Silicon Valley Reads

Silicon Valley Reads is a community engagement program that features books and an annual theme to bring people together by providing more than 150 free, public events each year in February and March. Events for all ages include author talks, book clubs, art/music events, community activities, arts and crafts, movies, and creative events or activities based on the theme each year.

WELCOME TO MIND, BODY, AND BEYOND

After exploring technology in 2025 and belonging in 2026, Silicon Valley Reads is excited to announce our theme for 2027: Mind, Body, and Beyond.

This season, our community is invited to focus on wellness, longevity, mental and physical health. Featuring carefully curated books and over 150 free programs across libraries, schools and community organizations, the 2027 season will spark conversations about personal resilience, tools for overcoming adversity, and ways to build healthy communities.

Our book selections for adults include:

Body Electric by Manoush Zomorodi – A compelling nonfiction guide offering actionable, science-backed ways to stay active and reclaim physical well-being in an increasingly tech-focused world.
The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife by Anna Johnston – A charming, heartwarming novel following a kind, 82-year-old gentleman who, on the brink of homelessness, is mistaken for a resident at a long-term care facility and unexpectedly finds a new sense of purpose and belonging.
In the Shadow of the Mountain by Silvia Vasquez-Lavado – An inspiring, deeply moving memoir detailing a Peruvian climber's journey to summit Mount Everest alongside a group of fellow trauma survivors, channeling physical resilience to heal and reclaim their power.

Mark Your Calendar:

Join us for our Kickoff Event on January 28th at the De Anza College Visual & Performing Arts Center to meet our authors, followed by more than 150 free events hosted across local libraries and community spaces throughout February and March.

All events are free and open to the public. Registration will be available on this site in December for our Kickoff Event and in January for our February/March program season.

Silicon Valley Reads 2026: Bridges to Belonging

2027 Mind, Body, and Beyond

Featured Books for Adults

The three featured books for adult readers explore wellness and resilience through distinct lenses:

Body Electric: The Hidden Health Costs of the Digital Age adn New Science to Reclaim your Well-Being

Bridging the gap between physical health and cognitive clarity, Body Electric investigates how modern technology reshapes our nervous systems and daily wellness. Manoush Zomorodi pairs cutting-edge medical research with simple, restorative movement routines designed to help mind and body thrive in a high-tech world.

The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife

82-year-old Frederick Fife is lonely and running out of money when he is mistaken for an assisted living resident. He unexpectedly gains a second chance to heal an estranged family, and himself. Filled with warmth and humor, this tender novel explores the resilience of the aging mind and the extraordinary ways human connection heals body and spirit.

In the Shadow of the Mountain

From surviving severe childhood trauma and poverty in Peru to standing atop Mount Everest, Silvia Vasquez-Lavado’s harrowing, triumphant journey proves the extraordinary endurance of the human body and spirit. This raw memoir chronicles her path from personal wounds to mountaineering triumph, including guiding a courageous group of young survivors to Everest Base Camp. Vasquez-Lavado illustrates how nature, physical challenge, and shared community can restore personal agency and spark deep, lasting healing.

View All Book Selections

Featured Books for Teens/Children

The below books were selected for our pre-k through young adult readers for Silicon Valley Reads 2027.

What's On Your Mind? A Calming Book for Busy Brains

What's On Your Mind?: A Calming Book for Busy Brains helps little ones sift through overwhelming thoughts, identify feelings, and calm anxiety. Colorful bird characters lead the reader through the book, and interactive pages offer specific tools such as deep breathing, stretching, and sensory exploration: to relax the mind in a fun and silly way. With Todd's signature simple text and bold art, this is the perfect first book on mindful thinking for the youngest readers.

Stream

Eighth grade is over, and Elio Solis and Celi Rivera have their summers mapped out in pixels: all-night gaming sessions and high-stakes social media hustle. But when a community catfishing scare exposes the toll of constant online immersion, their parents call for an emergency digital detox. Stripped of their screens, Elio and Celi are sent to rural Mexico to recalibrate—trading Wi-Fi, electricity, and running water for life alongside a vulnerable arroyo that threatens the village if the summer rains hit. What starts as a dreaded tech blackout transforms into a journey of holistic healing. Assisting local curanderas at a traditional wellness clinic and doing the physical work of restoring the land, Elio and Celi discover the profound connection between a clear mind, an active body, and the health of the community and earth around them.

Fresh Juice (Jugo Fresco)

When Art's father can't get over a cold, Art knows exactly what his daddy needs: some delicious sick-fighting juice! After looking through the fridge and cupboards, they discover they're missing a key ingredient--ginger. But finding some ginger will take them downtown, to the farmers' market, to the food co-op, to the West African grocery... to an unexpected encounter that brings everyone together, and results in a tasty celebration.

All Better Now

A deadly and unprecedented virus is spreading. But those who survive it experience long-term effects no one has ever seen before: utter contentment. Soon after infection, people find the stress, depression, greed, and other negative feelings that used to weigh them down are gone. More and more people begin to revel in the mass unburdening. But not everyone. People in power--who depend on malcontents and prey on the insecure to sell their products and convince others they need more, new, faster, better everything--know this new state of being is bad for business. Surely, without anger or jealousy as motivators, productivity will grind to a halt and the world will be thrown into chaos. Campaigns start up to convince people that being eternally happy is dangerous. The race to find a vaccine begins. Meanwhile, a growing movement of Recoverees plans ways to spread the virus as fast as they can, in the name of saving the world. It's nearly impossible to determine the truth when everyone with a platform is pushing their agenda. Three teens from very different backgrounds who've had their lives upended in very different ways find themselves at the center of a power play that could change humanity forever.

Popcorn

Andrew's just trying to make it through Picture Day, which is easier said than done when it seems like the whole world is out to get him--from a bully to a science experiment gone wrong to a someone else's juice snot (don't ask). But as Andrew goes through the school day, and as one thing after another goes wrong, that little kernel of worry in his stomach is getting hotter and hotter, until it threatens to pop and turn into a public panic attack, his worst fear. He tries to keep his anxiety at bay, but the news that his grandmother with Alzheimer's is missing is too much.Interspersed with humorous spot art and "anxiety file" panels that depict the real, difficult feelings of anxiety and OCD and real tips for coping, this is a poignant, personal, and laugh-out-loud funny story about letting go of control and accepting help--all while trying to get the perfect school picture.

More about books for teens/children

Youth Recommended Reading

Silicon Valley Reads has selected a recommended read for our youth audience this year.

Ab(solutely) Normal: Short Stories That Smash Mental Health Stereotypes

(Recommended Read for young adults) Channeling their own experiences, sixteen exceptional authors subvert mental health stereotypes in a powerful and uplifting collection of fiction. A teen activist wrestles with protest-related anxiety and PTSD. A socially anxious vampire learns he has to save his town by (gulp) working with people. As part of her teshuvah, a girl writes letters to the ex-boyfriend she still loves, revealing that her struggle with angry outbursts is related to PMDD. A boy sheds uncontrollable tears but finds that in doing so he’s helping to enable another’s healing. In this inspiring and unflinching mixed-genre collection, sixteen diverse and notable authors draw on their own lived experiences with mental health conditions to create stunning works of fiction that will uplift and empower you.

View Youth Recommended Reading

Thanks to our Donors!

Silicon Valley Reads relies on the generous donations of our community partners and donors to run over 150 free events each year. For more information on donating, please visit the Donor Information page. Thank you for financially supporting Silicon Valley Reads programs!