My daughter, Nadine Morse, recommended this book to me. It says something about the timelessness of the book that it appealed to a 20-year-old and a woman (slightly!) over forty. I found it fresh and invigorating, and am amazed it was written by a woman younger than my daughter.

I found the quotes from people in the music industry to be highly entertaining, but the best parts of the book were the author's introductions. I'm going to look for more books by this author.

I originally bought this book when it was first published, in 1982 -- at the book release party, which was held at The Mabuhay Gardens in San Francisco. I loved it then, and was happy to find it was still for sale after all these years. It provides such an accurate picture of what was going on in San Francisco during the late 70's; not just the music scene, but the scene in general. And much of it's timeless, but the parts that aren't are fascinating in their 'time capsule' quality.

I'm twenty, so hadn't been born when this book was being written, but I thought it offered a fascinating glimpse into the lives and thoughts of music people in San Francisco during that era. But your site says there are two other reviews...I couldn't access them, though.

I'm a longtime fan of Ms. Jacobs and hope that
"Flashpoint" is the start of a new series.
This novel is just the right blend of mystery,
suspense, and social commentary.

Be sure to read Ms. Jacobs' other recent novels,
"Star Struck" and "Double or Nothing".

in this fast-paced page turner. Ms. Jacobs manages to make every word count in Flash Point, her latest mystery entry. Thanks to the author's keen eye for detail, the reader sees the characters come to life on the page. And what charming characters they are---it's a pleasure spending time with Susan Kim Delancey as she tracks down the serial arsonist. Well researched, the author sets the scene so realistically I have a new-found respect for the men and women who fight fires daily.

Susan Kim Delancey is the Governor's Special Assistant for Arson Investigations, a political appointment that has her serve as liaison with all the counties in California. Right now she is investigating a series of arson homicides that have taken place in Sausalito, San Francisco, Daily City and San Vincente. She is trying to find out if the same person is responsible for the four incidents.

In each case the victim was a single mother who recently gave birth to a baby girl. No trace of the babies is found leading the press to dub the crimes the "Baby Snatcher Murders". Susan and her understaffed overworked team find a common thread even as the killer targets someone Susan loves more than life itself.

Nancy Baker Jacobs has a winning new series if FLASH POINT is any indication. The heroine is impossible not to like as she races from one horrific crime scene to another to find some answers that will stop a killer before he strikes again. There are enough twists and turns to keep the reader turning the pages until they find out who the perp is and why he is doing such terrible things.

Harriet Klausner

This is simply outstanding. It is very complex, very rich, but incredibly human. The people laugh, cry, mistrust, love, etc. In sum, they have feelings--good and bad--just like you and me. I highly recommend it to anyone--it'll make you think twice before helping (or not helping) a relative or a friend!!!!

I am an immigrant from El Salvador and this book made me cry because reading it was like reading about my own life. The writer spent a lot of time knowing the people because she tells the story of thousands of people like me and those in her study. If you want to know what life has been like for Salvadorans, read this book.

This is a great book. It has a lot of information about Salvadorans. Obviously, the author is an expert. But you know what makes this book unusual? It's because it was written by a Salvadoran scholar (very few around here...) about Salvadorans. So just for the information alone, it's worth it. That's why I said that this is an unusual book.

As a newlywed, I have purchased several books to enhance my cooking skills recently. This book stood out because of the beautiful presentation of each item and promise of simplicity. Although I did have to call my mother-in-law aobut how to tie up a chicken (not explained) this book has turned some excellent entrees for myself and my husband. One complaint, the book is so large it is difficult to keep nearby while cooking without getting in the way or accidently becoming part of the cooking process. Overall it is a book that has taught me a lot about beautiful presentaion of simple dishes and is beautiful too look at.

I have collected some very interesting and promising cookbooks over the years, and all of them combined could not teach me what this one book has. I literally went from Novice to Gourmet when I started making some of these recipes. I rave about it and give it to everyone on my gift list.
You can make any of the recipes everyday and not feel overwhelmed because they are truly simple! My favorite is the Lamb Shanks with Rosemary and Leeks served with mashed potatoes. Although it takes 2 hours to make, your actual work time is less than 20 minutes. Just leave it to simmer and check on it every half hour, and Viola you are a gourmet chef!
I have such confidence in the kitchen because of this book! I hope, if you decide to purchase this book or put it on your wish list, that it will give you half the joy it has given me because even that would be heaven sent!

This book blows my breath away! Fabulous pictures on every page, Delicious recipes (especially the vegetables) and most recipes take only 15-35 minutes to prepare with simple-to-find ingredients. I love this book and hope they will one day do another like it.

I'm a beginner to bread baking and for whatever reason, decided to try sourdough. This book has been perfect for me as a beginner. The first part of the book, clearly outlines the chemistry involved in bread baking and getting a starter going. It then details the various steps in making the "primary batter" as well as bread baking, even outlining how to knead dough for french bread. This is such a great reference for anyone at a beginner level and the recipes are easy to follow and produce a great end result (although some may be a bit odd; Cranberry Sourdough Bread wasn't quite up to par). I highly recommend this book if you're trying to learn about sourdough baking.

You must get this cookbook. Great recipes. Tasty recipes.

Just looking at the cover makes me smile.

I love this book and I use a couple of the recipes all the time. I especially like his method of using batter "A" and batter "B". It's wonderful because I never waste any of my starter in order to feed it. The batter bread is my favorite. With my particular starter strain, the bread comes out about the same consistency as a regular dough bread. It's delicious. The recipes are amazingly easy and delicious.

I highly recommend this book to people who are learning about sourdough. It's the only book you'll ever need.

I recently purchased this great idea! It's a cookbook, along with a CD! It's called "Afternoon Tea Serenade" by Sharon O'Connor. The author is a musician, and author, as well as a cook. Afternoon Tea Serenade is her 12th release!

The book contained within this set is great! I enjoy books that not only offer you the recipes, but also offer you history and techniques. This book tells you not only the origination of tea (the drink, that is), but also the custom of "afternoon tea". There are tips on how to choose tea, how to brew the perfect cup of tea, how to make iced tea, as well as how to make some herbal teas! She suggests how to pick suitable tea cups, and offers some suggestions as to how to throw a themed tea party, such as a Bridal Shower Tea.

The book is filled with recipes from famous tea houses in the United States, England and Ireland. Such recipes include Welsh Rarebit, Cucumber and Mint Sandwiches, as well as Barmbrack. I have tried quite a few of the recipes and they each have turned out wonderfully.

Included within this set is a CD, which contains classical music to set the atmosphere. When I listened to this CD, I felt like I was back in the late 1800s during Victorian times! Artists on this CD include Bach and Mozart. Each piece is wonderful, and I am sure you will recognizea few, if not all of the pieces!

Treat yourself, or a friend, to something special this Spring, and buy this set! Then, call over your family and friends and have yourself a tea party!

I love this book! Having recipes from famous tea rooms is fantastic and fun - it's interesting to compare them. And although the book is divided into tea rooms, there's a good index in the back if you just want to look for a particular type of recipe. Plus, the beginning section contains a wonderful yet concise history of tea drinking as well as an excellent overview of different teas. The music is nice, too, but to me, the book is worth the full cost!

I found this lovely book while perusing the Amazon.com website. It serendipitiously has become a treasure book to me. The author takes one on a vicarious "tea" trip to hotels across the world and gives access to recipes from the best Chef's. All this made available while the reader is relaxed in her own home listening to the beautiful music of flute, harp,viola, violin, and the authors cello. Pour a cup of tea and experience lifes' finest. I plan to order additional copies to give as gifts to my friends, and houseguests. The historical reference to tea is of utmost interest to those who love everything about tea. Thank you Ms. O'Connor-well done.

It makes you laugh out loud. Hail the apostles Bellingham! From Nigel, the rabbit - to Susan, the estranged wife - Looking at life through rose coloured glasses indeed.Why hasn't a daily picked this guy up? Bellingham, a man in love with his adopted city of San Francisco. Not a bit of underdone potato - as saterical writers tend to be. Curmundgeons have a hero - a passionate one at that.

WARNING: DO NOT BUY ONE COPY OF THIS BOOK! You will need at least two copies whether you buy it for yourself or for a gift. Don't think you can pick this up as a gift, browse through it to pick up the highlights and then pass it along, no, you're going to want your own copy. And if you do pick it up for yourself, you will undoubtedly add it to your Christmas gift list. It's a great book for anyone; they just have to have a sense of humor. What makes it a keepr, though, is Bellingham's jabs are as insightful as they are funny, his one-liners are as timeless as they are topical. His slice of life encounters with various celebrities give the reader a fun account of the media scene in everybody's favorite city by the Bay. I practically read this book in one sitting because I kept saying, "just one more chapter" (they're short). It's that kind of book, a pick up and read anywhere book, a great "airplane book", if you will. Check it out for chuckles.

"Bellingham by the Bay" is relaxing reading -- and entertaining. It's something I keep by the bed. I'm a retired English Lit teacher and when the world grows too serious, I keep returning to "Bellingham" for its good writing and witty, irreverent insights. At my age, laughter is a great elixir. Try it!

Vic Vigoda hires Lefty Wright to steal a package from the safe of Judge Chancellor. Lefty grabs the job as the pay is great, $15K for under fifteen minutes to perform an easy heist. However when Lefty enters the bedroom with the safe, the murdered body of the judge greets him. Almost immediately two cops charge into the house and arrest Lefty for killing Chancellor.

Lefty knows he is already in deep trouble, but adding to his woes is that the DA is running for office and sees this case as an easy media victory to further his ambitions. Lefty asks San Francisco private investigator Jake Diamond to learn why Vic would set him up to take the fall. Jake makes inquiries, but mostly concentrates on who owned a valuable Rolex found near the body. As he tries to learn the identity of the owner, he wonders about the motive. As he digs deeper into the case, bodies pile up as someone is bumping off anyone remotely related and potentially able to provide information that could free Lefty.

Though readers will need a calculator to keep score of the corpses, fans of action-packed murder mysteries will enjoy this tale. The story line is loaded with non-stop hyper energy, as the audience will compute the correlation between alcohol drinking and homicides. Fans of mass homicide investigative tales will want to follow Diamond as he steps over bodies while making the rounds of the streets of San Francisco.

Harriet Klausner

So here I am, it's nearly two in the morning, I leave a Jazz club on Bleecker Street because the cat on xylophone (vibes, man) is giving me a funny look. I grab a Sunday Times, carry it into Café Dante, and work on the crossword over a double espresso. They've got Joe Franklin on the radio, Memory Lane, and Joe is talking with this guy J. L. Abramo who writes Private Eye novels. I write it down in the margin of the magazine section. Following afternoon, I walk to the nearest bookstore, I won't name names, and find "Clutching at Straws", a signed copy if you can believe it. It's raining in New York City, which is all it ever does lately, and I read the thing in one sitting. You want a review, go to Publishers Weekly. You want advice, read this book.

In J. L. Abramo's first novel, "Catching Water in A Net", San Francisco private eye Jake Diamond carried a worn-out copy of "A Tale of Two Cities" in place of a .38 Special. Diamond is back in "Clutching at Straws", this time packing "The Count of Monte Cristo" concealed in his jacket pocket. Jake, ex-actor and lover of the classics, operates on the belief that art imitates life and holds clues to human behavior, noble and villainous. Abramo operates on the notion that life often imitates art and he offers, once again, a masterful blend of human tragedy and human comedy that kept this reader holding her breath and holding her sides.

For the most part I would agree with what other reviewers have said here. This is an excellent book on the SF earthquake and fire in almost all respects. The photos and drawings are probably the best one can find anywhere and the work is well researched. I would not hesitate to recommend this book to anyone even remotely interested in the subject.

The reason I gave the book four stars instead of five is that it is written very mechanically. The authors spend much of the book telling us about the fate of individual buildings and so fail to tell the story of the disaster fully. At times it reads like an engineering report on San Francisco buildings. But this is a small flaw that should not deter anyone from getting the book.

This NOT just another of those earthquake books!
Everyone devoted to the serious study of earthquakes or the mitigation of their hazard--geophysicists, seismologists, civil and structural engineers, architects, disaster relief workers, fire personnel, police, building officials and so on, all must have this book for their professional libraries. Yet they might overlook it for years, as I did, and I'm in that group. We might pass it by because it is so brilliantly written and beautifully illustrated, but there aren't any graphs or partial differential equations or whatever.
Interestingly, it is published by Cameron and Co., whose "Over London" etc. books have those astounding aerial photos. Well, I thought the new photos in this book must be by Cameron, they're so good. No, they're by Richard Hansen, Gladys Hansen's son, who also researched the old photos, and is a top-notch professional photographer, obviously.
So this is a top quality coffee-table book. But it is much, much more. It's the result of Hansen's many years of meticulous research and awesome scholarship on the subject, still going on, tracking the growing number of casualties (currently over 4000). It is an expose' of disgusting corruption, of arson and military looting. It describes the shaking, maps the areas of bad ground, the route of the fires, describes the misery of the refugees, and, finally, almost when one can stand no more bad stuff, true gut-level heroism. All is told in restrained, elegant prose, somehow making the catastrophe more profound. It is also the testament of a great San Francisco Fire Chief, terse, professional, of quietly distressing implications and of immense value to planners. It is a treasure, a classic. BUY IT!

This fine work incorporates not only a large number of historical and present day photographs but a thoughtful narrative as well. Excellent descriptions of the cowardice and heroism displayed during the earthquake and subsequent fire. Most importantly, the book examines the errors repeated during the rebuilding of San Francisco and the potential for danger in the next earthquake.

Earthquake in the Early Morning
By: Mary Pope Osborne

Have you wondered what it would be like to be in one of the biggest earthquakes in the world? This book is about two kids named Annie and Jack. They go back in time to 1906.The kids have to find something to lend, because they have to save Camelot.
You can picture when the city gets on fire in California, because the story says, "The fires raged for three days, nearly destroying all of San Francisco. Over 28,000 buildings burned down."
The author of this story teaches you to always be prepared.
I like this book because it has adventures.
Read this book to find out what happens at the end. Will Annie & Jack get back to the treehouse & save Camelot?

Once there lived two kids named Jack and Annie.They had a magic tree house.They had to go to San Francisco .When they were at San Francisco there was an earthquake.

Once again Mary Pope Osborne had conjured up another exciting adventure for Jack and Annie. Young readers can travel with them on their quest for the last item they need to save Camelot.
As a teacher, I am always impressed with the knowledge students can gain as they read these adventure stories. Mary Pope Osborne includes interesting facts and real-life situations in her stories. In this book children can use their imaginations to get a feeling of what it was like in California during the big earthquake and at the same time read about the true experiences of the people and actual events.
This and other Magic Tree House books are great for in-class whole group readings or individual readings.