Susan Straight
Author
Publisher
Catapult
Pub. Date
[2019]
Language
English
Description
"In inland Southern California, near the desert and the Mexican border, Susan Straight, a self-proclaimed book nerd, and Dwayne Sims, an African American basketball player, started dating in high school. After college, they married and drove to Amherst, Massachusetts, where Straight met her teacher and mentor, James Baldwin, who encouraged her to write. Once back in Riverside, at driveway barbecues and fish fries with the large, close-knit Sims family,...
2) Mecca
Author
Publisher
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Pub. Date
2022.
Language
English
Description
"A California epic following several native, diverse Californians grasping for air in a world that continues to marginalize them"--
Johnny FrÃas has California in his blood. A descendant of the state's Indigenous people and Mexican settlers, he has Southern California's forgotten towns and canyons in his soul. He spends his days as a highway patrolman pulling over speeders, ignoring their racist insults, and pushing past the trauma of his rookie...