Heaven and Earth Grocery Store (fiction – hardbound) by James McBride
In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they
expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held
secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows. Bringing his masterly storytelling skills and his deep faith in humanity to The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, James McBride has written a novel as compassionate as Deacon King Kong and as inventive as The Good Lord Bird.
Killers of the Flower Moon (nonfiction – paperback) by David Grann
This book is now in paperback just in time before the release of the film adaptation! In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, the Osage rode in
chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe. Then, one by one, the Osage began to be killed off. This is a twisting, haunting, true-life murder mystery about one of the most monstrous crimes in American history, from the author of The Wager and The Lost City of Z. It is a National Book Award Finalist, and the film adaptation is directed by Martin Scorsese.
Ander & Santi Were Here (YA fiction- hardbound) by Jonny Garza Villa
Aristotle and Dante meets The Sun Is Also a Star in this YA contemporary love story about a nonbinary Mexican American teen falling for the shy new waiter at their family’s taqueria. The novel is about finding home, falling in love, and fighting to belong.
Upcoming Events
Saturday, October 21 @ 4 pm (ticketed – Golden Gate Theater, SF) Rachel Maddow, author of Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism
Journalist and political commentator Rachel Maddow traces the fight to preserve American democracy back to World War II, when a handful of committed public servants and brave private citizens thwarted far-right plotters trying to steer our nation
toward an alliance with the Nazis. Inspired by her research for the hit podcast Ultra, Maddow charts the rise of a wild American strain of authoritarianism that has been alive on the far-right edge of our politics for the better part of a century.
Sunday, October 22 @ 4 pm (free – Corte Madera store) Rosanna Rio, author of California Against the Sea
Rosanna Xia investigates the impacts of engineered landscapes, the market pressures of development, and the ecological activism and political scrimmages that have carved our contemporary coastline—and foretell even greater changes to our shores. From the beaches of the Mexican border up to the sheer-cliffed North Coast, the voices of Indigenous leaders, community activists, small-town mayors, urban engineers, and tenacious environmental scientists commingle. Together, they chronicle the challenges and urgency of forging a climate-wise future.
Saturday, October 28 @ 3 pm (free – Ferry Building store, SF) Alec Scott, author of Oldest San Francisco
Oldest San Francisco draws a picture of the sudden city that exploded in the Gold Rush and has since drawn generations of
dreamers to it. From Alcatraz to the Presidio to the Ferry Building, from the Tadich Grill to the Mechanics’ Institute to Gump’s Department Store, it tells the stories of the longtime institutions that have made the City by the Bay distinctive. It visits the oldest bakery (Boudin), bike shop (American Cyclery) and auto shop (Alioto); it speaks of civic fabrics—the oldest blue jeans and first rainbow flag. Together, the stories distill something of the ebullient, entrepreneurial spirit of San Francisco.
Top of Your Stack – Recommendations from Book Passage
Published on October 19, 2023
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