Michelle Richmond

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FOUR BOOK CLUB FAVORITES THAT ARE SURE TO SPARK DISCUSSION

Michelle Richmond’s novels are a favorite among book groups. Choose from four critically acclaimed novels that combine page-turning action with philosophical quandaries about the complexities of marriage, sisterhood, parenting, and more. Every paperback includes an extensive playlist, author Q&A, and reading group guide.

GOLDEN STATE: A literary thriller, and a love story

When a hostage crisis breaks out at the Veterans Administration Hospital on the day that California is voting on whether or not to secede from the union, Dr. Julie Walker must save her sister, and herself, from the violent intentions of an obsessed former patient. Read Golden State. “Mesmerizing and intricate, Richmond’s dissection of California on the violent brink of secession from the nation provides the backdrop for her deeper inspection of the uneasy, fragile relations between siblings.” Booklist, starred review

Golden State

NO ONE YOU KNOW: “A thoroughly riveting literary thriller” (Booklist, starred review) about math and murder

A Stanford math prodigy is murdered while working on a centuries-old mathematical mystery. A fame-hungry professor writes a bestselling true crime book about the murder, and the accused man’s life is ruined. Twenty years later, the mathematician’s sister sets out to discover the truth behind her sister’s murder. Read No One You Know, a selection of the Literary Guild and the Mystery Guild. “A thoroughly riveting literary thriller.” Booklist, starred review

No One You Know

THE YEAR OF FOG: A girl goes missing on a San Francisco beach…
A girl goes missing on a San Francisco beach while in the care of Abby, her soon-to-be stepmother. Try the New York Times bestseller The Year of Fog, a Kirkus Reviews Top Pick for Reading Groups, a Target Bookmarked Book Club Pick, a Silicon Valley Reads all-city read, and a major bestseller in France.

The Year of Fog

DREAM OF THE BLUE ROOM: The murder of a gay teenager in a small Alabama town reverberates decades later.
It is the the beginning of the 21st century, and China’s massive Three Gorges Dam is nearing completion. Jenny takes a journey up the Yangtze River to honor Amanda Ruth, her childhood friend who was murdered decades before. Along for the journey is Jenny’s estranged husband. An erotically charged novel about the stories we can’t erase. Read Dream of the Blue Room. “Intelligent, original, complex.” The San Francisco Chronicle

Dream of the Blue Room

In Search of the Ultimate Winter (Wall Street Journal Traveler’s Tale)

I GREW UP in the humid heat of Alabama’s Gulf Coast. My family would run the air conditioner on Christmas Day so we could use the fireplace. In a landscape devoid of snow, where all you needed to get through the coldest months of the year was a windbreaker, winter took on a magical mythology. I dreamed of sleds and bright woolen mittens, a fat snowman guarding the lawn.

When I was 7, on a family trip to Gatlinburg, Tenn., I saw snow for the first time. What startled me most was the clean, bright smell and the crunching sound beneath my sneakers when I plunged my feet into a snow bank. The cold felt like a great adventure.

In 1997, I moved to New York City. The first snow of the winter filled me with awe. I loved the hush it brought to the noisy city, the way it made everything look sparkling and pristine. But when the snow turned black and piled up along the curbs and the wind bit my face, the romance soured. While I enjoy the cold, I decided I like it best in small doses. So I moved to San Francisco, where the summers are notoriously cold and winter brings occasional sun and frequent rain, never snow.

Continue reading this essay in the Wall Street Journal.

image by Anna Parini for the Wall Street Journal

A reading from Hardy Boys, just because…

For years, Peg Alford Pursell has been hosting a fantastic San Francisco reading series called Why There Are Words. A couple of years ago, I joined a few other writers for a Why There Are Words event for Litquake in the Mission. I just unearthed the video of my reading, which, for reasons you’ll soon understand, involves Sean Cassidy and the Hardy Boys. (FYI: This video, like the Sexy Sean Cassidy puzzle I received for a birthday gift decades ago, is actually not suitable for kids).

What To Do in San Francisco

image of Golden Gate Bridge, by Simone Enderlin

I fell in love with San Francisco on a family vacation when I was thirteen years old. I decided then that I would live here someday. Fast forward to Fayetteville, Arkansas, 1995. I was doing a brief layover at The University of Fayetteville. Brief enough not to lose my mind, but long enough to meet a boy from San Francisco. The rest is history.

When The Telegraph asked me to talk about what no Londoner should miss on a trip to San Francisco, it wasn’t easy to whittle it down. From where to eat to what to avoid, here are my top recommendations for tourists in San Francisco.

Read San Francisco, My Kind of Town, in The Telegraph.