David L Ulin is Alta Journal’s books editor.
More City Than Water looks at Houston’s Hurricane Harvey through a wide-angle lens.
In The High Sierra: A Love Story, Kim Stanley Robinson traces a relationship with place.
Mark Haber discusses his novel Saint Sebastian’s Abyss and the vagaries of art.
Maggie Nelson pens a “magnificent anti-memoir of the brain and of the heart.”
Steph Cha’s masterful fourth novel resets the parameters of crime fiction.
Don’t miss these seven essential books by the author.
Michael Connelly’s latest novel challenges the role of the police procedural in a defund-the-police world.
In A Ballad of Love and Glory, Reyna Grande reframes the Mexican-American War.
Thinking about Jack Kerouac on the 100th anniversary of his birth.
Garrett Hongo’s The Perfect Sound: A Memoir in Stereo is a symphony in words.
Dale Maharidge’s first novel, Burn Coast, is a Northern California noir.
Karen Tei Yamashita’s Great American Novel is the California Book Club’s March selection.
Natalie Diaz’s Pulitzer Prize–winning collection of poetry is the California Book Club’s February selection.
David L. Ulin reflects on the joy and comfort of a family dinner in the midst of the pandemic.
Sarah Shun-lien Bynum’s book of fairy tales is the California Book Club’s January selection.
The late writer knew that stories sustain us—until they don’t.
In Light on Fire: The Art and Life of Sam Francis, Gabrielle Selz explores the legacy of the California abstract expressionist.
In his new novel The Every, Dave Eggers frames technology as threat.
In The Book of Form and Emptiness, Ruth Ozeki frames the novel as elaborate Zen koan.
In the California Book Club’s November selection, Tommy Orange writes about a dozen Native American characters connected by loss.
The California Book Club’s October selection is a tour de force that helped establish memoir as a literary genre.
The California Book Club’s December selection is a sprawling, panoramic social novel about Southern California.
Alta books editor David L. Ulin on how Larry McMurtry spurred his hunger to become a writer.
Five books that best capture the author’s writing.
The poet’s last works as final words.
With Gordo, Jaime Cortez turns to fiction for his narratives.
Anthony Veasna So’s Afterparties is both debut and testament.
Why You Should Read This: ‘Elsewhere, California’
In Until Proven Safe, Geoff Manaugh and Nicola Twilley present a history of quarantine.
