California State Park Rangers Association
Recently Published Park Authors
Listed below by most recent date of notification, with cover image, source and description where available. Send published title additions and details for this listing to the CSPRA Webmaster
Many More Published Authors Listed HERE
Papa's Message in a Bottle: For coming-of-age grandchildren and their parents
by J.R. Quirk, published December 2, 2023, paperback $7.99 available on Amazon
Our generation handed our grandchildren a world where religion and science are often in conflict. Nowadays too many churches in America are rejecting a lot of what science has to offer. And too many scientists demonstrate an indifference to spirituality that borders on disrespect. This has to change. One cannot find truth in one without the other.
A short while ago some of us elders were casually discussing what we wanted to achieve in this last chapter of our lives. I said I would like to leave my grandchildren some concepts to help them understand why there is something instead of nothing in the universe, and in their lives, better than the concepts we were given at their age. This is what I have placed in the bottle and cast adrift, into a virtual sea of e-books and paper copies, as a time capsule for the finder.
Home of the World’s Largest Ocean
By Ron Brean, published March 8, 2023, available on Amazon
I’ve published another book. "Home of the World’s Largest Ocean" is now available from Amazon as either a paperback or in Kindle format. What my State Park friends will find in it is an amazing parallel between our park careers and management of a small city.
What my colleagues in city government everywhere will find is the passion we share for doing our best for of our towns. What my friends and neighbors from Yachats, Oregon will find is a reminder of how special their hometown is, though the ideas found here could be from any park or any small town. Well, any special park or small town anyway. I hope you’ll enjoy it.
Santa Barbara’s Royal Presidio: The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of Spain's Last Adobe Fortress
by Dr. Jarrell Jackman
Unique in California history--and beloved by visitors and residents alike--the city of Santa Barbara boasts three great historical properties: the Mission, the Courthouse, and the Presidio. Least known is the Presidio.
This book fills this vacuum, beginning with the story of its adobe construction between 1784 and 1790. This itself was preceded by the construction of three other Spanish forts: Monterey (1770), San Diego (1773), and San Francisco (1776). All four Presidios helped secure the Spanish settlement of Alta or Upper California, as the mixed-racial soldiers and their families became the first Spanish settlers of the region. The Santa Barbara Presidio was the last Spanish fort founded and built not only in California, but in all of Spanish North America, an area that, in its day, covered much of the southern portion of the modern United States from Florida to California. This book celebrates the Santa Barbara Presidio's place in not only American history but also that of Spain, and honors the community that came together to ensure its preservation and faithful reconstruction. On Amazon.com.
The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald
by Hon. William Alsup
Published September 15, 2022, on Amazon Kindle $20.99, Hardcover $23.31
The assassination of Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby robbed the nation of the closure it so desperately needed following the death of John F. Kennedy. The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald asks what might have happened if the assassin had lived to stand trial for his murder of America’s beloved president. This meticulously researched and riveting courtroom drama follows prosecutors Abe Summer and Elaine Navarro as they work to bring Oswald to justice despite the legend in Oswald’s corner: famed attorney Percy Foreman. With mysteries and coincidences swirling around the case, Oswald’s conviction doesn’t seem set in stone. After Ruby fails to assassinate the assassin, can Summer and Navaro bring peace of mind back to the American people by sending a murderer to prison?
Author William Alsup’s fair and thrilling novel is all the more compelling thanks in no small part to his experiences and expertise as a federal judge. With his background in research and jurisprudence, Alsup has become an expert on the Oswald case. From newspaper clippings to the Warren Report, The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald is based on real and complicated history. Readers with a passion for the procedural will relish the details Alsup provides behind the scenes of a prosecution, demonstrating just how much time and effort goes into even cases that seem cut and dry. America never recovered from the killing of its king of Camelot, but The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald provides a window into what might have been.
A Greatness of Spirit: Tales of Extraordinary Rangers at the Heart of California's State Park System
by David Van Cleve
A compelling chronicle of 14 remarkable men and women rangers in California's Department of Parks and Recreation who deliberately focused their talents as "field" rangers within one state park - making that landscape a special place.
They taught thousands of school children and led numerous interpretive programs. They flew airplanes, rafted whitewater rivers, and snowshoed the wilderness in order to make parks safe for visitors. They jumped out of helicopters to help sustain endangered species populations. They wrote books, stories, and poems to help the public understand parks. Some rangers served in groundbreaking roles - within a Department that encouraged them to achieve lofty goals, creating a blueprint for future successes.
All 14 heroes accomplished positive change. As self-taught experts on their local region and its natural and cultural history, they achieved miracles while honoring the highest standards of public service - protecting our state parks and serving park visitors. Although it was serious work, they were able to share a little humor and fun along the way. 120 photographs
Not My First Rodeo: Tales of the Rodeo Monday Fly Fishing Cowboys
by Ron Brean and Scott Elliott
Independently published September 10, 2022, On Amazon, Kindle $7.99, Paperback $14.90
Not My First Rodeo is a collection of stories about six fly fishing friends who have spent decades getting to know the fish of the "Holy Waters" (a nickname for their favorite lake), the character of each other, and a lot about themselves. These stories (and the occasional line poetry) tell humorous tales while providing an opportunity for the reader to be there in vicarious waders, casting vicarious flies, and laughing for real along with the cowboys. Their annual fishing contest became known as "the Rodeo" through the unique twists of fate that are common to this group. It was a short step from there to playful and abundant overuse of the cowboy themes found throughout this book.
One Guard Out: The Original Lifeguards of California’s Wild North Coast
by Ed Vodrazka, Kindle $5.99, Paperback $19.99 on Amazon
Recent Review: Another set of gripping tales from legendary Lifeguard Ed Vodrazka. The North Coast guards went through very rough times gaining the acceptance of the locals, the divers, and even the fellow first responder professionals. How did they gain respect from those people? The old fashioned way -- they earned it through amazing courage, skill, commitment, pride, and a tad of a sense of invulnerability. Most heartbreaking, now, is the current state of the program, which, after an incredible run of success, has been dramatically slashed. Thanks Ed. Dave Van Cleve
Summary: Between 1980 and 1990, a total of 57 people perished in the treacherous ocean waters along the Sonoma Coast. That deplorable statistic equated to a fatal drowning occurring every 64 days, thereby condemning the Sonoma Coast as “the most deadly stretch of coastline in the United States.” With frigid ocean temperatures which hovered between 48 and 53 degrees, unsuspecting victims, swept into the ocean by powerful shore breaking waves, were quickly overwhelmed. Abalone divers, tempting those same perilous conditions, often met a similar fate. The Sheriff’s Helicopter, the primary rescue method at the time, was largely relegated to body-recoveries. The idea that anyone would swim out into the ocean to save a besieged victim was considered ludicrous, since well-meaning bystanders who attempted to rescue victims, often died in the process.
In an historic move, despite surprising opposition from the local EMS community, in 1990 the California State Parks recruited 11 Southern California Lifeguards, hand-picked from various beaches between San Diego and Huntington to work the Sonoma Coast. They arrived with impeccable skills in the surf line and a fiery idealism that they could reverse the 50-year trend in drownings. This new frontier of lifeguarding would challenge them in ways they could never have imagined. This is their story. It’s a bald-faced retrospective chronicling their rousing successes and their gut-wrenching failures. It’s the story of big waves, cold water, unthinkable tragedies, and revelations of glory. It’s the story of a brash group of young lifeguards on a mission to accomplish what had previously thought to be impossible – to swim out in deadly seas to snatch victims from the jaws of death.