Berkeley author William Smock reads from his new novel about the most irresponsible, disobedient boy in the world. It's called "Bobby Lord of Acton Waters."

San Francisco author Lissa Soep reads from her book "Other People’s Words." It's about friendship as a great love and how we hold loved ones close after they're gone through the language that they leave behind.

San Francisco author Ethel Rohan reads from her book "Sing, I." It's about a middle aged woman living in Half Moon Bay and questioning if she's in her right life and what she should or perhaps should not do about that.

Mae Respicio lives in San Rafael. Her middle grade novel, Isabel in Bloom is about 12-year-old Isabel, who's leaving the Philippines for San Francisco to finally reunite with her mother, an overseas Filipino worker whom she's only seen five times in five years.

Carolina Ixta's debut novel, is about a young Latina woman named Belen Dolores Ixtel del Toro who was trying to find her way in a very messy and very complicated senior year of high school.

Luiza Flynn-Goodlett lives in Richmond. Her poetry chapbook "Familiar" is about a time traveling witch, childhood trauma, healing, and transformational magic. And there's footnotes.

Margaret Juhae Lee lives in Oakland. Her book, Starry Field is about her family's search for information about my grandfather, who was a student revolutionary in colonial Korea.

Jason Roberts lives in Oakland. His book is about one of the most important rivalries in history, a rivalry that shaped the nature of our relationship to the natural world.

Sasha Vasilyuk's novel is about a Soviet World War Two veteran with a dangerous secret, and it's loosely based on her grandfather.

Eizabeth Stix's book is a collection of linked stories full of quirky, lonely characters all seeking connection but who can’t help getting in their own way.