A gift from my mother-in-law, it is one of my very favorite interior design books. I'm a San Franciscan and have this book on the mantel of my fireplace to enjoy anytime. My MIL in Indiana has a copy as well and loves it just as much as I do. These interiors are the perfect example of not following one design school of thought and decorating with what you love to create interesting rooms that reflect who you are and what you love. What I wouldn't give to live in some of these beautiful homes! This is a great gift for anyone who loves decorating, especially if they love SF. The photos are wonderful.

This is a book I enjoy looking at and reading again and again because it's like taking a personal tour through these stunning homes. Creative, magical, unique as the people who live there. Daring but with charm and lots of character. That's how I would describe these interiors. This is a fabulous book!

I own about 20 interior design books and this is by far the best . I love this wonderful book not only because the stunning pictures it presents but also this book accurately protraits the local styles and favorites. This book is very well organized. The more I read the more I regret the fact that I no longer live in there. If you love the city or have a real appreciation for interior design, buy it and you won't be disappointed by it. If you are just looking for a coffee table book, skip it. This book is too good to be just sitting on the table.

San Francisco Victorians is a wonderful little book, especially for the homesick like me. The book is full of great pictures reflecting the cultural heritage of Frisco, with a historian's essay telling the history along the way. Excellent companion for a long stroll in the city; for delightful discoveries.

I've seen this photographers' work before and he's done another impeccable job documenting some of the most originally restored homes I've seen in twenty years.

I love this book. The pictures are beautiful and the text is very informative. If you love artful buildings and wonderful pictures of them, you will be very glad to have this book.

The recipes are unusual and delicious and the notes and menus are an excellent introduction to the San Diego region and lifestyle. The concept of a regional introduction is beautifully illustrated with exquisite photographs. This is a wonderful collection of unusual and tasty recipes, analyzed for nutritional content, and very easy to follow. Many low-fat and healthy suggestions. It would make a great gift or tourist's souvenir.

After buying this book as presents for friends, I finally bought a copy for myself. It has been easy and enjoyable creating various dishes from seafood to CA-Mexican. Although the times for preparation sometimes are off, the recipes have generally been right on, both in time to prepare and quantity of food. I recommend this book as a present for friends and yourself.

Great healthy recipes. I have had numerous requests from friends for copies of recipes and info on where they could buy this book. The nutritional information at the end of each recipe is very helpful for people with specific diet concerns.

Aha! So there IS a portion of California, beyond San Francisco and the wine country worthy of a visitor's exploration. Ms. Weisbrod writes of her discoveries in an entertaining fashion. She interweaves history's passages with the rugged and winding terrain of today, storytelling at it's best. Which way to go? What to see? Where to stop? Where to stay? Whether you carry along "Scenic Byways of Northern California" as a guide to your next adventure, or savor the read from the cozy cushions of your armchair, you will enjoy owning it--and giving it as a gift!

Marie Weisbrod shares from her experiences traveling the history-rich northwest corner of California, visited by few modern Californians. This is an excellent guide for those interested in exploring quiet backroads, away from vacationing crowds.

Ms. Weisbrod has written a wonderful travel book that belongs in every vagabond's library. She has traveled extensively in the Siskiyou-Cascade region, which serves to make the area spring to life through her personal observations and lively retelling of historical events. I can't wait to see more from this gifted author.

I got this book almost by accident..I live in NYC and am pretty well aquainted with these shores but when a buddy sent me this book along with a invitation to spend ten days sea-kayaking along the Pacific I could not resist. I read the book from cover to cover before I left. I was impressed with how detailed it is and delighted that the author chose to share some of her discoveries with us. I would certainly reccomend this guide to kayakers like myself who want to venture into new, expertly charted waters.

Whether your kayaking is mostly of the armchair variety or whether you're heading out to sea right now, this book will be a great resource. It's chock full of details about trips in and around northern California, easy to read and up to the minute. Descriptions are enticing, with suggested launch, picnic, and camp sites given amid observations on wildlife and scenery. Trips run the gamut between pleasant paddles for the novice and huffing-puffing challenges for experienced sea kayackers. The book looks easy to use and is clearly laid out for quick checks on a particular cove or waterway as well as for browsing through the counties you have on your list for your next adventure.

A comprehensive guide - finally - has arrived for Northern California Sea Kayaking! I took this book out with me over the holidays, and discovered several nearby paddles. I really liked the skill levels and the elements described on each trip - made trip planning alot easier and the paddles so much more enjoyable! Plus the sections on Getting Ready were very instructive, and a wonderful section in the back about the kayaking community. Well written, good drive maps, and an essential guide for Northern Cal sea kayakers.

This was a great read! I have been to many of the places in the late 1960s and early 1970s that Romano-Lax visited, and I can vouch for the accuracy of her descriptions. I admire her courage (or possibly foolhardiness) in going on such an odyssey with her husband, two young children and a mentally questionable captain who also happened to be her brother-in-law. Oddly, I can identify with being with a mentally deranged person in Baja California. I was also in that same fix in 1968 when I joined a zoology field trip to San Felipe, Baja California Norte, only to find that one of my companions was seriously depressed to the point of being suicidal (it later turned out that he was on drugs). Travel to the Sea of Cortez seems to result in such strange associations.

I used to own an old copy of Steinbeck and Ricketts that I had been given for cleaning up a storage shed. It was the only book in the shed and I was surprised to find it. I fingered through Ed Ricketts' descriptions and photographs of porcelain crabs and murex shells. I read the text and pondered Steinbeck's philosophical diatribes. But most of all it made me want to go to Baja. Within a few years of my discovery of the book I traveled to northern Baja three times and later made an extensive trip as far south as La Paz in Baja Sur. Despite the problems, Baja left its mark on me and I never regretted any time that I spent there. My main grief is that I missed a trip to Cabo San Lucas in 1971 that I had an opportunity to take.

The mangroves, the beauties and problems of Bahia Concepción, Mullegé, La Paz, Loreto, the Colorado River delta and Golfo de Santa Clara are well known to me and Romano-Lax has described each of these so well that I almost felt that I was back on the beach smelling the salt air and watching v-shaped formations of pelicans as they seemed to float almost effortlessly over the surging tide.

Ed Ricketts would have approved of this book. Although he never liked to get his head wet, he was apparently most alive when wading in the surf and tidepools. In some ways this book is more a tribute to him than to John Steinbeck, but in this case you really can't separate them.

If you are at all interested in the sea and/or Baja California, you need to read "Searching for Steinbeck's Sea of Cortez: A Makeshift Expedition along Baja's Desert Coast." It is the next best thing to going there yourself!

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This is an ambitious book, well done. Its special beauty comes from Romano-Lax's ability to weave together so many elements into an enticing, captivating whole. There's the travel narrative, of course, with a string of adventures (and misadventures) involving her family -- including 5-year-old son Aryeh and 2-year-old daughter Tziporah -- and the challenges presented by an increasingly unstable brother-in-law who's also their boat's captain. There's the literary element, presenting new perspectives on John Steinbeck's Sea of Cortez explorations with buddy Ed Ricketts and fresh insights into their relationship. Toss in science, natural history, environmental issues, glimpses of Baja California's rich culture, and marvelous descriptions that give a strong sense of place. Then add in Romano-Lax's search for answers, her desire to understand how the Sea of Cortez has changed since Steinbeck's time, and, finally, her own shifting perspectives on what it means to know a place (or "know" anything) -- and the many ways of knowing. In the end, Romano-Lax's travels are multi-dimensional: across the Sea of Cortez, through time, and -- perhaps most important of all -- internally. The trip was well worth taking and I savored it from start to finish.

As a person who finds travel narratives relatively dull and often self-indulgent, this book stunned me in its lyric (and plot-based) grace. What a delight to read!

"Sex, Death and Other Distractions" was the September selection for my book discussion group, which is part of the adult education program of the Presbyterian church I belong to. It was chosen at the suggestion of a member who attended a bookstore reading by the Kensington Ladies' Erotica Society and thought our group would be intrigued by it. I wasn't sure what the response at our meeting would be - it is a very diverse group of women, both as to age (ranging from late thirties to over eighty) and backgrounds. The book was a great hit and wonderful discussion prompter. There was much confirmation by members of the insights in the stories and much laughter at the humor, but it was the high quality of the writing that received most comments. All in all, it was one of our most enjoyable discussions, and all the members of the group mentioned they intended to give the book to friends and relatives as gifts. Highest recommendation to other book groups!

The Kensington ladies began twenty-five years ago with a volume, "Ladies Own Erotica," erotic fantasies of a group of ladies. Revisiting the subject in their 60's, the fantasies are real and spring to life with a poignant melancholy. The subtle observations in Rose Solomon's "Bedded Bliss" and "Viagra Blues" could have come from the pen of Isaac Singer had he been born a woman in California in 1940. Erotic and fantasies, drawn with an elegance that makes them real and true to life, these vignettes are thoroughly enjoyable for men and women of all ages.

I loved these stories! These women tackle big subjects -- marital sex, extramarital sex, fading libidos, Viagra, failing marriages, thriving marriages, divorces, separations, mothers, fathers, human relations of all kinds -- with amazing wit, humor and honesty. Rose Solomon's essay, "Viagra Blues," had me in stitches. ("After thirty-three years of marriage, I was suddenly back to square one, eyeball to eyeball with a show-off...") Bernadette Vaughan's "Government Issue," an essay on the author's youth in wartime London, moved me to tears. The recipes are as erotic as the descriptions of sex. The book leaves you feeling as if you'd just spent a weekend in a country home with a group of witty fascinating women who'd lived full active lives and who -- defiantly, vibrantly -- continue to do so. Brava!

A masterpiece of Gay literature, broke so many taboos before its time.I remember reading this novel in the late 70s before AIDS became prevelant,when so many queers walked the backstreets and alleys not to mention bathhouses in there search for free sex and lust. This is a monumental exploration into the psyche of homosexuality and being wanted by all means .necessary. I cant wait for the movie!

I had heard about this book, and it seemed to make some people angry and some people said it was great. I hadn't read it until I saw that the SF Chronicle listed it as one of the "100 Best Non-Fiction of the Century" and I thought, wow. So I read it, and was surprised to find how timely the book is, how it speaks about the same issues confronting gay men right now, and speaks about them intelligently--and, also, it's a very sexy book, that describes three sex-crammed days and nights by its main character roaming through streets, alleys, under piers. The book deserves to be rated high on "best" lists. It sure ranks in mine. Terrific writing, too.

This remains the most powerful manifesto of gay power, as well as being a document of oppression. Graphic sexual encounters are strongly depicted. Between each main section, an essay comments on a wide range of gay life--from gay bars to the gay pride parade, bodybuiding, hustling, S & M, gay relationships with women, laws, vice cops. Although many of Rechy's ideas have now been embraced by others, the book remains as startling, bold, and original as when it first appeared. A gay "Fire Next Time."

San Francisco is a very "livable" city, especially without a car to worry or pay for. "Short Bike Rides..." suggests two dozen fun routes in and around the city that allow you to make the most of living here without a car. From the fastest way to get across town, to a wonderful rides in Marin and the East Bay I have ridden nearly all of these rides, and enjoyed them immensely. Not only are the directions and maps clear, but Kingman's comments are often very entertaining. There is also a handy supplement in the back listing public transportation contacts for taking your bike on BART, CalTrain etc.. Absolutely essential for any SF cyclist - commuter, weekend warrior, out of towner, tourist entertainer. And for less than $10 I have used this book 10x as much as any of the other rides books I have.

One note: I would assume Kingman is one hell of climber, since he does tend to downplay the physical effort required to climb the "hilly terrain" of some the rides.

This is my favorite bike rides book. It's an excellent read and lets you see the best of the city.

Not only is Henry Kingman's book a great way for visitors to explore San Francisco by bicycle, it is also a handy reference guide for local cyclists looking for new or better routes. Every S.F. cyclist should have a copy.

My girlfriend and I recently took some of Ropers advice on a Mt. Conness Loop 5 day hike in Yosemite. It was an increadible trip. Roper gives just enough hints to get you there but few enough to make it still feel like exploring. Be advised however when he referes a section of your hike as 'adventurous' or 'exciting' he means it. We pushed ourselves to the physical and mental limit on this trip.

This book outlines a magnificent experience following an off-trail, higher version of the Muir Trail through the High Sierra. We have followed most of Roper's route over several years: sometimes we thought we were lost or overwhelmed, but it always turned out fine, and usually excellent. He treads a fine line between complete instructions that would allow no mistakes, and an experience that gives the hiker their own opportunity for route-finding, discovery, and growth. This is one of our favorite books, and we keep an intact copy plus another one torn apart for each journey and sometimes given away to people met along the way who need it. We still travel the trail some of the time, but genuinely value this alternative farther away from the crowds.

I made good use of this book to plan a wonderful cross-country trip in the Sierra. Roper was kind of vague at times, but I never got lost.

The route he described was breath-taking. I intend to use this book to plan next summer's trip.