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NYTimes
New York Times
20 Jan 2024
Soumya Karlamangla


NextImg:The Best Books About California
ImageAn illustration of a page showing a person’s hands holding a book in the air. One corner of the page is folding, showing newsprint underneath. The page is set against an orange background.
Credit...Illustration by The New York Times; photographs by Jerome Tisne/Getty

Looking for your next absorbing read? We’re here to help.

Today I’m updating our California Reading List, a project of this newsletter that’s intended to guide anyone looking to learn more about the Golden State through adeptly written prose. Readers have sent in hundreds of wonderful recommendations, and I’ve been sorting through them for weeks.

Additions this round include “Farewell to Manzanar,” Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston’s 1973 memoir about her time in a World War II internment camp; Carey McWilliams’s analysis of the state’s first 100 years in “California: The Great Exception”; and Octavia Butler’s unsettlingly prescient “Parable of the Sower.”

You can leaf through the full list here, with the latest additions shown in bold. Please keep emailing your suggestions to CAtoday@nytimes.com, and include your full name and the community where you live. (If you have recommendations for the best local spots to read, send those, too.)

Here are the other additions to the list, and why some readers recommend them:

“The White Album” by Joan Didion (1979)

“I found Joan Didion’s ‘The White Album’ to be a compelling snapshot of L.A. in the 1960-70s, when my immigrant parents moved here. She wrote about celebrities both famous (Jim Morrison) and infamous (Charles Manson), and her musings about freeway traffic ring true today.” — Christine Tse Kuecherer, Burbank

“Day of the Locust” by Nathanael West (1939)

“I taught this short novel for years to college students who liked and appreciated its grotesque satire on American culture generally, but it was only when I started teaching it to Californians who were either from or had been to L.A. that it really sang (though ‘Hollywood’ as a dream factory perhaps resonates less for the TikTok and Netflix generations). I love it so much, I refuse to watch the 1975 film adaptation.” — Matthew Stratton, Davis

“Cool Gray City of Love: 49 Views of San Francisco” by Gary Kamiya (2013)

“A great book for anybody who wants to know/see more of San Francisco than only Fisherman’s Wharf, Chinatown, Union Square, cable cars and all the other typical tourist spots. He writes about a park with a small canyon, hidden places with great views of the city, lesser known historical spots — including native history, different neighborhoods, literary hot spots (not just the Beats), local lore, happenings, stairs (yes, stairs!), earthquakes, etc. It is an ‘intimate’ guide by a long-term resident about his crazy, fascinating, one-of-a-kind, odd, absolutely charming city and its inhabitants.” — Ulrich Hacker, Camino


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