Books about California

Set against the background of dust bowl Oklahoma and Californian migrant life, this novel tells the story of the Joad family, who, like thousands of others, are forced to travel West in search of the promised land.

Follows the interwined destinies of two families - the Trasks and the Hamiltons - whose generations hopelessly re-enact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel.

A magnificent sweeping tale from the international bestselling author of 'The House of the Spirits'.

Lee Chong, the astute owner of the well-stocked grocery store, is also the proprietor of the Palace Flophouse that Mack and his troupe of good-natured 'boys' call home. Dora runs the brothel with clockwork efficiency and a generous heart, and Doc is the fount of all wisdom.

A burgeoning city is built on the dreams of the American gold rush. In 1906 the dreams of this city, came crashing down beneath the rippling wave of a horrifying earthquake. This story delves beneath the surface of the earth, and explains why the world moves as it does. It portrays the lives of the people who suffered and survived the devastation.

George and Lennie are migrant American workers - the one alert and protective, the other strong, stupid and potentially dangerous. This is the powerful story of their relationship and their dreams of finding a more stable and less lonely way of life.

Beneath the mask, there is a man and in his heart, burns the fire of injustice... Duels at dawn, fierce battles with pirates and impossible rescues - these are the deeds that forged the legend of Zorro. But, where did the man begin?

When Kathy, a young recovering alcoholic recently separated from her husband, fails to a open a series of tax letters that have been sent to her in error, the State of California seizes the house she and her brother have inherited from her father. The State sells the house at auction to Behrani, a former Iranian Air Force officer.

The discovery of gold by a team of Mormon mill workers in 1848 sparked a frenzy that shook the world. People swarmed to California from as far as China and Australia.

Just after Independence Day in July 1953 Violet Sullivan, a local good time girl drives off in her brand new Chevy and is never seen again. Left behind is her young daughter, Daisy, and Violet's impetuous husband, Foley, who had been persuaded to buy his errant wife the car only days before ...Now, thirty-five years later, Daisy wants closure.

First there was a phone call from a stranger, then a letter showed up 14 years after it was sent. That's how I learned. I'd made an error in judgement and ended up risking my life. The call comes on a Monday morning from a guy who scavenges defaulted storage units at auction. Last weekend he bought a stack. They had stuff in them - Kinsey stuff.

A memoir of land, family and perseverance from one of the most influential writers in America.

Danny is a paisano, descended from the original Spanish settlers who arrived in Monterey, California, centuries before. He values friendship above money and possessions, so that when he suddenly inherits two houses, Danny is quick to offer shelter to his fellow gentlemen of the road.

Lorna Kepler was beautiful and wilful, a loner who couldn't resist flirting with danger. She has also been found dead in mysterious circumstances and her death pulls Kinsey Millhone into a netherworld of deception, betrayal and unavenged murder.

Vineland, a zone of blessed anarchy in northern California, is the last refuge of hippiedom, a culture devastated by the sobriety epidemic, Reaganomics, and the Tube. Here, in an Orwellian 1984, Zoyd Wheeler and his daughter Prairie search for Prairie's long-lost mother, a Sixties radical who ran off with a narc.