Stories about the Sierra from Gary Noy

We love to read about the Sierra--not just hiking books and trail guides, but history about the region and its wonderful and often crazy people.

So this holiday season we noticed a book in our local independent bookstore: Sierra Stories by Gary Noy. Gary was born in Grass Valley and for the past twenty-five years taught history at Sierra Community College. And we wish we could have taken a class from him. He is clearly one of those teachers who doesn't stop at covering the basics, but rather dives into the subject matter and makes it come to life for his students. He also knows how to tell a story.

And what could be more relevant and interesting to students at Sierra Community College than the fascinating history of the Sierra itself?

Gary has published a series of books on the topic. We're reading Sierra Stories right now, but will certainly move on to read his other titles, including the soon to be published Hellacious California: Tales of Rascality, Revelry, Dissipation, Depravity and the Birth of the Golden State (Heyday Books and Sierra College Press).

We hope you find some of these books locally, but if not, you can find them on the huge web book retailers. It's just not as much fun as buying from a local bookstore.

Here's a link to Gary's website, where you can learn more about him and the books he writes. Highly recommended.

http://www.garynoy.com/home.html

Check him out!