Cecelia Holland, who lives in Humboldt County, is one of our greatest living novelists. Although most of her novels are set in feudal Europe, she has written about California several times. She described early American settler days in The Bear Flag, Railroad Schemes, Lily Nevada, and An Ordinary Woman, then shifted to the 1970s in the vivid semi-autobiographical Home Ground, finally landing in our complex present with Grow. I recommend starting with Grow, a taut mystery thriller, then reading backward through her supersmart visions of our state: taken altogether, one of the greatest literary evocations of California that we have.”•
Kim Stanley Robinson is the author of more than 20 books, including the Mars trilogy—Red Mars, Green Mars, and Blue Mars—and more recently Red Moon, New York 2140, and 2312. In 2016, he received the Robert A. Heinlein Award for lifetime achievement in science fiction, and asteroid 72432 was named Kimrobinson. His most recent book is The High Sierra: A Love Story.
