California Books

Mark Logan is minding his own business on a bicycle tour from Wichita, Kansas, when suddenly he's stuck in the small town of Acreage, California. Little does he know that the next few weeks will bring havoc in his life.

I laughed so hard at the colorful and crazy-kooky characters that I could'nt put this book down to find out if he'll ever get out of town.

This is 'Fargo'without snow. David Kenney's characters are intriguing. Can someone of such underwhelming intellect as Whiteout be so dangerous? Yes they can!

Would my favorite character be rubbed out by such a dimwit? It was entirely possible, there was only one way to know.....I read on. I was hooked.

Both funny and shocking, this book is so fast-paced and absorbing that I couldn't put it down. I stayed up all night to finish it, and then was sorry that I was done. I loved the dialogue, particularly the villian's. I felt as if I had a horrifying peak into into this oddly casual murderer's mind. It gave me just the right amount of chills to keep me riveted, but still kept me laughing!

A delightful sense of humor lightens this truly gripping tale about a psychopathic killer and an innocent caught in the toils of small-town law.

Goodbye Wichita was a fun read, a suspenseful who-done-it that kept me laughing and turning the pages. In my estimation, David Kenney's fertile imagination and puckish humor puts him right up there with Carl Hiaasen and Donald Westlake.

If you like Craftsman style homes or even Post and Beam homes this is a fabulous book. I have never regretted buying it. Ever time I open it I see some thing I missed before and a new idea comes alive. I am glad I bought the soft cover.

If you want one lush, visually opulant but also well-researched book on the Greene brothers and their unique accomplishments in the arts & crafts style, and money is no object, this is the one to get. If it IS an object, Makinson's earlier, smaller paperback, Greene and Greene: Architecture As A Fine Art, will do nicely as a overview of their residential architecture career, but be warned----eventually you'll probably want color photographs. If you've ever visited one of their remaining houses that are open to the public, you know that the color tonalities of the rooms are a considerable part of their charm, and you've probably already bought this book. If you havn't, don't wait 'til it goes out of print. This is THE Greene and Greene book, coffee table or otherwise.

These are among the most beautiful architectural photographs ever produced. Most of these houses are difficult to see and quite difficult to capture in such vivid detail that it must have taken years to assemble such a portfolio. The writing parallels the images. The Blacker House in particular is so opulent and complex that it needs a monograph of its own. One only wishes this book were twice as long with even larger photos and lots more information! Thanks for taking the time to do this right.

I have been collecting articles and books on Greene and Greene for over thirty years and this book tops them all as an authoritative overview by the man who opened our eyes to a national treasure. What a treat for anyone who appreciates Greene & Greene architecture or who enjoys well organized, readable and lushly photographed architectural books. I purchased the book on October 17th at the Blacker House and can give eye witness testimony that these photographs do justice to the Greene and Greene masterworks.

Though author Randell Makinson has written several superb books about the art and architecture of the brothers Greene, and each of his other books is a definitive work on particular aspects of the historical importance of, say, the Blacker House, this book is the finest of them all. Not only is Makinson the final authority and historian for the Greene brothers, he has lived in their creations, supervised restorations, researched every document and drawing extant, and crowns this plethora of knowledge by his immensely fine writing style.

There is nothing didactic about GREENE & GREENE: THE PASSION AND THE LEGACY. Here Makinson treats the reader to the less publicized facts and impressions of two brothers who forever altered the concept of the private home in California. It is this emphasis on the personalities and the private innuendoes, the matters less public that marked their careers, and the end product of their visions that Makinson elects to share. The information is valuable and more: the spirit of the brothers Greene is very much a part of this homage to two important artists.

Gratefully Makinson has elected to include superb photographs that highlight his narrative. The photographs are both contemporary and historical and provide almost as many visual insights as Makinson provides verbal ones. This is THE book for lovers of art and architecture combined as only a few other architects have attempted. Highly recommended. Grady Harp, December 05

The latest collection of poignant and highly entertaining tales of life in a small Mexican town, with all the turns and twists of the first two volumns. Reading these short stories is instant transportation to Tecate!

Daniel Reveles is a charming and humorous writer who spins tales that have their roots in the oral tradition of Mexico. His latest short-story collection is "Guacamole Dip" (Sunbelt Publications, $15.95 paperback), which uses as its stage the border town of Tecate. In his introduction, Reveles invites readers into his world and sets the tone for the stories that follow: "I'm so glad you could make it down to Tecate today. Let's take a shady bench here in the plaza and watch a live show as good as any musical you'll see on Broadway." Of course, the "show" features of the lives of ordinary people who live, love and die in Reveles' beloved town. Not surprisingly, Reveles has been likened to John Steinbeck and Mark Twain. [The full review first appeared in the El Paso Times.]

As a fan of Daniel Reveles' work I was happy to see his new book lives up to his outstanding reputation. It was full of enticing short stories with a Hispanic flavor that lingers on.

If you liked Gabriel Garcia Marquez' Love in the Time of Cholera or 100 Years of Solitude, you'll LOVE Daniel Reveles' Guacamole Dip: From Baja, Tales of Love, Faith and Magic!

A collection of short stories centered in a small Mexican border town. Simple, thoughtful characters. Stories that leave you with a smile and make you wish you lived in a town where people had time for each other, still sing with joy in their heart, had contentment without irony. A nice change from the cynicism and oppression one finds in so much contemporary writing.

Once again, Daniel Reveles has managed to make me care about the wonderful, sweet, noble and sometimes crazy people that live in his world...Care, and laugh, and even cry a bit. I'm only sorry I finished the new book so fast, as I am already "hungry" for more...

I have several of the books from this series and I regard them as the best off road books available.

I purchased this book just to get an idea of trails at the places we often camp. Full of information! Now my husband is even reading it.

There's lots of off road variety in this book. You can four wheel on easy dirt roads to rock hoppin heaven. This book is well laid out and the descriptions of the trails are accurate.

I'm a newbie off-roader, and have only driven one of the "easy" trails in my stock wrangler. It was a lot of fun, and the scenery was awesome, but I think I realized we weren't really off roading when we crossed paths with a brand new mustang convertible going in the other direction. At that point I figured I should take it out of 4wd-low.

So I think there's definitely something for everyone in this book. However, deciding on the right trail and actually driving to it are two different things. Some of my off roading plans fizzled out when I realized I had to drive 4 hours in each direction just to get to the trail I wanted! Living in the SF bay area, I was hoping to have more options within a reasonable day drive...but that's probably just naive of me.

I have had the opportunity to drive trails I know with Chuck Wells, and his books are well written and easy to follow. The trail rating he uses is juged on the roughest section of the trail, if a trail is moderate and has a difficult section that cannot be avoided it will receive a difficult rating. All the trails in his books have been driven by him and not judged by someone else.

Readers will find valuable information in The Healthy Skeptic. The research is thorough. The writing is reader-friendly.

I want to encourage a healthy lifestyle for my family, but it is difficult with all the changing data from the news media, web sites, etc. This is a good book to help you make informed decisions on a variety of health care issues. I suggest reading it to help you come to your own decisions about what is the best choice to make for your lifestyle.

This book has been passed around the family and we bought an extra copy for our local library. In these days of overblown health stories that offer too much, it's nice to have Robert Davis sane and smart advice keeping us readers anchored.

Finally a book that isn't afraid to take on the drug makers and public interest groups who (guess what?) don't always have our best interests at heart. From cholesterol drugs to sunscreen, this book will save you 10 times its cost by telling you what health info is really worth paying attention to--and what isn't. Smart, great read.

Robert Davis has given us a good wake up call here. He reminds us how easy it is to get complacent in our lifestyle, going from diet to diet, falling prey to the latest fad health tips. "The Healthy Skeptic" doles out a good dose of common sense, backed up by a book-full of reminders to check out the research behind what we think is good advice - those "health" claims may not be supported by anything more than the air it took the promoters to utter their words aloud. A good read!

If you want to get your mind around Thoreau's mind and the more significant facts of his life, buy and read this book. Because the chapters are brief but meaty, and because Richardson's an accomplished prose stylist in his own right, this book is a joy to read and, I have found, is wonderful to come back to periodically, particularly when looking for a great way to spend ten to twenty extra minutes profitably.

Robert D. Richardson takes the busy-bodied world of Thoreau and places each of his accomplishments into context starting with their respective intellectual origin. In the process of doing this, Richardson constructs the world of Thoreau's Concord and creates it for us vividly and realistically. This is by far the best Thoreau bio out there and serves a perfect book-end with his Emerson bio, The Mind On Fire.

As a young man my Holy Trinity was: Emerson, Thoreau and Whitman. Emerson's essays are pure poetry; Thoreau's "Walden" and "Civil Disobedience" became a blueprint on how to live and why to write; and Whitman's life and "Leaves Of Grass" taught me about myself.

"A Life Of The Mind" filled each page with the authenticity and richness of a life well lived. Thoreau, the humanness, the naturalist, the friend and son; the poet of the unraveling, entangled soul beating within the humdrum of everyday and ordinary life, leaps from every page. I have read other biographies on Thoreau which never captured the mind and writer of "Walden". Here the man and life equalled and qualified the literature.

Richardson is more than a biographer of Thoreau; he's made from the same stock. He didn't simply tell of a man and his life, he savored, and shared in the same poetics and struggles as the man he researched. The theme of Thoreau's life was an opportunity to express his own convictions and struggles.

It was while reading an anthology of Thoreau's work that I first understood why some poets and writers must write. I came to understand how every sentence could be layered with meaning and timelessness. After reading this biography I must reread my annotated "Walden". I must sit in my backyard amongst the leaves and flowers and shapes and densities I've not paid attention to in some time.

This book remains the best biiography about Thoreau. There is much here to interest both the detail-seeking scholar and the casual reader. Richardson does an admirable job in bringing Thoreau and his ideas to the fore. I found this work very useful when editing my own volume - Profitably Soaked: Thoreau's Engagment With Water, which presents a more bodily than conceptual Thoreau.

In the concluding chapter of "Walden", Henry David Thoreau offers a parable of a great artist in the city of Kouroo "who was disposed to strive for perfection." In Thoreau's story, the artist spends eons working to carve the perfect staff. By the time the artist was satisfied, his friends had died, Kouroo was no more, the dynasty of the Candhars had ended, the polestar had changed, and "Brahma had awakened and slumbered many times". Yet, the artist saw that "for him and his work, the former lapse of time had been an illusion, and that no more time had elapsed than is required for a single scintillation from the brain of Brahma to fall on and inflame the tinder of a mortal brain. The material was pure, and his art was pure: how could the result be other than wonderful?"

This parable of the nature of the self, freedom, and high purpose, told in the language of Eastern thought, is one of many aspects of Thoreau that Robert Richardson illuminated for me in his biography, "Henry Thoreau: A Life of the Mind." (1986) Richardson's biography of Thoreau is the first of what has become an outstanding trilogy of studies of American thinkers. Its companions are "Emerson: A Mind on Fire" and, most recently, "William James: In the Maelstrom of American Modernism." These three biographies cast great light on intellectual and spiritual life and their continuing influence in the United States. Richardson was a professor at the University of Denver when he wrote "Thoreau". He is now an independent scholar.

Richardson's biography of Thoreau (1817 -- 1862) does not begin until its subject reaches the age of 20 and returns from Harvard to Concord, Massachusetts to teach school. Thoreau becomes friends with Ralph Waldo Emerson who encourages the younger man to keep a journal, a habit that will remain with him throughout life and which will constitue the best evidence we have of Thoreau's inner life. Richardson's study draws heavily on the Thoreau's Journal, which when completed ran about 2,000,000 words and which was the source, with Thoreau's other notebooks, for much of his published work.

Richardson aptly characterizes Thoreau as leading a "life of the mind" and his study focuses on Thoreau's intellectual development and on the books which he read. Richardson uncovers and elucidates Thoreau's broad reading over the course of his adult life. Thoreau read broadly in the ancient Greek and Roman classics, and he was greatly influenced by German writers, especially Goethe. His transcendental philosophy was heavily German in origin, as mediated by English writers such as Coleridge. Thoreau read copiously on the history of New England and Canada and on the Indians. He was a careful observer of nature, as is well known, and was influenced by Aristotle's writings on biology, as well as by the classification work of Linneaus, and Agassiz. After the publication of the "Origin of the Species", Thoreau was won over to the developmental theory of Darwin.

I was particularly struck with the influence of Hindu and Indian thought upon Thoreau. This influence is shown in the parable of Kouroo, discussed above, and throughout "Walden" and "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers". Richardson also made connections between Thoreau and writers and friends on an individual level. For example, Richardson discusses Melville's "Typee" and the influence this book had upon Thoreau in its depiction of human nature, and allegedly primitive peoples. Melville's influence appears lasting upon Thoreau. Richardson discusses Thoreau's friendship with the former Unitarian minister, Harrison Gray Otis Blake, and the letters the two men exchanged. (These letters have been compiled in a volume titled "Letters to a Spiritual Seeker.") As a final example, Richardson also discusses Thoreau's meeting, late in his life, with Whitman and how these two writers came to view each other.

Richardson's book brings home Thoreau's conviction that human nature is basically the same everywhere and throughout time. Thus, for Thoreau, persons in his time or our own, are capable of leading a life of freedom and meaning upon the making of effort. Even though Thoreau was fascinated with the Greek, Roman, and Indian past, these sources taught him that people retained the potentiality of living for themselves. Richardson emphasizes the love of wildness in Thoreau, in man, animals, and nature, just below the surface of what he regarded as some of the superficialites of civilization. In addition to Thoreau's self-sufficiency and love of freedom, Richardson emphasizes Thoreau's love of good companionship. Richardson also argues that following the publication of Walden in 1854, Thoreau's interests turned from the self-sufficiency and freedom, to a recognition of the interconnectedness of all things in nature.

The strongest effect on me of Richardson's book was in making me revisit and rethink the inspiring conclusion of "Walden". After a paragraph devoted to life and the ever-present possibility of regeneration, Thoreau concludes Walden as follows:

"I do not say that John or Jonathan will realize all this; but such is the character of that morrow which mere lapse of time can never make to dawn. The light which puts out our eyes is darkness to us. Only that day dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star."

Richardson's book inspired me and it encouraged me to want to read and reread Thoreau. Those readers who are also moved to rediscover Thoreau may want to explore the two large volumes of his works available in the Library of America.

Robin Friedman

This wonderful collection of non-fiction essays is a must have for anyone, regardless of sexual preference. Each essay beautifully describes the heartwarming celebration of love between individuals in their voices. These brave couples became part of a civil rights movement like no other in US history in the early spring of 2004. Each story is well written and invites the reader into the most intimate moments of shared love, desire for commitment, struggles and triumph. Poignantly expressed, there is no doubt this is one of the best books I own. Impossible to read without wishing for more, one can only hope there will be more like it in the future.

Cheryl Dumesnil has done a magnificent job of collecting stories from couples that were legally married at City Hall in San Francisco during the "Winter of Love" in Feb-March 2004. The book covers stories of people ranging from those who were not married but participated (one has young as 18 years) to couples married for over half of a century. There are mixed-racial couples, couples coping with disabilities, young activists, a man who lost his partner to death but still helped all of those at City Hall to marry, couples nearly married who were heartbreakingly turned away on the steps of City Hall, couples together a few years, and couples together for over 50 years. Some couples jumped at the chance to marry -- others struggled with timing, and with the decision if official marriage would really cement an already strong relationship. The introduction by Rosie O'Donnell taught me that straight couples aren't forced to testify against each other in court, but gay couples are. I was continually reminded of all of the rights that are currently not afforded to committed, tax paying, loving couples of the same gender, and their children, in this country of "freedom." I laughed, I cried, I ached for the people in the book -- and for myself -- to be given chances for true equality. This book truly captured the feelings of those at City Hall (I know, I was there). The outpouring of love and volunteerism from straight and gay alike is something I, and others involved, will never forget. If you want to know more about the lives of some of the people involved in the "Winter of Love", this is a must-read.

This book is a treasure, and most especially for an audience that may not be so familiar with the cultural, political and emotional importance of what happened at San Francisco City Hall last year. Editor Dumesnil was able to let the real voices of each stories' writer shine through, while skillfully making room for both the romance and the facts.

I say, mail this book to every politician, policy maker, religious leader and straight family you know to help them be inspired by what is really fueling the fight for marriage equality - love and the importance of family!

And it is also the best non-fiction book I have read in years! The stories are inspiring, humbling, and life-changing. The couples' struggles and desire to be married touched every part of my heart. I only hope that this book has as wide a readership as it deserves.

What a gorgeous book. I just finished reading it and had to write this review. Imagine there were a special celebration of heterosexual marriage somewhere in the U.S. Imagine that straight couples who went there for the celebration would have to wait in line for hours in the rain and face heckling, hateful protesters, and even then might not get the special recognition of their marriage, their lives together in love, that they had been waiting for. Imagine how much in love any couples who would undergo that trial would have to be. Now you have a sense for the kind of love you can read about in Dumesnil's book. This is such an exciting time of change in America. I hope we look back, years from now, in an age of Marriage Equality and feel pride and gratitude for the couples in this book for paving the way in this important civil rights movement. Truly a powerful read--I was moved to tears by almost every story.

I love this series and this book is right up on my top list. I loved that this author talked about collage and what growing up is really about. I am in my Senior year and this story helprd me realize that I cant avoid growing up. I just need to hang on and scream like crazy!!!

This is a great book,and it has a great message about God,and it helps with your relationship with the Lord too. I would reccomend this book to anyone.

This book is wonderful! It's about Sierra before graduation.She goes on a trip to Southern California with her brother and a few of her best friends. She decides to go to the same place as her brother, a private christian college where her friends Christy Miller, And Todd are also going. She still writes to Paul. This is an awesome book! I recomend it!

This was one of my favourite Sierra books because she goes college hunting to California and sees her friends from England. If you're obsessed with the Christy Miller series, you'll love this Sierra instalment. Robyn Jones Gunn is my favourite author-I own almost all her books. I started reading her books in grade 5 and I still love them and am in grade 12. Anyway, this is a really fun Sierra. Peace out.

Usually i read the Robin Jones Gunn books in one night. This one took 2.It was a good book but somehow it did not have enough how do you say it to me details or maybe to much.So that is why i gave it 4 stars

Hollywood and Sunset is an absolutely splendid novel! I have been cherishing it and savoring it page by page over the past four days, and will be dwelling with it for many years.

Starting with stark details and emotions, Luke Salisbury creates almost immediately an intermixing of time and place--between generations and people and cities and times of life--that is far beyond the ability if not the perception of the transcendentalists he invokes, such as Emerson and Whitman. Everything reverberates against everything else in the novel, with Antietam providing a deep base that underlies everything until even it is lifted away to a new level in the final pages. It is a novel that moves me deeply, saddens me, and elates me. The images are stunning, and the layers of symbolism and imagism are laid one on top of another as the layers of an onion skin.

I feel as though I have been sitting in a room of shifting shadows listening to a complex discussion between Emerson, Nathaniel West, Faulkner, Fitzgerald and a few others, with Hemingway maybe nodding his head in one or twice to bark out something. Probably Doctorow is sitting there in the shadows too, though this is much more clear of image than his works. And my own darn life is in that room talking with them also. Mr. Salisbury has the ability to have made this an intensely personal reflective experience. It ends as a terribly real and uplifting experience within the electronic shades and shadows we have erected our current civilization of commerce upon. A man is a man for a' that and a' that, as Burns would have said.

I expect that he is already talking with one studio or another about having this attempted as a film as well. If not, he should do so.

Henry Harrison has made it his life's work to destroy his high-profile enemy, filmmaker D.W. Griffith.

A writer for the Atlantic Monthly, Harrison blindly risks his marriage, his relationship with his son, and the business he shares with his wife, to pursue his misguided passion. But when his wife tells him she is having an affair on the same day he is to come face-to-face with Griffith, Harrison's world is suddenly turned upside down.

A historic novel set in the early twentieth century, Hollywood and Sunset tells the dramatic story of a man who, when faced with losing everything, comes to discover that his only true nemesis lies within himself.

Luke Salisbury, author of several works of fiction and non-fiction, including The Cleveland Indian and Blue Eden, writes for a sophisticated audience with a penchant for fine detail. His characters are interesting, well-developed and extremely engaging.

Armchair Interviews says: The story is vivid, theatrical, and full of emotion--a truly brilliant literary work.

Luke Salisbury's novel utilizes the historical fiction approach typified by Gore Vidal to detail the encounter between an Eastern critic and the notorious director of BIRTH OF A NATION. The opening chapters lead one to expect another chapter in the tedious history of "Griffith bashing" whereby one film has led an over-critical evaluation of the director's other works. But, instead, the author supplies not just a recreation of 1916 Hollywood and its contemporary players but two leading characters affected by deep-rooted prejudices, one of whom will change remarkably by the end of the novel while the other will, at least, recognize his limited perspectives. HOLLYWOOD AND SUNSET thus becomes an engaging early twentieth century comedy of manners dealing with recognizable characters trapped within their own particular ideological perspectives but who, sometimes, have the chance of transcending them. This is a really interesting achievement demanding wider readership and recognition.

Have you ever read an historical novel and wondered what its protagonists were really like? Are you interested in Hollywood and how the place got its start 90 years or so ago? Then read Luke Salisbury's "Hollywood and Sunset." You'll find that D.W. Griffith and his star, the luscious Lillian Gish, were just as outrageous (and hot) as today's denizens of LaLa Land. And you will come away from this page turner wanting to put your hands on Griffith's early film classics "Birth of a Nation" and "Intolerance."

I highly recommend Salisbury's novel. But be warned, its racy in places and probably not the best gift for your maiden aunt!

I don't normally read contemporary fiction, but I went through Luke Salisbury's novel in one sitting and enjoyed every page of it. Its vivid characters -- Howard Gaye, the English actor who dresses like Jesus and behaves like Lothario; the sweetly enigmatic actress Lillian Gish; and Harry Harrison, the narrator, who tries out many roles in his life but who fears he's stuck playing a cuckold -- and rich, authentic period (1916) detail give Hollywood and Sunset its flavorsome charm. But it's Harry's pixilated, often misguided but ultimately successful quest for redemption that resonates with this reader: here's a guy who does just about everything wrong but comes out all right. There's hope for us all, I guess.

This book is PACKED with info about Southern California: places to visit, restaurants, hotels, parks, and attractions. It appeals not only to movie buffs but anyone who wants to know more about the history of the area. It serves as tour guide as well.

Everyone in Southern California should have a copy of Hollywood Escapes to use when visiting a new spot, or looking for a weekend adventure.

While Harry Medved is clearly a movie maven, it isn't necessary for you to be one in order to appreciate what his great guidebook has to offer. For folks who live in California, there will be lots of those "oh yeah, I remember that" moments when Medved explains where a particular scene in a movie was filmed, like the carousel scene in "The Sting" for example (Santa Monica Pier.) But Medved goes far beyond the beaten track, recalling scenes from "Grapes of Wrath" on the Needles Bridge, and even making a stop north of Santa Barbara to El Capitan State Beach for "The Frisco Kid." The many places that are discussed are generally interesting in and of themselves, Hollywood aside. I certainly wasn't familiar with all the films mentioned here, especially the older ones, but the descriptions of the various destination points, supported by hand drawn maps and photographs, have piqued my interest to get out and explore some of the more obscure and overlooked spots around our state.

This book is thoroughly researched and also a fun read! Even if you live in Timbuktu and have no intention of visiting these movie locations, the trivia and backstories about the films and cast & crew are interesting and funny! I strongly recommend this both for film fans and anyone living in or planning to visit So Cal as an off-beat reference source and tour book.

Great book for people interested in movie lore and making a trip to LA or who live there and like to make day trips. Lots of information and the organization of the material makes it very user friendly, and easy to find again when you are driving or trying to show a friend.

I bought it for my husband who is a history buff and he loved it! In California our history is limited sometimes, but this opened up Southern California for him.

Armchair movie aficionados beware! Leave your remote control behind and visit hundreds of famous movie locations in person! This one-of-a-kind travel guide (very few authors can claim that) is the result of exhaustive research covering hundreds of film shooting sites and is a must have for anyone who loves movies and the great outdoors. I liked this book so much, I bought TWO copies - one to keep clean and one whose margins are already filling up with notes as I visit the places featured. Get this book and go touch Hollywood history in person!