These new works of fiction and nonfiction vividly render the state’s past and present.
The end of 2021 is approaching, and with it comes the traditional slew of year-end lists. The best poetry of the year. The most memorable red carpet moments. Our favorite plays and musicals, our favorite songs and our favorite movies. Today I’m adding to the “best of” barrage. Below are 10 excellent books about California that were published this year and reviewed in The New York Times. These novels, short story collections, essay books and cultural histories span California’s past and present. They vividly render the Venice Beach boardwalk of the 1980s, the Cambodian diaspora that settled in Stockton, and a ramshackle and eccentric pre-tech San Francisco. Happy reading. “Afterparties: Stories,” by Anthony Veasna So An excerpt from our review, “Glimpses of Cambodian Life in California”: “‘Afterparties’ is a deeply personal, frankly funny, illuminating portrait of furtive, meddling aunties, sweaty, bored adolescents and the plaintive search for survival that connects them. Its nine stories sketch a world of hidden histories, of longings past and present, and of a culture carving its way out of historical trauma.” “Damnation Spring,” by Ash Davidson An excerpt from our review, “ From Towering Redwoods to Tiny Creatures, This Novel Has It All”: “The book unfolds in a tightknit community in Northern California over the course of four seasons, in the late 1970s. It’s a vivid portrayal of the land and its people, a snapshot of a not-so-distant time, but it also digs into the gnarled history of the place. And it’s a glorious book — an assured novel that’s gorgeously told.” “Frankie & Bug,” by Gayle Forman An excerpt from our review of this children’s book, “ A Different Kind of California Dreaming”: “In Forman’s capable hands, the setting of late ’80s Venice Beach is a living, breathing character. You can smell the coconut suntan lotion and hear Duran playing in the background.” “L.A. Weather,” by María Amparo Escandón An excerpt from our review, “Married 39 Years, and Ready to Call It Quits Over Their Kids’ Objections”: “Escandón drops us into the Rancho Verde four-bedroom home of the Alvarados, a wealthy Mexican American family harboring a host of secrets and lies. It’s a capacious book, chock-full of human drama set against the backdrop of a record-breaking California drought, and Escandón writes with a great deal of energy and love for her characters.
