‘The Sacramento: A Transcendent River’ (River Bend Books, 2013)

By Bob Madgic with Walt Simmons

In the book “How Starbucks Saved My Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else” (Gotham, 2007), author Michael Gates Gill tells how he fell rather heavily from a life of luxury to working at Starbucks – after the age of 50.

Sometimes it takes an outsider to accurately describe and shed light on the environment you live in or assume that you know extremely well.

In an effort to support authors from Los Altos, Los Altos Hills and Mountain View, many self-published, Book Buzz periodically spotlights their books and offers information on where to purchase them. Local authors are encouraged to submit brief summaries of their books, a sentence or two about themselves and details on where the books may be purchased. Email information to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

‘Kavanah and Holy Days’ (CreateSpace, 2013)

By Stephen Astor

Reading “Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore” by Robin Sloan (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2012) is like going to an old-fashioned county fair – it’s a lot of fun and there are many surprises along the way. To add to the enjoyment, the book is set in San Francisco and Mountain View, with a stop along the way in New York City.