John McMurtrie

The Southland author manages to include some of our favorites among her picks for best new books about California and the West.

The Sellout author reveals which 2013 book sent him down a YouTube rabbit hole.

The California Book Club’s January 2021 author reveals her pick for the great work of literature whose backstory deserves its own book.

The California Book Club panelist lauds Karen Tei Yamashita’s I Hotel for its depiction of the political and cultural unrest of the late 1960s and early ’70s and Chester Himes’s often overlooked If He Hollers Let Him Go as one of the best novels about California.

This week’s California Book Club newsletter: The impact of Devil in a Blue Dress, Po Bronson on navigating the future, and C Pam Zhang’s novel makes NPR’s list of best books.

The next guest of Alta’s California Book Club is a fan of Dashiell Hammett, Ross Macdonald, and Raymond Chandler.

In Devil in a Blue Dress and dozens of other books, the author is driven by a sense of confronting injustice.

This week’s California Book Club newsletter: Devil in a Blue Dress is the club’s next pick, David L. Ulin chooses his favorite California books, and Alice Waters writes about her treasured reads.

The California Book Club panelist praises the writings of Joan Didion, Armistead Maupin, Walter Mosley, and Wendy C. Ortiz.

The author of Alta’s California Book Club November pick shares her journey.

This week’s California Book Club newsletter: Obama’s latest book goes on sale, Jonathan Lethem returns to his science-fiction roots, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez picks Rebecca Solnit.

The California Book Club panelist admires the works of Joan Didion, Dana Johnson, and Octavia E. Butler.

In Mexico, she couldn’t afford books as a child. But the future author discovered the public library after immigrating to the United States.

This week’s California Book Club newsletter: Get ready for Reyna Grande, all hail Maya Angelou, and Samin Nosrat’s favorite new cookbooks.

Ten titles that pair well with Reyna Grande’s memoir The Distance Between Us.

The Distance Between Us author has also written a sequel to her memoir—and two novels.

This week's California Book Club newsletter.

The California Book Club panelist looks for works that beautifully relate the struggles of so many in the state.

What the author of The Distance Between Us endured is a reflection of U.S.-Mexican border history.

The California Book Club panelist draws inspiration from Chicana punks, an experimental poet, and a Black jockey whose story deserves a book.

Ever wonder how the Southern California sky gets its distinct glow? It’s airlight.

The author of How Much of These Hills Is Gold joins John Freeman for the first meeting of the monthly club.

Distance gave C Pam Zhang the freedom she needed to bring her novel to light.

The story of one abandoned settlement lends some historical context to C Pam Zhang’s gold rush–era novel.

The California Book Club panelist celebrates the work of Wanda Coleman, Tommy Orange, and Octavia E. Butler.

John Freeman, host of the California Book Club, celebrates a bountiful era for the state’s writers.

The California Book Club is a new monthly virtual gathering devoted to literature from and about the Golden State.

From steam donkeys to whistle punks, Karl Marlantes’s Deep River is a sweeping tale of Finnish immigrants who felled the forests of the Pacific Northwest at the start of the 20th century.