foundational side-dish recipes (including rice, kimchi, and pickles) to pair with the soups. Ruth Reichl says this book is “an essential guide to Korean ingredients and a new way to appreciate Korean soups. I am buying it for every Korean food lover I know.” // $32, Hachette
How to Exi(s)t: A Poet’s Memoir, by Truong Tran
In How to Exi(s)t, Tran—a neurodivergent, gay war refugee and artist—moves back and forth in time. He explores his experiences with academia, racism, and life, from growing up in San Jose’s Vietnamese diaspora to experiencing repeated rejection for tenure-track positions. Kirkus Reviews says, "Tran's prose speaks directly to the reader and offers opinions and perspectives that are superbly barbed and lushly poetic all at once. . . . A wise, reflective self-portrait shimmering with genuine emotion and bracing honesty." Born in Saigon, Vietnam, Tran teaches at Northeastern University, Oakland and lives in San Francisco. His books include Book of the Other: Small in Comparison (winner of the American Book Award), The Book of Perceptions, Placing the Accents, and Dust and Conscience. // $17, City Lights
'Meet Me in the Garden' by Nina LaCour(Courtesy of @nina_lacour)
Meet Me in the Garden, by Nina LaCour
Meet Me in the Garden is a decades-spanning novel inspired by the author’s family that’s full of love, longing, art, and desire. Publishers Weekly says this “gorgeous family saga…dares much and delivers on its promise… LaCour’s sensuous novel is steeped in rich details of jazz, Creole cooking, and California glamour, and the characters are pitch-perfect.” A former indie bookseller, LaCour is also the author of Yerba Buena and lives in San Francisco. // $30, Macmillan
