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
NATIONAL BEST SELLER * Oprah's Book Club 2.0 selection. * 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...
East of Eden
Steinbeck, John
Paper Book
In his journal, John Steinbeck called East of Eden “the first book,” and indeed it has the primordial power and simplicity of myth. Set in the rich farmland of California’s Salinas Valley, this sprawling and often brutal novel follows the intertwined destinies of two families-the...
Alice Waters & Chez Panisse : the romantic, impractical, often eccentric, ultimately brilliant making of a food revolution
McNamee, Thomas
Paper Book
In an authorized biography-the story of Alice Waters, Chez Panisse, and the San Francisco 1970s counterculture food revolution that invented "American cuisine" Not so long ago it was nearly impossible to find a cappuccino or a croissant in this country, and goat cheese and mesclun lettuce were...
My first summer in the Sierra
Muir, John
Ebook
In the summer of 1869, Scottish immigrant John Muir worked as a shepherd in California's Sierra Nevada Mountains. The diary he kept during this time was later adapted into My First Summer in the Sierra, which was published in 1911. His record describes the majestic vistas, flora and fauna, and other...
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,...
West of Eden : an American place
Stein, Jean
Audiobook
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 Andy Warhol...
Daughter of fortune : a novel
Allende, Isabel.
Paper Book
From the New York Times bestselling author of The House of the Spirits, Isabelle Allende, comes a passionate tale of one young woman's quest to save her lover set against the chaos of the 1849 California Gold Rush.   Orphaned at birth, Eliza Sommers is raised in the...
The Circle : a novel
Eggers, Dave.
Paper Book
A bestselling dystopian novel that tackles surveillance, privacy and the frightening intrusions of technology in our lives--a "compulsively readable parable for the 21st century" (Vanity Fair).  When Mae Holland is hired to work for the Circle, the world's most...
The Maltese falcon
Hammett, Dashiell
Paper Book
The guncle : a novel
Rowley, Steven
Paper Book
Patrick, or Gay Uncle Patrick (GUP, for short), has always loved his niece, Maisie, and nephew, Grant. That is, he loves spending time with them when they come out to Palm Springs for weeklong visits. However, tragedy strikes and Patrick suddenly finds himself taking on the role of primary guardian....
Oil! : a novel
Sinclair, Upton
Ebook
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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