California


	These swift, penetrating essays from former Los Angeles Times writer Mark Arax take the measure of contemporary California with a sure and supple hand, consciously but deservedly taking its place alongside Didion's and Saroyan's great social portraits. Expect the unexpected from Arax's reports up and down the state: on the last of the Okies, the latest migrants from Mexico, the tree-sitters of Berkeley, Bay Area conspiracy theorists, an Armenian chicken giant's infamous fall or the mammoth marijuana economy of Humboldt County, among much else. For Arax, a third-generation Californian of Armenian heritage who spent years covering the Central Valley as an investigative reporter, the state's outré reputation and self-representation are a complex dance of myth and memory that includes his own family lore and personal history. It's partly this personal connection, running subtly but consistently throughout, that pushes the collection past mere reportage to a high literary enterprise that beautifully integrates the private and idiosyncratic with the sweep of great historical forces.
	The Monterey Peninsula, unique for its beauty and history, was first declared the "Golf Capital of the World" in 1947 when it hosted the PGA and the USGA in the same year. Its tradition of great golf began 50 years earlier. It is home to Pebble Beach Resorts, still the top-ranked golf resort in the world, and four of the top 100 golf courses in America. Here is the official golf history of the golfer's paradise known throughout the world as Pebble Beach.
	California's picturesque villages and small towns and its stunning landscape, from rugged sierras and fog-laced headlands to golden sand beaches and rolling oak-studded ranchland.
	Hailed by The New York Times as “A poet of farming” and the Los Angeles Times as the “Rockstar Farmer” who “uses his farm as Thoreau did his Walden Pond,” David Mas Masumoto weaves together stories of family and farming, life and death to reveal age-old wisdom that is fast disappearing—and urgently needed.
	In the early 1970s, a small band of young rock climbers, decked out in bandanas, shades and cut-offs, came together and blew open the conventions of climbing. Dubbing themselves the Stonemasters, these now legendary adventurers established techniques that allowed for some of the most spectacular climbs to be done with a minimum of apparatus. Beyond their unsurpassed skills as climbers, the Stonemasters embodied a lifestyle—they were loud, proud, smoked dope, chalked their lightning-flash insignia across rockfaces, took the light stuff seriously and the serious stuff lightly—and the glamour of this lifestyle made a massive impact on 1970s youth culture across the world
	Illustrated in color throughout, this fascinating volume combines engaging text with historical paintings, archival photographs, and recent photography to create a vivid picture of the state's iconic Spanish missions.