Inventing Paradise: The Power Brokers Who Created the Dream of Los Angeles traces the improbable rise of Los Angeles through the prism of six visionaries who had outsize influence on the city's growth: Phineas Banning, Harrison Gray Otis, Henry Huntington, Harry Chandler, William Mulholland, and Moses Sherman.

In the late 1870s, Los Angeles was a violent, dusty, 29-square-mile pueblo with a few thousand souls, largely unchanged since its founding in 1781. By 1930, its size had swelled to within 96% of its current 468 square miles, housing a staggering 1.2 million people. In just 50 years, L.A. had joined the ranks of other world-class cities.

In the tradition of Mike Davis's classic work City of Quartz, Paul Haddad (Freewaytopia and 10,000 Steps a Day in L.A.) debunks many myths about the City of Angels with a wildly entertaining narrative that sheds new light on the fascinating birth of modern Los Angeles. Power came from a select few, whose triumphs, scandals, and correspondence are well documented in Inventing Paradise, along with other little-known facts about L.A. history, including:

In the tradition of Studs Terkel, DiMarco's literary time capsule includes a wide variety of viewpoints, including: The small group of people who miraculously made it safely down from the 89th floor of Tower 1, the New York Times reporter who desperately fought her way through the fleeing crowds to get back into Lower Manhattan, the paramedic who set up a triage area 200 yards from the base of the Towers before they collapsed, and the bereaved citizens of New York City who struggled to get on with their lives in the days and months following the tragic event, among dozens of others.

The original edition of Tower Stories was one of the best-selling and most critically acclaimed books on 9/11 ever published, and for this 20th Anniversary Commemorative Edition, DiMarco has conducted additional interviews that offer a contemporary perspective on the 9/11 tragedy. The individuals DiMarco interviewed for the new edition include:

- Alice Greenwald (President and CEO of the 9/11 Memorial & Museum)

- Father Jim Martin (New York Times bestselling author)

- Tom Haddad (survivor of the 89th floor, Tower 1)

- Stephen Adly Guirgis (Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright).

The 20th Anniversary Commemorative Edition of DiMarco's moving oral history preserves all of the voices from the original edition for generations to come, while offering new insights that benefit from twenty years of reflection on the world-shattering event.

The voices in Tower Stories are in turn haunting and heartbreaking, always emotional, yet ultimately heroic. It's no wonder that MSNBC called Tower Stories Arguably the most successful attempt at capturing the enormity of the events of 9/11, while Publishers Weekly wrote that DiMarco's contribution to the memory of that horrific day is enormous; the testimonies collected here form a one-of-a-kind account.

The hills of the East Bay contain one of the finest and densest urban hiking environments in the state of California--more than 400 paved pathways and public staircases lattice up and down the slopes of Berkeley and Oakland alone. Rising high above the city centers, with towering views of the San Francisco Bay, the Bay Bridge, and San Francisco itself, these elegant civic walking trails--many of them shaded in oaks and redwoods, and many unknown even to local residents--present a unique landscape for both the casual walker and dedicated hiker.

Charles Fleming, the Southern California author whose bestselling 2010 walking guide Secret Stairs turned the hidden public staircases of Los Angeles into popular hiking trails, now turns his eyes northward. For Secret Stairs: East Bay, Fleming has designed more than 30 individual hiking loops. Linking multiple staircases into one-to two-hour self-guided strolls, these urban treks will delight the tourist, newly arrived Berkeley undergraduate, and veteran Bay Area resident alike.

The circular walks, each calibrated by length, difficulty, and duration--and each accompanied by a detailed, easy-to-follow map--are sprinkled with fascinating facts about the historic staircases, the historic homes around them, and the famous Bay Area characters who gave them their names. Walk the walks of Bret Harte, Mark Twain, and John Muir Climb Berkeley's massive Fred Herbert and Tamalpais Paths, hike Easter Way, and summit Sunset Trail Mount Oakland's Oakmore stairs, then tackle the hills of Upper Rockridge and Crocker Highlands via the public staircases. And do it all within easy walking distance from BART or bus stops, free parking, and excellent Bay Area caf s.

Containing walks and detailed maps from throughout the city, Secret Stairs highlights the charms and quirks of a unique feature of the Los Angeles landscape, and chronicles the geographical, architectural, and historical aspects of the city's staircases, as well as of the neighborhoods in which the steps are located.

From strolling through the classic La Loma neighborhood in Pasadena to walking the Sunset Junction Loop in Silver Lake, to taking the Beachwood Canyon hike through Hollywoodland to enjoying the magnificent ocean views from the Castellammare district in Pacific Palisades, Secret Stairs takes you on a tour of the staircases all across the City of Angels.

The circular walks, rated for duration and difficulty, deliver tales of historic homes and their fascinating inhabitants, bits of unusual local trivia, and stories of the neighborhoods surrounding the stairs. That's where William Faulkner was living when he wrote the screenplay for To Have and Have Not; that house was designed by Neutra; over there is a Schindler; that's where Woody Guthrie lived, where Anais Nin died, and where Thelma Todd was murdered . . .

Despite the fact that one of these staircases starred in an Oscar-winning short film--Laurel and Hardy's The Music Box, from 1932--these civic treasures have been virtually unknown to most of the city's residents and visitors. Now, Secret Stairs puts these hidden stairways back on the map, while introducing urban hikers to exciting new trails all around the city of Los Angeles.

Secret Walks: A Walking Guide to the Hidden Trails of Los Angeles is a sequel to the popular Secret Stairs: A Walking Guide to the Historic Staircases of Los Angeles, and features another collection of exciting urban walks through parks, canyons, and neighborhoods unknown and unseen by most Angelinos. Each walk is rated for duration, distance, and difficulty, and is accompanied by a map.

The walks, like those in Secret Stairs, are filled with fascinating factoids about historical landmarks--the original Bat Cave from Batman, the lake where Opie learned to fish on The Andy Griffith Show, or the storage barn for one of L.A.'s oldest wineries. The book also highlights the people who made the landmarks famous: the infamous water engineer William Mulholland; the convicted murderer and philanthropist Colonel Griffith J. Griffith; Charles Lummis, who walked from Cincinnati to Los Angeles to take a job on the L.A. Times; and tobacco millionaire Abbot Kinney, who dug canals to drain the marshes south of Santa Monica and create his American Venice.

Written in the entertainingly informed style that has made Secret Stairs a Los Angeles Times best-seller, Secret Walks is the perfect book for the walker eager to explore but tired of the crowds at Runyon Canyon or Temescal Park.

Route 66 Adventure Handbook is your personal guide to the vanishing American roadside, with all of its exuberance, splendor, and absurdity.

For this updated and expanded sixth edition, Drew Knowles has included it all: magnificent architecture, natural wonders, Art Deco masterpieces, vintage motels and cafes, unique museums, offbeat attractions, fascinating artifacts and icons, and kitschy tourist traps. The addition of more city maps, showing the multiple paths of Route 66 and displaying the exact locations of points of interest, is a major improvement over the already critically acclaimed fifth edition of the book. The sixth edition also includes hundreds of beautiful new photographs--including a 24-page center insert with stunning color photos and the addition of dozens of new attractions. Knowles has also added QR codes for certain locations that will enable the reader to access additional online material, such as more photos, video clips, and scans of vintage memorabilia.

Additionally, GPS coordinates have been included for virtually all of the photos, so that travelers can plug the information into their smartphones and other navigation devices and instantly determine where each photo was taken and compare it to the condition of that particular site at the time of their visit.

Filled with wonderfully quirky side trips and fun bits of trivia, Route 66 Adventure Handbook is the most authoritative resource for anyone looking to explore the Mother Road. Fasten your seat belts!

In Pork Belly Tacos with a Side of Anxiety, Yvonne Castañeda shares vibrant stories of her childhood growing up in Miami as the daughter of humble immigrants from Mexico and Cuba . . . and how she came to develop an unhealthy relationship with food.

To help ease her mami's nervios, Yvonne becomes a perfectionist from a young age, achieving high grades at school and mastering the piano. But as her Cuban family members openly make comments about her awkward desarrollo, or puberty, Yvonne enters a new phase of self-consciousness that begins her obsession with weight.

She abandons the piano for the high school cheerleading team, and reinvents herself, becoming both skinny and popular. However, as a first-generation adolescent born in the United States, Yvonne wrestles with the conflict between the cultural norms of her Hispanic/Latino heritage and American societal expectations.

Plagued by doubt and low self-esteem, Yvonne begins a vicious cycle of weight gain and loss, as she battles Bulimia Nervosa. Beleaguered by feelings of guilt, shame, and inferiority, she develops anxiety, depression, and a reliance on dangerous coping mechanisms.

Ultimately, sage advice from her dear abuela in Guadalajara, Mexico, guides Yvonne to a realization that shifts her perspective of herself and the purpose of her life, providing a foundation for inner peace, and la solución to her past struggles.

Freewaytopia: How Freeways Shaped Los Angeles explores how social, economic, political, and cultural demands created the web of freeways whose very form--futuristic, majestic, and progressive--perfectly exemplifies the City of Angels.

From the Arroyo Seco Parkway, which began construction during the Great Depression, to the Century Freeway, completed in 1993, author Paul Haddad provides an entertaining and thought-provoking history of the 527 miles of roadways that comprise the Los Angeles freeway system.

Each of Los Angeles's twelve freeways receives its own chapter, and these are supplemented by Off-Ramps--sidebars that dish out pithy factoids about Botts' Dots, SigAlerts, and all matter of freeway lexicon, such as why Southern Californians are the only people in the country who place the word the in front of their interstates, as in the 5, or the 101.

Freewaytopia also explores those routes that never saw the light of day. Imagine superhighways burrowing through Laurel Canyon, tunneling under the Hollywood Sign, or spanning the waters of Santa Monica Bay. With a few more legislative strokes of the pen, you wouldn't have to imagine them--they'd already exist.

Haddad notably gives voice to those individuals whose lives were inextricably connected--for better or worse--to the city's freeways: The hundreds of thousands of mostly minority and low-income residents who protested against their displacement as a result of eminent domain. Women engineers who excelled in a man's field. Elected officials who helped further freeways . . . or stop them dead in their tracks. He pays tribute to the corps of civic and state highway employees whose collective vision, expertise, and dedication created not just the most famous freeway network in the world, but feats of engineering that, at their best, achieve architectural poetry. And let's not forget the beauty queens--no freeway in Los Angeles ever opened without their royal presence.

Freewaytopia is part colorful lore, part civic and historical critique, and part homage to the most famous freeways in the world.

In Pork Belly Tacos with a Side of Anxiety, Yvonne Castañeda shares vibrant stories of her childhood growing up in Miami as the daughter of humble immigrants from Mexico and Cuba . . . and how she came to develop an unhealthy relationship with food.

To help ease her mami's nervios, Yvonne becomes a perfectionist from a young age, achieving high grades at school and mastering the piano. But as her Cuban family members openly make comments about her awkward desarrollo, or puberty, Yvonne enters a new phase of self-consciousness that begins her obsession with weight.

She abandons the piano for the high school cheerleading team, and reinvents herself, becoming both skinny and popular. However, as a first-generation adolescent born in the United States, Yvonne wrestles with the conflict between the cultural norms of her Hispanic/Latino heritage and American societal expectations.

Plagued by doubt and low self-esteem, Yvonne begins a vicious cycle of weight gain and loss, as she battles Bulimia Nervosa. Beleaguered by feelings of guilt, shame, and inferiority, she develops anxiety, depression, and a reliance on dangerous coping mechanisms.

Ultimately, sage advice from her dear abuela in Guadalajara, Mexico, guides Yvonne to a realization that shifts her perspective of herself and the purpose of her life, providing a foundation for inner peace, and la solución to her past struggles.

Lankford shares such eerie tales as John Brown's haunting of Harper's Ferry, the disembodied legs that have been seen running around inside the Mammoth Cave Visitor Center, and the wailing woman who roams the trail behind the Grand Canyon Lodge. Lankford also uncovers paranormal activities park visitors have experienced, such as the chupacabra that roams the swamps inside Big Thicket National Preserve and the teenage bigfoot who rolled a park service campground with toilet paper.

She also reports on long-forgotten unsolved murders, such as the savage stabbing of a young woman on Yosemite's trail to Mirror Lake, and the execution style shooting of two General Motors executives at Crater Lake. The witnesses to the supernatural occurrences are highly credible people-rangers, park historians, river guides, and the like-and each tale has factual relevance to the cultural or natural history of the park.

Haunted Hikes provides readers with all the information they need: for each hike: a fright factor rating is listed along with trailhead access information, detailed trail maps, and hike difficulty levels. Most of the haunted sites included in the book can be reached by the average hiker, some are wheelchair accessible, and others are for intrepid backpackers willing to make multi-day treks into wilderness areas. Intriguing photographs of many sites are included.

Haunted Hikes is sure to satisfy readers looking for those spine-tingling moments when you begin to wonder if maybe, just maybe, we are not alone.

LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER

Updated and Expanded Second Edition Features Six New Walking Adventures!

10,000 Steps a Day in L.A. is for urban adventurers with a passion for healthy living who are also eager to explore Los Angeles--from its most legendary locations to its more hidden, unsung, and quirky sites.

In this first-ever book to explore the 10,000-steps lifestyle in Los Angeles, author Paul Haddad takes readers on a journey through the city's streets, beaches, mountains, rivers, reservoirs, and parks. He includes 10,000-step walks from throughout the Southland, from Simi Valley to the South Bay, and Pasadena to Pacific Palisades.

Tread the grounds of a defunct Disney attraction called Dwarfland. Trace the extinct canals of Venice Beach. Stroll the shortest Main Street in America. Discover hidden streams, secret murals, lost cities, Hollywood haunts, houses made of stone, and parks that time forgot!

The second edition of 10,000 Steps a Day in L.A. features:

- 57 walks containing 10,000 steps

- Detailed maps and directions

- Descriptions of the terrain, walking surface, and dog-friendliness of each walk

- Ideal picnic spots

- Parking suggestions

- Sidebars with colorful trivia and anecdotes

Most importantly, 10,000 Steps a Day in L.A. offers a sense of fun and discovery about Los Angeles that makes the goal of 10,000 steps easy to attain. Readers need only bring their feet--pedometers are optional!

The Thrilling and Emotional Memoir from Endurance Horse Racing Legend Sanoma Blakeley

Chasing Dreams: The True Story of the Youngest Female Tevis Cup Champion is the incredible, action-packed memoir of Sanoma Blakeley's 2019 Tevis Cup championship, won while riding her beloved horse Goober, and the tale of how she became the youngest woman to ever become a Tevis Cup champion. Beginning her endurance riding career at the age of seven, Blakeley writes about the years of training and teamwork required to win the most challenging and famous 100-mile horse race in the world aboard a horse she had originally acquired for free off of Craigslist.

Blakeley places readers on the ride with her so that they can experience the thrill of the most exciting horse endurance race in existence. Blakeley and Goober survive narrow mountain trails winding through the Sierra-Nevadas, containing over 19,000 feet of elevation gain; three steep, grueling canyons; crossing the shoulder-high American River; riding at night with only the light of the moon to guide them; temperatures that soared over 115 degrees; and, most excitingly, the final neck-and-neck sprint to the finish against a four-time Tevis Cup champion and world class competitor after 100 miles of some of the most rugged mountain trails in the world.

When Blakeley and Goober cross the finish line just a few feet ahead of their competition and Blakeley becomes the youngest woman in history to win the Tevis Cup, a lifetime of hard work that began when the author started training as a small child and who had long dreamed of winning the Tevis Cup was finally rewarded. Chasing Dreams contains action, heartwarming twists, and an epic ending that will leave readers in tears.

L.A.'s Landmark Restaurants is an illustrated history of over 50 famous Los Angeles restaurants from throughout the 20th century that were not featured in Geary's first book. The focus in L.A.'s Landmark Restaurants is on restaurants where Angelenos--rather than celebrities--have been dining for generations.

Along with recipes made famous by each restaurant, L.A.'s Landmark Restaurants contains profiles of such legendary eateries as Cole's, Philippe the Original, Pacific Dining Car, The Original Pantry Café, The Victor Hugo, Canter's Delicatessen, Sportsmen's Lodge, Mocambo, Nate 'n Al's, The Smoke House, Tail o' the Pup, The Apple Pan, Valentino, and dozens of other beloved establishments in this beautiful tribute to Los Angeles and its historic restaurants.

Each location profiled is illustrated with a collection of historic and contemporary photographs and ephemera--such as menus, matchbooks, and advertisements--and every entry features a short history of the restaurant, entertaining anecdotes, and such details as the year of opening, address, phone number (both original and current), type of cuisine, and the name of the restaurant's founder.

Recipes made famous by the restaurant, updated for today's cook and kitchen by Chef Geary, will satisfy anyone seeking to replicate their favorite dish from these legendary restaurants and their chefs.

Truly a love letter to Los Angeles and its world famous cuisine, L.A.'s Landmark Restaurants is sure to bring back treasured memories and knowing smiles from anyone who has dined at these fabled establishments.

From Tiki godfathers Don the Beachcomber and Trader Vic to classic Exotica favorites Martin Denny and Les Baxter to contemporary Tiki artists Shag and Bosko, this resource covers everything Tiki in prose that is witty, entertaining, and essential for anyone who has ever stepped up to a bar, glanced up at the pufferfish hanging from the ceiling, and ordered a Singapore Sling.

In addition to the exhaustive listings, recipes for classic Tiki cocktails, a glossary of Tiki terms, and resources for buying Tiki goods and artifacts are also included. Reminiscences of famous points of interest that have closed are provided for the completist, for historical perspective, and for those seeking information on the current status of a favorite Tiki site which may have closed.

So slip on your grass skirt or Aloha shirt, because Tiki Road Trip is going to take you on a tour of the Tiki universe that will make waves from the shores of Rapa Nui to the beaches of Oahu

Author George Geary leads you into the glamorous restaurants inhabited by the stars through a lively narrative filled with colorful anecdotes and illustrated with vintage photographs, historic menus, and timeless ephemera. Over 100 iconic recipes for entrees, appetizers, desserts, and drinks are included.

But L.A.'s Legendary Restaurants contains much more than the fancy, high-priced restaurants favored by the Hollywood cognoscenti. The glamour of the golden age of drive-ins, drugstores, nightclubs, and hotels are also honored. What book on L.A. restaurants would be complete without tales of ice cream sundaes at C.C. Brown's, cafeteria-style meals at Clifton's, or a mai tai at Don the Beachcomber?

Most of the locations in L.A.'s Legendary Restaurants no longer exist, but thanks to George Geary, the memories are still with us.

A House Rabbit Primer: Understanding and Caring for Your Companion Rabbit, 2nd Edition is a brand new, up-to-date edition of the critically acclaimed handbook covering all aspects of rabbit care for both new and experienced pet rabbit owners.

Author Lucile C. Moore, Ph.D., provides pet rabbit owners with valuable information about the total care of their pet. Part one tells owners just what to expect from their new member of the family and gives detailed information on how to house, feed, and train a rabbit. Part two contains a comprehensive medical section, updated for the second edition.

A House Rabbit Primer, 2nd Edition has been expanded to include more photos, new stories and care hints from experienced rabbit caretakers, and additional information on healthy rabbit diets. This new edition also features more detailed instructions on how to groom pet rabbits, as well as suggestions on how to care for special needs rabbits. In addition to up-to-date information on many rabbit diseases, there are tips on creating a first-aid kit for rabbits as well as providing emergency care.

With more and more pet owners choosing to keep their rabbits indoors full time, this second edition of the guide beloved by rabbit owners around the world lays out practical information for making rabbits a healthy part of any family.

Since forming in 1889, Orange County, California has become famous all over the world for being home to such popular attractions as Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, and some of the most beautiful beaches in the world. But there are also many other places that helped establish the county as not just a popular tourist destination, but also home to countless cultural landmarks that served the local communities for generations.

Stretching across the 34 cities that comprise The OC, Lost Landmarks of Orange County brings back fabulous memories of music venues, restaurants, theaters, theme parks, attractions, and more.

Everybody knows the aforementioned Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm, but Orange County was also home to Lion Country Safari, the California Alligator Farm, the Buffalo Ranch, Japanese Village and Deer Park, Movieland Wax Museum, the Orange County International Raceway, and many other large-scale attractions.

Concert venues including the Golden Bear, Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, and the Cuckoo's Nest all featured some of the biggest names in rock and roll and popular music. Tiki bars, airports, drive-in movie theaters, themed restaurants . . . these were the places where generations of OC natives and visitors from around the world created memories that would last a lifetime.

Today, all of these locations are gone, but utilizing firsthand accounts, rare photos, artifacts, and other resources, Lost Landmarks of Orange County keeps the colorful memories of Orange County's past alive.

Completely updated and expanded with over 50 new entries and 300 new photos, The Disneyland Encyclopedia spans the entire history of the park, from its founding more than 50 years ago to the present day.

This fascinating book features detailed explorations of 600 Disneyland topics, including lands, attractions, restaurants, stores, events, and significant people. Each of the main encyclopedia entries illuminates the history of a Disneyland landmark, revealing the initial planning strategies for the park's iconic attractions and detailing how they evolved over the decades.

Enriching this unique A-to-Z chronicle are profiles of the personalities who imagined and engineered the kingdom known as The Happiest Place on Earth. Discover unbuilt concepts, including Liberty Street, Rock Candy Mountain, and Chinatown, and delight in fascinating trivia about long-lost Disneyland features, from the real rifles in the shooting gallery that was once located on Main Street to the jet-packed Rocket Man who flew above Tomorrowland. The new Mouscellany feature adds fun facts, hidden secrets, and odd trivia to the third edition.

Overflowing with meticulously researched details and written in a spirited, accessible style, The Disneyland Encyclopedia is a comprehensive and entertaining exploration of the most-influential, most-renovated, and most-loved theme park in the world!

Amy Chan Zhou's searing memoir about growing up in rural Communist China features descriptions of pastoral beauty and tales of the simple joys of raising farm animals or catching fish in a local river. However, her childhood is scarred by the primitive conditions, her family's everyday struggle to obtain food, and the horror of witnessing relatives being tortured on a stage during public denouncing meetings.

As the Communists take control of China in 1949, we follow the harrowing experiences of Chan Zhou's great-grandparents, grandparents, father, and mother during the 1950s, '60s, and '70s when landlords, business owners, artists, and scholars were branded as bad elements and class enemies. As a teenager in the 1970s, while selling vegetables on the black market, Chan Zhou is accused of being a little capitalist trader.

The death of Mao ultimately saves Chan Zhou from being sent to a detention center, and her family's destiny is forever altered by Deng Xiaoping's reform that allows her family to reunite in Hong Kong, and subsequently emigrate to the United States.

A blend of Wild Swans and The Red Scarf Girl, Flowing with the Pearl River is a vividly accurate portrayal of one family's painful experiences during Communism and the Cultural Revolution in China, and their eventual escape to freedom.

These famous and hilarious shorts are covered in detail through a wealth of archival photographs, many of which are rare and previously unpublished. Also included are candid shots, vintage publicity stills, screen captures from films, contemporary photographs, aerial views, and maps detailing the various filming locations.

Featuring exclusive quotes from the Three Stooges' directors, supporting actors, and family members, this collection is a treasure trove of memorabilia for the Stooges fan and an important document in Hollywood's cinematic history.