I’ve fallen in love with the writing of Mark Arax.  First I read The Dreamt Land: Chasing Water and Dust Across California (2019) which absolutely amazed me and was about how California got to be California. I’ve mostly lived here since I as 16 – a long time as I’ve been retired for several years now. I knew the places and many of the people Arax wrote about.

West of the West: Dreamers, Believers, Builders and Killers in the Golden State 

By Mark Arax
2010 / 351 pages
rating:  8.75 / nonfiction California history 

Then I put West of the West on my Wish List and just got to it now.  This is in spite of the fact there is no Audio book to go with it.  (I both read and listened to The Dreamt Land.)

And now I’ve got The King of California: J.G. Boswell and the Making of a Secret American Empire on my Wish List and I will get to it before too long – both Kindle and Audible (fwiw).

Highly recommended if you’re interested in the subject of California history with emphasis on the San Joaquin Valley (not much about San Francisco or LA or politics or Indians etc – there are other books for those things.)