One City One Book (San Francisco) Public

Created and curated by Phil in SF

Books selected for San Francisco's One City One Book program

  1. China Boy by 

    No rating

    Kai Ting is the only American-born son of a Shanghai family that fled China during Mao's revolution. Growing up in …

    Phil in SF says:

    SFPL's One City One Book #1 (2005) This childhood story of being caught between cultures in 1950's San Francisco is both powerful and poignant.

  2. The Hummingbird's Daughter by 

    No rating

    From a Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of The House of Broken Angels and Good Night, Irene, discover the epic …

    Phil in SF says:

    SFPL's Once City One Book #2 (2006) Hummingbird's Daughter - Tells the story of Teresita, a young girl coming to terms with her destiny as a healer, who will grow into a revolution-inspiring Mexican "Joan of Arc."

  3. Cane River by 

    No rating

    Beginning with her great-great-great-great grandmother, a slave owned by a Creole family, Lalita Tademy chronicles four generations of strong, determined …

    Phil in SF says:

    SFPL's One City One Book #3 (2007) Combines painstaking historical reconstruction with unforgettable storytelling.

  4. West of Kabul, East of New York by 

    No rating

    Tamim Ansary's passionate personal journey through two cultures in conflict, West of Kabul, East of New York.

    Shortly after militant …

    Phil in SF says:

    SFPL's One City One Book #4 (2008) We travel at Ansary’s side, and he gives us rare access to Afghan culture— From the time of “old Afghanistan,” through Soviet rule and later, the Taliban.

  5. Alive in Necropolis by 

    A fresh, imaginative debut novel about a young police officer in northern California struggling to keep the peace and maintain …

    Phil in SF says:

    SFPL's One City One Book #5 (2009) Set in the city of Colma, it is a rollicking tale of policing the dead, with deceased citizens far outnumbering the living.

  6. Zeitoun by 

    No rating

    Abdulrahman and Kathy Zeitoun run a house-painting business in New Orleans. In August of 2005, as Hurricane Katrina approaches, Kathy …

    Phil in SF says:

    SFPL's One City One Book #6 (2010) A horrifying, compelling story of post-Katrina -- even more absorbing knowing what later happened to Zeitoun.

  7. Packing for Mars by 

    The best-selling author of Stiff and Bonk explores the irresistibly strange universe of space travel and life without gravity. From …

    Phil in SF says:

    SFPL's One City One Book #7 (2011) From the space shuttle training toilet to a crash test of NASA’s new space capsule (cadaver filling in for astronaut), Packing for Mars takes us on a surreally entertaining trip into the science of life in space and space on Earth.

  8. A Paradise Built in Hell by 

    A stirring investigation into what happens in the aftermath of disaster, from the author of Orwell’s Roses

    The most startling …

    Phil in SF says:

    SFPL's One City One Book #8 (2012) A masterwork of narrative nonfiction by a contemporary California writer reaches some surprising conclusions about our need for community and common purpose, which she argues are fundamental to democratic forms of social and political life.

  9. Little Brother by 

    Marcus, a.k.a "w1n5t0n," is only seventeen years old, but he figures he already knows how the system works–and how to …

    Phil in SF says:

    SFPL's One City One Book #9 (2013) Daring, exciting, and just bold enough to show us how to keep our freedoms safe. This is a provocative book, a timely book, and the San Francisco setting is just so satisfying.

  10. Tales of the City by  (Tales of the City, #1)

    For almost four decades Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City has blazed its own trail through popular culture—from a groundbreaking …

    Phil in SF says:

    SFPL's One City One Book #10 (2014) This story about the denizens of the mythic apartment house at 28 Barbary Lane in San Francisco, is both a sparkling comedy of manners and an indelible portrait of an era that changed forever the way we live.

  11. Season of the Witch by 

    The critically acclaimed, San Francisco Chronicle bestseller—a gripping story of the strife and tragedy that led to San Francisco’s ultimate …

    Phil in SF says:

    SFPL's One City One Book #11 (2015) From the early days of the Summer of Love in the Haight, through years of murder and mayhem, the city evolved. Through extensive research and personal interviews, Talbot captures a 15-year history never before told in this level of detail.

  12. Beautiful Chaos by 

    No rating

    Carey Perloff, former Artistic Director of San Francisco’s legendary American Conservatory Theater, pens a lively and revealing memoir, and delivers …

    Phil in SF says:

    SFPL's One City One Book #12 (2016) A behind-the-scenes perspective, including her intimate working experiences with well-known actors, directors, and writers.

  13. Black Against Empire by ,

    No rating

    This timely special edition, published on the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Black Panther Party, features a new …

    Phil in SF says:

    SFPL's One City One Book #13 (2017) A comprehensive history of the ideological underpinnings of the Black Panther Party: armed resistance, anti-imperialism, gender roles, the war in Vietnam and the draft, community service projects, and government repression.

  14. The Best We Could Do by 

    A national bestseller and American Book Award winner, The Best We Could Do is an intimate and poignant graphic novel …

    Phil in SF says:

    SFPL's One City One Book #14 (2018) Explores the anguish of immigration and the lasting effects that displacement has on a child. Thi Bui documents her family’s daring escape after the fall of South Vietnam in the 1970s and the difficulties they faced building new lives for themselves in America.

  15. There There by 

    Among them is Jacquie Red Feather, newly sober and trying to make it back to the family she left behind. …

    Phil in SF says:

    SFPL's One City One Book #15 (2019) Tells a story of Native Americans living in the East Bay that is beautiful, funny, heartbreaking and urgently real.

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