Thank you all for reading with us this past fall! Read more about the official book club selection and see photos from the events below.

We are looking forward to launching the next club in 2024. To stay up to date with One Book One BART, join our mailing list above. 

Happy reading!

Questions? Comments? Ideas?

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About the One Book One BART Fall '23 Club

On Monday, Sept. 18, BART announced the official start of the One Book One BART Fall ‘23 Book Club. The novel strategy for rider and employee engagement follows on the heels of our first book club, which debuted last Spring with Hua Hsu’s Pulitzer-winning Stay True. We wrapped up the fall club with a live author talk at BART Headquarters, featuring Margaret Wilkerson Sexton and moderated by Vanessa Hua. You can watch a recording of the talk here. 

The fall club read On the Rooftop (Ecco) by Oakland-based author Margaret Wilkerson Sexton. On the Rooftop is a novel about a mother whose dream of musical stardom for her three daughters collides with their own aspirations, set against a backdrop of a gentrifying 1950s Fillmore District in San Francisco.  

Reading while you ride has long been one of the great benefits of taking BART. And at BARTable, we know that the Bay Area is home to an amazing legion of readers, writers, libraries, independent bookstores, and publishers – many of which are accessible by BART. With One Book One BART, we want to celebrate this region’s vibrant literary culture and encourage our reading riders to get on BART and get to know one another.  

For the fall club, we also further engaged BART employees with exclusive employee-only programming, including roadshows to stations and BART shops/yards and events at BART Headquarters. 

We encouraged readers to check out a copy of the book from local libraries, including One Book One BART partner the San Francisco Public Library, or to purchase the book from our independent bookstore partners -- Moe's Books, Folio Books and Banter Bookshop -- who offered a 20% discount off the title when customers showed their Clipper cards. 

From the publisher: On the Rooftop is a stunning novel about a mother whose dream of musical stardom for her three daughters collides with the daughters’ ambitions for their own lives—set against the backdrop of gentrifying 1950s San Francisco. Read a detailed synopsis here. 

In 2006, Sexton left her hometown of New Orleans for the Bay Area to interview for a job. She tells BART: "I didn't have a car so I rode BART everywhere." 

She continued:

"I was thrilled to hear that On The Rooftop was chosen as the Fall 2023 selection for One BART, One Book. I moved to the Bay Area in 2006 via a one-way ticket from my hometown of New Orleans. I had come for a potential job and had reached the second round of interviews. It was a big job, and I was one year out of college; it was unlikely that I would get it. I didn’t have a car so I rode BART everywhere, trying to memorize the different stops and wondering where they might lead. I used BART to get to the Mission District where my then boyfriend, now husband lived on Florida and 24th. My great aunt had moved from New Orleans to San Francisco during the Great Migration then settled in Vallejo. When I went to visit her, it was her grandchildren who picked me up at the Richmond Station. And of course, I took the BART to my job interview. After, while waiting at Millbrae, I called my dad and sobbed into the phone. I didn’t know what I was doing. In just the few days since I’d arrived, I’d fallen in love with the Bay Area but didn’t know if I would have a viable way to live there. I didn’t know then that I would end up getting the job, nor that I would marry in the Bay Area and have my children there. I didn’t know that I would eventually write a book set in the city I was coming to know. And it was impossible to imagine that that book would be honored by the transportation system that has not stopped carrying me."

-- Margaret Wilkerson Sexton, author of On the Rooftop

Event Photos 

Author Talk with Margaret Wilkerson Sexton, moderated by Vanessa Hua, at BART Headquarters

Local authors Margaret Wilkerson Sexton and Vanessa Hua came to BART Headquarters to close out the fall club with an author talk. Watch a recording of the talk here. 

 BHQ Book Day (for BART Employees) at BART Headquarters 

One Book One BART was joined by partners the San Francisco Public Library and Moe's Books. BART's very own Danielle Dai showed off her new zine, featuring "illustrated recipes from a Taiwanese American mama," as well as the Railgoods popup shop. 

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Train Read-In from Richmond Station to Daly City Station

Book club members gathered on a moving train in passenger service traveling from Richmond Station to Daly City Station. They participated in trivia, a raffle, and book discussions. 

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One Book One BART Kickoff Event, Downtown Berkeley BART Plaza

One Book one BART was pleased to kick off the fall club at Downtown Berkeley BART Plaza with Half Price Books. People spun our prize wheel for exclusive merch, made buttons with BART staff, picked up a free bookmark, and played games with Half Price Books. 

Read about the first One Book One BART club, which we launched in Spring 2023 with Hua Hsu’s Stay True, at this link.