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San Joaquin Valley Town Hall

Celebrating our 75th Year

Fossil Threads in the Web of Life

Andrew Sorkin

January
Amy Chua

Amy Chua's debut novel, The Golden Gate, is a sweeping, evocative, and compelling historical thriller that paints a vibrant portrait of a California buffeted by the turbulent crosswinds of a world at war and a society about to undergo massive change.

Scott Sampson is a Canadian-born paleontologist who received his Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Toronto. His doctoral work focused on two new species of ceratopsids (horned dinosaurs) from the Late Cretaceous of Montana, as well as the growth and function of certopsid horns and frills.

“Thrilling... mind-bending... Chua seeds the novel with fascinating nuggets of California history and real-life figures. The result is a richly satisfying historical mystery that draws on its setting for more than mere atmosphere.

Amy Chua is the John M. Duff, Jr. Professor of Law at Yale Law School. She is an internationally bestselling author of several non-fiction titles, including her 2011 memoir Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, which was a runaway international bestseller that has been translated into over 30 languages. Chua graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College and cum laude from Harvard Law School. After practicing on Wall Street for a few years, she joined the Yale Law School faculty in 2001. The Golden Gate is her fiction debut.