Title Pages: Fall reads

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... As fall descends, schedules get tighter, but the weather cools and daylight shrinks, making it appealing to spend spare moments hiding away indoors with a good book. As always, Bay Area authors have plenty to keep us reading through the chillier season.  Bestselling author and Stanford physician Abraham Verghese, whose most recent novel “The Covenant of Water” was an Oprah Book Club pick, discusses his work in an interview ahead of his Nov. 16 appearance at Kepler’s Books. Journalist, author and surfer Steve Hawk brings together surfing, Stanford researchers and a Silicon Valley conspiracy in his debut novel, “Nearshore.” Mountain View authors Mickey Lai and Natalie Woo share life lessons and the fundamentals of playing hoops in their soon-to-publish picture book “The ABC’s of Basketball.” And below, a selection of new books from Bay Area authors: ‘The Gates of Midnight’New York City is, to many, a magical place. But Bay Area author Helene Wecker brings some actual magic to Gotham with her The Golem and the Jinni series, which has followed the journey of two supernatural beings, Chava, a golem, and Ahmad, a jinni, as they navigated 19th-century New York and beyond, trying to evade detection by humans — and stay safe from powerful forces. The final book in the trilogy, The Gates of Midnight, jumps to the early 20th century and finds the revival of an existential threat to Chava and Ahmad coming from afar, as new influences arrive and the Great Depression begins. Published Sept. 15; Harper Collins ‘Friends and Family’Friends and Family, the latest novel by Bay Area-based author Natalie Baszile, is set in San Francisco and follows two mothers who have been close friends as they raise their children together, and share parenting tips, including the advice that Babs, who is Black, has been giving Nora, who is white, about raising Nathan, her adopted Black son. But after a neighbor calls the police on a group of kids who are home alone, leading to a particularly traumatic experience for Nathan, the two mothers find a strain growing between them and Nathan begins reaching out more to Babs. Published Oct. 6; Penguin Random House ‘Joy is a Risk Worth Taking’With her latest book, “Joy is a Risk Worth Taking,” local author and psychologist Kelly McGonigal explores the human capacity for joy, weaving in personal storytelling with science-based insights.The book includes practical strategies for finding more joy, meaning and connection in life. McGonigal is a lecturer at Stanford University and the author of “The Joy of Movement,” “The Upside of Stress” and “The Willpower Instinct.” Published Oct. 13; Penguin Random House ‘Noor and the Storyteller’Local author Seina Wedlick’s latest tale for children offers a colorful look into the world of young Noor, who loves the yarns spun each night by the neighborhood storyteller. But one night, when the storyteller doesn’t appear, Noor steps up to tell a tale of her own, using all her powers of imagination to make the story come alive for her listeners. With illustrations by Leah Giles Published Oct. 27; Harper CollinsWedlick will appear Nov. 8 at Linden Tree Books ‘The Flying Death: Poison, Plunder, and the Quest for a Miracle Medicine in the Amazon’A medicine can sometimes be derived from an otherwise toxic source, but at least in this case, the pursuit of that cure can become its own kind of poison. With The Flying Death: Poison, Plunder, and the Quest for a Miracle Medicine in the Amazon, University of California, Santa Cruz, history professor Matt O’Hara delves into the true story of a young American who in the 1930s went to the western Amazon seeking a poisonous plant that also had the potential to treat diseases, including one from which he was suffering. But, not content with just finding a cure, he was also hoping to strike some deals between the Amazon tribes who used the plant and American pharmaceutical companies, while racing a rival with the same goal in mind.  To be published Nov. 10; MacmillanO’Hara will appear Nov. 17 at Books Inc. Palo Alto Most Popular Review: What are we really seeing in 'You Can See Everything'?October 27, 2026 12:31 pmMenlo Park’s downtown housing plans hinge on millions in city subsidiesOctober 27, 2026 1:00 pmMenlo Park candidate pitches alternate housing plan, but the devil’s in the details11 hours ago