Books that celebrate California’s natural beauty, reveal campus cookie recipes and offer insights into sharks and snakes are among the publications from UC Davis faculty and staff in 2009.

Some of the titles are listed here — with thanks to Paul Takushi, trade books buyer at UC Davis Bookstore for his help with this roundup. Besides getting the word out about what UC Davis folks are writing, he wants people to know about the bookstore’s new price-match guarantee for general books as well as textbooks.

The guarantee applies to prices you might find at any other bookstore (brick and mortar or online). The book must be a U.S. edition, and the bookseller must be a legitimate U.S. business (i.e., not someone on eBay, Craigslist, Marketplace, Facebook, etc).

You can exercise the price-match guarantee in two ways:

At the time of purchase at the bookstore — Go to the trade books customer service center, and present an advertisement or Web page printout showing the lower price elsewhere. You will be charged the lower price.

After you have purchased the book at the bookstore — Within two weeks of your purchase, if you see a lower price in an advertisement or Web page listing, bring the ad or Web page printout to the trade books customer service counter. Show your receipt (no more than 2 weeks old) with the higher price, and the bookstore will pay you the difference.

Now, back to the 2009 books:

Tamalpais Walking: Poetry, History and Prints by Tom Killion and Gary Snyder

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Gary Snyder collaborates with artist and historian Tom Killion in this gorgeous new paean to Mount Tamalpais. The book pays homage to the Marin County peak through poems and essays by Snyder and other Tam-smitten writers, from Jack Kerouac to Ina Coolbrith (California’s first poet laureate). Killion celebrates the mythic mountain in essays and Japanese ukiyo-e-inspired multicolor woodblock prints. Snyder, a professor emeritus of English at UC Davis, has been hiking Mount Tam since 1948. (Heydey Books, May 2009)

Riprap and Cold Mountain Poems by Gary Snyder

Also new this season is a 50th anniversary edition of Snyder’s groundbreaking first book of poems, accompanied by a CD of the author’s readings. The Riprap portion of the book features Snyder’s original poetry; the Cold Mountain Poems portion contains his translations of the ancient Chinese poet Han-Shan. The book was first published in Japan in 1959. (Counterpoint, September 2009)

The Coffeehouse Cookbook

The student-run UC Davis Coffeehouse offers its own anniversary volume — a 2009 reprint of the original 1986 edition of The Coffeehouse Cookbook. The last time the Coffeehouse published a cookbook was 1996 — and the 3,000 copies printed in that second edition quickly flew off the shelves. The new edition offers recipes for such time-tested campus favorites as Tatro cookies and Ecstasy Bars. (ASUCD, 2009)

Aggie Pride: A Showcase of the University through Photos

This full-color coffee table book allows readers to experience Aggie nostalgia without the carbs. Featuring more than 160 photos of everything from the Bike Barn to the Doxie Derby and the arboretum to the Botanical Conservatory, and quotes from such well-known alumni as Ann Veneman, Delaine Eastin, Martin Yan and Jim Sochor. (Cal Aggie Alumni Association, 2009)

Melodramatic Landscapes: Urban Parks in the Nineteenth Century by Heath Massey Schenker

Environmental design professor Heath Schenker’s handsome new book explores how and why prototypical park landscapes — characterized by groves of trees, expanses of mowed meadow, man-made lakes and meandering paths -- became the norm in the midst of modernizing industrial cities in the 19th century. The book focuses on iconic parks in Paris, New York and Mexico City. (University of Virginia Press, December 2009)

Brewmaster’s Art: The History and Science of Beermaking by Charles Bamforth

Beer aficionados can now enjoy a university-level brewing course, minus the final exams, presented by one of the world’s leading brewing scientists. Not a book but an audio lecture series, Brewmaster’s Art is available on cassette or CD and comes with a full-color course guide. The series comprises 14 lectures by Charles Bamforth, the Anheuser-Busch Endowed Professor of Malting and Brewing Sciences at UC Davis. The 35-minute lectures are intended for everyone from the casual beer enthusiast to brewing professionals. (Recorded Books, 2009)

The Shark and the Jellyfish by Stephen Daubert

Stephen Daubert, a molecular scientist in the UC Davis Department of Plant Pathology, presents 26 gripping new stories in this 200-page sequel to his acclaimed earlier natural history anthology, Threads from the Web of Life. Daubert “teaches by drawing you into the drama, excitement and beauty of nature,” says Don Glass, host of the NPR-syndicated program, A Moment of Science.(Vanderbilt University Press, July 2009)

The Fruit, the Tree and the Serpent by Lynne A. Isbell

So why do humans have such keen eyesight and big brains? Because of snakes, according to UC Davis anthropology professor Lynne Isbell. In The Fruit, the Tree and the Serpent, Isbell makes a creepy but solid case for the thesis that snakes played a key role in shaping the primate brain — and attributes the evolution of such behaviors as pointing and even speech to the pressures of predation from snakes. Arne Ohman of Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet calls the book “an intellectual tour de force that would have pleased Charles Darwin.” (Harvard University Press, 2009)

Inside Obama’s Brain by Sasha Abramsky

Freelance journalist Sasha Abramsky, a lecturer in UC Davis’ University Writing Program, interviewed nearly 100 of Barack Obama’s current and former friends, colleagues, classmates, teachers, staff, mentors, basketball buddies, fellow Chicago activists, media consultants, editors and next-door neighbors to get at what makes the 44th president tick. Abramsky emerged with new insights into the origins of Obama’s extraordinary poise, focus and self-confidence; his powerful storytelling and speaking skills; and his empathetic listening style. (Portfolio, December 2009)

The Preacher and the Politician: Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama and Race in America by Clarence E. Walker and Gregory D. Smithers

Some hail Obama’s inauguration as the first African American president of the United States as proof that the nation has entered a post-racial age. In The Preacher and the Politician, UC Davis history professor Clarence Walker argues we still have a long way to go. Co-written with Gregory Smithers, a lecturer in American history at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, the book includes Obama’s now-famous speech on race, “A More Perfect Union.” (University of Virginia Press, October 2009)

Chicana and Chicano Art: ProtestArte by Carlos Francisco Jackson

Carlos Francisco Jackson, assistant professor of Chicana/o studies at UC Davis, offers up the first book solely dedicated to the history, development and present-day flowering of Chicana and Chicano visual arts. The volume offers readers an opportunity to understand and appreciate Chicana/o art from its beginnings in the 1960s, its relationship to the Chicana/o Movement and its leading artists, themes, current directions and cultural impacts. (University of Arizona Press, February 2009)

The Children of Chinatown: Growing Up Chinese American in San Francisco, 1850-1920 by Wendy Rouse Jorae

Facing cultural dislocation, child labor, segregated schooling, crime and violence, Chinese American children growing up in San Francisco in the 19th and early 20th centuries lived on the margins of two cultures. UC Davis history instructor Wendy Rouse Jorae tells their story in her new book, connecting the saga to the larger American struggle to realize the ideal of equality. Rouse Jorae also teaches history at St. Francis College Preparatory School in Sacramento and at California State University, Sacramento. (The University of North Carolina Press, August 2009)

Crafted Lives: Stories and Studies of African American Quilters by Patricia Turner

Booker T. Washington once derided African American quilts as trivial emblems of poverty and slavery. In her latest book, Patricia Turner, a professor of African American and African studies at UC Davis, argues that the quilts in fact deserve a place of respect alongside folktales, blues and spirituals. Turner also tells the stories of individual African American quilters from Arkansas to Alaska. (University Press of Mississippi, January 2009)

1989: Bob Dylan Didn’t Have This to Sing About by Joshua Clover

Creative Life: Music, Politics, People and Machines by Bob Ostertag

Two new books — by Joshua Clover, an associate professor of English at UC Davis, and Bob Ostertag, a professor of technocultural studies at UC Davis — take novel looks at music and politics.

In 1989, Clover explores pop music during the year the Berlin Wall fell, tracing the emergence of grunge, acid house and gangsta rap, and analyzing artists and genres ranging from Public Enemy to Nine Inch Nails. (University of California Press, November 2009)

In Creative Life, Ostertag explores the common ground and points of friction among music, creativity, politics, culture and technology. In terrain ranging from the guerrilla underground in El Salvador’s civil war to the drag queen underground in San Francisco and New York, his essays combine journalism and autobiography to explore fundamental questions of what art is and what role it can occupy in a violent and fragmented world. (University of Illinois Press, July 2009)

To keep up with new books from UC Davis authors, subscribe to Takushi’s UC Davis Bookstore Buzz. Just send an e-mail to pmtakushi@ucdavis.edu with “buzz subscribe” in the subject heading.