MBR: The California Shelf
Midwest Book Review
Death in California
David Kulczyk
Craven Street Books
c/o Linden Publishing
2006 S. Mary, Fresno, CA 93721
9781884995576 $15.95 CravenStreetBooks.com
Death in California: The Bizarre, Freakish, and Just Curious Ways
People Die in the Golden State lives up to its title as a quirky
compendium of true stories of unusual ways people have met their ends
in California - from the tragedy of 14 tourists swept over Vernal Fall
in Yosemite National Park, to Bob "Bear" Hite's overdose on heroin at
Hollywood nightclub, to a 10-ton jet that crashed in a Bay Area
kitchen. Here are suicides, homicides, one-in-a-million deadly
accidents, and more. A handful of vintage black-and-white photographs
pepper this unforgettably compelling account of grisly mishaps, dark
twists of fate, and ill luck of the worst kind.
Arcadia Publishing
www.arcadiapublishing.com
Arcadia's 'Images of America' books are outstanding additions and
these are picks for any California library strong in regional
California history. These are photo collections pairing history with
vintage images gleaned from personal as well as public archives, so
many are not to be found elsewhere. Darline Bergere's UKIAH
(0738570400, $21.99) comes from a long-time Ukiah resident and former
newspaper columnist and provides a celebration of the town's origins
and growth, Alice Eby Hall's THE CAJON PASS (0738570753, $21.99)
surveys a major state pass that led to the state's development once it
was traversed and opened up, Rebecca Farnbach, Vincenzo Cilurzo and
Audrey Cilurzo's TEMECULA WINE COUNTRY (0738570141, $21.99) examines
the growth of vineyards in the Temecula region and tells how the
authors planted the first commercial vineyard in the 1960s, and
William J. McBurney and Mary Rice Milholland's GREATER FRENCH VALLEY
(0738569186, $21.99) surveys a Riverside County region north of
Temecula where immigrants developed a thriving community that exists
to this day. The authors' personal familiarity with their topics makes
for a powerful pairing of personal and historical information.
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