“Rancho del Llano Seco: Northern California’s Last Rancho, Butte County, California”

“Rancho Llano Seco … is a historical 17,767-acre multi-purpose family ranch located in southwestern Butte County … ten miles southwest of Chico. The property is bounded by Ord Ferry Road to the north, 7 Mile Lane to the east, the Butte/Glenn County line to the south, and the Sacramento River to the west.”

While the physical location of the Rancho is clear, the location of documents regarding its history was not; material in “local museums and archives” proved elusive. Then the manager of the Rancho, which is private property, pointed researchers to Rancho Headquarters on Hugh Baber Drive. 

Here there were “tons of documents stored in archive boxes, in original magazine files, on wood shelves and in steel bins, along with photographs, aerial photos, communications and maps covering” (from 1874 to modern times) the almost 3000-acre “riparian and flood plain restoration project” within the Rancho started in 2019 by The Nature Conservancy.

The archeological and historical report produced for the project, now beautifully edited with dozens of digitized historical images and maps, is available through ANCHR, the Association for Northern California Historical Research (anchr.org) located in Chico. “Rancho del Llano Seco: Northern California’s Last Rancho, Butte County, California” ($19.95 in paperback) is from Gregory White (Archeology and Paleontology, Sub Terra Consulting) along with B. Arlene Ward (Mechoopda Tribe of Chico Rancheria) and Adrian Frediani (The Nature Conservancy).

Sections cover the natural environment, Native American cultures, and the history and ownership of Rancho del Llano Seco. In 1870 John Parrott completed ownership of the ranch, and his descendants “still own and continue to steward the land to this day.” 

One of the previous owners, Sebastian Keyser, who claimed the ranch in 1843, is of special interest as his path crossed the history of John Sutter and John Bidwell.

Keyser “apparently took part in the Bear Flag revolt of 1846, where he lost part of his left hand in a munitions accident.” He lost his wife in divorce and in 1847 notified newspaper readers that “he will not be accountable for any debts of her contracting….”

Readers today are in debt for this careful illumination of local history.

“Designer Science: A History Of Intelligent Design In America”

When UC Berkeley law professor Phillip Johnson converted to evangelical Christianity, he “decided to devote his life to refuting Darwinism.” His book, “Darwin On Trial,” (1981), challenged Darwinian evolution not on Biblical grounds, as creationism had done, but philosophically. I talked with Johnson when he came to Chico many years ago, and he pressed the point that evolutionary science assumes “methodological naturalism”—the contention “that nothing but nature exists.”

Such a stance rejects a rival theory called “intelligent design” (ID), which Johnson’s book helped publicize. “Design,” C.W. Howell writes in a magisterial study of the ID movement, “was not permitted in science because, as Johnson saw it, the establishment watchdogs of scientific practice would never allow it a seat at the table.” Properly done, science would recognize “that complexity found in nature implies a designing intelligence.”

Chris Howell’s doctorate in religion from Duke University has produced a compelling story of “Designer Science: A History Of Intelligent Design In America” ($35 in hardcover from NYU Press; also for Amazon Kindle). Howell (cwhowell.com), based in Durham, North Carolina, is Director of Academic Programs for the C.S. Lewis Foundation. Recently he was a Zoom guest at the Chico Triad on Philosophy, Science and Theology. 

Howell is in the “theistic evolution” camp and is “currently a practicing Eastern Orthodox Christian; but I wear my dogmas as lightly as a hat, and I have no interest in promoting a particular viewpoint on creation, design, or theism.”

“At its heart,” Howell writes, “ID was based on a radical idea … that one’s religious or nonreligious presuppositions and assumptions—about whether God exists, for example—had an inordinate and maybe even determinative effect on one’s scientific ideas.” 

In 2005, in the Dover, Pennsylvania trial to determine if ID could be taught as an “alternative theory,” it “suffered a total defeat.” In subsequent years ID morphed into a political movement. “Intelligent design both planted the seeds and nurtured the growth of extreme skepticism in the world of US conservatism, a trend that has continued to grow ever since, sprouting in contemporary antivaccine movements and climate change denialism, among other things.”

It's a balanced yet sobering account.

“The Picasso Job: A Phoenix Thriller”

It’s the present day, ten days before Yom Kippur, and in Folsom State Prison an Iranian inmate named Bijan “Renoir” Reza—known for his artful theft of valuable art—is being called into service via a coded message.

It seems a painting by a famous artist has been stolen from a Paris museum and now Reza’s work is to steal the painting from the thief and collect the $5 million reward to fund—well, therein lies the tale, called “The Picasso Job: A Phoenix Thriller” ($17.99 in paperback from Thunder Creek Press, with ebook and audiobook versions also available) by Grass Valley area novelist Avanti Centrae.

First he needs a couple of lackeys. One is his cellmate, Dakota Black. “Even after a few years inside, Black still looked like the boy next door rather than a hardened criminal. Of course, all the men in prison claimed they were innocent, but Reza was inclined to believe his cellmate’s assertion.”

The other is Cody Winters, who blames Dakota for killing his brother Austin, whose “blood-red Thunderbird” had earlier forced Black’s Ram pickup off the country road, killing his passenger, his beloved girlfriend Jenny, their marriage never to happen.

The two are kept from killing each other with promises of part of the reward money and a fresh start, though Reza knows both will be “fish food” once the heist of the heist is completed. When a mysterious plan disables the guards and releases dozens of prisoners in the midst of smoke from a wildfire, the trio escape through the pipes of an unused sewer system, landing right into the American River.

Hard on their tails is Elizabeth Everett of the FBI’s Art Crime Team. “Although her mother was Iranian, Everett felt only minor kinship with her compatriots and had zero tolerance for that government’s terrorist leanings.” She had put Reza in prison the first time, and now, with word that he is part of a grand scheme involving nuclear material and Yom Kippur, time is running out.

Told from alternating points of view, each suspenseful chapter offers surprises all the way from Sacramento to Niagara Falls. 

Readers will have a barrel of fun.

“Queenstown Bound: U.S. Navy Destroyers Combating German U-Boats In European Waters In World War I”

In World War I, writes Chicoan and naval historian David Bruhn, “German U-boats sank over 5,200 vessels and came dangerously close to choking off Britain’s critical supply of food in the spring of 1917, which could have led to the collapse of the British war effort but for the entrance of the United States into the conflict.”

Once that happened, writes Bruhn, “it quickly became apparent that destroyers and other anti-submarine vessels were the key to defeating the U-boats.” The destroyers “were the most significant U.S. Navy contribution to the war effort. … Initially, American destroyers were all based at Queenstown (since 1920, Cobh, pronounced Cove), Ireland.”

Bruhn tells their story in exacting detail in “Queenstown Bound: U.S. Navy Destroyers Combating German U-Boats In European Waters In World War I” ($35 in paperback from Heritage Books, Inc.). Encyclopedic in scope, there are 177 photographs, diagrams and maps.

“Up to March,1918, only a relatively small part of the formidable American armies that were forming had reached Europe. The Germans had mistakenly believed  that its submarines could prevent the movement of large numbers of troops across the seemingly impassible 3,000-mile watery gulf separating them from the field of battle.” They were wrong. “The U.S. Navy’s ability to get two million U.S. soldiers safely to France changed the course of the war, and of world history.”

At first the destroyers only had the “hand-thrown Mark I depth charge. There being no launchers for the 100-lb weapon, the strongest man in a ship’s crew heaved the ordnance over the vessel’s stern when attacking a suspected periscope, or oil slick.” Germany fought back. In 1918 dozens of American vessels were sunk or damaged.

“Fighting continued with prolonged great loss of life in trenches on land; in the air; and on the sea until the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, when the Great War ended.” Germany signed for peace; “an announcement of an armistice commencing at 1100 hours followed the signing.” It called for Germany to “turn over her submarines to the Allies.”

Peace had come, but at an unimaginable price.

“Happy-Go-Lucky”

David Sedaris (Amy’s brother) brings his mordant wit to life’s upheavals, both large and small, in “Happy-Go-Lucky” ($19.99 in paperback from Little, Brown; also in ebook and audiobook, read by the author), a collection of essays taking readers through the Covid era and beyond.

Inspiration often comes from quirky conversations at his book signings. Lockdowns shut that door, and took away the audiences. “Without a live audience—that unwitting congregation of fail-safe editors—I’m lost,” he writes.

“It’s not just their laughter I pay attention to but also the quality of their silence. As for noises, a groan is always good in my opinion. A cough means that if they were reading this passage on the page, they’d be skimming now, while a snore is your brother-in-law putting a gun to your head and pulling the trigger.” His partner, Hugh, is no help. “Hugh and I have vastly different senses of humor—this is to say that I have one and he doesn’t.”

Yet he considers himself “Lucky-Go-Happy,” the title of the final essay; lucky not to get Covid, and lucky audiences returned. Though one essay is full of jokes he hears at book events (most of which would not garner prudish Hugh’s approval), Sedaris is also lucky to have family cohesion in the wake of the suicide of one of his sisters and the death of his father, who had ceaselessly ridiculed his son almost until the end. 

“By the second half of his ninety-seventh year, the man was a pussycat, a delight. Unfortunately there were all those years that preceded it. … As long as my father had power, he used it to hurt me.”

Sedaris marches for Black Lives Matter, then skewers the excesses of wokeism—and social distancing. “‘Back off!’ a certain type of person would snarl if you stood only five feet and eleven inches away from them.” 

There’s a kind of wistfulness here, a yearning in his seventh decade for a time (now lost?) when we can laugh at our foibles without sending one another into exile.

Chico Performances presents “An Evening With David Sedaris,” Thursday, November 6, 7:30 p.m. at Chico State’s Laxson Auditorium. For ticket information visit tinyurl.com/bdfryuz5.

“Pumpkin Patch Surprise!”

Longtime Chicoan Lori Chergosky taught for the Chico Unified School District for thirty-four years. She writes me that in years past her teaching schedule allowed her to spend Octobers as “a farm guide for school field trips” at the Book Family Farm (facebook.com/BookFamilyFarm) in Durham or to take her classes there. She’s continues the practice in retirement and, at the request of Keith and Joy Book, created a souvenir storybook.

“Pumpkin Patch Surprise!” (independently published, with full color illustrations by Cheyenne Warthen) is available through Amazon as well as at the farm. It’s an homage to pumpkin patches everywhere.

“‘Surprise!’ says Dad. ‘Brenden, we’re going to the pumpkin patch!’ ‘Do we have to go today?’ I ask. ‘It’s our new tradition!’ says Dad. ‘But I just met Trevor, the boy next door. He’s coming over today to kick the soccer ball around. Can’t we just buy a pumpkin at the grocery store like we did when we lived in the city?’ I ask.”

But Brenden’s parents don’t want their son to miss out on “good old-fashioned farm fun.” “I whisper back, ‘What’s so fun about a stinky old farm?’ Dad says, ‘I can’t explain it. You’ll have to experience it!.’”

They see an amazing maze when they arrive, and then it’s time to feed the animals. “It tickles when baby goats eat from my hand. Watching pigs eat their favorite treat makes me laugh! They squeal and slurp as they pig out!” Behind the barn is a playground, including a hay pyramid. Is that a smile on Brenden’s face?

But now a big moment. A farmer asks Brenden if he’d like to collect an egg. Just reach under the chicken--What? “She says, ‘You’ll be surprised, it’s an amazing experience!’ I hesitate…and tell myself, don’t be a chicken!” He tries. And then, there’s the egg. “Talk about a fantastic surprise! It’s the most UNFORGETTABLE feeling ever!”

There’s another surprise when a certain visitor shows up. In the end, guess what?—it’s Brenden who wants to make it a tradition.

Chergosky reads her story at the farm this week through Friday for field trips at 9:15, 10:00 and 10:45 am. Call (530) 342-4375 for details.

“Magical Realism: Essays On Music, Memory, Fantasy, And Borders”

LA-based author Vanessa Angélica Villarreal joined a group of students at Butte College last week to present “Speculative Writing as Time-Travel to Heal the Present.” Sponsored by the Puente Project, helping “educationally under-served students enroll in four-year colleges and universities,” Villarreal used “Back to the Future” as a creative way to change the past to right the future despite the bullying Biffs of the world.

Villarreal expands on this in her “Magical Realism: Essays On Music, Memory, Fantasy, And Borders” ($29 in hardcover from Tiny Reparations Books; also in ebook and audiobook versions), longlisted for the National Book Award. 

She was born in the Rio Grande Valley to Mexican immigrants. The essays in the book trace her journey through challenging family dynamics, taking a job cleaning houses, marrying an unfaithful man, birthing a son, enduring a messy divorce, and eventually earning a doctorate at USC. 

Fantasy (which often in its world-building looks back at some golden age sullied by evil) and science fiction (which is forward-looking but tends to focus on apocalypse) helped her make sense of the abuses she endured. 

“Fantasy is a space safer than memory to process trauma and escape abuse into a world where the helpless are empowered by magic, friends are found among outcasts and survivors, and a hero will defend you with his sword until you find the hero was you all along.”

In nuanced analyses, Villarreal pulls back the curtain on the racialized and colonial stereotypes in much popular fantasy and science fiction, especially video games. And yet:

“Perhaps I am so drawn to fantasy because it is also the space of immigrant dreaming, the projection of the self into an impossible imaginary to bear the reality of the present one. Its central question: Forces larger than myself have estranged me from my home; what can displacement into new lands make capable in me?”

Readers will see the answer in this powerful memoir.

News: Brenda M. Lane, Napa author and contributor to “Chicken Soup for the Soul: Hope, Faith & Miracles,” will be signing her books at Barnes & Noble in Chico on Friday, October 24, from 11:00 am – 4:00 pm.