The Greatest Family Books of All Time Set in California

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This list represents a comprehensive and trusted collection of the greatest books. Developed through a specialized algorithm, it brings together 488 'best of' book lists to form a definitive guide to the world's most acclaimed books. For those interested in how these books are chosen, additional details can be found on the rankings page.

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Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
28 The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck 1939 American English
112 The Big Sleep Raymond Chandler 1939 American English
225 East of Eden John Steinbeck 1952 American English
397 The Joy Luck Club Amy Tan 1989 American English
590 A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius Dave Eggers 2000 American English
717 Angle of Repose Wallace Stegner 1971 American English
780 Tales of the City Armistead Maupin 1978 American English
801 The Woman Warrior Maxine Hong Kingston 1976 American English
829 The Sellout Paul Beatty 2015 American English
838 The Last Good Kiss James Crumley 1978 American English
852 Kindred Octavia E. Butler 1979 American English
927 Parable Of The Sower Octavia E. Butler 1993 American English
1047 My Name Is Aram William Saroyan 1940 American English
1286 Tell Me a Riddle Tillie Olsen 1961 American English
1341 Erasure Percival Everett 2001 American English
1605 The Graduate Charles Webb 1963 American English
1627 The Zebra Striped Hearse Ross Macdonald 1962 American English
1786 The Chill Ross Macdonald 1964 American English
1797 The Buddha in the Attic Julie Otsuka 2011 American English
2022 There There Tommy Orange 2018 American English
2080 Less Than Zero Bret Easton Ellis 1985 American English
2235 The Goodbye Look Ross Macdonald 1969 American English
2766 World's End T. C. Boyle 1987 American English
3016 The Wycherly Woman Ross Macdonald 1961 American English
3027 What Is the What Dave Eggers 2006 American English
3138 Falling Leaves Adeline Yen Mah 1997 Chinese English
3198 Pictures From Home Larry Sultan 1992 American English
3236 Duke of Deception Geoffrey Wolff 1979 American English
3381 Inner City Blues Paula L. Woods 1999 American English
3479 Living Up The Street Gary Soto 1985 American English
3493 Ramona Helen Hunt Jackson 1884 American English
3591 Fifth Chinese Daughter Jade Snow Wong 1945 American English
3970 Snakeskin Shamisen Naomi Hirahara 2006 Japanese English
3981 Tripmaster Monkey Maxine Hong Kingston 1989 American English
4006 The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down Anne Fadiman 1997 American English
4148 When Breath Becomes Air Paul Kalanithi 2016 American English
4285 The Bonesetter's Daughter Amy Tan 2001 American English
4390 Try Dennis Cooper 1994 American English
4461 Collected Stories Of William Saroyan William Saroyan 1943 American English
4627 Small Fry Lisa Brennan-Jobs 2018 American English
4688 Chinese Cinderella Adeline Yen Mah 1999 Chinese English
4731 The Power Of The Dog Don Winslow 2005 American English
4867 Under The Feet Of Jesus Helena María Viramontes 1995 American English
4879 As They Were M. F. K. Fisher 1982 American English
4888 White Jazz James Ellroy 1992 American English
5007 Weetzie Bat Francesca Lia Block 1989 American English
5042 The Last Coyote Michael Connelly 1995 American English
5076 Land Of Shadows Rachel Howzell Hall 2014 American English
5172 Funny in Farsi Firoozeh Dumas 2003 Iranian English
5429 The Sisters Brothers Patrick DeWitt 2011 Canadian English
5435 The Winds Of War Herman Wouk 1971 American English
5584 The Tortilla Curtain T. Coraghessan Boyle 1995 American English
5884 The Other Americans Laila Lalami 2019 Moroccan English
5884 Your House Will Pay Steph Cha 2019 American English
5946 A Step From Heaven An Na 2001 American English
5970 Angelfall Susan Ee 2011 American English
6021 I'll Give You The Sun Jandy Nelson 2014 American English
6037 Bee Season Myla Goldberg 2000 American English
6398 I Hotel Karen Tei Yamashita 2010 American English
6442 The Kitchen God's Wife Amy Tan 1991 American English
6581 The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake Aimee Bender 2010 American English
6586 We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live Joan Didion 2006 American English
6719 Dalva Jim Harrison 1988 American English
6745 In My Mother's House Kim Chernin 1983 American English
7061 The Jailing Of Cecelia Capture Janet Campbell Hale 1985 American English
7117 Anywhere But Here Mona Simpson 1986 American English
7261 Raymond Carver Carol Sklenicka 2009 American English
7342 Drown Junot Diaz 1996 American English
7351 One Child Mei Fong 2016 Unknown English
7363 Tapping The Source Kem Nunn 1984 American English
7483 The Spectator Bird Wallace Stegner 1976 American English
7580 Clay Walls Kim Ronyoung 1987 Korean-American English
7591 Secret Daughter Shilpi Somaya Gowda 2010 Unknown English
7717 Seventeen Syllables And Other Stories Hisaye Yamamoto 1988 American English
7717 The Ultraviolet Sky Alma Luz Villanueva 1988 American English
7717 A War Of Eyes And Other Stories Wanda Coleman 1988 American English
8017 Quiet Odyssey Mary Paik Lee 1990 Korean American English
8123 The Extraordinary Life Of Sam Hell Robert Dugoni 2018 American English
8178 The Loom And Other Stories R. A. Sasaki 1991 American English
8421 Margins Terri de la Peña 1992 American English
8549 The Human Comedy William Saroyan 1943 American English
8726 A Very Large Expanse Of Sea Tahereh Mafi 2018 American English
8804 I’m Glad My Mom Died Jennette McCurdy 2022 American English
8896 Blue Sisters Coco Mellors 2024 Unknown English
8906 Bone Fae Myenne Ng 1993 American English
9125 Minor Feelings Cathy Park Hong 2020 American English
9126 The Lost And Found Bookshop Susan Wiggs 2020 American English
9190 The Munch Mancini Mystery Series Barbara Seranella 1997 American English
9362 The House Of Broken Angels Luis Alberto Urrea 2018 American English
9362 Pure Hollywood Christine Schutt 2018 American English
9362 In Pieces Sally Field 2018 American English
9362 She Has Her Mother's Laugh Carl Zimmer 2018 American English
9671 Songs My Mother Taught Me Wakako Yamauchi 1994 American English
9978 The Paradise Problem Christina Lauren 2024 Unknown English
10037 Everything We Never Had Randy Ribay 2024 Unknown English
10225 Mother Doll Katya Apekina 2024 Unknown English
10313 Lunar New Year Love Story Gene Luen Yang 2024 Unknown English
10634 One Crazy Summer Rita Williams-Garcia 2010 American English
10679 Lessons In Chemistry Bonnie Garmus 2022 American English
10688 The Bride Test Helen Hoang 2019 American English
10724 The Way We Never Were Stephanie Countz 1992 Unknown English
10726 Commonwealth Ann Patchett 2016 American English
10778 San Remo Drive Leslie Epstein 2003 American English
10880 Last Night At The Telegraph Club Malinda Lo 2021 American English
10960 Traveling Mercies Anne Lamott 1999 American English
11089 On The Move Oliver Sacks 2015 British English
11127 Scar Tissue Anthony Kiedis 2004 American English
11539 The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters Robert Lewis Taylor 1958 American English
11671 Fortune Smiles Adam Johnson 2015 American English
11915 Front Desk Kelly Yang 2018 American English
12013 The Sum Of Our Days Isabel Allende 2008 Chilean Spanish
12104 Sleeping Beauty Ross Macdonald 1973 American English
12288 Fault Lines Nancy Huston 2006 French French
12385 Me Elton John 2019 British English
12434 The Last Black Unicorn Tiffany Haddish 2017 American English
12502 Gabriel Conroy Bret Harte 1876 American English
12578 Hollywood Park Mikel Jollett 2020 American English
12656 Black Cake Charmaine Wilkerson 2022 American English
12783 Heartbreak Florence Williams 2022 American English
12936 Hunger of Memory Richard Rodriguez 1982 American English