Literature

“Wise Gals” tells the story of five real women — Jane Burrell, Adelaide Hawkins, Mary Hutchison, Eloise Page and Elizabeth Sudmeier — who each played a fundamental role in directing the CIA into its modern line of intelligence.

R. F. Kuang’s “Babel” is a deeply fascinating fantasy tale chronicling political movements, worker resistance and colonialism.

Blossoming with lush detail without boasting grandiloquence, Jimenez narrates in riot against the finitudes of categorization.

“Love in the Time of Serial Killers” follows Phoebe, a PhD candidate interested in the rhetoric and composition of true crime.

Hariri-Kia paints a vivid portrait of an ever-changing media landscape, exploring everything from the shift to online content to the pervasiveness of performative activism.

Hariri-Kia began formulating this story during her first-ever media job, but the novel really started to take shape three years ago.

With her latest endeavor “Lapvona,” it's evident that Moshfegh is not impervious to her newfound widespread name recognition or status as the definitive writer of “unlikable female protagonists.”

“I wanted to come together as a collective,” Engel said in an interview with The Daily Californian.

Bay Area author William Brewer’s debut novel “The Red Arrow” is the raw, tumultuous and gripping journey of a man plagued by suicidal depression and self deprecation who finds hope and healing in psychedelic mushroom treatment.

Booked and busy from May 7 to 8, readers treated themselves and their shelves to this year’s eighth annual Bay Area Book Festival.