California's Girl is the story of a young girl growing up on the beach in Southern California during the 1960s and '70s. It is told through journal entries, short stories, poetry, and associated recollections. It begins with an idyllic childhood in a small beach town on the California coast. It details the lifestyle unique to the beach culture. A timeless span of innocence, bursting with the joy of life, surrounded by sand and sea. Adolescence arrives during an era of rebellion and social upheaval. Through the high school years, lessons are learned, and the complexity of life is examined. Reality begins to erode the fantasies of childhood. The first kiss, the first heartbreak, the loss of innocence, and the emergence of personal identity are seen through the eyes of a young girl. The beginning of one life's journey, when choices are made that will ultimately affect the unforeseeable future. A young girl does the best she can, makes mistakes, and savors the triumphsa microcosm of the human experience.

The California sunshine’s not quite so bright for three sisters who get dumped in the same week ... Finola, a popular LA morning show host, is famously upbeat until she’s blindsided on live TV by news that her husband is sleeping with a young pop sensation who has set their affair to music. While avoiding the tabloids and pretending she’s just fine, she’s crumbling inside, desperate for him to come to his senses and life to go back to normal. Zennie’s breakup is no big loss. Although the world insists she pair up, she’d rather be surfing. So agreeing to be the surrogate for her best friend is a no-brainer – after all, she has an available womb and no other attachments to worry about. Except...when everyone else, including her big sister, thinks she’s making a huge mistake, being pregnant is a lot lonelier – and more complicated – than she imagined. Never the tallest, thinnest or prettiest sister, Ali is used to being overlooked, but when her fiancé sends his disapproving brother to call off the wedding, it’s a new low. And yet Daniel continues to turn up ‘for support’, making Ali wonder if maybe – for once – someone sees her in a way no one ever has. But side by side by side, these sisters will start over and rebuild their lives with all the affection, charm and laugh-out-loud humour that is classic Susan Mallery.

For American photographer Sasha Eisenman, California connotes a state of mind and a way of life, conjuring not only golden light, blue skies, beaches, deserts, canyons and mountains, but also one particular image: the California Girl. Sasha Eisenman: California Girls captures this icon and her environment, investigating her representations through nudes and seminudes against beautiful Californian backdrops. Shooting entirely on medium-format film and dead stock Polaroid, Eisenman sought out a group of women who represented the unique style, personality and vibrancy of California and photographed them collaboratively, without styling, at backyard parties, surf trips and music shows. The images resulting from these shoots are collected here in Eisenman's first photo book. Each image is accompanied by an interview with its subject, allowing the viewer both a visual and textual entry into the sensuality, beauty, individuality and lives of the women photographed. Eisenman's work has appeared in magazines such as Dazed and Confused, Teen Vogue, Glamour, InStyle, Elle, Interview, Jalouse, L'Officiel, iD, V Man, Playboy, Spin and others, and he has photographed countless celebrities, from Lady Gaga to Jennifer Lawrence.

Who knew I’d meet the love of my life on a girls night in Las Vegas? Definitely not me. "Remember the moment we’re together when I’m your world and nothing else exists. I’ve never had that with anybody else and I’m willing to bet you haven’t either." Those heartfelt words that fell from his lips have taken residence in my head, crushing my soul since I haven’t told him who I am. What if he doesn’t want the real me? Danny’s a hunky metal head with soulful brown eyes. His sexy tiger tattoo makes me burn from the inside out. He’s everything I want and need. I want to keep him. But, I can’t tell him I love him until I confess my innocuous lie. I wouldn’t believe it myself. Betting on Love… could be the riskiest gamble of all.

California’s Girl, Book Two is the continuing saga of a young woman growing up on the beach during the early 1970s. It is told through journal entries, short stories, poetry, and associated recollections. It offers a deeply personal glimpse into the female experience within the unique beach culture of Southern California. On the cusp of womanhood, amid the hot sand and cool ocean, she searches for personal identity, lasting love, and the meaning of life. As she struggles to reconcile her childhood fantasies with the bittersweet reality of life and human entanglements, she discovers a deep connection to the natural world. Nature becomes her sanctuary, inspiring and nourishing her soul while teaching valuable lessons of self-worth and independence.

“Love, lust, murder, betrayal, suffering, and redemption all parade by as a brilliant tale-spinner once again has his way with us.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Edgar Award–Winner, Best Novel of the Year The Orange County, California, that the Becker brothers knew as boys is no more—unrecognizably altered since the afternoon in 1954 when Nick, Clay, David, and Andy rumbled with the lowlife Vonns, while five-year-old Janelle Vonn watched from the sidelines. The new decade has ushered in the era of Johnson, hippies, John Birchers, and LSD. Clay becomes a casualty of a far-off jungle war. Nick becomes a cop, Andy a reporter, David a minister. And a terrible crime touches them all in ways they could never have anticipated when the mutilated corpse of teenage beauty queen Janelle Vonn is discovered in an abandoned warehouse. “Parker’s drum-tight prose and richly layered characters borrow a bit from Raymond Chandler’s hard-boiled L.A. noirs as well as the more psychologically lurid novels of Dennis Lehane, but California Girl easily earns Parker his own spot on the shelf between these two masters.” —Entertainment Weekly, Editor’s Choice “A masterpiece filled with intriguing, multidimensional characters, an enthralling, sweeping plot, and some of the finest writing you’ll ever read.” —Chicago Sun-Times “Subtle—and effective . . . as much a family saga as it is a crime novel . . . an abundance of richly drawn characters.” —San Francisco Chronicle “An evocative trip back to the days of sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll, hippies, LSD, Charles Manson, peace protests, and the rising anger against the war in Vietnam. Parker perfectly captures the turbulence of the times.” —Orlando Sentinel