It’s strange what lasts. When “Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead” debuted in 1991, it was just another minor comedy that got mostly bad reviews (though not from me; I liked it). But it has stuck ...

From the Bay Area and beyond, this roundup of fall reading captures the latest from an Oakland cartoonist, a Pulitzer Prize winner, a tech industry expert and more. A stacked fall season for readers ...

Whenever people tell me stories about themselves, I voice the inevitable (for me) question: So, what’d you eat? To me, the trivial-seeming question is everything. What smells and textures did you ...

Every great book is a gift in some way, an offering from author to reader in the form of knowledge, labor, entertainment, heart and wisdom. When considering books worth gifting for the upcoming ...

Calling all opera queens: San Francisco Opera is hosting its first ever Pride Concert. The celebration features the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, conducted by Music Director Eun Sun Kim and Robert ...

Beautiful books make classic gifts for a good reason. What better way to show you understand what delights, inspires or just plain occupies the minds of your loved ones than giving them a thoughtful ...

Reading Kate Christensen’s incisive eighth novel, a quote from 19th century author Ivan Turgenev came to mind: “A poet must be a psychologist.” As evidenced in her previous works (including 2008 ...

If Anya’s memory, as she sings, is “glowing dim as an ember,” Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens’ song somehow conjures that image’s musical equivalent. The melody in “Once Upon a December” smolders ...

In the prologue to Safiya Sinclair’s astounding new memoir, she describes a turning point at the end of her turbulent teenage years in which she’s standing on the veranda of her family’s home in ...

Bay Area author Betty Shamieh with a copy of her first novel, “Too Soon,” in her home workspace in Santa Clara. Photo: Lea Suzuki/The Chronicle If you’re at all involved in the theater scene, you may ...

Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s “Uncle Vanya” marks its first play from the theatrical canon since Johanna Pfaelzer became artistic director in 2019. Hugh Bonneville stars in “Paddington,” based on the ...

In ‘The Book of Love,’ Kelly Link harnesses the surreal and the everyday in a tale of three teenagers learning to wield magic. “Book of Love” by Kelly Link. Photo: Random House Three teens have come ...