The Best Books About California

Here are the other books I’ve just added, along with what you shared about them, lightly edited:

“Jesse’s Ghost” by Frank Bergon (2011)

“I think it is one of the best 21st-century novels about U.S. ranching and farming, set in California’s Great Central Valley. John Steinbeck visited the Valley only briefly, and ‘Grapes of Wrath’ has no scenes of field work. Bergon grew up in the Valley, and his novel is rich with workers in the fields. As The Los Angeles Times wrote: ‘Frank Bergon finds beauty in the valley, and not through artifice.’” — Aleksandra Mendive, Belmont

“Daughter of Fortune” by Isabel Allende (1998)

“It tells a gold rush story told not from the typical perspective of the 49ers who traveled from east to west, but from the point of view of a young, pregnant woman from Chile searching for her lover, who sailed to California after the discovery of gold. The characters she meets represent the myriad people of all origins who created California. And while she searches for her lover, Eliza finds something else: herself.” — Susan Champlin, New York City

“Alta California” by Nick Neely (2019)

“In the book, Neely follows the route Spanish explorer Gaspar de Portolá took in 1769, walking from San Diego to San Francisco. His narrative uses a dual lens, contrasting what we know of Portola’s trip from diaries and journals with his own observations of modern California along the way. As someone who has always wondered what California was like before it was bisected by freeways and filled with mini-malls and parking lots, it was fascinating to trace Portola’s route in such a tangible way. I had no idea that his party walked right through my neighborhood almost 250 years ago!” — Stace Dumoski, Placentia

“The Valley of the Moon” by Jack London (1913)

“At the age of 12, in the river bottoms of Western Kentucky, I found a shabby old book, a novel, called ‘Valley of the Moon,’ by Jack London. Loosely based on Jack’s own peripatetic life, it traces the odyssey of Billy and Saxon Roberts from the labor strife of Oakland at the turn of the century through Central and Northern California in search of beautiful land they can farm independently. His stories of the trees, the land, the sky, the water — they all gave me a window into a totally different world. Now I live in Santa Rosa and often visit Jack London State Park, in the actual Valley of the Moon. The winding roads and tall trees, the cerulean sky and dancing leaves, the massive redwood trunks, and the insect quiet of the afternoons — it’s even more than my 12-year-old self imagined. I love it here.” — Cheryl King, Santa Rosa

“Imperial San Francisco” by Gray Brechin (1999)

“This nonfiction book, first published in 1999 by the University of California Press, just came out as an audiobook. Tells a surprising saga of San Francisco’s early years, not the usual hearty tale of 49ers and Baghdad-by-the-Bay.” — Laurie Kretchmar, San Mateo