Any San Francisco guidebook can send you to the most popular restaurant in town or direct you to a museum. A really good one can fill you in on the historical significance of that plaque at the corner of Bush & Burrit and give you a brief biography of Emperor Norton. But only the best of them can guide you to the sites of famous murders, hauntings, weirde occurences and centers of supernatural energy.

Eldritch Weirde has compiled a wonderful guide for the morbid with "A Guide to Mysterious San Francisco", and it is deserving of a sequel, as well as to be reprinted a thousand times over. Certainly, it is lacking in information on restaurants, hotels and musea, but that isn't why you bought the book, now is it? You read it to be entertained and titillated, excited and disturbed. And you will be.

This is the best "guide" book i've ever read. Details all the strange historical sites in the city, mysterious ghosts and hauntings, and where to find them. Also tells about a few odd ducks which might be sighted here, like the infamous sf twins who walk around the city arm in arm. They must be in their sixties but always wear matching frilly little girl dresses. (Think Whatever Happened to Baby Jane!) Using this book as a guide, you will get a much more memorable experience than the average tourist. Yes, the truth is stranger than fiction.

This beautifully organized book provides an easy-to-follow guide for establishing butterfly, bird, and insect habitats in your own garden. Host plants, nectar plants, and food sources (both native and non-native) including annuals, perennials, shrubs, trees, and vines are listed for both butterflies and birds. Maintenance of the habitat garden is detailed with specific suggestions. Additional sections explain the importance of encouraging beneficial insects, the beauty and role of ponds in the garden, and special advice on "how to" start your own habitat garden. Color photographs provide a visual guide while spot illustrations and quotations provide inspiration and encouragement. A "must" for any Bay Area gardener.

This is a beautiful little book, a real jewel that makes providing a pleasing habitat for both our wild friends and ourselves an easy task. It certainly inspired me to add more habitat plants to my garden, and I reap the benefits daily. I especially loved how she put the plant photos on the outside page edges so I can flip through and relocate the information I want quickly. This book should also be useful for many people outside the SF Bay Area. Providing wildlife habitat is so important now.

No reason this should not be republished. An anecdotal history of the times. Makes one's head swim with stories of the street, the happenings and the love. Born too late, but feel like I've been there.

"The Haight-Ashbury: A History" has been selected for listing in "Religion and Psychoactive Sacraments: An Entheogen Chrestomathy."

This book radiates with the beauty of Henry Moore, and helps us to recognize those more recent sculptors such as Donald Wright, who have perhaps surpassed the master.

Moore is one of the most beloved sculptors of the 20th century, yet his work has fallen out of favor with the modern critics: this seeks to reassess Moore's crucial contribution to art of the last century, examining his early experiments with primitivism and his later probe into modernist pieces. The focus on his early works in particular provides Moore enthusiasts with a body of works and approaches not seen in many other considerations of his works.

The Conde de Jaruco, as the author is known, was an avid compiler of the histories of Cuban families. Though this volume, as well as the other nine of this series, concentrates on the elite and upper-class families, it is an invaluable resource for the historian and genealogist. For each family mentioned, the author provides a short history about their origins. He then provides a genealogy of the family in Cuba. For each generation he gives the names of the parents, their children, and sometimes the spouses and their children. At various times several generations of each branch are given. Though many times the dates on which various events occurred are not included, by careful reading they may be deduced. Anyone working on their Cuban genealogy or the history of important Cuban families would do well to have the entire ten volume collection of Historia de Familias Cubanas in their personal libraries.

I was surprised to learn that I am a direct descendant of Queen Joan the Mad of Castile! Duy the darn book already, smelly!

Einstein once said, "The way we SEE the problem IS the problem." Dr. Contreras sees the "problem of cancer" differently than most. It is very refreshing. A major part of coping and surviving cancer is the emotional/spiritual component. Read this book and you'll stop seeing yourself as a victim.

When I read "The Hope of Living Cancer Free" I found insights into a world I did not know. This book gives suggestions on how to live your life the best way possible and not get cancer. I recomend this book for all of those who have cancer and for the friends and relatives of those who have a loved one with cancer. In fact if you do not have cancer and want to live cancer free then this book is for you. It is easy reading.

Anyone who has read Devil's Food and Double Espresso in the Kovacs/Marvelli series is in for the ride of their life with this third wacky installment about the lovable duo. In this episode, Marvelli is persuaded to go to San Fran with another parole officer, Vissa. Because of jealously and a concern for her ice cream addicted partner, Loretta Kovacs follows them.

It turns out to be a nightmare for both her and Marvelli(especially Frankie) Frankie ends up getting kidnapped by a group of S&Mers and is subjected to some torture. Loretta has to use all her smarts and Attitude to save him.

Boy is this book a treat. Literally too. The reader will be introduced to a new way of eating a hot fudge sundae, demonstrated by the dominatrix Sunny, with the unwilling help of Marvelli(I CANNOT GIVE IT AWAY, read it yourself), and the reader will also discover the secret ingredient of Elmer Fudge whirl. Meanwhile, we root on Loretta as time winds down on Frankie's life span, and she struggles to rescue him.

This book is hilarious. It has a dizty blonde in it, an unusual dog named Dragon, a Finnish lesbian massage therapist, a man who leaks, and other weirdos. Plus, there is a sex club in which Loretta infiltrates, and of course her attitude gets her in trouble.

Don't miss it! I bought this in hardback. And it was worth EVERY darn penny!

Loretta and Marvelli hit book #3 in top form. For starters, they're finally, reciprocally, in love. Anyone woman who's ever identified with smart, sexy and somewhat overweight Loretta and her seemingly hopeless crush on a co-worker who is not only sexy but also one of the few remaining truly nice guys on the planet will find herself cheering. But the two New Jersey "Jump Squad" officers soon have more to worry about than being caught making out in an empty cell at the Parole unit... When the usual hilarious plot complications set in, Marvelli is sent on assignment to San Franciso, but instead of taking Loretta with him, his partner is the ultimate sex vixen, Elvissa Mylowe. Loretta, wracked with jealous insecurity (can we relate?), decides to call in sick, don a wig and follow the two to San Francisco. There the story twists and snakes down into the more sordid and bizarre aspects of SF's extremely alternative sex scene, as the three pursuers race to track down cruel and creepy Ira Krupnick, crook-turned-gourmet-ice-cream-manufacturer, who's screwing two women--Dorrie, his business partner's wife,and Sunny (one very hard-hearted dominatrix with a well-trained, vicious dog and a fully equippped S&M dungeon). The plot is as rich as the book's title, and the pace is fast: I ate -- er, read-- it all in one sitting--and a single paragraph can travel from sadistically sordid to funny to painful to heartwrenching. Bruno keeps up the suspense throughout and also delivers an answer to the age old question, in which part of the body does a man's brain really live?

This is the twin to his "Going Local" -- local topical cartoons about San Francisco. Even though I live near SF rather than in it, I find them hilarious and read them every day at sfgate.com. Thank you, Mr Frank for so much relief from all the troubles of the world!

Phil Frank has been drawing a daily cartoon for the San Francisco Chronicle for about 10 years or so. While I lived there his strip had always been the first thing I read in the morning, and I am rather happy that finally there is a collection of selected strips from '90 - '96. I guess I must have seen most of them before, but aside from a lot of fond memories I also got a lot of laughs out of this collection. But it certainly isn't one of the "you-had-to-be-there-to-get-it" things - I have loaned my copy to a couple of people her in Germany, and they also were rather amused by it. There is a fair amount of local politics that serves as a background for the jokes, but there are also many stories about the affairs of the heart of the hero of the strip, Farley, and his on-going realtionship with Irene the metermaid who makes parking such sweet sorrow for him, about the four bears who run the Fog City Dumpster for the four-legged gourmets of San Francisco, and ab! out Orwell T. Cat's carreer as a fall-cat in the White House. So just go ahead and buy it - it's really, really funny, and it's a lot cheaper than going to San Francisco yourself.

Add this gem to your art book collection. As a screen printer, I have been increasingly seduced by the "winter palette". This wonderful volume compiles the best of the Impressionists as they, too, came to appreciate and explore the unique light, the effects of the weather, the shapes of hibernating nature, the muted hues, and the brooding melancholy of Effets de Neige.

i saw this show in san francisco, and, as an artist, i was moved to silent reverie. the works are astonishing! whoever asssembled them deserves the thanks of anyone who has known the cold, stark beauty of winter and kept its memory in their souls. the artists who captured these moments in time are unmatched in contemporary painting. simply, i thank god for their lives and work. as one who still believes in the power of beauty upon the human spirit, i walked away from this show elevated and in awe. most particularly, i was enveloped by the works of gustave caillebotte --- so little known in america; so wondrous in the realization of his vision and his time. this show is serene. and this book comes close to reflecting its essence.