Staff Picks 2021
Our Favorite Books of 2021
Don't read this when you're hungry! Yoomi and her dad have a delicious day in Koreatown. Read this to your young kids at the start of the weekend so you'll…
Read more of this comment about Sunday Funday in KoreatownReads like a mix of "The Princess Diaries" movies and "The Royals" (TV show)! Think I need a sequel or two! Recommended for: Teens Recommended by: SL,…
Read more of this comment about Tokyo Ever AfterStaff Picks 2021
Paradise on Fire is a survival novel inspired by the real life Camp Fire of 2018 (which is noted as the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California's…
Read more of this comment about Paradise on FireNot at all new, but newly republished with new introductions for renewed popular consumption, John Frémont's logs of this second trip west in 1842 provide…
Read more of this comment about A Report of the Exploring Expedition…A timely and heartfelt examination into loneliness in American life. Radtke’s writing on a difficult but universal experience is filled with empathy and…
Read more of this comment about Seek YouFord recounts her youth and young adulthood, marked by a complicated relationship with her often abusive mother, her adoration of a devoted grandmother,…
Read more of this comment about Somebody's DaughterStaff Picks 2021
This middle grade historical novel features a Gullah Geechee family of rootworkers who are surviving life under racist terror during the 1960s. A rare…
Read more of this comment about Root MagicIn Warmth, a strident and passionately devoted climate activist reveals to the world, and to future children he is reluctant to have, what he's been going…
Read more of this comment about WarmthThis fascinating drill-down on the racial and socio-economic realities underlying the Bay Area's rapid demographic changes presents a chilling, sorrowful…
Read more of this comment about CounterpointsThis book represents a long overdue work of scholarship, providing, at long last, an in-depth, non-Eurocentric look at the state's indigenous population,…
Read more of this comment about We Are the LandOPL Staff Best of 2021
This debut story collection explores Cambodian and queer lives in California and how past trauma echoes from generation to generation. Deeply felt and…
Read more of this comment about AfterpartiesBlack Food is a visual, tactile, flavorful and fascinating celebration of everything one can imagine about the food of the African diaspora and the African…
Read more of this comment about Black FoodThis is the quirky story of Charlie Barnes, a down-on-his-luck, thrice divorced, serial entrepreneur; as told by his author son, Jake. But how much are…
Read more of this comment about A Calling for Charlie BarnesThis book is a fascinating read. The author explores the development of CRISPR, an easy-to-use tool to edit human DNA, which encourages scientists to race…
Read more of this comment about The Code BreakerSimon Hanselmann's latest work was originally posted piece-by-piece on the author's Instagram in real time as the pandemic of 2020 was unfolding. The final…
Read more of this comment about Crisis ZoneThis new series starter is an underwater adventure with all the humor and edge-of-your-seat suspense you expect from Rick Riordan, starring an ultra-smart…
Read more of this comment about Daughter of the DeepThis monumental work presents a convincing challenge to much of what we have accepted to be the story of the origins of civilizations. The team of the…
Read more of this comment about The Dawn of Everything5 years after a corrupted Anti-Life Equation infected the Earth with a zombie-like virus, forcing survivors to flee to a secondary planet, a rebuilt Justice…
Read more of this comment about DCeasedIt was hard enough trying to manage conversations with the likes of those among us who challenge the notion of a greenhouse effect caused by humans burning…
Read more of this comment about How to Talk to A Science Denier…For the publishing industry, the Trump Administration presented an unprecedented opportunity for cashing in on White House reportage. A seemingly endless…
Read more of this comment about I Alone Can Fix ItFew artists define a musical genre the way the B. B. King defines the urban blues. Under the very capable pen of Daniel de Visé, a Pulitzer Prize winner,…
Read more of this comment about King of the BluesKlara and the Sun presents the world as seen through the eyes of Klara, an android, or AF (Artificial Friend). Klara is purchased for Josie, a teenage…
Read more of this comment about Klara and the SunA collection of insightful and humorous essays, many of which go into the author’s childhood being raised in the cult known as The Family and her journey…
Read more of this comment about Leaving Isn't the Hardest Thing…It’s the 1830s in North America, and a pandemic has wiped out most of the population. Ada, accused of witchcraft, is on the run and unexpectedly finds a…
Read more of this comment about OutlawedEvery little white elephant needs a best friend who is a human girl in a wheelchair! Set in Indonesia, this gorgeous full-color graphic novel from California…
Read more of this comment about Marshmallow & JordanA slim but surreal novella followed by several two short, short stories and an interview of this Oakland author, by Oakland's sci-fi master Terry Bisson,…
Read more of this comment about The Planetbreaker's SonMore than just books.
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Standoff
A prominent member of the indigenous people's movement presents a thought-provoking study on human attachment to the land in a side-by-side breakdown of…
Read more of this comment about Standoff