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Online Exclusive Book Reviews

mendo, chris harris

The Making of Cannabis Country

Charlie Harris’s lucid history of Mendocino County, Mendo, charts how a Northern California outpost was transformed into a lab for counterculture, cannabis and the shifting American West.

TTS audio available7 min
city on the edge, jonathan weber

City by the Bay

TTS audio available6 min
lovers xxx, allie rowbottom

Sex and the City

TTS audio available7 min
rachel khong, my dear you

Everyday Magic

TTS audio available7 min
marriage at sea, sarah stone

Lives We Perform

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recent monday book reviews

Alta’s Recently Reviewed

swirl and vortex, larry levis

Lives of the Poet

TTS audio available8 min
a long game, elizabeth mccracken

Permission for Writers

TTS audio available6 min
the pelican child, joy williams

Time and Tide

TTS audio available7 min
lightbreakers, aja gabel

The Physics of Grief: Aja Gabel’s ‘Lightbreakers’

susan straight, sacrament

Nurses and Lowriders

a wooded shore by thomas mcguane, book review

When Things Go Very Wrong

TTS audio available15 min
shadow ticket, thomas pynchon

Conspiracy Theory

water mirror echo, bruce lee and the making of asian america, jeff chang

Poetics of Fighting

split portrait: susana m. morris in yellow next to the cover of positive obsession, featuring octavia butler in red lipstick and large eyeglasses.

Charting One’s Own Course

TTS audio available7 min
trespassers at the golden gate, gary krist, book review

An Adulterous Couple

nolan knight, the gorgon of los feliz, book review

Grifter’s Paradise

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josh jackson, the enduring wild, book review

Forgotten Lands

their accomplices wore robes, how the supreme court chained black america to the bottom of a racial caste system, brando simeo starkey

Institutional Denial of Civil Rights

da capo

Beyond the Usual Suspects

ruth asawa and the artist mother at midcentury, jordan troeller

The Making of Matriarchal Modernism

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sister, sinner, claire hoffman

Redemption Song

poets square, a memoir in thirty cats, courtney gustafson

Illuminating Care

the pacific ccircuit, alexis madrigal

Two Prisms onto Oakland

our beautiful boys, sameer pandya

Young Man Down

stacy nathaniel jackson, the ephemera collection

The Memory Palace

the buffalo hunter hunter, stephen graham jones

19th-Century Nightmare

neko cases, the harder i fight the more i love you

Lyrical Truth-Teller

review of the dream hotel by laila lalami, fiction, novelist

Encroaching on Dreams

smother, rachel richardson

Power of Friendship

little mysteries by sara gran, book review

The Fine Line Between Before and After

TTS audio available8 min
book review of reading the waves by lidia yuknavitch, memoir, anita felicelli

Memories Can’t Wait

book review of vantage point a novel by sara sligar

Uncanny Island

pico iyer, aflame, learning from silence, book review

The Art of Sitting Still

cover of the novel dream city by douglas unger

What Happens in Vegas

henry miller, the air conditioned nightmare

The Old Weird America

anita felicelli, how we know our time travelers, short stories, fiction, book review

Past, Present, and Future

george r stewart, fire, novel, book review

Past Is Prologue

lili anolik, didion and babitz

Two Women

day and night books of mardou fox, nisi shawl, book review

The Subterranean

big breath in, john straley, novel, fiction, book review

Whales and Other Big-Brained Mammals

book cover for dorothy parker in hollywood by gail crowther with a black and white image of a woman, book review

Bright Lights, Big City

tiny threads, lilliam rivera

Fates and Furies

california catastrophes, gary griggs

The Elemental State

jessica elisheva emerson, olive days

Losing My Religion