As another brutal fire season rages, 4 new books bring context and consolation

On the Shelf Four New Books on Fire Introduction to Fire in California: Second Edition By David Carle University of California: 248 pages, $25 The Pyrocene By Stephen J. Pyne University of California: 192 pages, $27 Paradise By Lizzie Johnson Crown: 432 pages, $28 Paradise on Fire By Jewell Parker Rhodes Little Brown: 256 pages, $17 If you buy books linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookstores. He’s published 30-some books on the subject, starting with 1982’s “Fire in America: A Cultural History of Wildland and Rural Fire,” and his latest, out in September, is “The Pyrocene: How We Created an Age of Fire, and What Happens Next.” The new book takes the very long view — starting with the moment humans learned to control and utilize fire. Lizzie Johnson offers a more immediate and emotionally devastating narrative in “Paradise: One Town’s Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire,” coming in August. “Paradise on Fire,” out Sept. 14, follows Addy, a Black girl from the Bronx who’s spending the summer at a California wilderness camp, where she learns to love the outdoors — only to have a final camping trip threatened by a raging wildfire.