Let's not forget that within the avalanche of books published each year are titles by university personnel.
This list was compiled by Paul Takushi, the trade-books buyer for the UC Davis bookstore, and Karen Nikos, senior public information representative at the University of California, Davis. Their recommendations were culled from dozens of books recently published by UC Davis faculty, staff, alumni and students.
For more titles by UC Davis authors, you can subscribe to Takushi's "UC Davis Bookstore Buzz" e-newsletter by emailing pmtakushi@ucdavis.edu, with "Buzz Subscribe" in the subject heading.
Books by UC Davis authors are on sale at the bookstore in the "Campus Authors" section.
• "Peach Farmer's Daughter" by Brenda Nakamoto (Roan, $13.95, 203 pages): The third-generation Japanese American (sansei) recalls her childhood growing up on her parents' peach farm in Gridley. A moving memoir, with photos, drawings and poems.
• "Craving Earth" by Sera Young (Columbia University Press, $29.50, 240 pages): Medical researcher Young explores the whys behind the ages-old practice of people's compulsion to eat nonfood items such as ice, chalk and clay.
• "Other Suns" by Patricia Killelea (Swan Scythe, $12.95, 38 pages): The doctoral student's poetry deals with nature, conservation and "human engagement," particularly "the ways in which land shapes perception."
• "Chasing Chiles" by Kraig Kraft (Chelsea Green, $17.95, 224 pages): Kraft and two fellow chile lovers explored climate change during a road-trip mission to find "the rarest heirloom chile varieties." With recipes.
• "Let Us Water the Flowers" by Jafar Yaghoobi (Prometheus, $19, 390 pages): The author was held as a political prisoner for five years in Iran. This memoir is his promise to himself to tell what happened "at the hands of Islamist extremists."
• "Trust in the Land" by Beth Rose Middleton (University of Arizona Press, $35, 352 pages): The loss of their land disrupted the cultures of American Indians. Here, the author addresses creative land-preservation programs including "conservancies, trusts, collaborations and conservation groups."
More summer reading
Recently, we asked you to share your summer reading lists with other readers.
One reader doing so is Susy Alarcon Arriaga of Davis:
"For the past two summers, I have vowed to read 'A Suitable Boy' by Vikram Seth (a novel set in 1950s India), but the reality of holding a paperback of almost 1,500 pages has been too daunting.
"So this summer, I have a new plan: I am dividing (my reading of it) into four separate sessions and rewarding myself after (each session) with true summer beach reads. To that end, I have 'Sweetwater Creek' by Anne Rivers Siddons; 'The Queen of the Big Time' by Adriana Trigiani; 'Sullivan's Island' by Dorothea Benton Frank (who will appear for the Bee Book Club on July 14); and 'Ya-Yas in Bloom' by Rebecca Wells."
More books to try
Still not enough titles for you? Try these:
• "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" by Ransom Riggs (Quirk, $17.99, 352 pages): Though billed as a "young adult" novel, there's so much buzz over this compelling fantasy that it's crossing over into adult readership. Spicing first-person narrative with eerie photographs, it takes readers on young Jacob's journey to a "remote Welsh island," where wonders and dangers abound.
• "One Summer" by David Baldacci (Grand Central, $25.99, 352 pages): The veteran thriller writer surprises his fans with a tear-jerking beach read about family dramas along the South Carolina coastline.
• "Groundswell" by Katie Lee (Gallery, $25, 240 pages): Emma weds a movie star and is transformed into a jet-setting celebrity in her own right. Then trouble in her so-called paradise leads her to flee to the beaches of Mexico, where true love finally seems possible.
• "Big Book of How" by the editors of Time magazine (Time For Kids, $17.95, 192 pages): Yes, this illustrated roundup of how things work is aimed at the 9-to-12 age group, but it's the perfect entry to reading with your children.
Besides, you might learn how to find the sweet spot on a baseball bat and how to protect your computer from a virus.
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The Bee's Allen Pierleoni can be reached at (916) 321-1128 or apierleoni@sacbee.com. Contact him with news of coming literary events that are open to the public.
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