JULY
Dark Waters: Essays, Stories & Articles, from Russell Chatham, collects the literary output of the noted painter, a charter member of the Montana Mafia, kindred artistic spirits. Introduced by his friend and editor Terry McDonell (see “Falling (Again) for Dark Waters”), this new edition of a lively compilation showcases Chatham’s eclectic, spirited takes.
The 50th-anniversary reissue of Edward Abbey’s classic The Monkey Wrench Gang, with a new introduction from filmmaker and grizzly bear advocate Doug Peacock (see “The Origin of The Monkey Wrench Gang”), should be a cause for celebration among eco-freaks and determined troublemakers of all stripes.
This roundup appears in Issue 32 of Alta Journal.
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A Bomb Placed Close to the Heart, by Nishant Batsha, is an absorbing account of the romance between an idealistic Stanford graduate student and an Indian revolutionary in 1917. Amid increasing tensions in California as World War I looms for the United States, the couple flees to New York to avoid unwelcome attention from authorities.
Take a trip to Carmel-by-the-Sea and Hollywood in Typewriter Beach, Meg Waite Clayton’s latest novel, about a screenwriter’s friendship with an actress hoping to find a place in Alfred Hitchcock’s films and a granddaughter’s investigation into a mystery.
AUGUST
Elaine Castillo returns with piercing insights in her second novel, Moderation, which tackles big tech. Girlie Delmundo, “the greatest content moderator in the world,” finds that romance doesn’t come in byte-size portions when she falls in love with her company’s cofounder.
Bay Area sci-fi and fantasy legend Charlie Jane Anders charms readers in Lessons in Magic and Disaster, about a young witch who teaches her mother how to cast spells, with disturbing consequences.
The Gossip Columnist’s Daughter, from former San Francisco State professor Peter Orner, revisits the mysterious 1963 death of starlet Karyn “Cookie” Kupcinet in her West Hollywood apartment through the fictional lens of a struggling writer trying to crack the decades-old case (see “Cookie”).
In Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America, Robert B. Reich reflects on a political trajectory encompassing everything from work for Bobby Kennedy and Eugene McCarthy to his prominence as a passionate, sometimes contentious advocate in President Bill Clinton’s cabinet. Even in the current climate, he offers hope for better days—if we keep fighting.
Want to read some cozy speculative fiction? In sci-fi writer Annalee Newitz’s novella, Automatic Noodle, a crew of robots open a noodle shop in an abandoned San Francisco ghost kitchen after a war in the near future.
SEPTEMBER
Elements of Los Angeles: Earth, Water, Air, and Fire, from essayist, historian, and translator D.J. Waldie, couldn’t be more timely coming in the aftermath of scorching fires in Altadena and the Pacific Palisades. In this third volume of a trilogy that also includes Where We Are Now and Becoming Los Angeles, Waldie’s search for a sense of place is artful and heartfelt. The new book is introduced by fellow Southern California scholar Rosecrans Baldwin.
Feeling pessimistic about Democratic leaders? I Yell Because I Care: The Passion and Politics of John Burton, California’s Liberal Warrior, coauthored by Burton and veteran Sacramento Bee reporter Andy Furillo, offers a lively counternarrative. Over the course of a nearly 60-year career, Burton served as a state assembly member, a U.S. representative, a state senator, and a state party chair, championing the environment, the peace movement, and special education for autistic children. The veteran pol was also able to find common ground with Republican adversaries.
The ever-innovative Jonathan Lethem’s latest offering, A Different Kind of Tension: New and Selected Stories, spans three decades of writing, including such genre-busting work as “Super Goat Man,’’ about a struggling bohemian superhero, and “The Porn Critic,’’ in which the title character’s day (and night) job conflicts with his romantic life. Also in the collection is a brand-new Bay Area–set story, “The Red Sun School of Thoughts.” Throughout, Lethem irreverently dissects the tensions and joys of modern life.
EDITOR’S PICK
Startlement: New and Selected Poems
By Ada Limón
Ada Limón, the 24th United States poet laureate, who recently served her second term, was the first Latina poet in that position. Her latest, Startlement: New and Selected Poems, gathers work from across six highly regarded books and around 20 new poems. Across these pages, she displays her sensitivity to the lush strangeness of the world amid an ever-shifting universe. These are stunning poems that compel us to see anew a blue-bellied lizard, river sharks, a lakeside martini, and everyday things. Startlement serves as an implicit narrative of Limón’s life—her voice is distinctive and musical and potent. —Anita Felicelli •
Paul Wilner is a longtime journalist, poet, and critic who lives in Monterey County. He is the former editor of the San Francisco Examiner Magazine, San Francisco Chronicle Style section and managing editor of the Hollywood Reporter. His work has been published in the Paris Review, New York Times, ZYZZYVA magazine, Barnes and Noble Review, Los Angeles Times and many other publications.
