California Golden

<b>Two sisters navigate the thrilling euphoric early days of California surf culture in this dazzling saga of ambition sacrifice and the tangled ties between mothers and daughters from the <i>New York Times</i> bestselling author of <i>The Aviator&#146;s Wife.</i></b><br><br><b>&#147;A shimmering rendering . . . pairs the surf culture of the Beach Boys with the sex drugs and rock &#145;n&#146; roll of <i>Daisy Jones &amp; The Six.</i>&#148;&#151;<i>Entertainment Weekly </i>(&#147;Best Books of the Summer&#148;)</b><br><br>Southern California 1960s: endless sunny days surfing in Malibu followed by glittering neon nights at Whisky a Go Go. In an era when women are expected to be housewives Carol Donnelly breaks the mold as a legendary female surfer struggling to compete in a male-dominated sport&#151;and her daughters Mindy and Ginger bear the weight of Carol&#146;s unconventional lifestyle.<br><br>The Donnelly sisters grow up enduring their mother&#146;s absence&#151;physically when she&#146;s at the beach and emotionally the rare times she&#146;s at home. To escape questions about Carol&#146;s whereabouts&#151;and to chase her elusive affection&#151;they cut school to spend their days in the surf. From her first time on a board Mindy is a natural but Ginger two years younger feels out of place in the water.<br><br>As they grow up and their lives diverge Mindy and Ginger&#146;s relationship ebbs and flows. Mindy finds herself swept up in celebrity complete with beachside love affairs parties at the Playboy Club and a USO tour in Vietnam. Meanwhile Ginger desperate for a community of her own is tugged into the dangerous counterculture of drugs and cults. But through it all their sense of duty to each other survives as the girls are forever connected by the emotional damage they carry from their unorthodox childhood.<br><br> A gripping emotional story set at a time when mothers were expected to be Donna Reed not Gidget <i>California Golden </i>is an unforgettable novel about three women living in a society that was shifting as tempestuously as the breaking waves.