Adults - Books about California

Updated March 21, 2026
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The golden gate
Chua, Amy
Paper Book
Amy Chua's debut novel, The Golden Gate, is a sweeping, evocative, and compelling historical thriller that paints a vibrant portrait of a California buffeted by the turbulent crosswinds of a world at war and a society about to undergo massive change. In Berkeley,...
Wild : from lost to found on the Pacific Crest Trail
Strayed, Cheryl
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A powerful, blazingly honest memoir: the story of an eleven-hundred-mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe--and built her back up again. A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the Century At...
Showtime : Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers dynasty of the 1980s
Pearlman, Jeff.
Paper Book
The New York Times bestselling author of Sweetness delivers the first all-encompassing account of the 1980s Los Angeles Lakers, one of professional sports’ most-revered—and dominant—dynasties.   The Los Angeles Lakers of the 1980s...
East of Eden
Steinbeck, John
Paper Book
A masterpiece of Biblical scope, and the magnum opus of one of America's most enduring authors, in a commemorative hardcover edition   In his journal, Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck called East of Eden "the first book," and indeed it has the primordial power and...
We were going to change the world interviews with women from the 1970s and 1980s Southern California punk rock scene
Russo, Stacy Shotsberger
Ebook
The punk rock scene of the 1970s and '80s in Southern California is widely acknowledged as one of the most vibrant, creative periods in all of rock and roll history. And while many books have covered the artists who contributed to the music of that era, none have exclusively focused on the vitality...
Alice Waters & Chez Panisse : the romantic, impractical, often eccentric, ultimately brilliant making of a food revolution
McNamee, Thomas
Paper Book
The first authorized biography of "the mother of American cooking" (The New York Times) This adventurous book charts the origins of the local "market cooking" culture that we all savor today. When Francophile Alice Waters opened Chez Panisse in Berkeley in 1971, few...
My first summer in the Sierra
Muir, John
Paper Book
Automatic noodle
Newitz, Annalee
Paper Book
A cozy near-future novella about a crew of leftover robots opening their very own noodle shop, from acclaimed sci-fi author Annalee Newitz. An instant USA Today and indie bestseller! Indie Next pick | Library Reads pick | Best of the Year at...
Disney's land : Walt Disney and the invention of the amusement park that changed the world
Snow, Richard
Paper Book
A propulsive history chronicling the conception and creation of Disneyland, the masterpiece California theme park, as told like never before by popular historian Richard Snow. One day in the early 1950s, Walt Disney stood looking over 240 acres of farmland in Anaheim, California,...
Valley of genius : the uncensored history of Silicon Valley, as told by the hackers, founders, and freaks who made it boom
Fisher, Adam
Paper Book
"This is the most important book on Silicon Valley I've read in two decades. It will take us all back to our roots in the counterculture, and will remind us of the true nature of the innovation process, before we tried to tame it with slogans and buzzwords." -- Po Bronson, #1 New York Times...
AfriCali : recipes from my Jikoni
Moju, Kiano
Paper Book
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST COOKBOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times, Bon Appetit, Saveur, Food & Wine, Los Angeles Times, and Food Network Turn readily available ingredients and pantry staples into easy yet flavorful weeknight meals and dinner...
Freeman's California
Freeman, John
Ebook
"A necessary piece in a literary California collection" with new work from Tommy Orange, Rabih Alamdeddine, Mai Der Vang, Jennifer Egan, and others ( Los Angeles Times). From immigration rights to climate change, California has been ground zero...
West of Eden : an American place
Stein, Jean
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * An epic, mesmerizing oral history of Hollywood and Los Angeles from the author of the contemporary classic Edie Jean Stein transformed the art of oral history in her groundbreaking book Edie: American Girl, an indelible portrait of...
Daughter of fortune : a novel
Allende, Isabel.
Paper Book
"Allende has created a masterpiece of historical fiction that is passionate, adventurous, and brilliantly insightful. . . . suspenseful and surprising."--Denver Post From the revered New York Times bestselling author of The House of the Spirits and A Long Petal of the Sea...
The Circle : a novel
Eggers, Dave.
Paper Book
A New York Times BestsellerWhen Mae Holland is hired to work for the world's most powerful internet company, she can't believe her luck. The Circle, run out of a hip, sprawling California campus, links users' online data with their universal operating system, creating a new age of civility and...
The Maltese falcon
Hammett, Dashiell
Paper Book
FEATURING THE CHARACTER THAT INSPIRED THE AMC SERIES MONSIEUR SPADE STARRING CLIVE OWEN ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE'S 100 BEST MYSTERY AND THRILLER BOOKS OF ALL TIME Detective Sam Spade is a private eye with his own solitary code of ethics. When his...
The guncle : a novel
Rowley, Steven
Paper Book
Winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor National Bestseller * Wall Street Journal Bestseller * USA Today Bestseller An NPR Book of the Year Finalist for the 2021 Goodreads Choice Awards From the bestselling author of Lily and the...
Oil! : a novel
Sinclair, Upton
Paper Book
Upton Sinclair's searing indictment of fossil fuels that predicts our current warming planet while imagining a greener and more inclusive future A Penguin Classic Perhaps most well-known today as the inspiration for Paul Thomas Anderson's film There Will Be...
The Joy Luck Club
Tan, Amy
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * Amy Tan's modern classic that examines the sometimes painful, often tender, and always deep connection between mothers and daughters "For me, [The Joy Luck Club] was one of those once-in-a-lifetime reading experiences that you cherish...
Properties of thirst : a novel
Wiggins, Marianne
Paper Book
A National Bestseller A New Yorker Best Book of 2022 Fifteen years after the publication of Evidence of Things Unseen, National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize finalist Marianne Wiggins returns with a novel destined to be an American classic: a...

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