September Book Club: Theme - "CALIFORNIA" - Vote Now Thru Aug 15

For September Book Club we are heading to the west coast for breezy sunshine and some fine wine!

The following 7 nominees all take place throughout different parts of California. CAST YOUR VOTE in the comments below. Make sure to vote before the cutoff date - August 15. I've provided links to Amazon for further research and uploaded the book covers in photos.

And the nominees are...

1. Not Your China Doll: The Wild and Shimmering Life of Anna May Wong by Katie Gee Salisbury - Set against the glittering backdrop of Los Angeles during the gin-soaked Jazz Age and the rise of Hollywood, this biography celebrates Anna May Wong, the first Asian American movie star, to bring an unsung heroine to light and reclaim her place in cinema history. In her time, she was a legendary beauty, witty conversationalist, and fashion icon. Plucked from her family's laundry business in Los Angeles, Anna May rose to stardom in Douglas Fairbanks' blockbuster The Thief of Baghdad. After years of being typecast in stereotypical roles, she moved abroad in protest starring in many acclaimed films in Paris and Berlin, only to return to the states to speak out about Hollywood's blatant racism, working to reshape Asian American representation in film. This book showcases the vibrant and radical life of a groundbreaking artist. Amazon Link

2. Typewriter Beach by Meg Waite Clayton - (historical fiction) Set in Carmel-by-the-Sea and Hollywood, is an unforgettable story of the unlikely friendship between an Oscar-nominated screenwriter and a young actress hoping to be Alfred Hitchcock's new star. Told in dual timelines, in 1957 rising Hollywood starlet Isabella Giori meets blacklisted screenwriter Leon Chazan after she is sequestered by the studio in a tiny Carmel cottage, the two hop in their roadster and speed down the fog shrouded Big Sur Coast. In 2018, screenwriter Gemma Chazan is in Carmel to sell her grandfather's cottage where she finds a hidden safe full of secrets raising questions about who he really was. Amazon Link

3. 'East of Eden' by John Steinbeck - In this classic American novel, set in the rich farmland of California's Salinas Valley, this sprakling and often brutal novel follows the intertwined destinies of two families -- the Trasks and the Hamiltons whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel. James Dean starred in the 1995 film and Netflix is adapting it again as a limited series with Florence Pugh. Amazon Link

4. 'The Imagined Life' by Andrew Porter - Steven Mills has reached a crossroads -- his wife and son have left him and may not return which leaves him determined to find out what happened to hsi own father, a brilliant charismatic professor who disappeared in 1984 when Steve was twelve, on a wave of ignominy. As Steve drives up the coast of California seeking out his father's friends, family members, and former colleagues, the novel gives us a glimpse of his childhood -- his parents' legendary pool parties, the black and white films on the backyard projector, and secrets shared with his closest friend. Each conversation diving deeper into his father's past making it harder for Stephen to recognize his own father and must confront truths about his own life. Amazon Link

5. 'What Kind of Paradise' by Janelle Brown - "The first thing you have to understand is that my father was my entire world" - Growing up in an isolated cabin in Montana in the mid-90s Jane knows only the world that she and her father live in. Her father is elusive about their pasts, giving Jane little beyond the facts that they once lived in the Bay Area and that her mother died in a car accident, the crash propelling him and Jane to move off the grid and raise her in a Waldenesque uptopia. As Jane becomes a teenager, she starts pushing against the boundaries of her restricted world, until one day she realizes that her devotion to her father has made her an accomplice to a horrific crime. She flees Montana to San Francisco to look for answers to her mysterious past and her mother's death. The city is in the midst of seismic change, where her quest to understand herself will force her to reckon with everything she values. Amazon Link.

6. 'The Island of Last Things' by Emma Sloley - Camille has always preferred animals to people. The wild nearly disappeared, but as a zookeeper at the last zoo in the world, on Alcatraz Island, she spends her days caring for playful chimpanzees, gentle tree frogs, and a restless jaguar. Outside, resistance groups and brutal cartels fight to shape the world's future, but Camille is safe within her routines...that is, until a new zookeeper, Sailor, arrives from Paris. They quickly bond and Sailor tells Camille a story of an idyllic secret sanctuary where wild animals roam free. Sailor hatches a reckless plan to smuggle one of the most prized animals off the island to freedom. This dystopian novel is an elegy for a disappearing world and beautiful vision for the future. Amazon Link

7. 'L.A. Women' by Ella Berman - A novel about the complicated friendship between two ambitious writers and the ultimate artistic betrayal, one writing a book about the other's life. Lane Warren has secured a new book deal based on the life of her sometime friend and rival Gala Margolis, a free spirit who has been missing for months. Ten years earlier, Gala was a charming socialite while Lane was a Hollywood outsider amidst the 1960s LA party scene. Gala's stardom began to rise and Lane grew envious. Then Lane did something that would change both their lives. This novel transports readers to the legendary parties and unparalled creativity of the iconic Laurel Canyon. At what cost does great art emerge and who pays the price? Amazon Link.