All That Work And Still No Boy (University of Iowa Press, 162 pages, $!6, soft cover) by San Francisco–based Kathryn Ma. The 2009 Iowa Short Fiction Award winning work, herein is presented ten short stories that explore the immigrant experience, particularly among Northern California’s Chinese-Americans. Ma is the first Asian-American to win this highly prestigious award. 

Hungry: A Mother and Daughter Fight Anorexia (Berkeley Publishing Group, 281 pages, soft cover) by Sheila and Lisa Himmel. This is the grippingly raw and honest true story told by both mother, Sheila, the award-winning food critic for the San Jose Mercury News; and daughter, Lisa, about Lisa’s plunge into the destructive world of eating disorders. Heartbreaking, hopeful, sad, tragic, and, at times, humorous, this is a must read for anyone seeking to understand the reality of coping with an eating disorder in our food-obsessed culture.   

PowerHiking London: Eleven Great Walks Through the Streets of London and Environs (PowerHiking, Ltd., 165 pages, $21.95, soft cover) by Carolyn Hansen and Cathleen Peck. The third in a series of urban hiking books, Bay Area authors Hansen and Peck share their fun, healthy way to explore this great city. Each of the eleven “hikes” outlined include approximate time required, mileage covered, an illustrated map of the route, as well as information about sights, retailers, and restaurants along the way. 

Street Art San Francisco: Mission Muralismo (ABRAMS, 304 pages, $35, hard cover) by Annice Jacoby for Precita Eyes Muralists; foreword by Carlos Santana. This book, featuring over 900 full-color images, takes a comprehensive look at the; vibrant street art of San Francisco, specifically focusing on work done in the Mission, dubbed Mission Muralismo, which dates from the early 1970s to the present.

So Many Shoes, So Little Time: A Girl’s Guide to Finance (BookSurge Publishing, 216 pages, $15.95, soft cover) by Lisa Serwin. Bay Area–based Serwin presents a thoroughly enjoyable personal finance guide. Using the language of fashion and shopping she conveys money management fundamentals.

Living Modern: A Biography of Greenwood Common (William Stout Publishers, 176 pages, $45, hard cover) by Waverly B. Lowell. This book explores the Berkeley development, created between 1951 and 1957 by architect William W. Wurster, of Greenwood Common. An enclave of eight houses situated around a common green space, Greenwood has become a landmark of regional mid-century modernism.

Secrets of a Top Salesperson: How Emotions Make or Break the Sale (BookSurge Publishing, 234 pages, $14.95, soft cover) by Paula Pagano. San Francisco–based Pagano tells the true-life story about a young woman who achieves success by following the eight essential virtues of business and doing her best to avoid the eight potential vices. 

Relations that Suck: The Story of Eva and Dries (Art & Lenny, 52 pages, $35, hard cover) by Marilyn Yu. This is a fable about the friendship and destiny of two characters from award-winning, San Francisco-based fashion designer Yu. The tale is portrayed through thirty-five dramatic photographs accompanied by a poetic narrative. 

The Jungle Effect: The Healthiest Diets from Around the World—Why They Work and How to Make Them Work for You (HarperCollins, 384 pages, $14.99, soft cover) by Daphne Miller, MD. A family practitioner in San Francisco and an associate professor at UCSF, where she teaches nutrition and integrative medicine, Dr. Miller shares healthy eating secrets she discovered from around the world. Also featured: anecdotes from patients, travel stories, interviews with food experts, and recipes.

Architecture of the San Francisco Bay Area: A History & Guide (William Stout Publishers, 184 pages, $30, soft cover) by Mitchell Schwarzer. This is an evolved successor to Architecture and Design: SF, a small traveler’s companion (1988). This book covers both classic and contemporary architecture of the Bay Area.

Appropriate: The Houses of Joseph Esherick (William Stout Publishers, 262 pages, $65, hard cover) by Marc Treib. Joseph Esherick was one of SF’s most important architects working from the 1960s to the 1990s; he produced a large number of classic residences that uniquely reflect the Northern Calfornia environment.

The Middle Fork: A Political Novel (Synergy Books, 141 pages, $14.95, soft cover) by Rick Glaze. This novel hits on current hot-button political issues, such as global warming, war, and illegal immigration, all expressed again the background of an adventurous kayaking trip. This is Glaze’s first novel; he resides in Los Altos and is a frequent contributor to the Nob Hill Gazette.

Venturing in Italy: Travel in Puglia, Land between Two Seas (Travelers’ Tales, 231 pages, $14.95, soft cover) edited by Connie Burke and Barbara J. Euser. A project of the San Raphael–based Writers’ Workshop International, this anthology is comprised of the personal essays of eighteen travel writers and chronicles various aspects of a ten-day trip they took to Italy in June 2008—from history to food and wine, spas to music.

Images of America: San Francisco’s Pacific Heights and Presidio Heights (Arcadia Publishing, 127 pages, $19.99, soft cover) by Tricia O’Brien. Presidio Heights native O’Brien traces the history of these prestigious San Francisco neighborhoods through vintage imagery.

A Traveler’s Passport to Etiquette (AML Group, 52 pages) by Lisa Mirza Grotts. A little guide to traveling nicely, featuring tips ranging from packing well to how to behave on the plane, by San Francisco–based Grotts, director of AML Group, certified etiquette and protocol consultants.

Mother in the Middle: A Biologist’s Story of Caring for Parent and Child (Touchstone, Simon & Schuster, 310 pages, $25.00, hardcover) by Sybil Lockhart. In this intimate tale, Lockhart, a Berkeley-based neurobiologist cum caregiver and freelance writer, tells her story of caring for her young child and mother, who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease. Throughout she interweaves scientific information with her personal experiences.

She and I: A Fugue (Petrarca Press, 283 words, $26.95, hardcover; $16.95, soft cover) by Michael R. Brown. In this nonfiction memory work, Northern California–based Brown traces his evolution through contact with women.

The Jeweled Art Creations of Sidney Mobell (BookSurge Publishing, 110 pages, $30, paperback), by Sidney Mobell. This is the Mobell’s story. A man of tremendous talent and energy, he fulfilled a lifelong passion to create beautiful objects from ordinary things. His jeweled creations are recognized worldwide, and his jeweled art collection is a part of both the National Museum of Natural History and the Commons Museum in the original old Smithsonian Castle Building.