The Quiet and the Loud, a novel about the contours of friendship, family, forgiveness, trauma, and love, and about our hopeless, hopeful world, Helena Fox’s gorgeous follow-up to How It Feels to Float explores the stories we suppress and the stories we speak — and the healing that comes when we voice the things we’ve kept quiet for so long.

 From the diabolical imagination of Edgar Award–winning novelist, playwright, and story-songwriter Rupert Holmes comes Murder Your Employer, a devilish thriller with a killer concept: The McMasters Conservatory for the Applied Arts, a luxurious, clandestine college dedicated to the fine art of murder where earnest students study how best to “delete” their most deserving victim.

 Please join us in celebrating authors Anna Quinn author of Angeline and Gemma Wheldan author of Painting Through the Dark.

In Angeline, novelist Anna Quinn explores the complexity of our past selves and the discovery of our present truth; the enduring imprints left by our losses, forgiveness and acceptance, and why we believe what we believe. Painting Through the Dark by Gemma Wheldan- As she becomes embroiled in a whirlwind of love, art, and deception, Ashling learns that her success as an artist and a human being depends on dealing with the ghosts of her past and speaking out on behalf of others.

Interweaving family stories more enchanting than those in any novel, resurrected Colombian history, and her own deeply personal reckonings with the bounds of reality, Ingrid Rojas Contreras writes her way through the incomprehensible and into her inheritance. The result is The Man Who Could Move Clouds — a luminous testament to the power of storytelling as a healing art and an invitation to embrace the extraordinary.

From Ari Shapiro, the beloved host of NPR's All Things Considered, comes The Best Strangers in the World a stirring memoir-in-essays that is also a love letter to journalism. Ari takes us around the globe to reveal the stories behind narratives that are sometimes heartwarming, sometimes heartbreaking, but always poignant. Join him for a conversation with fellow NPR legend Davia Nelson.

From two-time Booker Prize finalist author Sebastian Barry comes a dazzlingly written novel exploring love, memory, grief, and long-buried secrets — Old God's Time is about what we live through, what we live with, and what may survive of us.

Playing God by author Mary Jo McConahay is the definitive account of how a group of American Catholic bishops are using “dark money” and allying with ultra-right evangelicals in an attempt to remake America.

Please join us for a reading by Laila El-Sissi from her new novel, Fate Knocked On My Door, and a Q&A hosted by Book Passage for this event organized by the Left Coast Writers. Fate Knocked on My Door, a story of a young girl looking for freedom and independence from a culture of control. She traveled three continents in search of the free life she couldn't have in Egypt. She acquired courage and strength.

An aching love story and powerful coming-of-age that reckons with the legacy of British colonialism, the World War II Japanese occupation, and the pursuit of modernity, Rachel Heng's The Great Reclamation confronts the wounds of progress, the sacrifices of love, and the difficulty of defining home when nature and nation collide, literally shifting the land beneath people’s feet.

Special Event for Kids! Ages 6-9!

I Dare! I Can! I Will! from Linda Ólafsdóttir, a picture book inspired by the Long Friday—a real event in Iceland that inspired women around the world to stand up, walk out, and march together for women’s rights

In The Oak Hill Method: Connecting to Students with Autism, you will hear directly from expert teachers and clinicians who have been working with students with autism in the highly successful program at Oak Hill School. Oak Hill School uses a wide range of evidence-based strategies that center around building relationships, truly knowing the individual, and customizing educational programs.

Sixteen Rivers Press presents a poetry reading featuring our two new Spring 2023 releases: All Tomorrow’s Train Rides by Matthew Monte, and Songbird of the Nine Rivers by Joseph Zaccardi, along with member poet Barbara Brauer.

Readers will be transported to the dramatic and ruggedly beautiful island of Sicily, the jewel of the Mediterranean, where lush lemon groves and mouth-watering cuisine contrast with a turbulent history of colonization and corruption. Lisa Scottoline brings her decades of thriller writing to historical fiction, creating in Loyalty a singular novel that no reader will be able to put down.

Reconceptions by author Rachel Lehmann-Haupt offers a compelling vision of what advances in reproductive science mean for the definition of family in the 21st century and beyond, and imparts a modern story for anyone looking to understand their own familial relationships — no matter what their family looks like.

In turns deeply sexy, riotously funny, and utterly joyful, This Bird Has Flown explores love, passion, and the ghosts of our past, and offers a glimpse inside the music business that could only come from beloved songwriter Susanna Hoffs.

Reconceptions by author Rachel Lehmann-Haupt offers a compelling vision of what advances in reproductive science mean for the definition of family in the 21st century and beyond, and imparts a modern story for anyone looking to understand their own familial relationships — no matter what their family looks like.

Special Event for Kids! Ages 1-3!

Get ready for bed with this charming board book set to the tune of the beloved nursery rhyme, Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.

Blinker, Blinker, Little Car by Susan B. Katz

In The Inward Outlook, psychologist Laura Basha shares how to discern this habitual way of thinking from the innate wisdom and common sense that we all have available to us at all times.

The thrilling true story of train-robbing revolutionaries and passengers who got more than they paid for. The Peking Express by James M. Zimmerman is the incredible, long-forgotten story of a hostage crisis that shocked China and the West. It vividly captures the events that made international headlines and later inspired Josef von Sternberg’s 1932 Hollywood masterpiece Shanghai Express. 

From the New York Times bestselling author of All the Missing Girls and “master of suspense, Megan Miranda” (Mary Kubica, New York Times bestselling author of The Good Girl ), The Only Survivors is a thrilling mystery about a group of former classmates who reunite to mark the tenth anniversary of a tragic accident — only to have one of the survivors disappear, casting fear and suspicion on the original tragedy.

On our endless search for great art in unexpected places, we can find some in our own backyard and others in cities better known for more famed attractions. Come explore the overlooked gems of this country's museums with the inimitable Kerrin Meis.

LEARN TO CREATE YOUR OWN SELFIE COMIC is designed to teach writers and creatives of all levels how to tell their stories using photographs, dialogue, interior voice, and narration to complete a comic strip. 

Special Event for Kids! Ages 4-8!

From Maya Cameron-Gordon, The Mermaid Princesses is a magical story starring three Black mermaid sisters who each wish to wear the underwater crown! Perfect for fans of Little Mermaid and Oona.

Standin' in a Hard Rain from Joel D. Eis, is the fast paced, personal, "boots-on-the-ground," front line account of major events by a dedicated radical in the 1960's (and beyond) who found himself at the table with the planners and out in the street, running from the cops. 

Open to writers of all levels, Book Passage's WRITERS WORKSHOP provides writers with an opportunity to read an excerpt from their current writing project and get immediate feedback from fellow writers. The workshop is moderated by experienced author, journalist, and teacher John J. Geoghegan. He ensures that everyone gets a chance to participate, and that comments are both constructive and reasonable. So come spend Sunday mornings with a community of writers and get feedback and inspiration while sipping coffee and enjoying a delicious pastry from our cafe.

From the author of Reese's Book Club Pick The Henna Artist, Alka Joshi's The Perfumist of Paris, the final chapter of her New York Times bestselling Jaipur trilogy, takes readers to 1970s Paris, where Radha's budding career as a perfumer must compete with the demands of her family and the secrets of her past.

From Kirthana Ramisetti, the author of Dava Shastri's Last Day comes Advika and the Hollywood Wives, a gripping tale of marriage, scandal, fame, and identity as a woman grapples with life as the new wife of a renowned Hollywood film producer.

Organized around ten assessments and ten physical practices that anyone can do, Built to Move, mobility pioneers Kelly and Juliet Starrett, is designed to improve the way your body feels—less stiffness! fewer aches and pain!— and boost the overall quality of your life, no matter how you spend your time.

In Death of the Great Man, a novel by Peter D. Kramer, that’s part comic mystery, part political satire, and part case vignette, a psychiatrist reviews his involvement with a narcissistic national leader who has turned up dead on the consulting room couch. 

From Jeannette Walls, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Glass Castle, comes Hang the Moon, a riveting new novel about an indomitable young woman in Virginia during Prohibition. You will fall in love with Sallie Kincaid, a feisty and fearless, terrified and damaged young woman who refuses to be corralled.

True West: Sam Shepard’s Life, Work, and Times is the story of an American icon, a lasting portrait of Sam Shepard as he really was, revealed by those who knew him best. Robert Greenfield's sweeping biography charts Shepard’s long and complicated journey from a small town in Southern California to become an internationally known playwright and movie star.

Join legendary KQED Forum radio host, author, and educator Michael Krasny in a dynamic discussion of five classic American novels. This cycle features The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, Seize the Day by Saul Bellow, Sula by Toni Morrison, There There by Tommy Orange.

 In To the Top: How Women in Corporate Leadership Are Rewriting the Rules for Success, accomplished leadership advisor Jenna Fisher reveals how the world faces a once-in-a-generation opportunity to close the gender gap at the top of organizations today.

A powerful work of memoir and healing, in Them Before Me Nancy Pechner traces her journey from intergenerational trauma and a childhood of emotional chaos, to forgiveness and healing of heart and soul.

Wisdom of Wildly Creative Women is filled with powerful affirmations and true-life stories to empower you. This book by author Angela LoMenzo and photograher James LoMenzo is packed with words of wisdom from women who have both overcome adversity and achieved an authentic life honoring their individuality and freedom of personal expression. Their real stories illustrate that it is possible to live the life you have always desired now.

In celebration of National Poetry Month, Book Passage proudly presents poets of the SF Writers Grotto. Come and enjoy a discussion of each poet's work/book, and an open mic session afterwards.

Soon Wiley's When We Fell Apart is a profoundly moving and suspenseful drama that untangles the complicated ties that bind families together — or break them apart — as a young Korean American man’s search for answers about his girlfriend’s mysterious death becomes a soul-searching journey into his own bi-cultural identity

A heartfelt story of simultaneously searching for delicious recipes and purpose in life, Justice is Served by Leslie Karst, is an inspiring reminder that it’s never too late to discover—and follow—your deepest passion.

Turning Words is a poignant portrait of spiritual relationships in the diverse worlds of American and global Buddhism, told by author Hozan Alan Senauke through the stories of over 30 luminaries including His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hanh, Joan Halifax, Joanna Macy, and more.

Rich with raw beauty, electrifying intensity, and piercing vulnerability, Leila Mottley's Nightcrawling marks the stunning arrival of a voice unlike any we have heard before.

Set against the hot, tumultuous months when the city’s desegregation of its public schools exploded in violence, Small Mercies is a superb thriller and an unflinching portrait of the dark heart of American racism. It is a mesmerizing and wrenching work that only Dennis Lehane could write.

Nicholas Dawidoff's The Other Side of Prospect is a landmark work of intimate reporting on inequality, race, class, and violence, told through a murder and intersecting lives in an iconic American neighborhood.

Warm, gripping, and wise, with echoes of Fiddler on the Roof, Margaret Wilkerson Sexton’s latest novel, On the Rooftop, is a moving family portrait from “a writer of uncommon nerve and talent” (New York Times Book Review ).

 Rachel Sarah's new book Climate Champions explores 15 contemporary women on the frontlines of science to create a sustainable future on Earth.

Sydney Dunlap in her latest YA novel, It Happened on Saturday, tells a story of a middle-school girl who narrowly escapes becoming a victim of human trafficking and must find her way toward hope and healing after this traumatic event.

You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith, like the work of Deborah Levy, Rachel Cusk, and Gina Frangello, is an unflinching look at what it means to live and write our own lives. It is a story about a mother’s fierce and constant love for her children, and a woman’s love and regard for herself.

From the winner of the M.F.K. Fisher Book Prize comes a sweeping narrative history of the Chinese Exclusion Act through an intimate portrayal of one family’s epic journey to lay down roots in America. Gorgeously written, deeply researched, and tremendously resonant, author Ava Chin's Mott Street uncovers a legacy of exclusion and resilience that speaks to the American experience, past and present.

Join us to celebrate the best student poets from Marin County. Hosted by: California Poets In The Schools - Meg Hamill and Claire Blotter. Seating outside Book Passage in the courtyard. Students will read their wonderful poems!

Carmela Ciuraru's Lives of the Wives is a witty, provocative look inside the tumultuous marriages of five writers, illuminating the creative process as well as the role of money, power, and fame in these complex and fascinating relationships. Joined in conversation with John McMurtrie.

The Sheik is pissed. Along with his wives and children, the Sheik got put on the wrong plane, and ended up waiting hours in the desert on a hot tarmac for a crew that never came. As usual- it's Riya's fault.

Join Tania Malik for her rollicking new novel Hope You Are Satisfied.

In his beloved book The Hidden Life of Trees, Peter Wohlleben revealed astonishing discoveries about the social networks of trees and how they communicate. Now, in The Power of Trees, he turns to their future, with a searing critique of forestry management, tree planting, and the exploitation of old growth forests.

Let's make time to write together! Instructor Britta Stromeyer Esmail leads you in a series of rapid fire writing prompts to connect you to your creative mind and get the words flowing.

Beautifully rendered, deeply researched, and inspiring, Guardians of the Valley by Dean King, is a moving story of friendship, the written word, and the transformative power of nature. It is also a timely and powerful “origin story” as the toweringly complex environmental challenges we face today become increasingly urgent.

While every community faces unique challenges with police reform, Neil Gross' Walk the Walk opens a window onto what the police could be, if we took seriously the charge of creating a more just America.

In Honey, Baby, Mine, Laura Dern and Diane Ladd share these conversations, as well as reflections and anecdotes, taking readers on an intimate tour of their lives. Complementing these candid exchanges, they have included photos, family recipes, and other mementos.

Irena Smith's incisive memoir from inside the belly of success obsessed Palo Alto and cut throat college admissions, The Golden Ticket combines sharp social commentary, family history, and the lessons of great (and not so great) literature to offer a broader, more generous vision of what it means to succeed.

In Deep Waters, Beth Ann Mathew's adventurous life as a marine biology professor and mother in Alaska is upended when her healthy husband is slammed by a rare type of stroke. Deep Waters is a gripping, intimate story of relationship resilience, set against the backdrop of Alaska’s dramatic marine wilderness.

Quantum Supremacy is an exhilarating tour of humanity's next great technological achievement — quantum computing — which may eventually illuminate the deepest mysteries of science and solve some of humanity's biggest problems, like global warming, world hunger, and incurable disease, by author Michio Kaku.

Kerrin Meis leads you into the world of the Aesthetics. Dismayed by what they considered terrible Victorian taste, a group of artists resolved to banish historicism, moralizing messages, and art that was frankly ugly to create art that was simply beautiful with no underlying meaning. This class explores the fascinating results of a singular movement that extended through art, literature and design.

At once an immersive story and a brilliant literary puzzle, Hernan Diaz's Trust engages the reader in a quest for the truth while confronting the deceptions that often live at the heart of personal relationships, the reality-warping force of capital, and the ease with which power can manipulate facts.

From the creation of the first encyclopedia to Wikipedia, from ancient museums to modern kindergarten classes—Knowing What We Know is award winning writer Simon Winchester’s brilliant and all-encompassing look at how humans acquire, retain, and pass on information and data, and how technology continues to change our lives and our minds.

Join us for a workshop with Anne Lamott. Whether it’s your first or you’ve never missed one, you will walk away with new information and inspiration.

Diving at the Lip of the Water is Karen Poppy's much anticipated debut poetry collection. The book confronts family systems and societal gender expectations, to reclaim what makes us powerful and whole.

Mary Beth Keane the bestselling author of Ask Again, Yes, presents a masterful new novel, The Half Moon, about a couple in a small town who must navigate the complexities of marriage, family, and longing.

From the bestselling author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist Empire of the Summer Moon, S.C. Gwynne comes His Majesty’s Airship, a stunning historical tale of the rise and fall of the world’s largest airship—and the doomed love story between an ambitious British officer and a married Romanian Princess at its heart.

 What Color Is Your Parachute? meets Out of Office in The Portfolio Life, an inspiring, practical playbook from Harvard professor, serial entrepreneur, and self-described "human Venn diagram" Christina Wallace, on how to achieve sustainable work-life balance while optimizing your happiness, personal growth, and bank accounts.

The REAL Mental Health Initiative presents New York Times bestselling author Julie Lythcott-Haims in back with her third book, Your Turn: How to Be an Adult. Her newest book has been called a "groundbreakingly frank" guide to adulthood.

A pioneer of artificial intelligence rebuilds the love of her life, but when she discovers he's been feeding incriminating civilian information to the Chinese government, she'll have to decide whether to keep or kill him. Author Nina Schuyler's Afterword explores what it means to be human and is a moving testament to the deeply human desire for belonging, companionship, and love.

Utterly original and wildly entertaining, Michelle Gagnon's Killing Me is a laugh-loud-loud thriller with a protagonist whose life is a total mess.

She escaped a serial killer. Then things got weird.

 A stunning, revelatory memoir about a 330-mile walk from Washington, D.C., to New York City — an unforgettable pilgrimage to the heart of America across some of our oldest common ground. By turns amusing, inspiring, and sublime, American Ramble by Neil King offers an exquisite account of personal and national renewal — an indelible study of our country as we’ve never seen it before.

Glaciers are Alive by Debbie S. Miller introduces young science and nature lovers to the wonders of glaciers, the wildlife that call them home, and how important they are to the health of our planet. As glaciers melt at a rapid rate due to climate change, their disappearance impacts not only the wildlife that calls them home, but also all life on earth. Glaciers are alive, and they need our protection!

Walking with Sam is an intimate, funny, and poignant travel memoir following New York Times bestselling author and actor Andrew McCarthy as he walks the Camino de Santiago with his son Sam in an effort to get to know each other as adults.

Going Remote from author Adam Bessie and illustrator Peter Glanting, is a searingly honest graphic memoir dispatch from a community college professor who cares deeply for his students and family while also combating personal health issues from the frontlines of public education during the pandemic.

Patterned on a graduate school creative writing workshop, this class will guide participants through conceiving, pitching, and writing an original travel piece of up to 2,500 words. We'll begin by closely reading, discussing, and critiquing examples of excellent travel writing before participants will move on to crafting their own stories. Each piece will be closely read and discussed in class.

Clare Frank fought fires for nearly 30 years and served as the State of California’s first and only female Chief of Fire Protection. Her new book Burnt: A Memoir of Fighting Fire is an inspiring, richly detailed, and open-hearted account of an extraordinary life in fire.

 A warm-hearted guide to Buddhist practice for those ready to contend with the reality that enlightenment—the realization of non-self—can’t be achieved by the self. Tim Burkett’s new book, Enlightenment is an Accident, unhooks enlightenment from the hot air balloon of ego and brings it back down to earth.

Join Valentina for a fun and communicative introduction to the Italian language. You will start from the basics, learning and practicing in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere.

Dr. Stephen L. Hauser's The Face Laughs While The Brain Cries, is a doctor’s powerful and deeply human memoir about the mysteries of the brain and his 40-year quest to find a treatment for Multiple Sclerosis.

In The Eloquence of Silence: Surprising Wisdom in Tales of Emptiness, Thomas Moore a 30-year bestselling author and teacher makes a provocative and compelling case for an easier, lighter way of moving through life and the world by embracing the peace, calm, and spaciousness of emptiness.

Now it’s not enough to care for her child, love her husband, and work the job she’s always enjoyed—she must also figure out the circumstances of her own death. Darkly comic, tautly paced, and full of surprises, Katie Williams' My Murder is a devour-in-one-sitting, clever twist on the classic thriller.

In The Good Enough Job, journalist Simone Stolzoff traces how work has come to dominate Americans’ lives—and why we find it so difficult to let go. Based on groundbreaking reporting and interviews with Michelin star chefs, Wall Street bankers, overwhelmed teachers and other workers across the American economy, Stolzoff exposes what we lose when we expect work to be more than a job.

In Central Park West, the gripping crime fiction debut from former FBI director James Comey takes readers deep inside the world of lawyers and investigators working to solve a murder while navigating the treacherous currents of modern politics and the mob.

Annabel Monaghan brings us the ultimate summer nostalgia read. Same Time Next Summer about an engaged woman who comes face to face with her first love who she hasn't seen in fourteen years, but who she spent every summer with from age five to seventeen when he broke her heart, calling into question everything she thought she knew about their love story, and herself.

Long acclaimed as one of America's preeminent novelists, Jane Smiley is also an unparalleled observer of the craft of writing. In The Questions That Matter Most this Pulitzer Prize-winning writer offers steady and penetrating essays on some of the aesthetic and cultural issues that mark any serious engagement with reading and writing.

Intertwining past and present, The Wind Knows My Name by Isabel Allende tells the tale of these two unforgettable characters, both in search of family and home. It is both a testament to the sacrifices that parents make and a love letter to the children who survive the most unfathomable dangers — and never stop dreaming.

Award-winning author Jane Delury’s new novel, Hedge, revolves around one transformational summer when a garden historian has an affair while she restores a lush private estate - a choice that jeopardizes her marriage and more. Hedge is an unforgettable story about the conflicts of motherhood, the lure of desire, and the pressure of intellectual ambition.

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Genius of Birds and The Bird Way, Jennifer Ackerman comes What an Owl Knows, a brilliant scientific investigation into owls—the most elusive of birds—and why they exert such a hold on human imagination.

Aisha Harris has made a name for herself as someone you can turn to for a razor-sharp take on whatever show or movie everyone is talking about. Now in Wannabe: Reckonings with the Pop Culture that Shapes Me, she turns her talents inward, mining the benchmarks of her nineties childhood and beyond to analyze the tropes that are shaping all of us, and our ability to shape them right back.

Gail Tsukiyama, the beloved bestselling author of The Color of Air, Women of the Silk, and The Samurai's Garden returns with The Brightest Star. A magnificent historical novel based on the life of the luminous, groundbreaking actress Anna May Wong—the first and only Asian American woman to gain movie stardom in the early days of Hollywood.

An irrevocably transformational journey of love, hope, courage, and resilience, Alenka Vrecek tells that story in a voice stripped of self-pity and infused with a good dose of humor. She Rides is a galvanizing wake-up call for anyone who wants to unearth and follow their own deeply buried dreams — and reclaim their life.

Join us for a special afternoon tea celebrating Lady Tan's Circle of Women, the latest historical novel from New York Times bestselling author Lisa See, inspired by the true story of a woman physician from 15th-century China—perfect for fans of See’s classic Snowflower and the Secret Fan and The Island of Sea Women.

Linda Joy Myers's new novel The Forger of Marseille is a thriller rife with history and intrigue. It's 1939, and all across Europe the Nazis are coming for Jews and anti-fascists. The only way to avoid being imprisoned or murdered is to assume a new identity. For that, people are desperate for papers. And for that, the underground needs forgers. 

A rust belt city in decline retains the solace of romance, which often proves to be an empty promise or even a curse. In Terry Tierney's latest The Bridge on Beer River, a novel-in-stories set in Reagan-era Binghamton, New York, characters scramble for subsistence while hoping for love and a better life.

New York Times bestselling author Hallie Ephron, leads a standalone course in building a compelling main character that will ignite reader's imaginations from their first appearance, and leave them thinking about them long after the last page.

Pedro & Daniel is a sweeping and deeply personal novel from Frederico Erebiai, that spans from childhood through teenage years and into adulthood, all the while tracing the lives of two brothers who are there for each other when no one else is. Together the brothers manage an abusive home life, school, coming out, first loves, first jobs, and the AIDS epidemic, in a coming-of-age story unlike any other

From Adrienne Brodeur, the author of the bestselling memoir Wild Game comes a riveting novel Little Monsters about Cape Cod, complicated families, and long-buried secrets—for fans of the New York Times bestsellers The Paper Palace and Ask Again, Yes.

In The Zen Way of Recovery, Laura Burges shares an accessible, compassionate guide to Buddhist principles and practices that can help support recovery from addictions and addictive behaviors—written by an experienced lay teacher with long-term recovery.

Anita Gail Jones' The Peach Seed is a multigenerational novel and an epic debut that explores the origins of a south Georgia family’s tradition and how its modern-day sons and daughters struggle with the legacies of America’s Civil Rights Movement and the far-reaching impacts of the 1800s slave trade from Senegal to Charleston, SC.

Set in a small, sun-drenched Northern California town shifting from hippie haven to moneyed paradise, Michael Bourne's Blithedale Canyon asks whether a man who has spent his whole life screwing up can stop long enough to avoid destroying a woman he loves.