Books With Flair

The highly acclaimed, instant New York Times bestseller that "shows the moment-by-moment reality of a painful possible future, the price we may have to pay for our passionate devotion to all of the wrong things." --Sarah Stone, San Francisco Chronicle The world Cal and Frida have always known is gone, and they've left the crumbling city of Los Angeles far behind them. They now live in a shack in the wilderness, working side-by-side to make their days tolerable in the face of hardship and isolation. Mourning a past they can't reclaim, they seek solace in each other. But the tentative existence they've built for themselves is thrown into doubt when Frida finds out she's pregnant. Terrified of the unknown and unsure of their ability to raise a child alone, Cal and Frida set out for the nearest settlement, a guarded and paranoid community with dark secrets. These people can offer them security, but Cal and Frida soon realize this community poses dangers of its own. In this unfamiliar world, where everything and everyone can be perceived as a threat, the couple must quickly decide whom to trust. A gripping and provocative debut novel by a stunning new talent, California imagines a frighteningly realistic near future, in which clashes between mankind's dark nature and deep-seated resilience force us to question how far we will go to protect the ones we love.

Suppl. to v. 28, 29 issued with title: Air pollution.

Analyzes California's roller coaster ride over the past decades--going from being a model for its high level of government and public services to more lately becoming an anti-model for its dysfunctional government, deteriorating services, and sometimes regressive public policies--and the importance of forging its diverse population into a successful democracy, tackling key issues such as immigration, globalization, and politics. Reprint.

"This is a rich and learned volume that has a story to tell to those seeking to understand contemporary Southern California."—David Johnson, managing editor of the Pacific Historical Review "Engagingly written and well researched, California Vieja is an intriguing, persuasive examination of the politics of memory and the built environment in southern California."—Vicki Ruiz, author of From Out of the Shadows: Mexican Women in Twentieth-Century America

"This is a history of the clash between the White settlers and the Native Americans in what is now an affluent county in California. The frontier wars gave land and gold to Whites and reservations to the Native Americans. Eyewitness accounts and extensive research show the conflicting roles played by the Army, State Legislature and the US Congress"--Provided by publisher.

This title examines an important historic event _ the gold rush in California. Easy-to-read, compelling text explores the first discovery of gold and the creation of boomtowns in the West, issues with the Mexican government, military desertion, expansionism, and the environmental consequences of mining, key characters such as John Sutter, Samuel Brannan, Colonel Richard B. Mason, and President James K. Polk, the roles of journalism, transportation, and racial discrimination, the development of mining technologies and entrepreneurship, and the effects of this event on society. Features include a table of contents, glossary, selected bibliography, Web links, source notes, and an index, plus a timeline and essential facts. Essential Events is a series in Essential Library, an imprint of ABDO Publishing Company.

"The "Capitol Corridor" is the name of the Amtrak passenger train route between California's capital, Sacramento, and San Jose, the state's first capital upon admission to the Union in 1850. ... The Capitol Corridor is now an integral part of the transportation scene in Northern California. Since 1991, its equipment and infrastructure have evolved to keep pace with technology as well as the area's dynamic economic and social environment. Author and photographer Matthew Gerald Vurek has produced a geographic pictorial of the quarter-century of changes to the trains and the railroad along the Capitol Corridor."--Page 4 of cover.