Take a break today from obsessively scrolling Huffington Post and consider some escapist reading instead. How about:

1. The just-released paperback about Big Sur’s Esalen Institute. From the San Francisco Chronicle: “Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion … the definitive intellectual history of the ideas behind the institute. … All sorts of psychologists, spiritualists and hedonists have passed through Esalen over the years. … Most people, however, don’t come to Esalen to think but to feel, to revel in what (author Jeffrey J.) Kripal rightly describes as Esalen’s ‘metaphysical synthesis of sensuality and spirit.’ “

2. The “69 Greatest Fiction Travel Books of All Time,” compiled at Concierge.com. The California picks include: The Pearl by John Steinbeck –”Steinbeck’s otherwise timeless and placeless fable, in which an impoverished Mexican pearl diver unwittingly brings ruin on his family after pulling up the largest pearl known to man, is grounded in its beautiful landscape. `Yellow, brown, orange, white—these are the colors of Baja California,’ says David Ebershoff. `Their purity, their earthiness, are reflected in Steinbeck’s simple prose and simple, devastating tale.’”
Another choice: The Little Sister by Raymond Chandler — “California was an endless fount of `metaphors and parables’ for Chandler, says Pico Iyer, but he likes this underrated caper because it’s here that `his chivalric impulse leads him to Hollywood, and the ultimate palace of illusions and similes, which was for him an emblem of a grasping and seductive new world.’” Read the entire list here.

3. Our (New) Books with a Heart page. These mostly California titles showcase writers as advocates for causes such as literacy, the arts and environmental preservation. Their work makes a difference every day. Browse here.