Crossing California: A Cultural Topography of a Land of Wonder and Weirdness
Purchase
Description
A Cultural Topography of a Land of Wonder and Weirdness
by Sam McManis
Sacramento Bee journalist Sam McManis spent five years on the road trying to find the real California. He discovered that there is more than one California, but every different California is equally weird and wonderful. Worlds collide and commingle: the neo-hippies with the rednecked farmers; the urban sophisticates with the quirky desert dwellers; the Hollywood power brokers with the Outsider Artists.
Brought together in a bouillabaisse of voices, Crossing California will make you see the state in an entirely new light.
From the briny scent of Fisherman’s Wharf to the fragrant sage scrub of Imperial County; from the otherworldly starkness of Death Valley to the crashing waves and flexing muscles at Venice Beach, Crossing California gives readers a first-hand experience.
McManis has stalked the tony aisles of the newly minted Broad Museum in gentrified downtown Los Angeles, and quick-footed it through the International Banana Museum along the desiccated shores of the moonscaped Salton Sea. He has inadvertently gotten his car stuck in a tree at a cheesy drive-thru giant Sequoia roadside attraction along the hemp highway between Mendocino and Humboldt, and witnessed, with both fascination and can’t-look-away horror, grown men and women, sans children and sans inhibitions, belt out full-throated versions of "Let It Go" at a Disneyland sing-along. All told, Crossing California is a trip.
Audience: Readers interested in California culture, history, oddities, and humor.
About the Author: Sam McManis is a former columnist and feature writer for the Sacramento Bee. He is a four-time winner of the Society of Features Journalism awards and three-time Best of the West honoree. He also has been a staff writer and editor at the San Francisco Chronicle and a sportswriter for the Los Angeles Times. His profiles and essays have appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and elsewhere. He lives and writes in Washington state.
$14.95 US • Trade Paperback • 6" x 9" • 280 pages
ISBN 978-1-61035-313-7
Products You May Like
-
SAN JUAN BAUTISTA: THE TOWN, THE MISSION & THE PARK
$19.95
$11.97
Step into the vibrant past of San Juan Bautista and encounter gentle Mustune Indians, hardworking Franciscan Monks, fierce outlaws and a host of other fascinating characters.
-
THE VALLEYS LEGENDS & LEGACIES, VOL IV
$18.95
$11.37
Volume IV: Stories include Clovis, Madera, Sanger, Academy, Hanford, Fresno, Grangeville, Centerville, Fowler, Dos Palos
-
THE HUNT FOR THE BURU [LSI]
![THE HUNT FOR THE BURU [LSI]](images/products/thumbs/12-602.jpg "THE HUNT FOR THE BURU [LSI]")
$19.95
$11.97
This firsthand account of a 1948 journey to a treacherous valley in northern India in search of a mysterious creature is both a classic travel adventure and a graphic record of an amazing expedition. The Buru, an elusive, monstrous reptile, was well documented by the natives of the area. Like the Yeti, Bigfoot, and the Loch Ness monster, the Buru has captured the imagination of adventurers for years.
-
BLACK BART: BOULEVARDIER BANDIT [LSI]
![BLACK BART: BOULEVARDIER BANDIT [LSI]](images/products/thumbs/wd-25.jpg "BLACK BART: BOULEVARDIER BANDIT [LSI]")
$12.95
$7.77
“I’ve labored long for bread For honor and for riches But on my corns too long you’ve tread You fine haired Sons of Bitches” —Black Bart, the Po8
-
SHOWDOWN!: LIONHEARTED LAWMEN OF OLD CALIFORNIA
$15.95
$9.57
?Showdown!: Lionhearted Lawmen of Old California? is a engaging collection of six biographies of early California lawmen: Sheriff John Bogard of Tehama County, Detective Emil Harris of Los Angeles, Deputy Sheriff Hiram Rapelje of central California, William J. Howard of Mariposa County, Sheriff David Douglas of Nevada County, and Lafayette Choisser of Mariposa County. Punctuated by gunshots and posse hoofbeats, these true tales illustrate, in both words and illustrations, the perilous lives of Old California?s brave lawmen, and vividly describe a time now gone forever. The courageous men profiled in this book were all colorful personalities. Hiram Rapelje rose to the heights, and depths, of his profession, while Emil Harris was a widely known detective throughout the state. William J. Howard was a member of Harry Love?s California Rangers that tracked down Joaquin Murrieta. Sheriffs Bogard and Douglas were both killed in the line of duty in dramatic showdowns.
-
An Artist and a Writer Travel Highway 1 South
$26.95
The best loved and most spectacular drive in California is documented in a beautifully illustrated artistic and literary journey. A fantastic drive comes to a stunning conclusion in An Artist and a Writer Travel Highway 1 South.