California Books

edward hopper ... robert bechtle ... william eggleston ...

the great american image creator.

the only book of bechtle. great!!

The mere act of transforming what might be considered an average snapshot into a work of art is Bechtle's magic. Quiet streets, mundane automobiles, and people from a home photo album take on an air of the sublime, proving that the greatest power of photorealism lies not in the technique, but in the process of transforming a snapshot into an irrefutable memory.

This is a great book about a great artist. I saw the pictures in original and they are very good reproduced in this book. Who loves photorealism should have it.

I drove from Jackson, Mississippi to the Modern Museum of Ft. Worth see the Retrospective of Robert Bechtle's work. I am an artist myself and was astounded at the collection in this exhibit. The book does a superb job of presenting photos of the paintings in the collection. Additionally, the museum store at The Modern had none of these books in stock so it was fortunate that I ordered it when I did.

Robert Bechtle has been a creative force in California art since the 1960s, yet his name remains practically unknown outside the Bay Area artists group. This very fine monograph by Janet Bishop, designed as a catalogue to accompany the traveling exhibition of this works, should help to mend that sin of omission. The style of writing is warm and informative and, in many ways, in keeping with Bechtle's vision of the world he paints!

One quick perusal of the many reproductions of his major works in this book quickly leaves the impression that Bechtle understands and successfully captures the quality of light that is peculiar to California. His street scenes of angled cars and bungalows are flooded with light and shadow. Though his art movement classification is Photorealism, Bechtle goes beyond mere photo copying techniques. His work is more about our lifestyle and our living compartments normally looked upon as mere blocks of space in which we function. Bechtle enhances everything he paints with a sunny 'romanticism' if you will. His art is more about a love affair with the atmosphere's effect on the mundane places we inhabit than it is with simple reproduction of images and landscapes.

For the art lover of realism and for those who respect the prodigious gifts of representational artists, this book is a must for the library. Highly recommended. Grady Harp, December 05

I passed this book by many times before finally breaking down and buying it. Somehow, its title and dust cover just didn't grab me. Besides that, having already read several biographies of the Reagans and the Reagan family members, I was fairly well convinced that the book couldn't possibly contain much of anything new. Even after buying it, I still wasn't much inclined to read it. What finally convinced me to do so was when I read in the prologue that Colacello was a personal friend of Nancy Reagan and that Nancy had arranged for him to have unprecedented access to her personal files and to virtually all of the Reagan's living friends and associates and/or their children. How could I resist? This had to be a spectacular source of inside information. And it was!

The early part of the book traces the lives of Nancy Davis and Ronald Reagan in parallel chapters. This section is interesting primarily for the light it sheds on Nancy's early life; her relationships with her mother, Edith Davis, and her adoptive father, Dr. Loyal Davis; and for the in-depth background provided concerning both Edith and Loyal.

The book really takes off, however, in the mid-sections where it deals in depth with Reagan's and Nancy's film careers; Reagan's military service; his marriage to and divorce from Jane Wyman; his actions while president of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), particularly in combating the Communist attempt to take over Hollywood's film industry; his, and other's, testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) - who was who and what was what; the members of "The Group" who induced Reagan into politics and the subsequent "Kitchen Cabinet" members (mostly wealthy, conservative, high-powered friends of Nancy or Edith) who guided, supported, and, it might be said with some degree of truth, made Reagan Governor of California and President of the United States; Reagan's abortive run for president in 1968; and the rationale for his run in 1976. From that point on, the book is hard to put down.

In summary, this book contains inside information which can't be found anywhere else, making it a vital historical document. The information doesn't always reflect well on Ronald Reagan or Nancy, but it dispels a lot of myths and misinformation, and certainly provides a great deal of insight into what it takes for even a great leader, such as Ronald Reagan, to become President of the United States.

The book certainly rates five stars for content. It loses something for readability, however, due largely to its repetitious descriptions of parties and dinners, including: who was invited; what foods and wines were served; what gowns the women wore and who made them; who were the women's hair stylists and what were their hair styles; etc. But that was a small price to pay. I give it four stars.

Some friends of ours in Australia started to read this on an Asian cruise last Fall and asked us to bring them a copy when we visited Cairns in August.

They loved it and so did we, when we got to look at it prior to giving it to them.

As a Reagan supporter, I really wanted to love the Reagans and to see Nancy Reagan's reputation vindicated. Nancy, in her elder years, is very admirable. It is a bit creepy to read that Ronnie always called her Mommie, but no one can deny their mutual love. Bob Colacello is quite thorough in his research,fair and honest - no whitewashing here...the endless sniping and self-aggrandizement of Nancy's pals, like Betsey Bloomingdale et al? These women were all intimate friends, but were clawing at each other for primacy in the Reagan inner circle. Bloomingdale brags about her caviar parties and hobnobbing with the Paris set of sophisticates, but gets caught evading customs duties for lying about how much she paid for a new couture outfit in France. The other graceless, snobby chums of Nancy also seem like the idle, witless, rich that P. G. Wodehouse skewered in his books. The Kitchen Cabinet husbands are scary and only a tad less obnoxious. The book makes one feel queasy; Ronnie and Nancy seem bought and paid for by their cronies. Nancy herself comes off as self-deceiving and controlling - a shallow and manipulative social climber who rewrote her personal history;possibly she is portrayed as second only to Joan Crawford as Mommie Dearest. Ron takes up ballet as an adult. Patti has herself sterilized at 24 because she's afraid she'll be like her mother??!

The book proves what most of us assume - being well-connected helps a lot with success and acts as a powerful "deodorant". Colacello is due to write a second volume on the Reagans. I will read it for the writing, the history and my belief in redemption.

Colacello deconstructs the Reagans like no other author has. He starts with the premise that their personal and social lives were inseparable from their political ambitions, and an essential factor in Ronald Reagan's rise to power. He goes on to explore how the couple's social milieu and interpersonal relationships influenced Reagan's political ideas and governing style.

A fascinating portrait of Nancy emerges as well: Colacello sees her as supremely focused and determined to advance her husband's political career, but motivated by pure adoration of Ronnie rather than any overriding desire for control and power.

The writing flows easily and is peppered with enough interesting anecdotes and revealing quotes to make the reader forget at times that this is, in fact, a serious political biography. A great read from cover to cover.

The perfect mix of gossip and history. Meticulously researched and carefully observed. You won't be able to put it down.

I was born in San Francisco and know the beauty of this city. I recently visited my cousin who lives in Italy. She was teasing me that she wanted to come home with me to San Francisco so I did the next best thing and purchased this book for her. I understand from her emails that she treasures it and hopes to come here one day

San Francisco is one of the most stunning cities in the world and if you look inside this book it's not hard to see why. Morton Beebe brings it to life in this beautifully presented colourful book. Not only are there beautiful photos and pictures, but essays and interesting reading material and information about this gorgeous Northern Californian city.
If you have been fortunate enough to travel to San Fran and enjoyed it, then you'll love this book, - and if you haven't yet been, then this might be just the inspiration you are looking for to convince you to travel there. This book is well worth it's price and makes either a great gift or a nice treat for yourself. I really loved reading through this book.

Absolutely gorgeous pictures, great for San Francisco lovers. New edition has several new pictures and essays. It serves as a great gift if you are visiting someone and want to show off the city you live in

Bring together an elegant top-quality publishing company, a gifted photographer, superb essayists and you have all the makings for a good book. Let the subject be San Francisco, though, and you have a great book.

This is the 3rd edition of this best seller with 218 full color images by Morton Beebe as well as essays by Herb Caen, Tom Cole, Barnaby Conrad, Herbert Gold, John Hart, Allen Pastron, Miguel Pendás, and Kevin Starr. Together, they provide an intimate portrayal of the City by the Bay. This stunning collection of photographs captures the contrasts, the energy, and the vitality of San Francisco. As do the essays.

Tom Cole takes us back to the beginning and provides an historical review of the raucous town that suddenly grew up overnight in its feverish bid for gold. Barnaby Conrad leads us into the night with anecdotes witty, clever, and sensuous from an eclectic mix including, to name just a few, Graham Green, Frank Sinatra, and Eva Gabor.

"Bahnaby tells me you haf a vooden leg, vitch vun iz it?"
"Eva, I never thought I'd have to tell a Gabor what a man's leg feels like."
"Vell, dahling, ve vass never in zee lumber business!"

In a final essay, Allen Pastron walks us through much of the city beneath our feet. Here, we discover the world's finest anchorage being dug up and, therein, its archaeological heritage. Penned a "worm's-eye-view," the essay provides some wonderful insights into what was once the bawdy Barbary Coast - particularly, the story of the discovery of the buried ship General Harrison.

Rudyard Kipling opined San Francisco was "a mad city inhabited by perfectly insane people." So it lives on! Multi-faceted lifestyles unfold with each page, the images capturing the curious joie de vivre that reigns over The City. Other pictures highlight the unmistakable landmarks: the skyline with its Pyramid Building, the Golden Gate, and my favorite, the Palace of Fine Arts in the gentle light of dusk below a full moon glowing. The photos speak volumes in this book. Each offers a glimpse as to why the city Herbert Gold called "America's last great metropolitan village" has won the most coveted travel destination award in the world - now ten years in a row - the Condé Nast Traveler's annual Readers' Choice Awards.

San Francisco, City by the Bay, was first published in 1985. This edition features ninety new images and three new essays. The publisher, Abrams, boasts that Beebe's book is their longest running best seller. Not surprisingly. It is said that San Francisco is a city full of people that want to be here. Morton Beebe, a 3rd generation San Franciscan, reminds us of why this is so.

Beebe's images have truly captured the many diverse flavors and charms that make San Francisco the unique city that it is. Combined with the entertaining and informative essays, the beatifully printed images in this book bring a reader as close as one can come to walking through the streets of San Francisco itself. I throughly enjoyed this book.

Anyone who is interested in the history of the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk needs to have this book. It is packed full of all kinds of historical facts and it has over 160 black and white photos. The detail is amazing. It was fun and informative.

This book is a fantastic primer to become familiar with the rich history of Santa Cruz and its famous boardwalk. It will mesmerize you with recounting of events and beautiful historical pictures. I hope they make a movie of it some day.

As a local resident, Santa Cruz Boardwalk has been a fun destination for us for the last two decades. As I started reading the Santa Cruz Boardwalk book, I could not put it down. It is the most comprehensive historical recounting of the events assembled in one place. Meticulous details of the historical events, key characters that influenced and shaped the boardwalk, and wonderful photos provide a rich and fascinating journey through time. If you have ever been to the boardwalk or plan on going there, read this book to fully appreciate the beauty of the boardwalk.

Do you enjoy the fun of an old-fashioned seaside holiday - strolling along the beach, splashing in salty waves, building sandcastles, sun and fresh breezes, suntan lotion and bathing suits, the thrill of the roller coaster and the romance of the carousel, dancing on warm summer nights ? Read this book, and you'll be transported back to the happy days when Santa Cruz was young, and you'll get to know the the people who made the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk the magical event it still is today.

Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk: The Early Years -- Never A Dull Moment by the daughter-father writing team of Chandra Moira Beal and Richard A. Beal, is a captivating collection of black-and-white photographs and thoroughly researched records that combine to paint a magical picture of the Santa Cruze California board walk of yesteryear. A nostalgic, poignant, and engaging presentation packed with curious minutiae of detail, the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk is highly recommended -- especially to those of us old enough to have memories of our own of the boardwalk's simple beginnings as a wooden bathhouse on the beach and its evolution and transformation into a contemporary City of Santa Cruze-based multi-million dollar business operation.

the descriptions of the route are great, but they're mixed in with a semi-narrative about the landscape, flora and fauna. not very easy to pick out the relevant bits when you're route-finding.

the addition of the maps in the back are meant as a convenience, and while i realize that this is a ROUTE and not a TRAIL, it would be more convenient if the maps had a general indication of the route path described. at the very least, it should label by name, all the lakes, peaks and passes described.

the book is also a bit heavy for a long haul, so i found myself tearing out the what i no longer needed wtih each resupply.

i give steve roper total props for exploring, discovering and sharing this route... and expecially for going back and updating it a few years on.

Backpacker Magazine Editor, Steve Howe did this route in 2006 and made daily podcasts which can be downloaded free on iTunes. i found his route descriptions and waypoints to be a perfect complement to this book.

my attempt to do the route in it's entirety got cut short with a shoulder injury only 5 days in. though i was able to finish up by detouring for another three weeks on the john muir trail, the SHR definitely requires 4 limbs. i'd recommend attempting it later in the season (August/September) to avoid the snow fields at high altitude on the north facing passes (i dislocated my shoulder when i lost my footing on a steep snow-covered face). i'd also recommend using a PLB or Spot Satellite Messenger with GPS Tracking even if you're not traveling solo. i didn't see another person for the first 8 days of this trip, and only then it was because i was on the heavily trafficked JMT.

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.

A FANTASTIC book about an awesome wilderness area! This is a must do hiking trail for me. I bought my brother this same book and I'm already planning our hike.

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.

This book is the ideal companion for everyone who likes walking off-trail on uneven terrain with a heavy pack. We used it last summer to hike a section of "the high route" (from devils postpile to tuolumne meadows) and it was so marvelous, we are going back this summer for another section. Roper gives exactly the amount of indications needed for a successful trip, although some experience in off-trail mountain-hiking is required. The high route is not trivial, even if no technical climbing is involved. The only thing: for most people it doesn't matter to have a single connected route. It would be nice to have other (shorter) routes in the same style, which are not necessarily connected. Maybe in another book? I don't know of anything comparable.

In 2002, when I was about to graduate high school, the seniors had to do one last book essay for school. My boss happened to have this book on his desk so I asked about it and he said that John Phillips himself had given him the book and I asked to read it.
I read it, and I loved it. I was excited to write an essay about this book but I didn't know where to start. Until I was answering the phones at work one day and my boss got a call from a John Phillips. So I asked if he was the John Phillips that wrote the book and he said yea and I told him that I liked the book so much that I was doing an essay about it at school and he seemed very happy to hear that. He offered to help me in any way, which I thought was very nice.
The book is well written and it has an amazing story. John Phillips is a brilliant writer and lawyer!

This is not just a story about a First Amendment battle to keep the klan in check. This is a story about who we are. In so many of the characters, I saw a little piece of myself - sometimes liking what I saw, sometimes not, but always reading on, to see which part of me pulled for which character. It's a great American story.

It took me a few weeks to read the book, because I've had such a very hectic schedule lately. But, Sign of the Cross is a sensational True-to-Life Drama that kept me anxiously turning each and every page. The book was extremely well-written and I think we need more books like this one, so that people in our society can be aware of what's going on in society (both historically and currently).

I would love to see the book adapted as a screen-play. I think it would make for a sensational film.

If you want true legal drama at its best, with insights into the inner workings of the Klan and the prosecutor who challenged it, this book will fascinate and captivate. First Amendment issues are eloquently presented by both sides. In this case, the Klan's freedom of speech is contrasted with a community's right to be free from fear. But can any one man perservere against an unwilling legal system and the most notorious terrorist groups in America?

John Phillips' Sign Of The Cross provides a prosecutor's true story of a trial against the Klan, and uses police records, courtroom proceedings and testimony in the course of relating Phillips' stormy legal battle against An involving history.

Ruth Farley is a rock. She is stubborn. She is strong. She is self-centered. And she is as undeniably irresistible as the natural stone sculptures in Monument Valley.

Ruth ventures West, determined that she will not yield to society's limited expectations and dull conventions for women. She will live on her own in her beloved canyon. She will build her house where that huge boulder rests, the one two men have told her cannot be moved. She will have sex and enjoy it, thank you very much. She will do it all despite the cost to herself and her loved ones. And Ruth exhibits all this staunch feistiness in 1920s rural, tiny-town America.

In Ruth, novelist Susan Lang has created a character who arrests the reader's interest and refuses to free it. She is far more compelling and believable than another female character untypical of her time, Jane Smiley's Lidie of The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton. And she is as intriguing as Kate Horsley's Sara Franklin, another young woman who travels to the Southwest in Crazy Woman.

The novel's only flaw is that it seems a little rushed toward the end. But perhaps that is only because Ruth is so fascinating that we don't want to let her go.

A time, a place, a person, a community of settlers separated by miles of miles, a philosophy of spirit -- all flow forth in Susan Lang's quiet drama of survival in an untamed wilderness by an untamed woman.

Lang obviously knows her landscape of place and soul. She risks and sustains the characterization of a woman beyond her time, yet, within it, allowing her to make the mistakes such a woman could make in the era in which she makes them. The core standard of such a character is that she is better than she has to be while being no better than she needs to be, according to her own dictates.

The absolute strength of Lang's writing is her own intercourse with the mysterious and magnificent sensuality of comprehending a wilderness of land and being. She understands tiny things that, for her, and now for her readers, loom large.

The only thing I didn't love about this book is the fact that it kept me up late at night until I finished it. The writing just puts me right there, as if I'm watching it the way I would a movie, encountering bears and cowboys myself. I loved Ruth, too, the main character and enjoy her stubborn ways, even when she's finding out she has to change-which she does in some way, though not at her core. I like the way Lang has her trying to force her will on the land until she learns that the place has a spirit "stronger than that of a person." I only hope the author has another book around somewhere so I can find out what happens to Ruth next!

In 1929, barely 21 years old, Ruth Farley heads west and claims a homestead in an isolated canyon in Southern California, at that time still the land of rough-and-ready miners and cowboys. What is she looking for? She doesn't quite know, but she knows what she doesn't want - a conventional woman's life of settled domesticity. To her this means she must be totally self-sufficient and independent. Ruth is stubborn, brave, strong, and subject to fits of free-ranging lust that she is not always successful at keeping under control, although she makes weak attempts at it. With 21-year-old chutzpah, she has the delusion that she can spit in the eye of conventional norms for women without paying a high price for it, and she protects this delusion with a cavalier disregard for what people think of her.

Part of her delusion is that she can carve out an independent life for herself in an isolated mountain region without the help and support of neighbors, and a major early story line of the book is her stubborn insistence on moving, entirely alone, a boulder that must be removed before she can lay the foundation for her cabin. The boulder could be easily moved with the help of neighbors, or by using a couple of horses and rope to drag it to a new location, but Ruth is determined to do it herself. The story of her struggles with the boulder, and her eventual triumph over it, becomes a metaphor for Everywoman's struggle to achieve independence against overwhelming odds, and any woman who has learned from hard experience that "what doesn't kill us makes us strong" will identify deeply and emotionally with this element of the story.

Unfortunately, succeeding at moving the boulder by herself reinforces Ruth's delusion that she doesn't need anybody. The rest of the book is a harrowing account of what she pays for this delusion, coming close to death at the hands of violent men and again at the hands of Nature, and seeing the first true love of her life killed because she is a white woman who has taken an Indian lover. Ultimately, of course, she has to learn to see life, Nature, and people as they really are - complicated, unpredictable, sometimes violent, and sometimes unexplainably compassionate.

If the book has a weakness, it is that even though Ruth is complex and multifaceted, some of the other characters are rather flat - her Indian lover Jim, for example, is unbelievably flawless. But in the context of this compelling story, I wasn't bothered much by that. I was much more impressed by Lang's tackling of reality themes I seldom see novelists deal with: a woman struggling with the paybacks of unrestrained lust, for example.

True "literary" writing expresses the universal through the particular, and in my view this book may well become a classic parable of what we pay, men as well as women, for defying cultural norms, and what we must do to come to terms with those norms without losing our truest Selves in the process.

Susan Lang does the impossible in her book, Small Rocks Rising. The story is as big, bulky, and unwieldy as the boulder her main character, Ruth Farely, encounters in Chapter One, while the writing is frequently as polished as any gemstone.
Amid fast action and female lust, there is the slow revealing of Ruth's background. The complex composition of Ruth's character comes from her half-breed mother, a strong-willed aunt, two years of finishing school, training to be a nurse---and the will to be free of it all.
This novel rings with the authenticity of place, and of a woman's unambiguous sexual longings. In Ruth's insightful self-talk and dreaming, there hangs the reality of a woman alone. She is impatient with life and all the people she encounters in her struggle to forge a place for herself in the wilderness. Ruth is an unconventional woman whose thoughts and actions are well ahead of her time. Her courage is matched only by her desires.
As the novel reveals Ruth's story, it also reveals a parallel to the male myth of passage, initiation into adulthood. Ruth experiences the trials of being alone in the extremes of nature, life-sapping heat to freezing snowstorms. She also encounters the extremes of the nature of men---violent to tender. She loses her way in the wilderness of the mountains and her own desires to discover she has the resources not only to survive, but to overcome all that nature, and man, has to throw at her.
Overall, the novel is a great read. Let's hope there is more.

What was missing from my school history lessons on early Southern California is provided in this engaging book: humor, colorful characters, zoology, horticulture, and yes, recipies! Now I know what to do with the grizzly Jed shot yesterday! (I'll let Jed do the skinnin' though). I've lived most of my considerable years in Southern California without managing to hear these tales before, so this is a very welcome addition to my collection. Some of the stories would make a great movie. (Wonder if Ms. Cox writes screenplays?) The book is well researched, and the bibliography makes a great reading list, too.

I picked up this book during a trip early this year. I began the usual thumbing through the pages, looking for something to grab my attention. I was pleased to discover how informative it was. I have grown up near many of the areas mentioned in this book. It turned out to be very enjoyable and educational reading. I especially enjoyed the authentic recipies. Great addition to the material :-)

I grew up in New England, where I was taught nothing about California history. Since I moved to Southern California almost 30 years ago, I've lived in four counties and thought I had learned quite a bit about each one. However, almost everything in this book was new to me. The author does a great job of writing the stories of history. I'd like to visit, or in some cases re-visit, all of the places she talks about in Part 10 (Sightseeing, Day Trips, and Quick Drive-By Tours, using this book as a guide.

This is the author's first book and like her newest book: "California Pioneers, Their Stories, Culture and Cuisine" she has, once again, brought into the forefront rare aspects of California history from the 1800s.

What I liked best about this book is that I live in southern California and I grew up here, yet the stories and sightseeing tips were new to me. I always wondered when I was little and in school why history books we had to read in school so seldom dealt with this region. Evidently the author felt this way, too, and she spent a lot of time and effort to uncover the history of So-Cal.

Recently I met Ms. Cox when she was the guest speaker for a CA historical society. I was impressed with her sincerety and interest in pioneering history from all aspects and cultures. A few days after the meeting at which she was the guest speaker, I had a question on food trivia and I visited her web site:
www.CookingUpHistory.com. To my surprise, she answered my e-mail personally and I got the answer to a trivia question I had wondered about for years.

I like referring curious readers to books by authors I have met and have come to realize their passion for what they research and write about. That's the case with this book. It was researched and written by an historian-author who sees history as a puzzle that we need more clues to.

Her stories in this book and her other one are family-oriented and you can pick and choose how you read the book. That makes it easy to carry this book around to have on hand when you find yourself needing to kill time while waiting.

Excellent Book to carry with you as you travel thru Southern California. I wonder if Huel Howser has read it yet? I live ,Work and Play in this area and thanks to this book am able to relate to the History of my Suroundings.

The AIDS Memorial Quilt has been the most humanizing, uplifting and unifying symbol of the battle against the AIDS virus. As an activist, viewer of the Quilt, and twice a volunteer, I read Mr. Jones book greedily. People need to know what he has to say. People need to know the impact their actions can have on world perceptions; that they can make a difference. People need to know the history of the epidemic - reflected in the experiences of a person immersed in the culture impacted first: how the gay community, so brutally attacked, fought back and set up the protocols now being used by all sectors of society all over the world.

The book is a good read, very accessible, as simple as the concept of the Quilt and as insightful. I thank Cleve Jones for giving humanity the Quilt and this telling of how it came to be.

As an AIDS activist, I would implore everyone to read this account of how one man can take an idea and turn it into a world-wide reality.

Cleve Jones writes honestly and from the heart - not about sex, not about dirt, but about the true experience of growing up as a gay man, coming out, and dealing with AIDS from the beginning up until now.

His vision in making the Quilt a reality, and the many stories that go with it bring tears and laughter, while pointing out the universality of both AIDS and The AIDS Memorial Quilt.

If his book tour comes to your town - run to that book store. His speaking skills are extrordinary as well.

If only this could become required reading for our youth - the generation that most needs to hear the message and is frighteningly under-educated about a disease which can end their lives.

For those of us who were fortunate enough to be in Washington on that cold morning in October, 1987 and see the entire AIDS Memorial Quilt unfurled for the first time, we should thank Cleve Jones for both his idea of the quilt as a memorial to those who died of AIDS and this wonderful book he has written. The quilt has almost become a cliche for some of us now-- we have seen it so many times in so many different variations and sizes-- that I did not believe I could be so moved and relive that intensely emotional and poignant day in October. I was wrong. I was taken by Mr. Jones' sincerity and utter lack of egotism. He is remarkably candid about his own life as he takes the reader through his own experiences as a young gay activist in San Francisco, his role in the history of the quilt and his own diagnosis with HIV.

Mr. Jones reminds me of things I had forgotten or repressed: a lot about the heroism of Harvey Milk, for example, the awfulness of Anita Bryant, the indifference of the first President Bush who was too busy to see the quilt, of President Clinton, along with Mrs. Clinton and the Gores, who was not too busy to pay tribute to those who had fallen. We get to see some of our national celebrities in a new light: the gentle Rosa Parks, the beautiful Elizabeth Taylor frightened at making a speech, and finally Jane Fonda who can only be described as totally silly in her adoration of Tom Hayden.

A friend of mine who has seen the quilt in its entirety many times and is active in the Names Project in his hometown in Maine says that he can only read this book a little at a time. Yes, it's very viseral, sometimes painful, and it will make you cry.

In the Epilogue Mr. Jones writes: "My hope is that one day AIDS will be over and we will have to look upon all its different aspects: how it drew a country together from across cultural, ethnic, and religious divisions, and how it was, like the Holocaust, a crucible of definition. I think the Quilt will have a role in this discussion and a place in our history as memory is preserved and recreated imn this symbol of our natural desire for commuity."

And you, Mr. Jones, will have a place in that history. Many Americans cannot thank you enough for that.

Cleve Jones has done many wonderful things for the gay community. Now he adds this wonderful, heartfelt memior. This volume is more than "just" a memoir, it's a rich and rewarding history lesson, an eye witness account. Throught the past twenty-five years Jones has been a witness to murder, a victim of hate crimes, an activist for gay rights, a rioter, a mourner, a survivor and a an ambassador of hope and good will. This is the story of the AIDS Quilt, from its beginnings to its eventual recognition as an international symbol of peace, reconciliation and unity. Cleve Jones takes a refreshingly candid, warts-and-all approach to telling his story. He depicts himself as an ordianry man responding to extraordinary circumstances in the only way he knew how. Past imperfect, but always willing to do whatever was necessary to bring his message to the people, Cleve helped to put a human face on AIDS.

While the emotion of experiencing the Quilt cannot be confined to mere words, this inspiring journey to activism and openness is a fascinating read.

In 1995, while in San Francisco to say a heartbreaking goodbye to my dearest brother, I entered the NAMES project offices and was instantly overwhelmed by the raw emotion--not just sadness, which is the obvious response, but also a healing, a unity and a strength. I have never been so moved--until I traveled to DC to witness the 1996 display.

A part of me travels with my brother's panel wherever it goes, and this book was a cathartic reliving of some of my most grueling and gratifying moments.

'Stitching a Revolution' is a treasure, a reminder that we often forget the power of one voice, and the staggering, wondrous results of bringing together disparate peoples.

Marsh, battered in body and spirit, finds his own cure in the migrant strawberry fields. His search for a killer puts him back in focus.

Greenleaf's language mastery captures the essence of the migrant worker's plight and engages the reader in Marsh's quest for justice.

This excellent Greenleaf novel opens with Tanner recovering from a gunshot wound in a hospital. He meets a young woman there who has many more problems than himself. She gets him back into "life". But later she is found murdered. Tanner has made promises to her and intends to carry them out. Villains had better beware. Great stuff!

Did you every wonder where your fresh strawberries come from? Or the pears, peaches, grapes, pineapples on your table?

Stephen Greenleaf explores the agricultural caste system through the voice of his private investigator first person narrator, John Marshall Tanner.

Tanner is a great narrator: an intelligent, world weary private eye. Tanner goes off to the strawberry fields of the Salinas area to investigate a murder, then two, and actually three. But this isn't a story of violent murder; it is a story of agricultural communities, of dating in the l990's, of small town politics, of family rivalries. Tanner's weapon is simple: he asks questions. The answers eventually fill in the pieces of a mystery.

This is a great read.

Strawberry Sunday, by Stephen Greenleaf, was nominated for an Edgar Award, 2000 -- and reading it, it's not difficult to see why. This is a mystery novel with a social conscience and a wry sense of wit. It begins with the hero, P.I. John Marshall Tanner in a hospital recovering from a gut shot and mourning the death of his close (cop) friend Charley Sleet, but most of the action takes place in the California Salinas agricultural community. Tanner has resolved to find out who murdered Rita Lombardi, a fellow hospital patient who wants to better the life of farm workers.

There are lots of red herrings, wonderful characters, and witty and often hilarious dialogues with them (and with himself). Tanner often reaches wrong conclusions and gets plenty of egg on his face, but in the end he prevails; he's a tough guy with loads of grace. Strawberry Sunday is a punchy, funny, touching novel. Read it.

As a long time fan of Greenleaf and Marsh Tanner, I thoroughly enjoyed Strawberry Sunday. I love books that inform and challenge me as well as entertain, and can always count on this author to accomplish that.

A rumor has been circulating that Greenleaf planned to retire the Tanner series, and with the last book seemed to have done so, in a most excruciating way. With this book, Marsh has been returned to me and I can imagine him, one of the rare really good people, continuing to do what he does best.