Slow Fire (Minotaur Books, 352 pages, $25.99, Hardcover) is a fast-paced crime drama from San Francisco–based Ken Mercer. Introducing a compelling protagonist, Will Magowan tries to pick up his sad and empty life by taking a job as the new police chief of a seemingly quiet town, Haydenville. As the story unfolds, Magowan quickly learns of Haydenville’s past and begins to uncover forty years worth of buried secrets. A sure-fire page-turner, Slow Fire takes readers on a winding journey with twisting plots and an unforeseen ending making it a great start to an edgy new series.
Birth of a Psychedelic Culture: Conversations about Leary, the Harvard Experiments, Millbrook, and the Sixties (Synergetic Press, 264 pages, $29.95, Paperback) explores the in-depth examinations that launched a revolution in psychology during the 1960s; written by Bay Area–based Ralph Metzner. This conversational memoir also includes a forward written by John Perry Barlow.
The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine (W. W. Norton & Company, 288 pages, $27.95, Hardcover) is the follow-up to best-selling Berkeley author Michael Lewis’s Liar’s Poker. This sequel returns readers to Lewis’s darkly humorous and wry writing about Wall Street excess and the latest financial crisis. However, for this book, Lewis focuses on an interesting prospective: the winners. Those of who made it through the depleted housing markets, predatory lending, and criminal mismanagement.
Nancy’s Theory of Style (Gallery Books, 384 pages, $15.00, Paperback) is a fiercely fun and witty contemporary love story nestled in one of San Francisco’s trendiest neighborhoods, Pacific Heights. San Francisco native Grace Coopersmith introduces the world to Nancy Edith Carrington-Chambers, a stylish young socialite who leaves her marriage and opens a party planning and style business, challenging her to dodge the curveballs life can throw at you. This heartwarming and romantic story will have readers pacing in their Prada’s to see what happens next.
If You Can Read This: The Philosophy of Bumper Stickers (Random House Trade Paperbacks, 240 pages, $14.00, Paperback) welcomes readers to the insightful and funny world of bumper-sticker manifestos. With such statements as “Don’t Label Me” and “Superman Is My Copilot,” best-selling author and philosopher Jack Bowen digs deeper into this bumper-sticker “wisdom” and cultural phenomenon, dissecting what people are trying to say and exposing the true meanings of these popular slogans.
Mastering Positional Chess: Practical Lessons of a Junior World Champion (New In Chess, 240 pages, $23.95, Paperback) allows chess enthusiasts to strengthen their skill in the game through practical lessons and positional themes that San Francisco resident and chess prodigy Daniel Naroditsky taught himself.
