An Update to Our California Reading List

Over the past few days, The New York Times Book Review has been unveiling a list of the 100 best books of the 21st century. It’s been fun to follow along as my colleagues release the selections, 20 at a time.

Here at the California Today newsletter, we have our own much less formal book list. Compiled over the past year, it consists of books that readers say are most representative of the Golden State in all its messy complexity. The list isn’t ranked, and it keeps growing.

A number of the titles are from the past quarter-century, including “There There,” a novel by Tommy Orange about Native Americans living in Oakland that was a Pulitzer Prize finalist; Joan Didion’s memoir “Where I Was From”; and “The Dreamt Land,” an account by the journalist Mark Arax of California’s complicated relationship with water.

Today I’m adding several more of the most-California books published since 2000, along with readers’ thoughts (lightly edited) about why they should be included. Feel free to send your own favorites to [email protected].

“Inherent Vice” by Thomas Pynchon (2009)

“‘Inherent Vice’ is fantastic; a psychedelic neo-noir comedy that could only be set in ’70s California. It reads like a literary sibling of ‘The Big Lebowski.’” — Taylor Washburn, Seattle

“How Much of These Hills Is Gold” by C Pam Zhang (2020)

“This is a slept-on masterpiece. It’s set in an alternate version of 1860s California and follows two Chinese American siblings. They’re trying to find a place in a land that doesn’t have much of an identity yet, and much of their journey is about whether to stay in California or go to China, a land they’ve never seen. What I find so compelling about their story is that in the absence of national, ethnic or racial identities, they end up relating to the land they’re raised on — the mud, the hills, the grass, the water. It seems very Californian to define yourself by the places you know intimately before anything else.” — Amanda Yen, San Diego

“California, a Slave State” by Jean Pfaelzer (2023)

“This book contains a lot of uncomfortable truths about how California’s first governor, judges and legislators, some of whom were slave owners, conspired to murder, kidnap and even enslave Native Americans in the 1850s and ’60s, in the years before Native children were forced into boarding schools. The author explains how 19th- and 20th-century state laws denied civil rights to Native Americans, Black people and Asian immigrants. It’s a difficult history to acknowledge, but essential to understanding where, as a conscientious people, we should go from here.” — Jill Stanton, San Francisco

“The Barbarian Nurseries” by Héctor Tobar (2011)

“It’s set in a fictional Orange County neighborhood that feels  so real and is a great examination of the communities, and yet also the isolation, that define our lives in the Golden State. And it really dissects what it means to be Mexican American. I recommend this book to so many people, and it’s the kind of book that could have been written only by someone who really understands Southern California.” — Casey Lewis, Los Angeles

“Damnation Spring” by Ash Davidson (2021)

“‘Damnation Spring’ is as fine a book about logging in the redwood forests of far Northern California as any I’ve read. It’s a real tribute to the hardworking families who work in the forests, butting up against the realities of the harm that they and the companies they work for may also do. Set in one of the most beautiful spots anywhere in the world.” — Carolyn Furman, Hydesville

The rest of the news

• Gov. Gavin Newsom has firmly defended President Biden in the past week, making campaign stops in several battleground states.

• Across California and the country, copper and other valuable materials have been stolen by vandals from streetlights, statues and even gravesites, doing damage that costs millions of dollars to repair.

• After thousands of sequoias were destroyed by extreme wildfires, Native American tribes are conducting cultural burns meant to help mitigate the risk.

Southern California

• Mercado González in Costa Mesa is reimagining the grocery shopping experience as a giant, family-friendly market, and is becoming a destination for the Latino community in Orange County and lovers of Mexican food.

• The body of a San Bernardino County man who disappeared in 2002 while hiking in Peru was exposed by melting ice, CBS News reports.

Central California

• Relatives of a woman who died in a prison in Chowchilla said they were told that she had succumbed to a heat stroke as temperatures climbed, The Sacramento Bee reports. But a prison spokeswoman told the news outlet that the death appeared to be related to pre-existing health conditions, not the heat.

Northern California

• The Thompson fire, which broke out last week near Oroville and forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate, destroyed 13 houses and more than a dozen other buildings, The Los Angeles Times reports.

• The Sacramento City Attorney’s office warned Target that the retailer could face a public nuisance charge over how often one store has called the police about retail theft, The Sacramento Bee Reports.

• After a woman lost her Napa house in a fire, an opportunity rose from the ashes.

And before you go, some good news

Raj Thakker and Trisha Vijay first met in 2014 on the Bollywood dance team at the University of California, Berkeley. Initially hesitant, they became friends after working closely together, coming to respect and admire each other.

They went out for dinner in 2016, and both left unsure whether it had been a date. A class at a ceramics studio resolved their confusion, and soon the two were officially dating.

Thakker proposed to Vijay on a spontaneous trip to Maui in 2022, and the two were legally married in New York in June. Friends and family joined them for a multiday celebration in Lisbon, which included music, elaborate dance performances by the couple and friends, and a “group-moon” in southern Portugal.

Read the full story in The Times.

Thanks for reading. I’ll be back tomorrow. — Soumya

P.S. Here’s today’s Mini Crossword.

Halina Bennet and Luke Caramanico contributed to California Today. You can reach the team at [email protected].

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