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Jan 24, 2025 | 
datebook.sfchronicle.com | Lidia Yuknavitch |Alexis Burling
“Reading the Waves: Memoir” by Lidia Yuknavitch is out Feb. 4. Photo: Riverhead BooksWhen you pick up a book by Lidia Yuknavitch, whether fiction or nonfiction, here’s what you won’t find: squeaky-clean characters, milquetoast storylines, bland prose or neat-and-tidy conclusions. What you will find?
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Jan 23, 2025 | 
datebook.sfchronicle.com | Hanif Kureishi |Alexis Burling
Hanif Kureishi details his medical catastrophe of tetraplegia in “Shattered: a Memoir.” Photo: Kier Kureishi/EccoOn Dec.
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Jan 22, 2025 | 
datebook.sfchronicle.com | Betty Shamieh |Alexis Burling
Bay Area author Betty Shamieh with a copy of her first novel, “Too Soon,” in her home workspace in Santa Clara. Photo: Lea Suzuki/The ChronicleIf you’re at all involved in the theater scene, you may have heard of the name Betty Shamieh. A celebrated Palestinian American playwright, Shamieh is the author of 15 plays, including the sold-out off-Broadway show “Malvolio,” a sequel to Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night,” and “Roar,” the first play about Palestinian Americans to grace the off-Broadway stage.
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Dec 3, 2024 | 
datebook.sfchronicle.com | Robin Wall Kimmerer |Alexis Burling
Robin Wall Kimmerer is the author of “The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World.” Photo: Portrait courtesy MacArthur Foundation / Book cover courtesy ScribnerIn 2013, Minneapolis publisher Milkweed Editions published Robin Wall Kimmerer’s “Braiding Sweetgrass,” a then little-known collection of essays that explored the symbiotic relationship between plants, the land and humans through an Indigenous lens. It sold some copies but didn’t get much mainstream attention.
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Nov 25, 2024 | 
datebook.sfchronicle.com | Weike Wang |Alexis Burling
“Rental House” by Weike Wang. Photo: RiverheadIt’s that time of year again. Raucous family meals around gussied up dining tables. Relatives visiting from far-flung places. Festive evenings retelling old yarns around the fireplace. At least, that’s how it appears on the surface. But who am I kidding? For many people, the holidays are also a time of passive-aggressive (or just plain aggressive) barbs, booze-fueled one-upmanship and good old-fashioned posturing.
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Nov 19, 2024 | 
datebook.sfchronicle.com | Katherine Rundell |Alexis Burling
“Vanishing Treasures: A Bestiary of Extraordinary Endangered Creatures” by Katherine Rundell. Photo: DoubledayAccording to Katherine Rundell, who’s written many award-winning books for kids and adults, in the last 50 years, the amount of wildlife crawling, climbing, swimming and flying through the air has diminished by an average of nearly 70 percent. What’s more, more than half of all the mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish and insects that have lived have vanished.
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Nov 14, 2024 | 
datebook.sfchronicle.com | Youngmi Mayer |Alexis Burling
“I’m Laughing Because I’m Crying: A Memoir” by Youngmi Mayer. Photo: Little Brown and Co.Depending on how old you are or which circles you run in, you may know of Youngmi Mayer for a few different reasons. Alongside comedian Brian Park, she was the co-host of the unfiltered “Feeling Asian” podcast that ran from 2019 to 2022 and covered everything from dating horror stories to dealing with generational trauma to figuring out how to navigate mostly white spaces as an Asian American.
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Oct 11, 2024 | 
datebook.sfchronicle.com | Alexis Burling
“American Teenager: How Trans Kids Are Surviving Hate and Finding Joy in a Turbulent Era,” by Nico Lang. Photo: Abrams PressBeing a teenager is tough in America. All that pressure to fit in. Do well. Live up to others’ expectations, let alone manage your own dreams and aspirations. But being a transgender or gender-nonconforming kid in America? That’s a whole different level.
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Sep 12, 2024 | 
datebook.sfchronicle.com | Sarah Smarsh |Alexis Burling
“Bone of the Bone” by Sarah Smarsh. Photo: ScribnerKansas native Sarah Smarsh has long been an outspoken advocate for the white, rural working class. In 2018, “Heartland,” her memoir about growing up impoverished and disenfranchised on a fifth-generation wheat farm 30 miles west of Wichita, was a finalist for the National Book Award, a New York Times bestseller and named a Best Book by NPR and a slew of other national publications.
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Aug 23, 2024 | 
datebook.sfchronicle.com | Alexis Burling
In 2022, School Library Journal Librarian of the Year Amanda Jones was living what she considered to be her best life. “That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America” by Amanda Jones. Photo: BloomsburyAt 44, she was happily married, had a teenage daughter with whom she was close, and lived next door to her parents in the conservative, mostly white area in Louisiana where she grew up. She cherished her close-knit group of friends and their community in the Southern Baptist Church.
