Books can change the way we see the world.
New Horizons Books is an independent Oakland bookstore built around a simple belief: reading can open us to perspectives beyond our own.
We carry books that invite curiosity, challenge assumptions, illuminate lived experiences, and help us better understand one another. That might mean discovering a story rooted in a culture different from your own, learning about a part of history you were never taught, or simply seeing something familiar from an entirely new point of view.
Our shelves span fiction, nonfiction, children’s books, young adult literature, and more. What connects them isn’t a single genre or subject. It’s the possibility that each book can leave you seeing the world a little differently than you did before.
How We Choose Our Books
Every title at New Horizons Books is selected with purpose.
We look for books that bring new voices, experiences, ideas, and questions into the conversation. Some introduce readers to unfamiliar communities or histories. Others deepen our understanding of experiences we may think we already know.
We also believe expanding your perspective doesn’t always have to feel heavy. Joy, humor, imagination, adventure, wonder, and celebration are just as important to understanding the fullness of someone else’s story.
The goal isn’t to tell you what to think. It’s to give you more to think about.
Rooted in Oakland
New Horizons Books is based in Oakland, California, a city shaped by creativity, activism, culture, migration, community, and generations of people with stories worth knowing.
While our bookstore serves readers wherever they are, Oakland is home. Through our Bay Area Spotlight and other collections, we’re proud to make space for writers, stories, and perspectives connected to the place we come from.
New Stories. New Perspectives. New Horizons.
At its heart, New Horizons Books is about discovery.
Discovering a writer you’ve never read.
A history you never learned.
A perspective you haven’t considered.
A story that stays with you long after you close the book.
We don’t expect every book to change your mind.
But we hope every great one has the chance to widen your view.