The Deserts of California - (California Lands Trilogy) by Obi Kaufmann (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

A magnificent illustrated journey into California's famed deserts and the astonishingly abundant life they contain.

2023 Glenn Goldman Award Winner for California Lifestyle, Chosen by the California Independent Booksellers Alliance

A San Francisco Chronicle Bestseller!

From Obi Kaufmann, author-illustrator of the best-selling California Field Atlas, comes a grand adventure through time, geography, and ecology in California's deserts. Of a piece with his richly illustrated books The Forests of California and The Coasts of California, this volume features hundreds of vivid watercolor maps and illustrations, blending art and science to breathtaking effect. Journeying through the Great Basin, Mojave, Colorado, and Sonoran Deserts, Kaufmann pays special attention to national and state parks and monuments, and to the dozens of wilderness areas that reveal the underappreciated natural abundance of California's arid lands.

From Joshua Tree to Death Valley, these deserts full of life, as Kaufmann evokes them, are perfect places for meditating on our future, and for imagining a California that might thrive beyond the age of climate breakdown. The Deserts of California is a canonical entry into the literature of the American deserts, uniquely colorful and celebratory, and abounding in hope and wonder.

Review Quotes

2023 Glenn Goldman Award Winner for California Lifestyle, Chosen by the California Independent Booksellers Alliance

A San Francisco Chronicle Bestseller!

Praise for The Deserts of California:

"Obi Kaufmann writes movingly about how knowing the desert might inform our futures and, as in his previous works, depicts nature with hundreds of gorgeous watercolors." --Hannah Bae, San Francisco Chronicle

"Thoughtfully written and gorgeously illustrated in watercolor sketches by Obi Kaufmann, [The Deserts of California] is a reason for hope. The depth of its scholarship is a reason for awe. His latest book superbly delves into every aspect of the desert." --Tracy Conrad, The Desert Sun

"Filled with enchanting watercolors and detailed descriptions, Kaufmann's field atlases can stoke an urge to explore California's landscapes up close. That's particularly apparent in The Deserts of California, where so many of the details are hiding in plain sight." --The Orange County Register

"Kaufmann the artist captures the deserts in hundreds of on-the-scene watercolor paintings. His deft hand and knowing eye convey not only wild beauty but some of the essence of his subjects. [...] His books don't need to be consumed cover to cover. They're designed to be dipped into and explored. They offer rich amounts of information, with varied but encompassing glimpses of the features he observes from place to place and how all the parts work together." --The Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, CA)

"This is not your typical field guide. [...] It's chock-full of information about botany, wildlife, and other ecological aspects of California's deserts, put together in an accessible, visual way. This approach helps to encourage a love of place, which is often the first step toward wanting to protect and preserve it." --American Scientist

"Kaufmann offers hundreds of beautiful watercolor maps and illustrations of areas from Joshua Tree to Death Valley. The author meditates on how California can survive--and thrive--beyond the current climate crisis." --Diablo Magazine

"Obi Kaufmann is back again with another marvelously researched and illustrated field guide to a California biome. Deserts of California is a must-have for any naturalist's library." --The Booksmith, San Francisco, CA

Praise for The Coasts of California (2022) and The Forests of California (2020) by Obi Kaufmann:

"A call to action--full of beautiful watercolor renderings of both landscape and data." --Los Angeles Times

"Obi Kaufmann's books are like bibles to me. They are, honestly, the outdoor guides I've looked for for decades. They're beautifully drawn, written, printed and bound, and they explain California's natural beauty better than anything I've read before." --Dave Eggers

"Swirls research with poetry, the personal and human with the collective and ecological ..." --Mother Jones

"As a reader you are invited to join him on a journey of discovery--not as a passenger but as an active partner." --San Francisco Chronicle

"Everyone in the state should have this gorgeous book on their bookshelf." --CBS San Francisco

About the Author

Obi Kaufmann is the author of The California Field Atlas (2017, #1 San Francisco Chronicle Best Seller), The State of Water (2019), The Forests of California (2020), and The Coasts of California (2022), all published by Heyday. When he is not backpacking, you can find the painter-poet at home in the East Bay, posting trail paintings at his handle @coyotethunder on Instagram. His speaking tour dates are available at californiafieldatlas.com, and his essays are posted at coyoteandthunder.com.