"Hillinger has the skills of a Paul Harvey, Charles Kuralt, or Charles Osgood in being able
to spin stories that grab one from the first sentence. Essential for all California libraries."
--Library Journal

"[Hillinger] doesn't draw cosmic conclusions from his travels or bother to puzzle out deep meaning. Hewrites
plain stories about real people."--Charles Kuralt

The California revealed here is not the stereotypical land of movie stars, sensational trials, or tourist snapshots
but instead a remarkable patchwork of out-of-the-way places and everyday people.

Former Los Angeles Times columnist Charles Hillinger hones in on what makes each county unique,
such as Johnny Heinold's First and Last Chance tavern in Alameda County where Jack London first began
writing his stories. Listeners also learn about the man who flew an airplane long before the Wright Brothers,
the church with stained-glass windows commemorating preachers, and the museum with the largest collection
of mummies on the West Coast.