Alta Picks
f you’re seeking a website that won’t make you feel as if you’re bankrupting your local bookstore or laying waste to reading culture, then point your browser to . Launched in 2015 by Grove Atlantic publisher and longtime editor , the site, for short, has established itself as the digital place for all things, well, partners with small presses, industry leviathans, magazine publishers, and independent bookstores to serve up news, criticism, newsletters, a podcast, and more. On any given day, you’ll find a healthy serving of articles related to California and the West: say, brilliant comparison of the devastating Camp Fire with experience of “the Year Without a Summer”; an interview with about fishing, Ernest Hemingway, and not living the writer’s life; and a ranking of Joan Didion book covers ( is No. 1). But the site’s honeypot is Book Marks, a self-described Rotten Tomatoes for book reviews. You’ll find write-ups from more than 70 sources sorted into four categories: Rave, Positive, Mixed, and Pan. In just a few minutes, you’ll get up to speed on the best and latest of literary culture.
