American California

California is the most multicultural state in the nation. As John Mack Faragher argues in this concise and lively history, that is nothing new. California's natural variety has always supported diversity, including Native peoples speaking dozens of distinct languages, Spanish and Mexican colonists, gold seekers from all corners of the globe, and successive migrant waves from the eastern states, Europe, Latin America, Asia, and the Pacific Islands. Beautifully crafted and elegantly written, Faragher tells the stories of a colorful cast of characters, some famous, others mostly unknown.

Between 1846 and 1873, California's Indian population plunged from perhaps 150,000 to 30,000. Benjamin Madley is the first historian to uncover the full extent of the slaughter, the involvement of state and federal officials, the taxpayer dollars that supported the violence, indigenous resistance, who did the killing, and why the killings ended. This deeply researched book is a comprehensive and chilling history of an American genocide.

“Insanely big-hearted.” —The Washington Post “Electric.” —The New York Times “Tender, immersive, and thrilling." —Gabrielle Zevin, author of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow "One of the best novels I’ve ever read about friendship.” —Stephen King, #1 bestselling author...

J. G. Boswell was the biggest farmer in America. He built a secret empire while thumbing his nose at nature, politicians, labor unions, and every journalist who ever tried to lift the veil on the ultimate "factory in the fields". The King of California is the previously untold account of how a Georgia slave-owning family migrated to California in the early 1920s, drained one of America 's biggest lakes in an act of incredible hubris and carved out the richest cotton empire in the world.

JAMES BEARD AWARD NOMINEE A sharply crafted and unflinchingly honest memoir about gangs, drugs, cooking, and living life on the line—both on the streets and in the kitchen—from one of the most exciting stars in the food world today “Beautiful. Moving. Inspiring. Get it.”—Chris...

California’s transformation into the most populous state in America and the home of some of the country’s richest citizens spread amongst Silicon Valley and Hollywood, was certainly no accident. California has always been one of the most diverse and multicultural states in the United States, way before it was a state at all, and even before the arrival of the Europeans.

ONE OF THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER'S 100 GREATEST FILM BOOKS OF ALL TIME The definitive portrait of one of the most important cultural figures in American history: Walt Disney. Walt Disney was a true visionary whose desire for escape, iron determination and obsessive perfectionism transformed...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “An inspiring story that manages to be painful, honest, shocking, bawdy, and hilarious.” —The New York Times Book Review From stand-up comedian, actress, and breakout star of Girls Trip, Tiffany Haddish, comes The Last Black Unicorn, a sidesplitting, hysterical...

NEW YORK TIMES bestseller 2005: Welcome to NoCal and SoCal, the uneasy sister-states of what used to be California. The millennium has come and gone, leaving in its wake only stunned survivors. In Los Angeles, Berry Rydell is a former armed-response rentacop now working for a bounty hunter...

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of How Stella Got Her Groove Back and Waiting To Exhale is back with the inspiring story of a woman who shakes things up in her life to find greater meaning. In I Almost Forgot About You, Dr. Georgia Young's wonderful life--great friends, family, and...

Maya Angelou’s debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide. Her life story is told in the documentary film And Still I Rise, as seen on PBS’s American Masters. Here is a book as joyous and painful, as mysterious and memorable, as childhood itself. I Know Why the Caged Bird...

At last, the National Book Award finalist and NYT bestselling author of Pachinko returns with a breathtaking contemporary epic: Min Jin Lee has written a masterpiece by turns sweeping and intimate, one that reckons with ambition and moderation, lust and loyalty, personal dreams and familial duty...

He didn’t conquer California. He named it—river by river, memory by memory. In the early 1800s, Spanish lieutenant Gabriel Moraga rode deep into the wild, unmapped heart of California. What he discovered would shape the future of the West—but what he left behind was something far more enduring than conquest: names that still ripple across maps, city signs, and courtrooms today. River-Maker is a breathtaking historical narrative that brings Moraga’s forgotten journey vividly to life—from the sweeping silence of the Central Valley to the tangled wetlands of the Delta, from ...

The classic Western, now newly repackaged as part of Bantam's Louis L'Amour's Lost Treasures program—with never-before-seen material from Louis and his son, Beau L'Amour. "I am Johannes Verne, and I am not afraid." This was the boy's mantra as he plodded through the desert alone, left to die...

From the award-nominated author of Together Tea and The Lion Women of Tehran, a poignant, "powerful" (The Wall Street Journal) and "affecting novel about first love" (Real Simple) that explores loss, reconciliation, and the quirks of fate. Roya, a dreamy, idealistic teenager living amid the...

“A remarkable feat of reporting.”—Rachel Louise Snyder, author of No Visible Bruises *WINNER OF THE LUKAS PRIZE* The definitive account of the most notorious street gang in America—the MS-13—as seen through the lives of gang members and their families caught in its malicious web The...

The Histories of Alaska, Arizona, California & Colorado In One Collected Volume From the midnight sun of the Arctic Circle to the sun-scorched deserts of the Southwest, from fog-wrapped Pacific shores to the soaring peaks of the Rockies, the American West has always been a place where geography shapes destiny. In this compelling volume, Daniel Hardy traces the dramatic histories of four states that embody the western experience in all its complexity and contradiction. Through vivid storytelling and meticulous research, Hardy reveals how Alaska, Arizona, California, and Colorado transformed ...

By reader request, all 3 stories of this mail order bride series in one book--3 clean and wholesome western frontier romances of mail order bride. All stories are set in late 1800s. These are the stories of three young women who go to the Western Frontier as Mail Order Brides. Each has her own unique reason for leaving their homes for the unknown life on the western frontier with men they have only known through letters. Read their stories of adjustment and love. The Steely Bride for the Steadfast Rancher: Anna is desperate to escape the harsh life that she is destined to live if she stays ...

New York Times bestselling author Faye Kellerman delivers an electrifying crime novel of suspense as a young man’s obsessive investigation into his sister’s death draws him into the path of a sadistic serial killer. He went searching for the truth. Now a killer has found him. The more you...

Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2026 by The New York Times From California Governor Gavin Newsom comes an intimate and poignant account of identity, belonging, and the defining moments that inspired a life in politics “Go slow,” his political elders advised him, but Gavin Newsom has never...