It's Wednesday. We chose 10 books published this year that Golden State readers will love. Plus, California scientists achieve a nuclear fusion breakthrough. |
 | | Rozalina Burkova |
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It's the time of year for "best of" lists. |
Today I'm sharing my own twist on a "best of" list: the 10 best California books of 2022. Below are superb works of fiction and nonfiction that were reviewed by The New York Times this year and are likely to resonate with readers who live in, or just love, California. |
"All My Rage" by Sabaa Tahir |
This young adult novel follows two South Asian best friends living in the small California town of Juniper and struggling to see a way out. From our review: |
"When I was a teenager, I devoured books like John Green's 'The Fault in Our Stars' and 'Looking for Alaska.' They were some of the earliest narratives that taught me about heartbreak, hope and desire. But if I'd also been able to read a book like 'All My Rage' back then, I would have gotten all of that, and perhaps also a greater appreciation for my own culture and the understanding that I wasn't the only brown kid struggling at a mostly white school." |
"There's no fudging the rules in 'Avalon,' which is the effulgent and clever sort of novel that replicates the experience of learning a new game: You enter its world voluntarily and add your reading effort to Zink's writing effort with the idea that the sum of these energies will create a zone of mirth and meaning. What fun." |
"Bad Thoughts: Stories" by Nada Alic |
In Alic's debut story collection, sunny facades belie strange dark interiors, our reviewer writes: |
"The stories feature a privileged millennial milieu in Los Angeles with all its carefully observed trappings — neutral linens at a baby shower, destination bachelorette weekends, social media obsessions, alternative wellness practices and a chic, spare loft 'furnished with gray modular furniture resembling life-size Lego pieces.'" |
"Heartbroke" by Chelsea Bieker |
The Times called this short story collection a "bold, uncanny ode to California's Central Valley." From the review: |
"Bieker offers an unsentimental view of the hardscrabble lives of the white working class in a less romanticized region of California. In 'Raisin Man,' a father tells his son, 'God came down and ran His mighty hand on the land, blessed this place.' The boy retorts: 'My ma says it's the deepest hole in hell.' Bieker's lucid, compassionate prose makes room for both visions, and more." |
"Mecca" by Susan Straight |
Straight, who lives in Riverside, explores inland Southern California, including the desert town of Mecca on which this novel centers, our reviewer writes: |
"'Mecca,' like much of Straight's writing, is a love song for a place and its people. She writes lyrically about workers pollinating date palms in the groves as if it were a cosmic dance: 'It was magic out here, even in the heat. Giant sweeps of golden strands feathered with tiny blooms, four feet long. Like fantastic brooms and the gods could sweep the sky.'" |
"Nightcrawling" by Leila Mottley |
Mottley's novel follows Kiara, a teenager, as she tries to make a life in Oakland, "where tech offices and Ubers and yoga studios and cafes and bartenders with all the same tattoos proliferate" as the Bay Area tech boom has flooded the city with money and power, our reviewer writes: |
"There are no jobs here for Kiara, who was raised in these streets and in the dealers' apartments that used to fill them, who uses the yellow pages to find a job because she can't afford a smartphone or internet." |
"Yerba Buena" by Nina LaCour |
LaCour, known for her young adult novels, made her adult debut with this tale of two California women finding themselves, and each other. From our review: |
"The book's title, which translates to good herb, comes from the native flora of California, and the stories of both characters start there, too: Sara in a redwood grove, finding first love with her best friend amid the ancient trunks, and Emilie in a school garden, seeking refuge from a tumultuous home life in the stalks of verbena and mint." |
"Embrace Fearlessly the Burning World: Essays" by Barry Lopez |
This posthumous collection includes an essay about Lopez's childhood in the San Fernando Valley, a piece that our reviewer calls "one of the finest pieces of writing about Los Angeles that I have read": |
"While living there, he wanted desperately to escape, but after his family moved away, Lopez writes, 'I missed California to the point of grief.' The darting of jackrabbits, the crashing surf, the smell of eucalyptus, the 'surgical sharpness' of the light — 'without these things I believe I would have perished.'" |
"Indigenous Continent: The Epic Contest for North America" by Pekka Hämäläinen |
A Times reviewer called this retelling of the history of North America from a Native American perspective — which was deemed a top 100 book of 2022 — "the single best book I have ever read on Native American history as well as one of the most innovative narratives about the continent." |
"Tree Thieves: Crime and Survival in North America's Woods" by Lyndsie Bourgon |
In this surprising book, Bourgon, an environmentalist and journalist, casts timber poachers in California and elsewhere not as villains, but as people responding to a lack of economic opportunities. From our review: |
"Bourgon puts herself in the poacher's shoes, and the result is a refreshing and compassionate warning about the perils of well-intentioned but overzealous environmentalism." |
 | | The target bay of the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.Damien Jemison/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory |
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If you read one story, make it this |
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists announced a breakthrough that's seen as a milestone toward a clean energy future. |
 | | Low water levels at Lake Oroville last year.Aude Guerruci/Reuters |
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- Drought: Despite powerful December storms across California, the levels of the state's largest water reservoirs remain low in many areas and water managers expect to impose severe restrictions on their customers, CalMatters reports.
- Opioids: California could receive more than $500 million from a multistate settlement with Walgreens over the pharmacy's role in the opioid crisis, The Los Angeles Times reports.
- The Pelosis: A new documentary directed and produced by Alexandra Pelosi, the youngest of Speaker Nancy Pelosi's five children, follows the career of the congresswoman over three decades, The Associated Press reports.
- Don Lewis: Lewis, an unsung pioneer of electronic music who taught at Stanford, Berkeley and San Jose State, died at 81.
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- Big Ten backlash: Emails obtained through a records request showed a backlash to U.C.L.A.'s planned move to the Big Ten among alumni and parents.
- IMDb: The film and TV database IMDb has handed a win to SAG-AFTRA and other lobbyists after a decades-long fight over the right to disclose actors' ages, giving those with a profile the option to disclose such information, The Los Angeles Times reports.
- Homelessness: At its meeting on Tuesday, the Los Angeles City Council approved Mayor Karen Bass's declaration of a homelessness emergency, allowing her first major initiative to move forward, The Los Angeles Times reports.
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- District 16 election: Melissa Hurtado was elected state senator by a razor-thin margin of 20 votes. She was sworn in on Monday and her Republican opponent is still considering a recount, The Porterville Recorder reports.
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- Cannabis: Local cannabis growers stuck in legal limbo are considering joining a booming underground weed economy that was supposed to decline after cannabis was legalized in 2016, The Los Angeles Times reports.
- Crypto bubble: The parents of Sam Bankman-Fried, the FTX founder who was arrested on Monday, are under scrutiny for their connections to their son's crypto business. They are longtime professors at Stanford Law School.
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 | | Craig Lee for The New York Times |
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 | | The Point Reyes Lighthouse in Point Reyes National Seashore.Photo by Gili Yaari/NurPhoto via Getty Images |
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"It abounds with beautiful trails in the hills and on the beach of varying difficulty. I've been going there for years and just went this fall. I'm 77 and hike alone most of the time and have always felt safe. The towns in the area are rustic with several good restaurants." |
Tell us about your favorite places to visit in California. Email your suggestions to CAtoday@nytimes.com. We'll be sharing more in upcoming editions of the newsletter. |
We're writing about how Californians celebrate the holidays. Do you relax by the beach, visit Disneyland or make tamales with your family? Maybe you always travel to a special spot within the Golden State? |
Email us at CAtoday@nytimes.com with your California holiday traditions and memories. Please include your name and the city where you live. |
We may include your email response in an upcoming newsletter or in print. By emailing us a response, you agree that you have read, understand and accept the Reader Submission Terms in relation to all of the content and other information you send to us ( "Your Content"). If you do not accept these terms, do not submit any content. |
 | | The coastal trail winding through the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.Photo by Al Seib/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images |
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And before you go, some good news |
The newspaper found that the three most popular trails were the Dipsea Trail, which begins in Mill Valley; the Pomo Canyon Trail in Sonoma Coast State Park; and a loop beginning with the Tennessee Valley Trail in Golden Gate National Recreation Area. |
"What's unique about the Bay Area is the phenomenal diversity of natural scenery and landscapes that are all so accessible," Janet McBride, executive director of the Bay Area Ridge Trail Council, told The Chronicle. And there's something for everyone, she added. |
"It's all here, and it's all close by." |
Thanks for reading. I'll be back tomorrow. — Soumya |
Briana Scalia and Isabella Grullón Paz contributed to California Today. You can reach the team at CAtoday@nytimes.com. |
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