Favorite California history books? Any interesting books on California governors?
First of all, anything by Kevin Starr is a good place to start if you're looking for books on California history. I particularly recommend California: A History (BOOK | KINDLE) for an overall history and Coast of Dreams: California on the Edge, 1990-2003 for a more modern perspective.
Jim Newton's book Man of Tomorrow: The Relentless Life of Jerry Brown (BOOK | KINDLE) is probably the best biography I've read about one of California's most influential Governors. Lou Cannon's Governor Reagan: His Rise to Power (BOOK | KINDLE) is an excellent look at the future President's early political career and eight years in Sacramento.
Mark Arax has written some really insightful books about California's history, culture, and politics, especially West of the West: Dreamers, Believers, Builders, and Killers in the Golden State (BOOK | KINDLE), and The Dreamt Land: Chasing Water and Dust Across California (BOOK | KINDLE).
While they aren't solely about California, I'd also suggest these books, which help tell some of the more important aspects of the story of California: Kearny's March: The Epic Creation of the American West, 1846-1847 (BOOK | KINDLE) by Winston Groom; The Crusades of Cesar Chavez: A Biography (BOOK | KINDLE) by Miriam Pawel; and, Cesar Chavez: Autobiography of La Causa (BOOK | KINDLE) by Jacques E. Levy.
There's another question in my inbox asking for book suggestions about Sacramento, so I'll include those in this answer. Sacramento: An Illustrated History, 1839-1874: From Sutter's Fort to Capital City by Thor Severson is an older book, but really solid about Sacramento's early history. Fool's Gold: A Biography of John Sutter by Richard Dillon, John Sutter: A Life on the North American Frontier by Albert L. Hurtado, and The Associates: Four Capitalists Who Created California (BOOK | KINDLE) by Richard Rayner are good biographies about some of the most important founders of Sacramento.
And you can't tell the story of Sacramento or California (or, really, the United States) without the construction of the transcontinental railroad, so I'd also highly recommend Nothing Like It in the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad, 1863-1869 (BOOK | KINDLE) by Stephen Ambrose, and Empire Express: Building the First Transcontinental Railroad (BOOK | KINDLE) by David Haward Bain.
