I attended a launch party for two author friends the other night, and wanted to pass along the recommendations.

Erika Mailman is an Oakland-based author with a regular column on the city’s history. She draws on that experience of the Bay’s past in Woman of Ill Fame, out now from Heyday Press. I dipped into Chapter One and am already intrigued. She’s got a delicate touch with period vernacular and knows her way around a cliffhanger. I’m looking forward to more.

SoMa, Kemble Scott‘s first novel, is a look at the real San Francisco values—the kind they don’t talk about on Capitol Hill. I’ve read the novel in an earlier draft, and it’s an intelligent cliff hanger for the voyeuristically inclined. For a sneek peek, check out Scott’s YouTube series outlining the seedy world of SoMa.

For all the Angeleno-phobes out there, here’s further proof their daily is markedly better than our fumbling Chronicle:

Rising rents and competition from the chains have imperiled independents for years, but San Francisco used to think it was immune. Cody’s and other Bay Area stores helped spark the Beat movement, encouraged the counterculture, fueled the initial protests against the Vietnam War. In a region that sees itself as smart and civilized, bookshops were things to be cherished.

Three sentences that sum up why the radical transformation of the book culture in S.F. is so appalling. Read the rest of the article:
Bookshops’ latest sad plot twist – Los Angeles Times

For all the talk of rising rents, what compelled Cody’s to shoulder up to the Virgin Megastore in what must be a much higher rent district? Is it an assumption that increased traffic will bring increased sales, because that seems to be contrary to what this article suggest. And though it’s not a Bay Area joint, why doesn’t the article point to Powell’s unique success story among independent bookstores? Instead of ducking the online onslaught that many saw coming, they refashioned themselves without losing their identity as an independent.