{"product_id":"crossing-california-a-cultural-topography-of-a-land-of-wonder-and-weirdness-9781610353137","title":"Crossing California: A Cultural Topography of a Land of Wonder and Weirdness","description":"\u003ci\u003eSacramento Bee\u003c\/i\u003e 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, \u003ci\u003eCrossing California\u003c\/i\u003e will make you see the state in an entirely new light. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e 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, \u003ci\u003eCrossing California\u003c\/i\u003e 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, \u003ci\u003eCrossing California\u003c\/i\u003e is a trip. (Color photographs),\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eMcManis, Sam:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - \u003cb\u003eSam McManis\u003c\/b\u003e is a former columnist and feature writer for the \u003ci\u003eSacramento Bee\u003c\/i\u003e. He is a four-time winner of the Society of Features Journalism awards and three-time Best of the West honoree. He also has been a staff writer and editor at the \u003ci\u003eSan Francisco Chronicle\u003c\/i\u003e and a sportswriter for the \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e. His profiles and essays have appeared in the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eWall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e and elsewhere.","brand":"Craven Street Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50421620408594,"sku":"9781610353137","price":10.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_eb9b860b-79c8-4215-ba55-113be698cdca.jpg?v=1729509798","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/crossing-california-a-cultural-topography-of-a-land-of-wonder-and-weirdness-9781610353137","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}