Crossing California - by Sam McManis (Paperback)

About the Book

"Sacramento Bee journalist Sam McManis spent five years on the road trying to find the real California. He discovered that there is more than one California, but every different California is equally weird and wonderful. Worlds collide and commingle: the neo-hippies with the rednecked farmers; the urban sophisticates with the quirky desert dwellers; the Hollywood power brokers with the outsider artists. Brought together in a bouillabaisse of voices, 'Crossing California' will make you see the state in an entirely new light"--Amazon.com

Book Synopsis

Sacramento Bee journalist Sam McManis spent five years on the road trying to find the real California. He discovered that there is more than one California, but every different California is equally weird and wonderful. Worlds collide and commingle: the neo-hippies with the rednecked farmers; the urban sophisticates with the quirky desert dwellers; the Hollywood power brokers with the outsider artists. Brought together in a bouillabaisse of voices, Crossing California will make you see the state in an entirely new light.

From the briny scent of Fisherman's Wharf to the fragrant sage scrub of Imperial County; from the otherworldly starkness of Death Valley to the crashing waves and flexing muscles at Venice Beach, Crossing California gives readers a first-hand experience. McManis has stalked the tony aisles of the newly minted Broad Museum in gentrified downtown Los Angeles, and quick-footed it through the International Banana Museum along the desiccated shores of the moonscaped Salton Sea. He has inadvertently gotten his car stuck in a tree at a cheesy drive-thru giant Sequoia roadside attraction along the hemp highway between Mendocino and Humboldt, and witnessed, with both fascination and can't-look-away horror, grown men and women, sans children and sans inhibitions, belt out full-throated versions of "Let It Go" at a Disneyland sing-along. All told, Crossing California is a trip. (Color photographs),

Review Quotes

Crossing California "meanders from broiling desert to shining sea, from traffic-clogged metropolis to wind-swept Sierra. In a (semi-)trusty white Hyundai hybrid, McManis traversed the entire 796.4 miles from Oregon to Mexico with many, many side trips in between....Imagine Huell Howser minus the golly and with a far more sophisticated sense of humor, seeking out the oddball destinations less visited." Sacramento Bee-- "Sacramento Bee"

"Crossing California is an inherently fascinating and appreciatively informative reader from cover to cover."-- "Reviewer's Bookwatch"

"Crossing California: A Cultural Topography of a State of Wonder and Weirdness captures the funky, strange and oddball characters and places in virtually all corners of the nation's most populous state."-- "Los Angeles Weekly"

"A thoroughly readable collection of craziness ... McManis seeks out the 'loose things' in the desert and hills and streets of California and explores them with a facile intelligence and general good humor. I liked this book!"-- "Richard Frisbie, TravelingBoy.com"

"Blends humor, culture, and history in a lively survey of California."-- "Midwest Book Review"

"Enjoy this quirky trip through California -- a place that the passionate, the individualistic, and the outright weird can all call home."-- "Foreword Reviews"

"If you want to have fun reading about the less publicized side of California, I strongly recommend Crossing California. The great travel writers are able to bring a unique perception to what we all observe -- and Sam McManis exhibits this skill in every story."-- "Randy Shaw, BeyondChron.org"

"Sam McManis's writing is so good that most readers will agree -- this book is hard to put down. Yet to savor his book, reading it a few sections at a time will prolong the reading pleasure. McManis speaks directly to the reader in an easy, pleasant, conversational style. Even the introduction is a delight to read."-- "George Erdosh, San Francisco Book Review"