Each year, South by Southwest teams up with Austin's largest indie bookstore BookPeople for a pop-up store at the Austin Convention Center featuring the books written by conference speakers. Besides letting attendees dive deeper into the topics they just heard about, the bookstore also doubles as a back-up option for talks attendees have missed (ask us how we know).
If a book sells out — or if one strikes your fancy but you're not attending the conference — readers can also shop online via BookPeople, which has the conference's curated list of all its featured authors' books on Bookshop.org.
With 100 different titles on the list across varying genres, from (a lot of) tech and business to literary fiction or self-help, there are plenty of opportunities to learn something new — sometimes straight from the mouths of Texans.
Here are 10 books Austin editor Brianna Caleri and network writer Amber Heckler are adding to our must-read lists.
Titles are organized alphabetically by the author's last name.
Think Faster, Talk Smarter: How to Speak Successfully When You're Put on the Spotby Matt Abrahams
Hardback retails for $28.99
Friendly rambling is certainly a strategy for public speaking or meeting new people, but Stanford lecturer and podcast host Matt Abrahams has ideas for tightening up communication habits. This book isn't all business: it talks about everything from job interviews, to small talk, to retracting your foot from your mouth after saying something weird. No matter what, it's about staying calm in moments we haven't fully planned for. — Brianna Caleri, editor
Hoodwinked: How Marketers Use the Same Tactics as Cultsby Mara Einstein
Hardback retails for $28.95
The word "cult" often brings to mind figures like Charles Manson and tragic events like the Jonestown Massacre. But in Hoodwinked, Dr. Einstein (yes, she's related to that Einstein) describes how the rise of digital media and social media marketing has allowed a new type of cult to emerge: brand cults. She unveils the methods used by companies to attract brand devotees and explains how to avoid falling for these manipulative marketing ploys. — Amber Heckler, network writer
Permanent Damage: Memoirs of an Outrageous Girl by Mercy Fontenot and Lyndsey Parker with afterword by Pamela Des Barres
Hardback retails for $27
Many of us might have felt like groupies during SXSW, but likely none could hold a candle to the late Mercy Fontenot. This memoir by the self-proclaimed "Mae West of 1968" follows her life from growing up in the San Francisco Haight Ashbury scene to founding the GTO's, a girl group produced by Frank Zappa, and more. The book's co-author, music journalist Lyndsey Parker, attended the conference last year and the book made the collection again in 2025. — BC
The Vagina Business: The Innovative Breakthroughs That Could Change Everything in Women's Health by Marina Gerner, PhD
Paperback retails for $17.99; also available in hardback ($27.99)
Women's health has long been an under-researched subject in the medial field, and the pain women experience throughout their lives is constantly ignored. Gerner shines a light on several trailblazers developing products to advance the future of women's health, from a smart bra equipped with EKG technology to detect heart attacks to pelvic-floor-restoring devices that can be used during menopause. — AH
The Dream Hotelby Laila Lalami
Ebook retails for $14.99; also available in hardback ($29) and large print paperback ($31)
Lalami's latest novel explores the life of Sara, a woman living in a surveillance society who is arrested based on "dream data" that says she will commit a crime. Sara must endure living in a retention center alongside other women who have been accused of crimes via their dreams, until a new resident arrives and changes everything. – AH
Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech by Brian Merchant
Hardback retails for $30
This AI-, cryptocurrency-, and overall tech-heavy conference doesn't exactly seem like the ideal place for a Luddite — or someone who writes about them — but tech journalist Brian Merchant stopped by to lead a discussion with software engineer Molly White about crypto's increasing political influence. His book Blood in the Machine details the Luddites' "organized guerrilla raids" against the machinery threatening their jobs and examines what influence workers might have in how tech continues to shape our future. — BC
My Grief Comfort Book: Creative Activities to Help Kids Cope with Loss and Keep Memories Aliveby Brie Overton
Paperback retails for $18.99
Grief affects everyone differently, and that includes the youngest and most impressionable people around us. Overton's kid-friendly guidebook uses creativity as a form of therapy to help grieving children process their feelings. With activities like coloring pages, comfort cards, and more, My Grief Comfort Book is a compilation of soothing exercises that can help build resilience and coping skills. – AH
All You Need to Know About the Music Business (Eleventh Edition) by Donald S. Passman
Hardback retails for $37.50
This comprehensive guidebook to the music industry by University of Texas grad and entertainment lawyer Donald S. Passman just keeps getting better. When the law moves as fast as it does in the music industry, books discussing royalty rates, digital sampling, and the way releases work need to be constantly updated. Passman, who has represented Taylor Swift, Adele, Billie Eilish, Elton John, Stevie Wonder, and Paul Simon, has miraculously kept a wonderful sense of humor that shows in his writing. — BC
Notes on Complexity: A Scientific Theory of Connection, Consciousness, and Being by Neil Theise
Paperback retails for $20
There's poetry in science, and philosopher and NYU professor of pathology Neil Theise has found it. In Notes on Complexity, Theise introduces complexity theory — a study of systems made up of many parts — demonstrating how seemingly independent entities throughout the universe are interconnected. This sounds like a heady read, good for getting out of an every day mindset and into a more thoughtful state. — BC
The Anti-Ableist Manifesto: Smashing Stereotypes, Forging Change, and Building a Disability-Inclusive Worldby Tiffany Yu
Hardback retails for $30
With the White House's recent rollbacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion, it's extremely important to learn how these policy changes make life more difficult for those fighting for a more accessible world – one that doesn't exclude disabled people. The Anti-Ableist Manifesto makes readers think critically about their inner ableism while also offering ideas to become authentic allies to the disability community. — AH
