Nasim Ghasemiyeh

The Land of Milk and Honey author reveals the perils of success, her food blog fandom, and a favorite dinner staple in this Q&A.

Isabel Allende’s The House of the Spirits, the CBC March selection, considers words, ideas, and stories as tools of power and connection.

Here are four books to read after Gordo, the December California Book Club selection, that utilize child characters and narrators to deepen their insights.

An issue celebrating our favorite bookstores.

With Hollywood-style timing, the next near miss is projected for the Fourth of July.

One company is exploring the skyrocketing business of pizza delivery.

Wonderland Books, Red Rock Books, Word After Word, and 4 more Desert/Sierra independent bookstores we love.

A closer look at Alta Journal’s spring 2022 issue.

In this week’s newsletter, we look at Maggie Nelson’s exploration of what it means to experience changes to body and self in her memoir.

Sarah Shun-lien Bynum’s short story “Julia and Sunny” in Likes explores one couple’s intense idealization of another romantic relationship.

Marquee writers, including Paul Beatty, May-lee Chai, John Freeman, and Paul Yamazaki, contributed to an expansive collection of pieces about our 2021 California Book Club selections.

Short fiction by Carribean Fragoza, Vanessa Hua, Kailyn McCord, and Blaise Zerega livened the pages of Alta.

Like Tommy Orange’s novel, these are works that tell viewers separate stories before revealing their characters’ interconnectedness.

Booksellers Try to Imagine a Future For Themselves. Will Readers Buy It?

Like Kingston’s memoir, these five experimental, genre-bending books suggest that we are each made of many selves.

Get lost among found objects.

Carribean Fragoza on the brilliance of decay.

See Yosemite through Ansel Adams’s eyes.

Provocative messages in a barren landscape.

This SoCal town’s murals are all sweet, never sour.

Julia Flynn Siler on researching trauma for The White Devil’s Daughters.

Here are five disaster films that explore some of the same questions raised in Rebecca Solnit’s A Paradise Built in Hell.

A one-stop shop for taking on the great outdoors in style.

Start the next gold rush with this mining kit.

Rothy’s puts its best foot forward with machine-washable shoes made from recyclables.

Crack open a beer in skateboarder style.

This Sonoma Valley company thinks outside the box.

Save the planet with every flush.

The North Beach icon who inspired countless writers and activists is memorialized by fans across the globe.

The author of Devil in a Blue Dress says his Easy Rawlins character represents “an aspect of Black consciousness.”