Believe it or not, the end of 2023 is approaching. That means we're entering the season of best of lists. Today I'm sharing my own twist on a list: the 10 best California books of the year.
From our review: There is a moment toward the end of Open Throat,' Henry Hoke's slim jewel of a novel, where the narrator, a mountain lion living in the desert hills surrounding Los Angeles's Hollywood sign, falls asleep and dreams of Disneyland. It will be hard for those who haven't yet read this propulsive novel to understand, but the lion's waking life at this moment is so precarious that this slippage into pleasant dream left me scared to turn the page.
From our review: Cassie's conditions might exemplify those of modern American or perhaps uniquely Silicon Valley success. She made it out of her dying' East Coast town, went to college, got decent jobs, moved out West and, as her father puts it, is playing the game.' For the majority of the book, she works as the head marketing writer for a start-up valued at $16 billion. She's able to live in a San Francisco apartment that costs $3,000 a month. But beneath the gleaming surface exists a deafening river of melancholy roaring through the dark red cave of my heart.'
From our review: Death Valley' is a triumph, a ribald prayer for sensual.
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