"Where I Was From" by Joan Didion

"Where I Was From" is a book by Joan Didion that walks the reader through a history of the white settlement of California. She starts by giving a background of various family members travels from the East, accross the nation into the unsettled California. Her family has a much longer, richer history than most. The book also dissects different regions and municipalities including Sacremento, the Central Valley and Lakewood. She manages to show the connections between race riots and real estate crashes to the pulling of federal funding in the aerospace industry in a revelatory way. It was a fascinating dive into the way indiviual dreams drove the of agriculture, real estate, local and federal fiscal policy, and the true nature of the California dream, from the gold rush, oil mining, water allocation, and industrial ebbs and flows. Didion showed me in depth research, well thought out thematic mapping and educational background on a topic few people truly grasp.

"Empire of the Summer Moon" S C Gwynne

A marvelous dive into a very specific, but also, very broad part of the native American genocide: it's prelude, intent, improvisation and satisfaction. This biography aims to, primarily, tell the story of Quanah Parker, the half white Comanche chief towards the end of the Native American landhold of the Midwest. The book spent the first half giving the back story of Quanah's origin of upbringing and environmental circumstance. This is a well researched book by a person who has deep knowledge of the region and it's enough to inspire one to take a tour of the region and see a number of nearly unidentifiable places because this history book was written by the victors. A fantastic, compelling read that educatates one on an oft skipped section of American history.