Making Home from War

$18.95

Many books have chronicled the experience of Japanese Americans in the early days of World War II, when over 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry, two-thirds of whom were American citizens, were taken from their homes along the West Coast and imprisoned in concentration camps. When they were finally allowed to leave, a new challenge faced them—how do you resume a life so interrupted?

For most, going home meant learning to live in a hostile, racist environment. Some returned to find they had lost their homes and had little choice but to bide their time in transitional housing, including community halls, churches, housing projects, and tent camps. Their employment options were also limited; they often worked as domestics, dishwashers, and field laborers to help support their families. The effects of these experiences reverberate to this day, and Making Home from War reaches into the past, melds together what was once hidden, and tells the often neglected or hushed story of what happened after the war.

With honesty and an eye for detail, Making Home from War is the long-awaited sequel to the award-winning From Our Side of the Fence. Written by twelve Japanese American elders who gathered regularly at the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California, Making Home from War is a collection of stories about their exodus from concentration camps into a world that in a few short years had drastically changed. In order to survive, they found the resilience they needed in the form of community, and gathered reserves of strength from family and friends. Through a spectrum of conflicting and rich emotions, Making Home from War demonstrates the depth of human resolve and faith during a time of devastating upheaval.

Cityscapes 2

$15.00

Part pocket guide, part history, and part architectural primer, the companion piece to urban design critic John King's Cityscapes: San Francisco and Its Buildings contains all of the wit and wonder of the first installment. In epigrammatic prose and with detailed full-color photographs, King highlights fifty structures that tell the story of San Francisco through architecture. Included are emblematic buildings such as the Golden Gate Bridge, Coit Tower, and the Palace of Fine Arts; but King pays just as close attention to less celebrated structures that embody the politics, architectural fads, and cultural values of the eras in which they were conceived. A fresh take on the familiar, Cityscapes 2 shows us how to read the structures around us as signposts and translations for the story of a multilayered and ever-changing city.

California Comeback

$18.00

How did a so-called “failed state” manage to revitalize itself as a socioeconomic superpower in just five years? In California Comeback, award-winning journalist Narda Zacchino credits four-term governor Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown and his progressive policies with the Golden State's return from the brink of economic collapse. Although California has a reputation for left-leaning ideology, Brown's first stint as governor in the 1970s and early '80s ushered in an era of conservatism bulwarked by Proposition 13. California drifted stutteringly rightward, and when Brown took office again in 2011, the state was teetering under a $27 billion deficit. By raising taxes on the wealthy while imposing rigorous environmental protections and humane immigration policies, Brown led California to adopt a different model, one in which fiscally sound government and social liberalism were status quo—and one in which California could outperform the rest of the nation. This book gives a resounding answer to the question of how a multicultural, democratic, and postindustrial society endures in the face of devastation.

California Bees and Blooms

$28.00

California is home to over sixteen hundred species of undomesticated bees—most of them native—that populate and pollinate our gardens, fields, and urban green spaces. In this absorbing guidebook, some of the state's preeminent bee and botany experts introduce us to this diverse population. California Bees and Blooms holds a magnifying glass up to the twenty-two most common genera (and six species of cuckoo bees), describing each one's distinctive behaviors, social structures, flight season, preferred flowers, and enemies. Enhancing these descriptions are photographs of bees so finely detailed they capture pollen scattered across gauzy wings and iridescent exoskeletons. Drawing from years of research at the UC Berkeley Urban Bee Lab, California Bees and Blooms presents an authoritative look at these creatures, emphasizing their vital relationship with flowers. In addition to opening our eyes to the beautiful array of wild bees in our midst, this book provides information on fifty-three bee-friendly plants and how to grow them. Just a few square feet of poppies, sage, and phacelia are enough to sustain a healthy population of wild bees, transforming an urban or suburban garden into a world that hums and buzzes with life.

Bringing Our Languages Home

$27.00

Throughout the world individuals in the intimacy of their homes innovate, improvise, and struggle daily to pass on endangered languages to their children. Elaina Albers of Northern California holds a tape recorder up to her womb so her baby can hear old songs in Karuk. The Baldwin family of Montana put labels all over their house marked with the Miami words for common objects and activities, to keep the vocabulary present and fresh. In Massachusetts, at the birth of their first daughter, Jesse Little Doe Baird and her husband convince the obstetrician and nurses to remain silent so that the first words their baby hears in this world are Wampanoag.

Thirteen autobiographical accounts of language revitalization, ranging from Irish Gaelic to Mohawk, Kawaiisu to Māori, are brought together by Leanne Hinton, professor emerita of linguistics at UC Berkeley, who for decades has been leading efforts to preserve the rich linguistic heritage of the world. Those seeking to save their language will find unique instruction in these pages; everyone who admires the human spirit will find abundant inspiration.

Manzanar to Mount Whitney

$16.95

In 1942, fourteen-year-old Hank Umemoto gazed out a barrack window at Manzanar Internment Camp, saw the silhouette of Mount Whitney against an indigo sky, and vowed that one day he would climb to the top. Fifty-seven years and a lifetime of stories later, at the age of seventy-one, he reached the summit. Part memoir and part hiker's diary, Manzanar to Mount Whitney gives an intimate, rollicking account of Japanese American life California before and after World War II. As he wanders through the mountains of California's Inland Empire, Umemoto recalls pieces of his childhood on a grape vineyard in the Sacramento Valley, his time at Manzanar, where beauty and hope were maintained despite the odds, and his later career as proprietor of a printing firm, all with grace, honesty, and unfailing humor. And all along, the peak of Mount Whitney casts its shadow, a symbol of freedom, beauty, and resilience.

Alice

$28.00

"An exciting and beautiful story." —Ottessa Moshfegh

The collected memoirs of a 1913 San Francisco sex worker, their effect on society at the time, and where they fit in today's world.

Winner of the 2015 California Historical Society Book Award

In 1913 the San Francisco Bulletin published a serialized, ghostwritten memoir of a prostitute who went by the moniker Alice Smith. "A Voice from the Underworld" detailed Alice's humble Midwestern upbringing and her struggle to find aboveboard work, and it candidly related the harrowing events she endured after entering "the life." Never had prostitute narratives been as frank in their discussion of topics such as abortion, police corruption, and the unwritten laws of the brothel. The response to Alice's story was unprecedented: Four thousand letters poured into the Bulletin, many of which were written by other prostitutes ready to share their own stories; and it inspired what may have been the first sex worker rights protest in modern history.

With Alice, filmmakers and writers Ivy Anderson and Devon Angus present the memoirs of Alice Smith and a selection of letters her story elicited. In an introduction contextualizing Alice's story, they reveal themes that extend from Alice's experience in the early twentieth century to issues facing sex workers today. This edition features a new preface detailing the discoveries made about this history since the book's original publication in 2016.

Cover image for Alice, isbn: 9781597147217

Meeting the Mushrooms of Los Angeles

$24.00

Enter a fungal wonderland to reconnect with nature.

Welcome to the Mycoverse of Los Angeles! In this wondrous guide to common local mushrooms, Aaron Tupac opens Angelenos' eyes to the mycelial ties that bind us all together. From the San Gabriel Mountains, across the sprawling metropolis, and clear out to the coast, Southern California is teeming with fungal life, whose underground networks support an array of ecosystems. Organized by habitat, and featuring full color photos to aid in identification, this guide will help you spot and marvel at mushrooms burgeoning throughout the cityscapes, sand dunes, oak forests, and deserts that surround us. These fungal friends have lessons to teach us, too: through loving observations and stories, Tupac shares our latest understanding of mushrooms' radical reciprocity, vibrant gender fluidity, and the incredible imaginative possibilities that fungi bring into our lives.

Cover image for Meeting the Mushrooms of Los Angeles, isbn: 9781597147293

Full Ecology

$20.00

How to confront the climate crisis without losing heart.

"One of the most important books ever written on the climate crisis." —Paul Hawken, author of Carbon and Regeneration

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed in the face of global climate breakdown. So how might we develop the inner resolve to confront it? Full Ecology, a collaboration between social-cultural psychologist Mary M. Clare and longtime science writer Gary Ferguson, suggests a path forward. Breaking the modern impulse to see humans as separate from nature, Clare and Ferguson encourage us to learn from the “supremely methodical and highly improvisational” natural systems that touch our lives. True change, they argue, begins with us stopping and questioning assumptions about our place in the world. From this process of reflection, they offer us an alternative blueprint for acting in ecologically healthy ways, and for inspiring others to do the same. Rather than proposing a ten-step plan to save the earth, this book encourages a more elemental rethinking of our connections to nature, and of how such connections might be strengthened for the common good. Practical and poetic, scientific and spiritual, Full Ecology presents a strong, nourishing foundation for climate action.

Cover image for Full Ecology, isbn: 9781597147187

Bird Songs Don't Lie

$22.00

Essays and short stories from a celebrated Cupeño/Cahuilla journalist.

"Johnson is by turns tender and hilarious—as ever. This book is a welcome addition to his loving history of the world as he knows it." —Susan Straight, author of Sacrament

In this moving collection of short stories and essays, Gordon Lee Johnson (Cupeño/Cahuilla) cements his voice not only as a commentator on American Indian reservation life but also as a master of fiction writing. From the noir-tinged mystery of "Unholy Wine" to the gripping intensity of "Tukwut," Johnson effortlessly switches genre and perspective, vividly evoking people and places that are fictional but profoundly true to life. Johnson’s nonfiction is equally revelatory in its exploration of connections between past and present. Whether examining his own conflicted feelings toward the missions as a source of both cultural damage and identity or sharing advice on cooking for eight dozen cowboys and -girls, Johnson plumbs the comedy, catastrophe, and beauty of his life on the Pala Reservation to thunderous effect.

Cover image for Bird Songs Don't Lie, isbn: 9781597147170

I Love You So Many

$20.00

From a celebrated Native journalist, an electrifying memoir of travel, love, friendships, and connection across cultures.

Growing up on the Torres Martinez Reservation in Southern California, Terria Smith longed for adventure. She became a journalist, hitting the road and reporting on the rich lives of Native people around the United States. As her hunger for travel grew, so did her understanding of community, and what it means to be a world citizen today. I Love You So Many—named after a favorite expression of her Spanish-speaking relatives—follows Smith from her ancestral homelands to Cuba, Iceland, Guyana, and back again. With exuberant, laugh-out-loud style she tells stories about forging profound friendships, falling in and out of love, and celebrating the determination that carried her through hard and heady times alike. She brings a fresh sensibility to travel writing, building enduring relationships with the people and cultures she visits. For Smith, travel is deeply rooted in Native traditions: It’s about sharing, reciprocity, risk-taking, and the valuable (and sometimes awkward) work of bridging and holding differences. As fun as it is poignant, I Love You So Many is an irresistible tribute to getting out and living a life in full.

Cover image for I Love You So Many, isbn: 9781597147156

Compassion in Crisis

$28.00

A vibrant and holistic grassroots guide to disaster preparedness that builds community resilience.

polycrisis noun /‘pa:.li,krai.sis/
a time of great disagreement, confusion, or suffering caused by many different crises occurring simultaneously and amplifying one another.

How do we live in the age of disaster? In this updated and expanded guide to collective crisis preparedness, Kailea and Kate, organizers and coeditors for the book and magazine publisher Loam, share community-shaped strategies on how to practically navigate the challenges posed by overlapping catastrophes—be they environmental, economic, political, or otherwise. Help is here for our bodies, hearts, minds, and shared homes. By amplifying resources for resilience, the authors underscore preparedness as a constant, communal practice. They offer inspiration from frontline organizers who help their communities prepare for emergencies, demonstrate how to envision probable futures after upheaval, and showcase people-powered projects that nurture collective regeneration. With engaging prompts, concise checklists, and heartfelt advice, Compassion in Crisis helps its readers build and sustain the durable mutual aid networks necessary for rapid response in the face of disaster. This is your invitation into the lifelong work of caring for our Earth and one another as we all find our way through the polycrisis.

Cover image for Compassion in Crisis, isbn: 9781597147118

Mark Twain's San Francisco

$18.00

Jumping frogs, high society, San Francisco’s Emperor Norton and the stray dogs that followed on his heels—nothing escaped Mark Twain’s scrutiny or his acerbic wit. Bernard Taper has gathered together a heady selection of newspaper articles, correspondence, poetry, and short stories that are humorous—sometimes exasperating and controversial—but always engaging. Edward Jump, a contemporary of Twain’s, offers through his lively illustrations a visual drum roll to Twain’s cantankerous prose. From earthquakes, scandals, and tantalizing bonanzas to elegant ladies blowing their noses in “exquisitely modulated tones,” Mark Twain has left us a vision of San Francisco that is at once fascinating and hilariously familiar.

Trees in Paradise

$25.00

At the intersection of plants and politics, Trees in Paradise is an examination of ecological mythmaking and conquest. The first Americans who looked out over California saw arid grasslands and chaparral, and over the course of generations, they remade those landscapes according to the aesthetic values and economic interests of settlers, urban planners, and boosters. In the San Fernando Valley, entrepreneurs amassed fortunes from vast citrus groves; in the Bay Area, gum trees planted to beautify neighborhoods fed wildfires; and across the state, the palm came to stand for the ease and luxury of the rapidly expanding suburbs. Meanwhile, thousands of native redwoods and sequoias were logged to satisfy the insatiable urbanizing impulse. Revealing differing visions of what California should and could be, this natural and unnatural history unravels the network of forces that shape our most fundamental sense of place.

Quirky Berkeley

$15.00

When it comes to landscaping, why stop at plastic flamingos? Based on Tom Dalzell's blog of the same name, Quirky Berkeley pays tribute to the boldly imaginative artwork on display in front of, on top of, and engulfing residents' houses all over the city. With full-color photographs and a pithy wit, Dalzell shares his discoveries of the unexpected: the giant orange on Spruce Street, a house shaped like a fish, bowling balls as lawn art, enormous dachshund sculptures, and the birdhouse pyramid on Sacramento, to name just a few of the oddities. Created, installed, and maintained at great expense—not just of money, but of time and creative energy—these are all free to view, all gifts to the street. Included in every write-up are profiles of the artists, whom Dalzell is careful to portray not as stereotypical “Berzerkeleyites” but as individuals who have found their true north of exuberant self-expression. While the very uniqueness of each of these sites invites us to focus on the individual creators, the book also considers what the abundance of such art says about a community and its values. This love letter to idiosyncrasy champions the revolutionary idea that we can build a vibrant community not by demanding conformity but by celebrating difference.

The Raccoon Next Door

$16.95

The Raccoon Next Door is a guide to help us identify and get along with the neighborhood raccoon and all our other wild neighbors. Author Gary Bogue presents stories, anecdotes, and sound advice for coexisting with the common creatures you might encounter in your backyard. Chuck Todd's illuminating illustrations bring the animals to life in vivid detail. The species discussed in the book include everything from coyotes and mountain lions to tarantulas and earwigs, newts and salamanders, songbirds and butterflies. Learn how to be a good animal neighbor using down-to-earth, practical, and homey advice that will show you how to live in harmony with those wild and crazy skunks who like to party all night long!

My First Summer in the Sierra

$14.00

My First Summer in the Sierra presents Muir's journal entries from his first long-term adventure in Yosemite and the surrounding area, when he helped drive a flock of sheep through the foothills toward the headwaters of the Merced and Tuolumne Rivers. Muir's vivid descriptions of nature are infused with his characteristic wonder at the magnificence of wilderness, from a single lily “worth going hungry and footsore endless miles to see” to a vista of the luminous Range of Light.

She Sang Me a Good Luck Song

$35.00

Dugan Aguilar (Maidu/Northern Paiute/Achomawi), a man of few words, speaks his heart through his photography. With nature's light and a camera, he creates images of indigenous California people, photographs that embody the depth of their subjects' beauty, strength, and humor. His portraits of people, places, and ceremonies combine the intimacy of family photos with the technical skill of a masterful artist. His photographic works have been exhibited nationally and internationally, and a generation of California Indian people have grown accustomed to seeing his photographs in their homes, museums, and News from Native California. Aguilar's photos defy the romanticized and melodramatic images by which Native people are often depicted. Ranging from portraits of military veterans, basket makers, and dancers to meditative landscapes, Aguilar's work documents—and contributes to—the perseverance and renewal of Native California's living, vibrant cultures.

The Mountains of California

$16.00

In The Mountains of California, famed naturalist John Muir takes us on a tour of the Sierra Nevada and the Coast Ranges, showing off the regions' marvels of topography, forests, glaciers, weather, and wildlife. Muir's vivid descriptions of nature are infused with his characteristic wonder at the magnificence of wilderness, from a single songbird's “perfect arabesques of melody” to the thundering symphony of a winter storm.

Quirky Berkeley, Volume 3

$16.00

Following the success of Quirky Berkeley, “arbiter of the eccentric” (The New York Times) Tom Dalzell returns to take readers on a tour of even more artwork that peppers the proudly idiosyncratic Northern California city. Stroll along iconic Telegraph Avenue for views of painted-metal portrait sculptures of figures ranging from Rasputin to Mario Savio—even Heyday's founder, Malcolm Margolin—at the Mad Monk Center for Anachronistic Media. Hike up Marin for views of the steel skeleton forever riffing on a tenor saxophone. Dalzell points out murals honoring the Sandinistas and bas-relief sculptures of legendary Oakland Athletics on the home of a member of the Great Tortilla Conspiracy. And just where can you find the quirkiest garden ever? Included in every write-up are profiles of the residents, whom Dalzell is careful to portray not as stereotypical “Berzerkeleyites” but as individuals who have found their true north of exuberant self-expression.

Perfume Dreams

$20.00

In his long-overdue first collection of essays, noted journalist and NPR commentator Andrew Lam explores his lifelong struggle for identity as a Viet Kieu, or a Vietnamese national living abroad. At age eleven, Lam, the son of a South Vietnamese general, came to California on the eve of the fall of Saigon to communist forces. He traded his Vietnamese name for a more American one and immersed himself in the allure of the American dream: something not clearly defined for him or his family. Reflecting on the meanings of the Vietnam War to the Vietnamese people themselves—particularly to those in exile—Lam picks with searing honesty at the roots of his doubleness and his parents’ longing for a homeland that no longer exists.

John Muir's Book of Animals

$18.00

Many of John Muir's most vivid and memorable stories celebrate his encounters with animals. Whether breakfasting with deer, attempting to scare off a black bear, or musing upon the ferocity of ants, Muir looks upon the animal world with amazement and affection, and the power of his words, the freshness of his thinking, the keenness of his perceptions, and the depth of his passion continue to inspire the same in readers today. Drawing from longtime favorites such as Stickeen as well as from less familiar books, letters, articles, and journals, John Muir's Book of Animals presents us with twenty-seven of Muir's most compelling stories and vibrant descriptions. Sumptuous illustrations by Lisel Jane Ashlock add to our amazement and delight.

Insects of the Los Angeles Basin

$34.95

Updated for the first time in over twenty years, the third edition of Insects of the Los Angeles Basin is a beautifully produced and richly illustrated field guide to more than 450 common or conspicuous insects, spiders, millipedes, and other arthropods that inhabit the region. Each species account describes the size and physical characteristics of insects at their adult and immature stages. Entries also incorporate information on habitat, geographic range, behavior, food preferences, nests, noises, and scents—even lore of the more notorious species. Color-coded sections organize species by order, and 500 photographs and line drawings help with easy identification. The book's engaging and accessible writing includes introductory chapters that explain the characteristics of insects and the ecology of Los Angeles, back matter for starting an insect collection and suggestions for further reading, and a new preface discussing the tremendous effects of technological advances and citizen science on the field of entomology. Written with the Greater Los Angeles Basin as its focus but useful to residents of the entire coastal area of Southern California from Santa Barbara to San Diego, this book is an invaluable resource for hikers, gardeners, teachers, students, and anyone else curious about the diversity of life in our midst.

Life in a California Mission

$15.00

On the afternoon of September 14, 1786, two French ships appeared off the coast of Monterey, the first foreign vessels to visit Spain's California colonies. Aboard was a party of eminent scientists, navigators, cartographers, illustrators, and physicians. For the next ten days the commander of this expedition, Jean François de La Pérouse, took detailed notes on the life and character of the area: its abundant wildlife, the labors of soldiers and monks, and the customs of Indians recently drawn into the mission. These observations provide a startling portrait of California two centuries ago.

First Families

$27.50

When L. Frank and Marina Drummer went on the road in 2002, they set out to visit as many people from different California tribes as possible. Crisscrossing the state, they taped hundreds of hours of interviews and collected copies of nearly fifteen hundred family photos. The documentary project, funded by the California State Library and LEF Foundation, paints an unprecedented portrait of California’s indigenous people using their own words and photographs from their own family albums. In turns moody, beautiful, warm, and humorous, First Families is a one-of-a-kind book that combines extremely personal images with text that gives readers a broader, deeper view of Indian history and many complex living cultures.

The Fine Art of California Indian Basketry

$24.95

After a search through private collections and public museums throughout the country, over sixty stunning examples of California Indian basketry were assembled for this book-some almost two hundred years old, some made within the last few decades. Commenting upon each basket are native basket weavers, California Indian artists in other media, and scholars. Together they provide exciting and intimate insights into this world of subtle yet intense beauty.

The Fine Art of California Indian Basketry

Our Dishonest President

$7.99

Even before Donald J. Trump reached his first hundred days in office, the Los Angeles Times's Editorial Board published the first of six consecutive denunciations calling him “Our Dishonest President.” The paper's condemnation of Trump's lies, his authoritarian temperament, his war on journalism, and his obsession with conspiracies was as bold as it was unprecedented, as was its call to Californians to oppose the brazen acts of a man patently unfit to preside over the republic. It prompted a tremendous response: within days, the series garnered seven million page views.

Heyday is proud to present a paperback of the six editorials, brought up to date with an introduction by Davan Maharaj, The Times’s publisher and editor-in-chief, and by Nicholas Goldberg, the paper’s editor of the editorial pages. When read in sequence the arguments gain force and momentum, delivering a formidable and indispensable critique by one of America’s most important newspapers.

Flora of the Santa Ana River and Environs

$35.00

The Santa Ana River is the largest watercourse in the heavily populated coastal plain of southern California. Despite the encroachment of urban development, the river and its environs are home to nearly 1,400 plant species. In this seminal guide to the flora of the Santa Ana River, Oscar F. Clarke and his team have compiled descriptions of 900 plant species, accompanied by 3,200 images and illustrations. The book also serves as an introduction to basic botanical concepts and is arranged by evolutionary relationships, to aid readers in plant identification. Historical and cultural uses, plant diseases, and associations with insects, birds, and mammals of both native and introduced species are woven together with technical information to paint a rich picture of the flora of this region as well as to relate it to that of the rest of the world.

Flora of the Santa Ana River and Environs

Where on Earth

$22.00

Ever since its initial publication in 1993, this guide to California's specialty plant nurseries has been an invaluable tool for gardeners and landscapers, and it is now available in an expanded and completely revised edition. Organized by geographic region, each listing provides essential information, including address, contact information, hours, plant offerings, and a detailed description of the facility and its owners. In addition to featuring specialty nurseries, Where on Earth catalogs notable garden centers, plant societies, education programs, and horticultural attractions throughout the state, as well as mail-order sources for bulbs, seeds, and rhizomes. The coauthors also include twelve essays, one for each region, that address that area's special features and gardening concerns. Whether you're searching for antique roses on the foggy North Coast, water-wise succulents and native shrubs around Los Angeles, or a palm doctor for your sickly cycads in the Central Valley, this book gives current, detailed advice for plant lovers to see, shop, and savor.

Enough for All

$15.00

Celebrating Native California food gathering and preparation across the seasons, Kathleen Rose Smith reveals the practices handed down through generations of her Bodega Miwuk and Pomo ancestors, and shares how these traditions have evolved into the contemporary ways her family still enjoys wild foods. Her knowledge and personal reflections are expressed through recipes, stories, and artwork, recording not only the technical aspects of food gathering, but also the social and spiritual—inextricable elements of traditional California Indian food preparation. She explores relationships between people and nature, and the deep cultural knowledge—respect, thankfulness, joy, and sacrifice—that gives meaning and grace to these most ordinary aspects of daily life.

Complete with family stories and photos, this elegant memoir illuminates a world of sustainable bounty—full of abalone, salmon, seaweed, and strawberries. It is at once a pleasure to read and a lesson in survival: the survival of the foods and of the people themselves.

Deeper Than Gold

$18.95

Brian Bibby brings together the present and the past—both ancient and recent—in a fascinating compilation of anecdote, myth, recollection, and reflection. Five years in the making and the result of almost thirty years of dedicated work among California’s native communities, Deeper Than Gold is a tribute to the people who know Gold Country best. Witness a visual history with family photographs from private albums and stunning original work by renowned photographer Dugan Aguilar (of Paiute/Pit River/Maidu heritage). This gorgeously designed book offers an intimate view of the remarkable and persistent people of Gold Country whose culture continues to evolve and thrive in the area around Highway 49.

Cityscapes

$14.95

Buildings in cities are remarkable things: they provide not only shelter but touchstones of reference and recall, a language that shapes our sense of place as well as the skyline. In sparkling prose and with full-color photography, Cityscapes looks at fifty buildings that convey a distinct slice of San Francisco. These are the buildings that are defined by bold visual moves and the ones that offer tactile delight. These are the structures you notice every time you pass by, and the ones that escape notice until the light hits them a certain way. Included are some of San Francisco’s most familiar buildings and works by some of architecture's biggest names—but also plenty of buildings that are often ignored yet add a unique texture to this fabled place. An outgrowth of “Cityscape,” a weekly column that debuted in the San Francisco Chronicle in 2009, Cityscapes is part history, part guidebook, and part architectural primer. And the points it makes about specific buildings convey something true to all great cities—that every building shines in its own way as a distinctive piece in a much larger puzzle, one still being assembled before our eyes.

California's Fall Color

$15.00

No need to hop on a plane to the East Coast! California has beautiful fall foliage, especially in the Sierra Nevada, which glows red and golden every year with aspens, cottonwoods, dogwoods, maples, and oaks. This compact, lively guide shows visitors where and how to capture the best images of turning leaves in the eastern Sierra, Tahoe, and Yosemite, as well as destinations off the beaten track. Mitchell's advice is suitable for photographers of all levels, whether tourists who want to share their experience with friends or professionals seeking advice for dealing with the special challenges of fall photography. More than a manual of technical considerations, though, California's Fall Color encourages us to be overwhelmed by beauty—to take home an image containing the color but, just as importantly, the essence of that sublime feeling.

California Fights Back

$7.99

Veteran journalist Peter Schrag argues that California's role in the era of Donald Trump is twofold: to act as a leader in the resistance to the current administration, and to be held up as an alternative to the course being pursued in Washington. Given the Democratic Party's stronghold on all statewide elected offices and legislature, it isn't surprising that California has become a beacon of progressivism. But this is hardly an inevitability. California was almost where much of the GOP wants to take the nation today, leading the country in tax revolt, passage of the Three Strikes criminal sentencing law, and virtual prohibition of bilingual education in public schools. Schrag points to the state's shifting demographics and the erosion of the Republican Party in the wake of Proposition 187 as two major reasons behind California's shift to the left. It is particularly pertinent, then, that a state that formerly espoused these values now negotiates with other nations on climate control, asks its agents not to sweep courthouses in search of people to deport, and has approved major tax increases. California Fights Back gives proof that things can be better, and raises the possibility of this becoming the story of other states.

A Californian's Guide to the Trees among Us

$20.00

We bring the strength and beauty of the natural world into our urban landscapes by planting trees, and California is blessed with a rich horticultural history, visible in an abundance of cultivated trees that enrich our lives with extraordinary color, bizarre shapes, unusual textures, and unexpected aromas. A Californian's Guide to the Trees among Us features over 150 of California's most commonly grown trees. Whether native or cultivated, these are the trees that muffle noise, create wildlife habitats, mitigate pollution, conserve energy, and make urban living healthier and more peaceful. Used as a field guide or read with pleasure for the liveliness of the prose, this book will allow readers to learn the stories behind the trees that shade our parks, grace our yards, and line our streets. Rich in photographs and illustrations, overflowing with anecdote and information, A Californian's Guide to the Trees among Us opens our eyes to a world of beauty just outside our front doors.