California Books

As a food journalist, recipe developer, and recipe tester I've done more than my share of cooking from cookbooks and often find that the recipes don't inspire me or are too complicated to embark on for everyday meals.

What I absolutely love about this cookbook is that the recipes are not only easy, but they also happen to be extraordinarily good. Again and again I am delighted with how fantastic the food tastes, and how approachable the ingredients and instructions are.

I truly cannot say enough good things about this book.

Fantastic book! Delicious, healthy, easy to prepare recipes with neat lifestyle tips sprinkled throughout. I received this book as a gift and will be returning the favor by gifting my friends with it. It's my new favorite.

i just recieved this cookbook for a gift and went straight out and purchased it for my friend!Whether or not you are cooking for your hungry family or hosting a cool little dinner party this healthy cookbook is awesome!

Each recipe is delish and easy too. With Summertime, Anytime even the most ordinary cook can feel like a gourmet chef. The recipes are healthy, easy to follow and my kids cant get enough. This cookbook is a "must have" in your kitchen!We Plan, God Laughs: Ten Steps to Finding Your Divine Path When Life is Not Turning Out Like You Wanted

Crazy delicious and easy to use recipes. My new staple is the sweet corn chowder. The book is also loaded with great cooking tips and is so beautiful to look at, I bought a dozen copies to give out as hostess gifts this summer! The summertime vibe is now very much alive in my home(and it isn't even summer yet!).

This is a wonderfully written book, and a truly compelling story, about the hero's journey of Janet Mitchell - who journeyed from medical malpractice and long-term concealment, to pain and unnecessary surgeries, to overcoming her fear of suing her doctors, to becoming a brave advocate and wise teacher on behalf of patient consumer rights.

Janet, a devout Christian who was acculturated in the tradition of not suing one's doctors, overcomes this resistance and finds her faith strengthened by believing in herself and by telling the truth, not only for her sake - but the sake of every American.

Her willingness to take a stand is a very worthwhile read - and I recommend her book of the same name to everyone.

Janet Mitchell has written a remarkable account of how she trusted God to bring about justice in her life--when the medical community and legal system seemed to team up against her. If you've suffered injustice--whatever that may be--read this book to gain courage to take a stand for what's right.

The author's amazing story is an example of how seriously adverse events in one's life can become a blessing to oneself and others. Janet weaves her times of doubt, pain, and despair through resilience, love, faith and courage to take on the medical establishment and make them accountable to their patients. Her life story and her continued actions to help others and be a voice for them are a priceless gift.

Every person who has ever had surgery or is going to have surgery should read this book. Janet exposes the "Good 'Ole Boys Club" code of silence when it comes to blatant medical malpractice. She also offers an excellant guide to on how to get the most out of your doctor's appointment. It's unfortunate that Janet had to endure such a travesty, but God has given not only a voice to share with others, but laws have been changed to prevent what happened to Janet from happening to other innocent victims.

This book is one of the biggest eye openers that I have ever read concerning Medical Malpractice Law and the American Judicial System today. Never before did I realize that so many patients suffer everyday from doctors committing an act of Medical Malpractice and yet only a small percentage of those victims actually get their case heard within their state courts. This is where Janet's book "Taking A Stand" is so powerful. Janet takes her own personal experience and couragously writes this book, to not only help others but also to show her faith and love in God. Due to circumstances in Janet's case and her will to follow God, California Laws have been changed today and many other victims will be encouraged to follow God's will and stand up for what is right.

My sister has been wanting this after many visits at Tassajara....She finally got it for her birthday

The Tassajara Recipe Book is a great cookbook for families moving to a vegetarian diet(like mine). The recipes are delicious, simple to follow and use common ingredients available at the grocery store.

Edward Espe Brown's commentaries, descriptions and poems are thoughtful and full of humor.

I'm surprised that there aren't more reviews for this wonderful book. I am a new vegetarian and my husband and I have been less than impressed with a lot of the veg cookbooks we've tried so far. This one really does deliver great flavor and wide variety without getting too wrapped up in exotic or hard to find ingredients. My picky hubby gets *filled up* on these meals and even gobbles up the leftovers! The other thing I like is that the recipes are well-explained with simple down-to-earth instructions and there's a nice smattering of Mr. Brown's sense of humor and Zen observations throughout. Even if you never try a single recipe, it's a pleasant read.

So why 4 stars instead of 5? I have two minor complaints about the book.

Firstly, it's apparent that many recipes are conversions from much larger portions. After all, the original recipes were meant to feed a whole retreat's worth of folks. Sometimes the amounts in the ingredients lists are a bit off - nothing that destroys the recipe, but they do take a bit of tweaking to make right. Not all the recipes have this problem. On the upside, most of the recipes are very flexible so you can change the ingredients quite a bit to suit your taste or whatever veggies you have on hand. (He gives many suggestions of substitutions if you're not feeling daring enough to try your own.)

Secondly, he must really like "sour" as a flavor. There is a lot of vinegar usage in this book, many vinaigrettes, and several recipes that can best be described as pungent. If that's your thing, you will be very happy with this book! If not, don't automatically dismiss it. For one, there are other recipes here that are more than worth the cost of the book and secondly, you might just surprise yourself! We tried both the "Cumin Cheese and Onion Tart" and "Mustard Butter Pasta with Broccoli" and went into both meals with a LOT of skepticism - but they're awesome! They're both now regular favorites.

Even if you aren't a vegetarian, I highly recommend this book. It will add great flavor and variety to your cooking repertoire. :-)

We are enjoying the recipes, and love the philosophy re using natural products, wasting as little as posible. Learned more about varioius grains, greens.

Every single recipe in this book is amazing-- they are all wonderfully balanced and do not call for hard-to-find ingredients.

The collection features a good blend of exotic, gourmet, health, and American-traditional dishes (with a touch of flair, of course!) Check the index under sample pages for listings.

Instructions are straight-forward and easy to follow, however there are no pictures or diagrams to help (but for most people, the written instructions will be sufficient.) The book helps you develop a sense of intuition with cooking, sometimes the techniques are open-ended.

This is among the best and unique recipe books I have.

For anyone who's dined at this gorgeous restaurant in St. Helena and wants to get better acquainted with it's secrets, this book is a must buy! I got this book as a Christmas gift for my husband and we've cooked a couple of the recipes and both turned out really well.

A book of artistry and inspiration, Terra is sure to please the intermediate to advance chef and their diners. A cookbook and a reference, simply wonderful.

Great cookbook for those special occasions where you want to spend the time and resources on making something special. The recipes are a little more time-consuming, the ingredients a little harder to find, but the result is wonderful. Jacques Pepin is simpler (and excellent) and French Laundry Cookbook is even more complicated (but also excellent) - Terra is a great in-between.

I've cooked over 10 of their recipes already and every single one has turned out really well. They're not simple nor for a beginner cook, but if you have a little experience, it'll make for some very memorable dinners.

The desserts are especially great, as are the appetizers.

For those of you fortunate enough to have dined at this world class restaurant, Hiro & Lissa'a book needs no introduction. I was fortunate enough to have found Terra shortly after it opened in 1988 (living in St. Helena at the time) & have been hooked ever since. The BEST dishes of their menus past & present are included in this beautifully illustrated book. Most importantly the instructions are well detailed & the dishes turn out exactly as they do in the restaurant. What more can I say? THIS IS A FABULOUS BOOK!!!!!

Much like it's worthy counterpart's book (Tra Vigne), this wonderful piece should not fail to delight and please all those who happen across it.

First, if you are lucky enough to have dined at Terra, you'll already understand the beauty of (and behind) this book. Quite simply, this is a work of art. Why is that the case? Well...

Design--Beautiful graphic design and photographs. The layout is incredible and the photos are enough to make you drool.

Dialogue--Add to that delightful text and dialogue. Much closer to what this book achieves is the word "prose" as opposed to merely "text." The stories and dialogue are true pleasure to read. It makes this much more than simply a "cookbook."

Recipes--The recipes are, much like the food at the restaurant, exquisite. They are just delicious. Their difficulty ranges from relatively easy to moderately difficult. But, they are very easy to follow, making even the harder recipes accessible to the average "joe."

I strongly urge those considering this one to just go ahead and make the purchase. You will not be disappointed. It will be book you will treasure, and will reach for time and again.

Also, look into the Tra Vigne cookbook. It too is on the same level as this piece.

Words cannot even begin to describe the beauty of the works of art contained in this book. If you only ever buy one book in your life to just look at the pictures let it be this one. I could sit entranced by this embroidery for hours. I agree with another reviewer who stated that you can't conceive of this art being created by human hands. If you need proof simply look at the cover. That is not a photograph folks, it is embroidered.
The photographs are also quite beatiful. Consider as you look at them that the photo's are trying to capture texture...something very elusive in that medium. In many cases you can barely tell the photo from the embroidery and in others the embroidery is an interpretation of the photo.
I cannot state this enough... this book is truly, truly extraordinary and I don't think that there is anything else like it out there.

This is, by far, the most beautiful embroidery book I've ever seen anywhere, at any time. It seems impossible that such impressive works of art could have been created. Robert Ketchum's photographs are beautiful, but the embroideries are, indeed, so breathtaking that it's hard to believe real human beings could have worked on them. This is the kind of embroidery I would love to be able to do, but it is so amazing that I know I'll never reach such a high level of expertise (at least not in this lifetime). My thanks to all the people involved in this project for sharing their special gifts with me and anyone else fortunate enough to have purchased this book or, better still, to have seen these works in person.

I bought this book, sight unseen purely from the rave reviews listed. To be honest I was a bit disappointed with the book. Firstly, Robert Glenn Ketchum's photographs are very average. In fact any 15 year old with a good camera and decent eye could take photo's of this quality. The thing that redeems them is the skill of the needleworkers. Secondly, I just think the book is overated. There's several western needlework books that cover this type of embroidery and have better images in my opinion so I just don't understand the rave. An interesting read, but..........yeah. I wouldn't have paid this much if I'd been able to flick through it first.

This is, by far, the most beautiful embroidery book I've ever seen anywhere, at any time. It seems impossible that such impressive works of art could have been created. Robert Ketchum's photographs are beautiful, but the embroideries are, indeed, so breathtaking that it's hard to believe real human beings could have worked on them. This is the kind of embroidery I would love to be able to do, but it is so amazing that I know I'll never reach such a high level of expertise (at least not in this lifetime). My thanks to all the people involved in this project for sharing their special gifts with me and anyone else fortunate enough to have purchased this book or, better still, to have seen these works in person.

I'm not all that interested in embroidery, but I enjoy visual excitement. One day while gallery hopping, we came upon a small portion of the work depicted in this book. We were both blown away by the work! Absolutely amazing. I would really like some posters of this work.

For those interested in the embroidery details, it is done with fine silk threads, hand dyed, on various fine fabrics, some of which are so fine you can see through them. Much of the interesting texture and effect is from what they call random stitch embroidery, in which the scenes are depicted by various colored stitches .5 cm (1/4 inch) long running in various random directions, yet they all come together to make the image. Other parts of the images are done by carefully controlled stitch direction to give crisp images. They pick up the light and are quite luminous, some are displayed as screens with light coming from behind. Only the enlargements in the book give a sense of the beauty and amazing technique of the actual pieces.

Oh, and the book is good too. Definitely a 5 star quality coverage of the work, with background information, as described in other reviews. But the work itself is beyond 5 stars. (In the gallery they were priced around the $10,000-$150,000 range, some took several years to complete.)

I've had this book for almost two years now. I originally started out visiting San Diego frequently, and now have lived here in SD for 2 months.

At first I used this book for the map, to learn where things are, and also to compile a list of things I wanted to do. My boyfriend and I usually set out to do one of those things on each trip that I would come to San Diego. This book was so helpful with that - for example on our visit to the zoo reading the top 10 was helpful because it gave me a sense of what the park had to offer, and what was in my own top things to see.

Now that I live here, I still use this book! I brought it with me just last week to Balboa Park, and I also use before I have friends to visit - I'll flip through and think of them and what might interest them. I even still open it up to look at the restaurants, bars, ect. And just as the other people have mentioned, I use the map all the time (And love that they have a flap so you can mark a page with them).

I highly recommend this book! It is my only San Diego guidebook!

Again, I bought this for a friend that is moving to that area and she was so ecxited to get something she could use for a place she knows nothing about.

Top 10 San Diego is a small little travel resource that fits nicely in a pocket, purse, or backpack. There are plenty of maps included in this book. All are full color and fold out large enough so that the lost tourist can actually figure out where they are going. I can't stress this point enough. I've been stuck too many times on public transit or while negotiating a busy street while flipping through some oversized travel guide to find that one black and white map that I need a magnifying glass to read.

I also like the whole top ten notion. Before reading this guide, I had already done a good deal of research on the places I wanted to go, where I wanted to stay, and what activities San Diego had in store for me. Top 10 San Diego gives me a good reference that I can use to get to these places no matter what area of the city that I happen to be in at the time. Looking through these lists, I was also pleasantly surprised to find a few more little gems that I hadn't previously known. I was particularly impressed with the various sections on restaurants, shopping, performing arts venues, and offbeat activities.

This was a great easy, quick read. if you follow this guide, you should be able to maximize you visit in San Diego. i liked it so much, that I bought everyone on our trip one.

DK Eyewittness always produce great travel guides especially there 10 ten sites. Its easy to read, small enough to carry around and has little gems of advice in there.

What an excellent book!

Great characters, pitch-perfect dialogue and a fascinating plot that keeps you guessing until the last chapter. Straw has the nuances and attitudes of modern Hollywood down cold and describes Los Angeles with a lovingly jaded eye that LA residents (like me) will really appreciate.

So if you're in the mood for a great read, some belly laughs and a peek into the twisted funhouse that is Hollywood, look no further and pull the trigger on "The Trigger Episode!"

I really enjoyed The Trigger Episode. First of all, I love the genre and have a sense that only the best make it look easy. Tom Straw does that with great style. Nothing came out the way I thought (or feared) It would,i was completely at the mercy of the storyteller. A good mystery is a joy to read most particularly when the author draws interesting characters, which Tom Straw does, but they are also FUNNY. I laughed aloud, not something I do in a book very often, The social commentary is priceless and the TV world is accurately represented (it is an area I am well accustomed to) and there is a lot of fun to be had there as well. Straw is a terrific up and comer in the novel field, his sit-com training had served him well. I can't wait to see what's next. I hope it will be Hardwick and Meredith teaming up again.

At times The Trigger Episode reminded me of Carl Hiaasen's books, but the action in this one takes place in and around Hollywood and not South Florida. Also, in my opinion Mr. Straw is funnier. There are many very funny passages, but there are also some that are very "oh, man, what's going to happen next!?" Tom Straw is a Hollywood veteran, so it's no surprise that he has that milieu cold. The dialogue definitely rings true... and did I mention that it's funny?

Sure Tom Straw is a veteran TV writer; and now he's an accomplished mystery writer. This book will appeal to all readers of both mystery and general fiction. The story is laser-focussed, the dialogue is spot-on authentic and the overall experience of reading this book is a sense of time well spent. A satisfying and accomplished book that will turn you into a fan and make you hungry for Mr. Straw's next book.

I just finished this book while on vacation. I couldn't put it down. This guy can really write. I always buy books by Micheal Connelly, James Ellroy, Jonathan Kellerman, and I am putting Tom Straw on that list. Hardwicke is a hardboiled character with a twist. characters are great, the writing is top notch, and it kept me guessing until the end. i am hoping for a sequel soon.
Put this one on your list, summer reading or whatever.

For anybody going on bike tours this is a humbling book to read, and hard to put down. You can't help but root for two 18 year old boys who don't know enough not to make the trip. It also has special meaning for anyone who has ever driven all or parts of I-5 from San Francisco to Seattle. In 1909 it was possible to stay on the best road between California and Washington, and still get lost. Finally you get a feel for what life was like when my grandfather was alive. The postcards the two boys sent to their parents show buildings still standing today, but life was so much different. A good read.

If you enjoy reading about cycling and living this is a great book. I've read every touring and cycling book you can imagine, but this is the best! It really gives you a new perspective on how we ride today when you look at what these two boys had to endure at the turn of the century when roads did not exists as we know today. A truly well written adventure, great venacular dialogue, credible and yet an incredible story.

This book is an amazingly well-written story of the adventures of two young men bicycling from Santa Rosa, California to the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in Seattle in 1909. You are drawn into the narrative until, before you know it, you find yourself riding along with them on their trip, tasting the dust, feeling their occasional pain, and even enjoying a piece of pie with them... and then you realize that, like an Ansel Adams photograph, you have been drawn into an illusion of a reality long past. And, smiling, you dive back into the book and continue pedaling.

I bought this book thinking it would be an interesting adventure tale. It is that but so much more. The writing is poetic and heart warming. An absolutely wonderful little book!!

I first bought the book because of its Vashon Island connection, being a lifelong islander myself. But I quickly decided it's one of the best bicycle touring stories in my library -- the boys come alive in the writing, no dreary list of statistics and mileposts, just two boys becoming men on their ride north to Seattle. Puts a whole new perspective on that ride for anyone who has cycled the Pacific Coast route in modern times.

this book was extremely hard for me to get into at first, but after graceland, and sitting in a chris abani lecture i had faith in where he would take me and i followed thru. the ending was superb. very well done. chris abani is a literary genius in a repressive stone age. black, alas i knew him well, he is me.

I can confidently echo for you the praise the other reviewers on this page have granted The Virgin of Flames. It is the lyrical, grotesque, ecstatic, outcast story of a Los Angeles that simmers unknown to many of it's own citizens-migrants and natives alike. Chris Abani's imagery of Black, Iggy, Sweet Girl, Bomboy, Ray-Ray, Rio L.A. and East L.A., among others is quite reverential and even more than the pictures and qualities he conjures, they are brave.
As a resident of L.A. and it's environs I enjoyed those references to neighborhoods (yes, L.A. has neighborhoods), bridges, restaurants (Thai Palms-Thai Elvis) and the like that told me Mr. Abani walks these places and sees the faces and grafitti, decay and sublime magnetism that propels many of us here. He captures the mystery and possibility of Los Angeles in the radical expressionism of Black's identity experimentation, Iggy's underground venues and physical risk, Sweet Girl's bold sexuality and paralyzing trans/pro-gression. As well, the Catholic blood that run through the dusty past of Los Angeles and California, the WEST, in all it's harrowing, piercing pain. Abani's vision of a modern martyr, his many attempts at acceptance and expression reminded me of Leonard Cohen's Beautiful Losers. The artist living his life as a work of art, challenging the dominate modes through as many of his avenues of existence as possible.
Some favorite passages:
"It seemed, though, that those with a clear sense of the past, of identity, were always so eager to bury it and move on, to reinvent themselves. What a luxury, he thought, what a thing, to choose your own obsession, to choose your own suffering. Him, he was trying to reinvent an origin to bury so he could finally come into this thing he wanted to be, and he knew that if he didn't find it soon, it would destroy him, burn him up." (pgs. 123-24)
"This River was alive, this River was here before anyone knew this was a River, before anyone saw it and said, River. And its personality shaped this city. Was this city." (pg. 135)
Referring to the L.A. Mission, downtown: "It had long since lost out to Six Flags fun parks and Universal Studio's theme park. It looked sad, not in the way of a rejected wallflower, but more in the commonplace shame of a community center. A place kept open by a grudging love." (pg. 155)
Mr. Abani expresses one of the prime enigma's of Los Angeles life: "In LA we are always becoming, and any idea of a solid past, as an anchor, is soon lost here. And I mean any, that's why there is no common mythology here, that's why people come here, to get lost or to be discovered, makes no difference. It's the same coin. Other cities, like New York, have an overwhelming myth, and there is no you, as it were, without this-shall we say-New York state of mind. But here, there is none of that bulls**t, there is just you and what you see and imagine this place and your life in it to be, moment by moment. If you can't change, if you don't embrace it, you destroy yourself. The only landscape in this city is in your mind. It's very Zen..." (pg. 207)
"Ambivalence is the heart of this town. Not in spite of, but because of." (pg. 207)

I look forward to reading more of Mr. Abani's works.

I can't begin to tell you how much I enjoyed this book. Abani's characters leap from the page. It's a stunning book and I can't wait to go back and read some of Abani's earlier novels.

The Virgin of Flames is odd, complex, and accomplished. We find many of Abani's earlier themes: lost, found, and created identities, violent acts and defered release and the consequences of both, surreal consciousness, sublime sexuality and abhorent flesh, choices, imperatives, the absence in the human condition of objectivity - all ignited on the page into an escalated blaze that can keep you up nights. Abani's writing is not for those invested in happy endings. The suicides of his protagonists speed up the inevitability of a death most of us strain to delay. Yet, this is fiction, and, if you give youself over to it, The Virgin of Flames reads as a unique, disquieting voice, an extended prosepoem which will leave you changed. What other is the purpose of art?

In the Virgin of Flames Abani gives us a lyrical, daring portrait of a city and its inhabitants struggling to find their place between darkness and the sublime. Black, a mural artist, is a modern-day Hamlet searching for answers to the riddle of his past, fighting to create a whole from its fragments. This conflict is mirrored in the topography of Los Angeles, where the holy and grotesque combine in a city that reflects the struggles of post-9/11 America. Abani does not provide easy answers to any of this. Instead, he shows us characters that navigate violence and despair but retain the ability to truly care about one another and a city where, despite its urban malaise and constant veil of smoke and ash, people sing joyously in the streets. From its vivid dreamscapes to its gritty realism, Abani's novel will leave the reader breathless at the beauties and complexities of life.

Like Mr. Klein, I too grew up in Southern California and am familiar with the many locations, in their present incarnation, in which this wonderful story takes place. The book raised a curtain on the past and allowed me to step into the Southern California where my grandparents stepped off the train from Boston, full of excitement and anxious to make a new life in this promising paradise at the edge of America.

Even if you are not a native Californian, you'll enjoy this book which, in addition to the well researched historical insight, is a great yarn.

Well done Mr. Klein and thank you!

Think of Fitzgerald's economy of language combined with the folk wit of Twain and you have a hint of the fresh, clear writing of RE Klein. This well-researched novel is about the Los Angeles area from 1892 to 1959--specifically the birth and death of two of the most famous family recreation spots: Mt. Lowe and the Venice Canals. But, it's the characters that make our hearts ache for the musical grace of those times. Lyman Bright ages from ten to seventy-seven with an enthusiasm for adventure, providing a narrative filled with images so tight and lyrical they make each page spin. Through him we meet his family, friends and locals. From the mystical Luana and bossy Emmaline to the comic boogey man, Dratch, terrorizing Lyman with tall tales of villainous deeds-along with Tung Fisher, who always holds both ends of the conversation in a Bronx dialect--everyone is grand company. For this reason, I keep Mt. Lowe on my bedside reading table to visit again and again.

The Way to Mount Lowe was a wonderful and intriguing read -- I literally could not put it down. And, I was so disappointed when I turned the last page. I yearned for more. This epic tale of a young boy's journey through adulthood, and the adventures he encounters while growning up in the beginnings of the southern Californian metropolis really intrigued my whole being as an adventurer and southern California native. I learned so much about the places I grew up near and around, and never knew that much about. Some of this is pure fiction -- and I loved every minute of it! Not to spoil the tale, but the whole imagery created by Klein with the mere thought of someone coming up with a "tar suit," which would enable one to permeate the depths of this gooey wonderland at La Brea is fantastic (one of my favorite sections.) And the Venice Canals -- ahhhh, the Venice Canals - again, wonderful fictional/historical imagery. Thank you for this tantalizing creation. A must read for all southern Californias and those who would like to grasp a more through understanding of the place we call home. Bravo!!!

Having read and enjoyed THE HISTORY OF OUR WORLD BEYOND THE WAVE, I decided to look into R. E. Klein's other novel, THE WAY TO MT. LOWE. What I found was a charming history of Southern California from the 1890s through the 1950s seen from the point of view of one Lyman Bright.

A native of Indiana, Bright moves to Los Angeles with his family in 1892. As a 10-year-old, he was astounded by a new trolley line ascending thousands of feet to Mount Lowe, where there were hotels, restaurants, and other tourist amenities -- not to mention a phenomenal view in those pre-smog days extending south and west toward the Pacific and offshore to Santa Catalina Island.

Bright, his family, and friends exemplify the boom days and bust days of L.A. After the Mt. Lowe project ended in bankruptcy, Bright's attention was drawn by the canals of Venice, a community developed by Abbot Kinney, after whom a street in present-day Venice has been named.

Although I have not climbed Mt. Lowe myself -- though I could tell that Mr. Klein has -- I have frequently walked along what remains of those same Venice canals, now being re-gentrified after decades of neglect. As a native of Southern California, Klein saw it all, registers all the joys and disappointments, only to come to this summary of the whole experience in the last chapter: "A flawless record of stupendous achievements ending in extinction."

As Lyman ages and the chapters toward the end of the book get shorter and shorter, he takes to the famous Red Cars that once connected the outlying towns of the Los Angeles area, only to be killed off by the automobile. He aimlessly travels from place to place, soaking in what's left of what he loved.

If you do not know or care much about Los Angeles, this book will probably not do much for you. You will lack the frame of reference required to see where everything takes place. (There is, however, a handy map on the back of the paperback edition.)

But if you know and love Los Angeles as I do, having lived here for over 40 years myself, it is easy to be swept away by author's enthusiasm. His characters are lightly sketched in, but then the main character is Los Angeles itself, especially in its moments of glory represented by Mt. Lowe, Venice, and the Red cars. Lyman and his friends represent the city in its spectacular growth and, at times, disappointing deterioration.

Mister Klein presents us with a strange book. It is a book to read twice straight away: once for entertainment and the the second time to indulge in thought.
It is more than an autobiography of our narrator, Lyman Bright, who takes us on a tour of southern California, and in particular, Los Angeles from 1892 to 1959, it is a description of how a community can eat itself and the people within it and still come shining through.
This book - a most readable volume in short chapters - comprises so many facets: California history, and for those readers who have never been there it is a superb introduction; mini-biographies of the famous - not least Professor Lowe; the supernatural and fantasy are here as well as religion (mainstream and otherwise); love, relationships, life and death compound the story while friendships are important to Lyman; this is the story of a community growing perhaps too quickly - even the movie industry seems to outpace itself!
But throughout, the magnetism of Mount Lowe draws Lyman Bright to its heights - even in his old age.
There are fascinating insights into Los Angeleno life: why, for instance, fifty years ago was the public transport system so good and no so poor?
One thing that non-Californians wil be surprised about is Lyman's descriptions of the weather thereabout - doesn't the sun always shine in California???!!!
And running throughout the book is the malevolent seam of anthracite that is DRATCH.
Read! Enjoy!