The 10 Best California Books of 2021

The extremity of 2021 is approaching, and with it comes the accepted slew of year-end lists.

The champion poetry of the year. The astir 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 fantabulous books astir California that were published this twelvemonth and reviewed successful The New York Times.

These novels, abbreviated communicative collections, effort books and taste histories span California’s past and present. They vividly render the Venice Beach boardwalk of the 1980s, the Cambodian diaspora that settled successful Stockton, and a ramshackle and eccentric pre-tech San Francisco.

Happy reading.

FICTION

“Afterparties: Stories,” by Anthony Veasna So

An excerpt from our review, “Glimpses of Cambodian Life successful California”:

“‘Afterparties’ is simply a profoundly personal, frankly funny, illuminating representation of furtive, meddling aunties, sweaty, bored adolescents and the plaintive hunt for endurance that connects them. Its 9 stories sketch a satellite of hidden histories, of longings past and present, and of a civilization carving its mode retired of humanities trauma.”

“Damnation Spring,” by Ash Davidson

An excerpt from our review, “From Towering Redwoods to Tiny Creatures, This Novel Has It All”:

“The publication unfolds successful a tightknit assemblage successful Northern California implicit the people of 4 seasons, successful the precocious 1970s. It’s a vivid portrayal of the onshore and its people, a snapshot of a not-so-distant time, but it besides digs into the gnarled past of the place. And it’s a glorious publication — an assured caller that’s gorgeously told.”

“Frankie & Bug,” by Gayle Forman

An excerpt from our reappraisal of this children’s book, “A Different Kind of California Dreaming”:

“In Forman’s susceptible hands, the mounting of precocious ’80s Venice Beach is simply a living, breathing character. You tin odor the coconut suntan lotion and perceive Duran Duran playing successful 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 america into the Rancho Verde four-bedroom location of the Alvarados, a affluent Mexican American household harboring a big of secrets and lies. It’s a capacious book, chock-full of quality play acceptable against the backdrop of a record-breaking California drought, and Escandón writes with a large woody of vigor and emotion for her characters.”

“Something New Under the Sun,” by Alexandra Kleeman

An excerpt from our review, “A Climate Nightmare successful a Burning Los Angeles”:

“What constitutes an emergency? That is 1 of the questions posed, with chilly, stylish composure, by Alexandra Kleeman’s caller novel, ‘Something New Under the Sun,’ an improbable amalgam of clime fearfulness story, movie-industry satire and made-for-TV mystery. Its dreamy Los Angeles is simply a waking nightmare whose contours look successful offhand asides.”

“We Run the Tides,” by Vendela Vida

An excerpt from our review, “Her Best Friend Claims They Witnessed a Sex Crime. She Has Her Doubts”:

“Vida’s San Francisco is ramshackle and eccentric, location to heiresses but besides tide pools of counterculture backwash … The affectionate specificity of the representation she offers is 1 of the book’s existent pleasures.”

NONFICTION

“The Contrarian: Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley’s Pursuit of Power,” by Max Chafkin

An excerpt from our review, “The Alarming Rise of Peter Thiel, Tech Mogul and Political Provocateur”:

“‘The Contrarian’ is chilling — virtually chilling. As I work it, I grew colder and colder, until I recovered myself curled up nether a broad connected a sunny day, icy and anxious. Scared radical are scary, and Chafkin’s masterly evocation of his subject’s galactic fearfulness — of liberals, of the U.S. government, of decease — turns Thiel himself into a threat.”

“Everything Now: Lessons From the City-State of Los Angeles,” by Rosecrans Baldwin

An excerpt from our review, “How Do You Solve a Problem Like Los Angeles?”:

“To constitute the definitive publication astir Los Angeles would beryllium impossible. In ‘Everything Now,’ the novelist Rosecrans Baldwin doesn’t try. And successful not trying, helium whitethorn person written the cleanable publication astir Los Angeles.”

“Hollywood Eden: Electric Guitars, Fast Cars, and the Myth of the California Paradise,” by Joel Selvin

An excerpt from our review, “From Brian Wilson to Nancy Sinatra: The L.A. Music Scene successful the ’60s”:

Selvin, the erstwhile popular euphony professional of The San Francisco Chronicle, “tells the story, acceptable betwixt 1957 and 1967, of a web of young Angelenos who ‘captured a California of the mind’ — 1 of ‘cars, sun, enactment and surf; “Gidget” acceptable to a stone ’n’ rotation beat.’”

“Rock Me connected the Water: 1974 — The Year Los Angeles Transformed Movies, Music, Television, and Politics,” by Ronald Brownstein

An excerpt from our review, “Why Did Los Angeles Become a Cultural Mecca successful the Early 1970s?”:

“These are not caller stories, of people — the little model of early-1970s originative filmmaking, the Laurel Canyon euphony scene, the aureate epoch of television. All person been relentlessly examined, artifacts of a once-mighty babe boomer civilization. What Brownstein has done is expertly knit the scenes together, giving the scholar a plus-one invitation to the heady satellite of Hollywood parties, jam sessions and transportation meetings, arsenic good arsenic a pointed objection of however civilization tin beryllium made and unmade.”

For more:

• The Times’s 100 notable books of 2021.

• The champion books to springiness this season.

• The 25 champion children’s books of 2021.

The remainder of the news

• Fires, landslides and deficiency of snow: The skis manufacture girds for conflict amid biology threats.

• Solar manufacture changes: Regulators projected requiring homeowners with rooftop star panels to pay higher fees.

• Outdoor eating hurdles: The reddish portion that erstwhile prevented California restaurants from easy expanding outdoor seating is dilatory returning, The Atlantic reports.

• Weather warning: A tempest is expected to dump some rainfall and snow implicit overmuch of the state, perchance creating hazardous question conditions successful immoderate areas.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

• Antifa charges: A lawsuit against anti-fascists who protested a “Patriot March” successful Pacific Beach connected Jan. 9 is the archetypal clip prosecutors person charged antifa with conspiracy, The San Diego Union-Tribune reports.

• Teen sensation grows up: Everyone seemed to emotion Chloe Kim erstwhile she was a snowboarding prodigy. Now she has built a beingness beyond the halfpipe.

• Investment scam: A erstwhile fiscal advisor from Oceanside was sentenced to 14 years successful situation for conning older radical retired of their status savings, The Associated Press reports.

CENTRAL CALIFORNIA

• Clams: Pismo Beach was erstwhile the clam superior of the world. Then the clams disappeared, The Los Angeles Times reports.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

• A metropolis celebrated for tolerance: Amid burglarized restaurants and boarded-up storefronts, San Francisco is losing patience, The Associated Press reports.

What we’re eating

Crispy gnocchi with burst tomatoes.

Where we’re traveling

Today’s question extremity comes from Mary Kay Wulf, who recommends visiting the Crestwood Hills neighborhood, which is nestled supra Brentwood successful Los Angeles:

“As always, quiescent and civility indispensable beryllium observed erstwhile driving oregon walking done a residential enclave, and a bully GPS volition assistance to navigate the ins and outs and the switchbacks successful between. The hillside onshore was primitively purchased successful 1946 by 4 workplace musicians who past hired architects, A. Quincy Jones and Whitney R. Smith, to plan humble homes that maximized views of the Pacific Ocean and offered buyers premium privacy. Glass walls, unfastened level plans, and butterfly, level and shed roofs are lone a fewer of the features that turned the assemblage into a small midcentury miracle. Over the years it grew from 4 houses to 500, attracting modernist architects similar R. Neutra and Paul Williams among others. A peculiar standout is the Sturges House, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument.

After taking a self-guided circuit of Crestwood Hills, Brentwood Village conscionable eastbound connected Sunset offers a winding, open-air plaza known for its fashionable restaurants and boutique shopping.”

Tell america astir your favourite places to sojourn successful California. Email your suggestions to CAtoday@nytimes.com. We’ll beryllium sharing much successful upcoming editions of the newsletter.

What we’re recommending

Ten classical Christmas movies our critics didn’t spot coming.

Tell us

An yearly tamales party, New Year’s successful Palm Springs oregon an bid of Ikeda’s pies for Christmas meal — what are your Golden State vacation traditions?

And earlier you go, immoderate bully news

This month, the brightest comet of 2021 is showing successful a entity adjacent you.

Comet Leonard, which was archetypal discovered successful January, has rather apt spent the past 35,000 years traveling toward the sun, CNN reports. And erstwhile it passes the prima connected Jan. 3, it volition beryllium retired of our presumption forever.

So however bash we spot it earlier it’s gone?

Between present and Christmastime, adjacent astatine the entity conscionable aft the prima sets and look for an entity resembling a fuzzy star. You tin usage Venus, which is presently agleam successful the southwestern entity astir that time, arsenic a guiding light.

“I consciousness determination is going to beryllium thing to beryllium seen adjacent for the casual observer,” Greg Leonard, the astronomer who discovered the comet, told CNN. “Find yourself a acheronian entity with a bully presumption of the horizon, bring binoculars, and I deliberation you whitethorn beryllium rewarded.”

Thanks for reading. I’ll beryllium backmost tomorrow. — Soumya

P.S. Here’s today’s Mini Crossword, and a clue: Store that sells chairs, beds and … meatballs? (4 letters).

Mariel Wamsley contributed to California Today. You tin scope the squad astatine CAtoday@nytimes.com.

Sign up present to get this newsletter successful your inbox.