Summer Reading 

Like so many organizations today, Contra Costa Youth Journalism doesn’t have a physical office. For our bimonthly editorial meetings that are held in person with our student reporters, we find different locations in the county, like the Contra Costa County Office of Education in Pleasant Hill, a public library, or a school classroom. Otherwise, we communicate via video meetings, Slack, email and text.

It was in a Slack thread where writing coach Katy St. Clair suggested that we come up with a recommendation list of journalism-related books for our reporters as they ended their school year and headed out for the summer. Here’s what we came up with.

• “The Lost and the Found” — by Kevin Fagan (2025). A nonfiction account of homelessness, resilience, and human connection in San Francisco, drawn from Fagan’s years covering people living on the streets for the San Francisco Chronicle. (Recommended by Bruce Koon.)
• “The Journalist and the Murderer” — by Janet Malcolm (1990). A landmark meditation on journalism ethics centered on writer Joe McGinniss and convicted murderer Jeffrey MacDonald. (Recommended by Katy St. Clair.)
• “Truth in Our Times” — by David E. McCraw (2019). The longtime New York Times lawyer recounts major press-freedom battles during the Trump era and the rise of “alternative facts.” (Recommended by Dick Rogers.)
• “Friend of the Court: On the Front Lines with the First Amendment” — by Floyd Abrams (2013). The famed constitutional lawyer reflects on his career defending free speech and press freedoms in many of America’s most consequential First Amendment cases. (Recommended by Dick Rogers.)
• “Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets” — by David Simon (1991). A classic nonfiction account of a year spent embedded with Baltimore homicide detectives that later inspired “Homicide: Life on the Street” and “The Wire.” (Recommended by Brian Barr.)
• “Secrets of Successful Writing” — by DeWitt H. Scott (1989). A practical guide to clear, effective newspaper writing and editing from the longtime San Francisco Examiner editor and writing coach. (Recommended by Jon Bashor, who notes that it’s out of print, but used copies can be found online.)
• “All the President’s Men” — by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward (1974). The firsthand account of the Washington Post investigation that uncovered the Watergate scandal and led to President Richard Nixon’s resignation. (Recommended by Marshall Grodin.)
• “How to Rule the World: An Education in Power at Stanford University” — by Theo Baker (2026). A young reporter’s insider look at Stanford’s culture of ambition, influence, and power, shaped by his investigation that helped force the resignation of the university’s president. (Recommended by Marshall Grodin.)
• “Under the Sun: A Black Journalist’s Journey” — by Harold Jackson (2025). Jackson’s powerful memoir chronicles his path from a Birmingham, Alabama, housing project in the 1950s and 1960s to becoming a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist. (Recommended by Sherman Turntine.)

Please feel free to use the Comment button below to add any journalism-related books you’d like to suggest. 

– Mr. K, June 8, 2026

UPDATE, June 12, 2026: Ellen Austin is an adjunct faculty member in the School of Media and Journalism at Kent State University and a former high school journalism educator in Silicon Valley. She’s shared a list of recommended reference texts for teaching nonfiction writing.

She explained: “This list was compiled over several years. Every year, usually in the spring, a journalism teacher would send out a request to the JEA [Journalism Education Association] listserve asking for nonfiction book suggestions to assign that would work well either in journalism or in AP Lang. I started compiling the gazillion response emails into a cohesive list, updating it every year. I would always share back the compiled list to the JEA listserve, as well as sharing to anyone (including AP Lang teachers) who was looking for a list like this.”