"The Golden Shore: California's Love Affair With the Sea" by David Helvarg; Thomas Dunne Books ($27.99)
Like many California transplants, David Helvarg has repeatedly reinvented himself. He's been a freelance journalist, a television ...
"The Power of Negative Thinking: An Unconventional Approach to Achieving Positive Results" by Bob Knight, with Bob Hammel; Amazon Publishing / New Harvest ($25)
Behind his choleric countenance, chair-hurling antics and disturbing incidents of ...
"A Wild Surmise: New & Selected Poems & Recordings" by Eloise Klein Healy; Red Hen Press ($19.95)
Just a few months ago, Eloise Klein Healy was chosen as L.A.'s first poet laureate. Now a new anthology of Healy's work offers ample proof, if any...
"Whitey Bulger: America's Most Wanted Gangster and the Manhunt That Brought Him to Justice" by Kevin Cullen and Shelley Murphy; W.W. Norton ($26.95)
When Whitey Bulger was arrested in Santa Monica, Calif., late on the afternoon of June 22, 2011...
"Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Ron Rash; Ecco ($24.99)
Like Emily Dickinson, a poet famed for her oblique approach, Ron Rash is in the business of concealing the truth. "Tell it slant," Dickinson once recommended. "The Truth must dazzle gradually/...
"Jacob's Folly" by Rebecca Miller; Farrar, Straus and Giroux ($26)
In "Jacob's Folly," Rebecca Miller has landed on a narrative voice that's antique, droll, racy and occasionally cutting -- imagine an 18th-century French rake being played by ...