Southern California is not all sun, sand, and surf in this gripping collection of noir tales from T. Jefferson Parker, Don Winslow, Maria Lima, and others. San Diego is home to miles of beaches, Balboa Park, a world-famous zoo, and some of the country’s most expensive home and resort real estate. Yet the city also houses a few items that aren’t actively promoted by the visitor’s bureau: a number of the country’s most corrupt politicians, border-related crimes, terrorists, and the occasional earthquakes. A noir feast! In the fifty-plus years since Raymond Chandler set Playback in Esmeralda, his name for La Jolla, the population has grown by more than a million, and crime has proliferated as well. San Diego of the past and the present offers the book’s contributors a rich selection of settings, from the cross on Mount Soledad to the piers of Ocean Beach, and perpetrators and victims from the residents of its wealthiest enclaves to the inhabitants of its segregated barrios. San Diego Noir includes stories by T. Jefferson Parker, Jeffrey J. Mariotte, Martha C. Lawrence, Diane Clark & Astrid Bear, Debra Ginsberg, Morgan Hunt, Ken Kuhlken, Taffy Cannon, Don Winslow, Cameron Pierce Hughes, Lisa Brackmann, Gabriel R. Barillas, Gar Anthony Haywood, Luis Alberto Urrea, and Maria Lima. “When it’s done right, noir is a darkly delicious thrill: smart, sharp-tongued, surprising. The knife goes in at the end with a twist. San Diego Noir, a new 15-story collection by some of the region’s best writers, has all that going for it, and the steady supply of hometown references makes it even more fun.” —The San Diego Union-Tribune

Easy-to-read text introduces the sights of San Diego, through a full day of sightseeing.

A beautiful souvenir book of "America's Finest City". Large-format color pictures are accompanied with historic quotes and information. Includes the San Diego Zoo, Sea World, Cabrillo National Monument and more. 70 color photos.

Above San Diego. This is the anchor of the west, a quiet metropolis that has learned to live in an enviornment of beauty without devouring it. In his Introduction, Neil Morgan invites us "to follow the city's meandering evolution from a Spanish pueblo to an insular, transplanted Midwestern town by the sea, to a Navy City, and on to its present rich diversity." Robert Cameron's lush photography shows that San Diego is of world class, and its surroundings are among the most gorgeous anywhere.

Series statement from publisher's website.

These attractive guides identify the birds most likely to be seen in your city's backyards, streets and parks. Introduces the fascinating and popular pastime of bird-watching. Includes advice on building feeders and birdhouses. Color illustrations help you identify birds quickly while the text provides interesting information about each bird. These books are easy-to-use references for the urban birdwatcher.

Known to its residents as "America’s Finest City," San Diego has a mild, inviting climate and stunning coastal scenery. San Diego Then and Now looks at how the city developed from a small village settled by early Franciscan missionaries and the Spanish military. It came under U.S. rule in 1846, but it was not until 1867 when San Francisco speculator and businessman Alonzo E. Horton acquired 960 acres of waterfront land and promoted it as "New Town" that San Diego really began to take off.San Diego Then and Now pairs archival photographs with modern views of the same scene to illustrate the city’s growth since these humble beginnings. It shows how the city’s architecture still reflects and preserves its Spanish heritage but also incorporates modern glass skyscrapers and Victorian mansions.Sites include: Horton Plaza, U.S. Grant Hotel, Stingaree District, Speckels Theatre, Fifth Avenue, Seaport Village, Embarcadero, Star of India, Coronado, Hotel del Coronado, Santa Fe Depot, Carnegie Library, El Cortez Hotel, Long-Waterman Mansion, Villa Montezuma, The Prado, San Diego Zoo, Old Globe Theatre, San Diego High School, Hillcrest, City Heights, Kensington, La Casa de Estudillo, Casa de Bandini, Whaley House, Junipero Serra Museum, Ballast Point, Point Loma, Ocean Beach and Pacific Beach.