Alta Monday Book Review
THE LATEST
Down and Out in Sacramento
Devyn Defoe’s debut novel, Burnside, offers an atmospheric portrait of contemporary Sacramento.
7 minTHE MONDAY BOOK REVIEW
Portrait of Childhood Shame
Chang-rae Lee’s seventh novel, A Tender Age, depends on description rather than emotion.
6 min
Dismantling Legends
In her fourth novel, Sunrise, Téa Obreht mines a legacy of betrayal and brutality in the American West.
8 min
Desert Testament
Claire Vaye Watkins continues to develop a literature of the Mojave Desert with her latest, Yellow Pine.
6 min
Another Punch in the Head
Gary Phillips’s antihero returns in The Haul, a gripping new heist novel.
5 min
California Dreaming
The Making of Cannabis Country
7 min
City by the Bay
6 min
Brave New World
7 min
The Three-Hander
In No Way Home, T.C. Boyle invigorates a classic form.
7 min
Happiest Place on Earth
In Disneyland and the Rise of Automation, Roland Betancourt uncovers the stories behind the theme park’s legendary rides.
Everyday Magic
Rachel Khong talks to Edan Lepucki about My Dear You.
7 min
Lives We Perform
Sarah Stone’s linked novellas in Marriage to the Sea follow a theatrical family through grief, love, and the complications of self.
The Forest Remembers
In Allison Mick’s Humboldt Cut, Northern California’s redwoods bear witness to generational trauma and depression.
8 min
Split Self, Split Sisters
In her daring first novel, How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder, author Nina McConigley entwines race, sisterhood, and sexual violence in the American West.
Love Me Like a Rock
Gabriel Tallent’s second novel, Crux, looks for the line.
The State of Hate
Eric Lichtblau’s American Reich situates Blaze Bernstein’s murder within a resurgent culture of white supremacy and violent bigotry.
Let’s Have Some Fun
Lights, Camera…Screen Time
Memory Book
Permission for Writers
6 min
