California Books

I stumbled upon this book by accident and am SO glad I did. The book is a stunner. Eye candy for mid-century architect lovers. Like the taste of a dark chocolate bar, but a coffee table book! Sure to to be a hit, and a great conversation starter for even non-architectural peeps, sitting in your living room, as you entertain. Page after page shouts forth with unrepentant glee. The history of the Westlake neighborhood is enthralling as well as the many old, astounding photos. Something to look at over and over and drool. A must for any library!

A friend bought the book for me and gave it to me as I arrived for our 40th high school reunion from Westmoor High School. It is a great recounting of how Westlake developed and makes a great gift for any family who has lived in the area.

my parents bought it new for $13,000. it was close enough to the city to get to the haight after westmoor high school let out. when my parents sold it in 1968 i thought my world had ended and now, looking back at it again, i think i may have been right. i'd give anything to be back there again, but i don't have three-quarters of a mill.

I'm an avid collector of midcentury dishware, glassware and kitchenware, and an enthusiast of midcentury architecture. I always pictured myself living in a northern California Eichler someday and am a charter subscriber to "Atomic Ranch". Yet, when my partner and I decided to move back to his home town in California from Washington, DC, last year, I knew next to nothing about Daly City or Westlake. I knew only that we'd be living in the home in which Jeff had lived as a boy, and I hoped that I'd at least like the place.

A short article in Atomic Ranch about Westlake first whetted my appetite, and my first time seeing the house--while interviewing out here, just a month before the move--I fell in love with it and Westlake's bright colors, quirky architecture, and midcentury aesthetics (e.g., our yellow-tiled kitchen and pink-tiled bathroom, both with chrome accents; the original metal kitchen cabinets; and the gorgeous flagcrete fireplace that dominates one wall of our living room).

The author of "Little Boxes," Rob Keil, saw a posting on Jeff's blog about the house and wrote to us before the move, and a few months after we arrived we went to hear him speak at the Doelger Senior Center about the history of Westlake. Rob really is passionate about these homes and this suburb, and infectiously so. I've become a huge fan of and evangelist for the neighborhood, and for the book, and in the bargain have made some wonderful new friends out here, including Rob and his fiancee. The book was clearly a labor of love, but the product was well worth the labor pains.

It really is a gorgeous book--the era-appropriate color scheme and typefaces, the incredible photography (most of it Rob's, and showing that we're not always fogged in here and just how wonderful it is when the sun shines), and the art design are spot-on. We bought a copy not just for our own coffee table, but another for Jeff's mom--since this is the house in which she brought him up--and one for my own mom back in Virginia, so she can get a sense of where I am now, and Jeff even bought a copy for his torus-shaped Mario Ciampi-designed elementary school, also featured in the book.

Oh, and that Eichler I pictured myself living in someday? I still think those homes are pretty cool, too, but I honestly can't see leaving Westlake, our friends here, or one of these charming little boxes.

More than a half century since its inception,American suburbia regularly takes its knocks, so it's nice to hear the other side once in a while. Keil's book is less a general rebuttal than a spirited defense for a specific case: in this case, the huge Westlake subdivision built south of San Francisco in the post-war years. It's an affectionate, well-researched book that, while of particular interest to those who grew up in the Bay Area, should be read by anyone with any interest in mid-century architecture and culture. The story's well told, beautifully laid out and, though it's a valentine, it doesn't stray from exposing warts (like the neighborhood association's long-standing ban on African Americans). Great design, Space Age googie style and '50s/'60s American optimism shine through its pages.

Now he has got his new company surly a movie about mad women chasing the movie producer to save an artist makes a great movie for the failing Hollywood blcobuster? The Weinstein Company should look at this book now and make it into a UK movie.

Thelma and Loise meet The Player?

This book really made me laugh but I have to say I was shocked that Harvey Weinstein did not help them save thier artist, he must be short of money because these women could sell snow to Eskimos. Excellent read and the perfect holiday companion.

This book is hilarious buy it if you love to laugh at the reality of life.

I got hold of a copy of this book from someone important in Hollywood, flying first class, Virgin Airways. He was laughing so much I asked him the title of the book he was reading. Was he laughing at the story or was he laughing at himself. It turned out he was a producer and knew Harvey Weinstein very well. The book is a true account of what happens when normal women get inside the Hollywood system and expose not only themselves but the people who run it. Fantastic story.

This is just amazing, what a tale. I wish I had seen this side of Hollywood. The book is a sales manual and a diary for drunks, drug addicts and those who tell the truth.

This is my favorite storyteller and her short stories are wonderful. They transport you to another time and place. The thing I love best about this book is the little life lessons she puts in it not preachy just real things you can relate to and learn from.

I have heard for years what a great writer J. California Cooper is and how people love just about anything she produces. Despite hearing all of the accolades and praises for this author, life happened and I never got around to reading one of her works. I could slap myself for all of the years I missed out on the tales from this adroit storyteller. Her dialogue brings Hurston to mind, and her characters in THE MATTER IS LIFE are just as strong as any of the greats. In fact, I am adding Cooper to my list of greats after reading this collection of beautifully human stories about how people can get in their own ways and how life is life.

My favorite story in this collection happened to be the longest. Could it be that I was able to savor even more of Cooper's wisdom in "The Doras?" It's possible, but more than that, this was a story that had me hanging on to every word about a woman with a dream for her daughters. The narrators in all the stories seem to be sages of sorts; the narrator isn't always a central character in the piece, but she seems to know all the goings on of the people of whom she speaks. This was refreshing and different, and I felt as though she and I were having an all-out gossip session. Don't get me wrong; the stories in this compilation are deep and to the point. There is a lesson to be learned within each tale's contributory pages.

I just can't say enough about how much I enjoyed this reading journey. My only complaint is that it was over too soon. Luckily for me, there are numerous other Cooper releases for me to enjoy.

Reviewed by CandaceK
of The RAWSISTAZ™ Reviewers

J. California Cooper has a way of crafting a story that makes you feel as if you are sitting in the room with the characters as they go about their daily lives.

These stories make you actually FEEL what the characters are going through, and when the stories end, you feel like a friend has walked away.

I definitely recommend this book and any others by this author.

I need more stars.

J. California Cooper is one of the best authors of our time who doesn't receive the praise due to her. Her short stories are filled with colorful characters that keep you turning the pages. I'll read anything she releases. Ms. Cooper is in a class by herself. Much love and support to you. I can't wait for your next release.

This book is a wonderful mosaic of characters, perspectives, and lifestyles. I've always seen Cooper's books in the store, but didn't pick one up until "The Matter is Life." I haven't been able to put the book down and am looking forward to picking up more of her short story collections.

'Our School' is an inspiring read, especially for those teachers who are working with students in less-than-ideal environments.
Although 'Our School' talks a lot about the American school system, the ideas and discussions on pedegogy are universal.

Diminutive Selena gripped two sides of a basketball with uncertainty before finally giving in to the shouting principal/coach on the sideline, begging her to shoot.

She shot-putted the ball forward ... and watched it sail wide of the backboard by two feet.

Selena was one of the key players on the most unlikely girls basketball team ever to win a high school game -- a team that "Our School" author Joanne Jacobs hilariously describes as "the shortest basketball team in America."

"Our School" is not about sports, but this team -- eight girls hovering around five feet tall, among the few at their school who could muster the C average required to play -- is the perfect metaphor for the academically undermanned students that San Jose's Downtown College Prep charter school promises to someday send to college.

The Lady Lobos are mostly Mexican immigrants who know little about the game they've decided to play and are short of skills needed to succeed. But with enough "ganas" -- Spanish for desire -- perhaps they can somehow pull out a victory.

Likewise, "DCP students enter the school academic losers," Jacobs writes. "They don't know how to play the game. By the standards of middle-class high schools, DCP students aren't really in the game. But they keep working, they get better. If they stick with it, they'll win a college education."

Jacobs is the education reporter and former columnist for the San Jose Mercury News now nationally known for her popular education blog, [...]."Our School" is her book chronicling the years she spent observing as two idealistic teachers attempted to write their own rules and build a high expectations high school for low performing kids in an impoverished, gang-ridden inner city.

The book is both a pleasingly written, novel-like tale of kids who struggle â" and mostly win -- against tough odds and something of a guide for would-be school charter school developers, complete with a "how to start a charter school" chapter as an appendix.

For the motivated teacher, or otherwise inspired individual, who has thought of breaking out on their own to start their own charter school, Jacobs' book is really a must read. The "Lessons Learned" chapter alone is filled with telling stories and sage advice from DCP's founders.

For instance, they sorely underestimated how much catching up their entering ninth graders would need on very basic skills after years of neglect in the school system. It wasn't enough to set high expectations and seek to inspire them. The kids, plain and simple, needed to know how the speak English and multiply. As a result, DCP ended up much more structured and regimented than anyone ever expected because that's what the kids needed.

The school leaders also had to come to terms with the necessity of tossing kids out, especially for misbehavior. DCP throws out a lot of kids, a detail likely to catch the eye of charter critics, who complain that other public schools would love to have that nuclear bomb in the war to maintain discipline and order. "Our School" makes the point many times that discipline is a key. The leaders believe rules must be enforced consistently and unwaveringly, and they don't hesitate to expel even kids they like who fail to get with the program.

DCP's success is undeniable by the book's end. Just as the short kids on the girls basketball team work hard, get better, begin to compete and finally actually taste real victory, so their classmates, too, are reborn in academic success. All that stick with DCP to the end go to college and the school's test scores ultimately rank among the best around.

Still, the future of the school is far from certain. Teacher turnover is heavy. By its very nature, Jacobs tells us, the school tends to attract young dreamers to its teaching staff â" not the types to work at one school and retire 30 years later. By the book's end, one of the founders is even working on getting out.

Sustainability is a big question for charter schools, even excellent ones like DCP.

I also wonder if "Our School" won't someday be viewed as a period piece, unique to the early days of the charter movement when the romantic vision was that pioneering teachers would break free from bureaucracy and reinvent education.

In fact, the "mom-and-pop" charter schools â" truly independent and run by local folks â" may be a dying breed. An ever increasing share of charters are run by national management companies, such as Edison Schools and Heritage Academies, and more recently, non-profits and school districts themselves.

Even so, as the charter movement continues to grow, Jacobs has done a nice job encapsulating what these new public schools are supposed to be about and how they are different from traditional public schools. It's a good primer for the average parent â" those who've heard of charters but not really sure what they are exactly. And the story is an enjoyable ride right to the end.

"Pulled by my mother's dreams, I walked barefoot across the border from Mexico," Selena's begins her college essay. "I was six years old."

But with wild basketball misses behind her, on track for a diploma and a college scholarship awaiting, Selena will cross the commencement stage ready to chase her own dreams.

[...].

First, let me say, WOW! In my local area, there are several charter schools, two even run by the previous public school district Superintendent -- yep, there is a good story there. While the charter schools here are doing some good things, it seems to me that there really isn't as much difference between them and their nearby district schools when it comes to test scores. They have the same achievement gaps and high percentages of kids not making grade level proficiency as their counterparts in the local district. With this perspective, I haven't really seen charter schools as the answer to public educations' problems. Part of the answer maybe, but not the solution.

After reading Joanne's book and my recent appreciation for certain charter schools, such as American Indian Public Charter in Oakland, I think with the right leadership, charter schools offer the opportunity for educators to try new approaches. When these approaches work, the students are successful and the charter school is successful. When they don't, both fail.

In the case of Downtown College Prep, the school explored in Joanne's book, I think this is a success. While their test scores are good, not great, the fact that their students almost all failed in their previous traditional public school experiences really makes their test scores outstanding. The simple fact that they can turn around many of these students and get them to college is extraordinary.

One of my major complaints of public education is that too often, teaching practices exist simply because "we've always done it that way" or because the administrators or teachers like a specific program or strategy, without any regard to whether it really is successful. Charter schools provide opportunities to explore new school configurations and strategies without the bureaucratic inertia of a district administration or in many cases a teacher's union. I really think this is a good thing. While there are both good and bad charter schools, just like traditional public schools, I think it is important that charters exist to be the proving ground for new strategies and to help identify best practices that can be implemented by other schools.

In my job, I read a lot of really boring books. I read books on education and education policy as well as nerdy computer books. Our School satisfied my need for education policy while at the same time being a great story, which was well written.

I discovered Joanne's blog a couple years ago and since then I have become a huge fan. I don't always agree with her, but I find her articles well written and thoughful. She makes me consider my point of view on many topics. Of course, in the end I realize I'm right or that we agree, but she does make me think.

I strongly encourage everyone to buy a copy of Our School, whether you are involved in the field of education, a parent concerned about your child's schools, starting a charter school or simply are looking for a great, uplifting story. It also makes a great gift for that educator on your Christmas list.

On my blog, Why Homeschool, I posted back in December about attending Joanne Jacobs' kickoff event for her book I bought the book back in December and had Joanne sign it. But I've been distracted, partly by blogging, and only recently got around to reading Our School.

Our School is basically a biography of Downtown College Prep, DCP. This is a charter high school in San Jose. Joanne leads us through the birth of the school, founded in 2000. We are introduced to Greg Lippman and Jennifer Andaluz who started the push for DCP. We read of the struggles to get funding, to get a location, and to get students.

Most of the book is about incidents that happened at DCP, or in connection to DCP. It like reading a story. Along the way Joanne slips in information about charter schools and education in general. The book is well written, very engaging, and hard to put down.

Many charter schools are very selective about who they let into the school. Often they only want students who are motivated and doing well in school. There are two elementary charter schools in my neighborhood. There is great competition to get in, so the schools are able to pick the better students.

DCP was created with the intention to help those who were fluking to get back on track for college. Greg and Jennifer were going after those who were no longer in the game. They set themselves a daunting task. In some ways DCP trying to help their students catch up is a Don Quixote mission; it is an almost impossible task. Most of the freshman class was functioning around the fifth grade level. Most of them don't know how to take notes. Most of them don't want to be in school. Most of have trouble reading. A Don Quixote mission might even be easier.

Our School recounts the efforts of the teachers at DCP. One of the nice things about a charter school is they are not bound up with so much bureaucracy. The teachers at DCP would try something, and if it didn't work, they would change quickly. Over time they found ways to help the students dramatically improve their reading. They taught the students how to study. And over time most of the students became engaged and were on track for college. They accomplished these Herculean tasks.

This is a very inspiring and moving book. We get exposed to some of the problems with public education, and we see how a couple people were able to make a great difference. This is a good book to read.

As a school psychologist, I saw many students who struggled and sometimes gave up. I enjoyed reading "Our School," which is about a charter high school that recruits freshmen who've earned D's and F's and graduates them with the skills and motivation they'll need to earn a four-year college degree. At Downtown College Prep, students and faculty experience many "glorious failures," learn from their mistakes and go on to do better the next time. As a charter school, DCP has the flexibility to try new ideas to find out what works best for its students, most of whom come from low-income, non-English-speaking families. The book is a well-told eyewitness account infused with humor. I really liked the chapter about Ride the Carrot Salad. "Our School" is a great resource for teachers and other educators, and I think anyone who cares about our schools will find this book a rewarding read.

This book was absolutely wonderful. I was so pulled into it with the characters and the writing. I would highly recommend this book to anyone. A+++++++

I'm always looking for a good book -- one that takes me somewhere else; one that has intrigue. This one does it and more. I look forward to more from this author.

Mr.DeCure's "Reef Dance" is a stand-up story which takes the reader through a gamut of human emotion - deception, love, abandonment, anger, and fear. In the forum of a child dependancy court, contrasted with the uncertain ride of the surfer, the protagonist of "Reef Dance," J Sheppard, carries the reader through his life's tulmultuous series of waves, both literally at the beach, and figuratively through the heart-breaking stories of a Los Angeles child dependancy case, and his personal story of early abandonment by his mother, which eternally haunts him. The character of J Sheppard gives the reader a first-hand look at what abandonment and deception can do to the human spirt, and how these emotional blows exacerbate J's emotional carnage. "Reef Dance" is a compelling story which insists that the reader stay till the end to learn the outcome. Mr. DeCure's use of the adjective and his colorful descriptions thrust the reader into the settings themselves, making the story all the more interesting and cohesive. A very good read!

Mr. DeCure has done an extraordinary job of mixing the maturity of working a high energy job while maintaining the love of the surf. This is a must read by anybody who loves the surf but does not share the stereotypical "surf bum" attitude toward life and values.

Mr.DeCure's "Reef Dance" is a stand-up story which takes the reader through a gamut of human emotion - deception, love, abandonment, anger, and fear. In the forum of a child dependancy court, contrasted with the uncertain ride of the surfer, the protagonist of "Reef Dance," J Sheppard, carries the reader through his life's tulmultuous series of waves, both literally at the beach, and figuratively through the heart-breaking stories of a Los Angeles child dependancy case, and his personal story of early abandonment by his mother, which eternally haunts him. The character of J Sheppard gives the reader a first-hand look at what abandonment and deception can do to the human spirt, and how these emotional blows exacerbate J's emotional carnage. "Reef Dance" is a compelling story which insists that the reader stay till the end to learn the outcome. Mr. DeCure's use of the adjective and his colorful descriptions thrust the reader into the settings themselves, making the story all the more interesting and cohesive. A very good read!

This is an absolutely oustanding book - Richmond managed to recreate a world which ceased to exist at the onset of the Second World War, the world of Jews from the central Polish town of Konin. The book is touching both in descriptions of Richmond's quest for the missing shtetl which can be found only in the fading memories of Jews who somehow survived the Holocaust and in his recreation of the Jewish town that does not exist any more. An absolute must for all those who think that Holocaust was just another tragedy in the past on some distant continent. A perfect gift to people who have roots in Poland - some of my friends found their relatives described in the book. Maybe you or your friends will share this luck?

I found this book absolutely fascinating. My Grandmother came from Konin so for me it was a look into the world my Grandmother left behind.

There is little I can add to the existing reviews save yet another resounding confirmation of this book's brilliance. Konin is a superbly written, award-winning thing translated into Polish, Hebrew, German and Italian.

The book is impeccable stylistically and intellectually, and the thorny issue of Polish-Jewish relations is penetrated with honesty and insight. The people interviewed and depicted in the book are -- well, simply, REAL.

Yes, this is another Holocaust archival work and yes, it is brilliantly researched and written. But Richmond's crowning achievement, I propose, is his ability to create a lengthy work as this, about people many readers could never know, without ever letting it lapse into sentimentality or a wearisome litany of names, faces and facts. And yes, I have tearfully walked the streets of Konin with those Shoah survivors who now live in England, the US, and Israel. Richmond has ensured that the Nazi attempt to relegate Jewish Konin to oblivion has been thwarted. And we are much the better for it. "For the dead and the living we must bear witness." Thank you Mr Richmond. You have witnessed for the murdered of Kazimierz forest and all the other killing fields of Nazi Europe.

My wife Urszula and I had decided to take a day out in London, some sight seeing and shopping. We passed the many book shops on Charing Cross rd, but a book in one shop window caught my eye, 'Konin, a quest'. My wife is Polish, from the town of Konin. But what could this book be about, we wonder? There is nothing in Konin. How wrong we were! The book amazed us. I have read many publications on the holocaust, but nothing moved me quite like this book. The research and the feeling, the hardwork put into this account of a community so thoroughly wiped out that my wife hadn't even been aware that a Jewish community had ever existed and yet she grew up on its streets. In fact, the school she went to, the Gymnasium was built by the jewish people prior to the war. But nothing was or is taught about the jewish people within its walls, no reminders, nothing. Until now. Theo Richmond's work is a priceless reminder of want was lost and what should never be forgotten. We look forward greatly to the day the book is published in polish, when everyone there has a chance to understand just what was lost. We met Theo recently, his powerful charater came across so well in his book, as it is such an honest account, that it felt as though we had known him for years. Buy It! It is the best book you will ever read on the Jewish people.

Inez is very understandable and likeable. I enjoyed her character; especially that she didn't feel sorry for herself and grows through the years into a remarkable young lady who truly loves her half brother. I loved their relationship. All the characters in this book are very likeable even though flawed. But then again isn't that how we are in real life? I would highly recommend to anyone.

This is such a nice read. It takes you to all the best places in California...and Hawaii. It is one of those books you wish you could read again for the first time.

Martha Sherril is a master of the coming of age novel. Her heroine, Inez, is a girl who grows in wisdom and ability subtly as she ages. Gradually, we see more of the world with her. In many such books, that young voice stays static (I am thinking of Franny and Zooey, which I admire for its dialogue but not for the voice). She captures perfectly the 70's in California with its sixties aftermath, and her family's crazed attempts to cope. The father is a character full of that boy-man charm, hard to love, hard to hate, impossible to forget. Read this book.

Before I read The Ruins of California, my understanding of those who reached middle age in the 1970s was framed by John Cheever. Their mid-life crises involved late night drinking-and-dialing to old college pals and lovers. Getting soused and crashing your neighbors' suburban swimming pools.

With elegant writing and fine dialogue, Ms. Sherrill has produced a novel which expands my thinking about this liberating--and debauched--time in my parents' generation. The book covers familiar ground--a girl's coming of age, a daughter-father relationship--in a refreshing and highly-entertaining way.

Inez Ruin splits time between her divorced parents' lives. She lives with her est-fulfilled mother and grandmother in a house in Van Dale, a Southern California suburb, where her bedroom is pink and all her friends go to church. To visit her gorgeous, brilliant and promiscuous--and egocentric, and self-indulgent, and wealthy--father, Inez regularly flies north to San Francisco, land of afros and patchouli, "passing from mother to father, a baton of a girl flying in the distance between hands."

I lost count of Inez' father's girlfriends, as Paul Ruin pursues the intoxication of new love, over and over, all the while over-indulging his two children with expensive gifts and exhortations to lead free lives, to not sell out. When his son skips college, Paul declines to intervene, justifying his inaction with the thinking of the day: "'He's got to come to all big decisions on his own,' my father said. 'Or else he'll just blame me, or blame his mother, or, worse, he'll never learn how to make a big decision at all.'" The devastating consequences of this way of thinking are made starkly apparent by the story's end.

As the author guides us through Inez' teen years, she recreates the thrills of girlhood crushes, breaking rules, that first car, and getting high. She also relates the unlikeable selfishness of teendom, without making us permanently hate Inez.

I've read all three of Ms. Sherrill's books, and in my view this latest effort is her finest. I especially loved all the mentions of what made the 70s the 70s to a girl growing up then; bamboo back scratchers, Get Smart, Necco wafers, Corvairs, those pink, round vinyl Samsonite suitcases. What makes this book memorable is the ultimately gladdening portrait of a complex daughter-father relationship, a relationship which reaches a satisfying coda along with the decade: everybody eventually has to grow up.

Inez Ruin is about six years old when her story begins. A bright and effusive young girl, Inez lives with Consuela, her blousy, former flamenco dancing mother, and Abuelita, her Peruvian grandmother in Van Dale, a working class suburb in the San Fernando Valley. Life for Inez is pretty ordinary, at least on the Latino side of the family; Consuela is a good mother to her, but she's often lost and loud, "with a mind like a sail, her face weird and dreamy," and her grandmother is never around, a life spent instilled with the work ethic, she spends most of her time working cleaning houses.

Her father, Paul lives in San Francisco and as the novel opens, Inez is being packed off to spend the summer with him. Paul is a college educated mathematical genius, he's also the archetype of the early seventies West Coast hippy chic. Groovy and play boyishly handsome, "with inky black hair, and always wearing crisp, starched white shirts," Paul drives an MG, loves flamenco dancing, and to the reticent Inez, he is the embodiment of all that is cool and elegant.

Inez spends most of her youth gliding from one zone of life to another, from the serenity and innocence suburban of Van Dale to the glamorous and cosmopolitan cafes of North Beach, "where she drinks dark espresso with three packets of sugar," but she often feels like a fish out of water, never really feeling at home in either culture, her father living so separately from her, and in such different circumstances of climate and culture.

Paul's life is a "foggy universe of beautiful people and rich hippies," where Inez often feels out of place, where her clothes are wrong, and where she never knows what to say. She's often overwhelmed by her father's whirlwind round of dinner parties, film screenings, museum openings, and Haight-Ashbury happenings. He organizes flamenco festivals, and throws" juergas" - flamenco parties, and shares an attitude, a sensibility, and a groovy wavelength, with his "in" crowd.

Whilst Consuela busies herself selling real estate, attending personal improvement classes, and hooking up with an eighth grade school teacher, Paul woos his daughter with heavy doses of charm and love. Just when she had decided he was a rat and a fink, it would dawn on her that he was a god and she loved him more than anybody; its as though her father makes her - and also her half brother Whitman - uncertain and off kilter, "you wanted more of him, but you weren't sure either."

Inez is constantly caught off guard by the parade of girlfriends that steadily marches through Paul's life, the stream of beauties, each one more accomplished than the last, who give him hope and make him feel alive and young and desired: there's the sweet hippy Marisa, who charms Inez by giving her trinkets from Cracker Jack boxes; there's Justine, an astonishing beauty "with a strange and unearthly elegance," who has a knowledge of Eastern religion and has a silken tent that she erects in her living room with candles inside; she totally beguiles Inez with her lovely patchouli smell and her expensive designer outfits.

Author Martha Sherrill beautifully charts Inez's growth from a wide-eyed and precocious innocent into a young woman, who sees the world as a place of enormous possibility, yet is also aware this world can be fraught with danger and indecision. As Inez matures and changes, so does the image of her father. Paul is a gloomy, difficult, sweet insightful and honest man, adoration like a drug to him; but he's also a man quick to criticize, and instruct, and at the same time lenient, constantly coddling his daughter with flattery and indulgences.

Regardless of his faults, over the years Inez grows to unconditionally love her father; part of her growth is the realization that the Ruin family are a complicated and often self-indulgent lot, who beg for attention and analysis. They're also romantics - always finding ways to feel special about themselves and better than other people; they're theatrical, and outrageous, and even provocative.

Full of ironic and fragile judgments about life, love, and the human condition, The Ruins of California is also about the legacy of familiaral love. The characters are beautifully drawn and are utterly fascinating. Paul is most memorable, because he is a complex mix of good intentions and human flaws; he's obviously a product of his free-wheeling, permissive time, but he's also a man who just doesn't want to grow up, constantly trapped in a netherworld of adolescent angst, frozen by his unremitting vanity and self-absorption.

It is obvious that Paul dearly loves Inez and Whitman, and that he will do anything that he can to help them - he encourages them to go to college, and constantly promotes the benefits of hard work - but the irony is that, when the crunch finally comes, and a terrible family crisis threatens to fracture them, it is the world-wise and newly mature Inez who provides the navigating force, and who ultimately liberates her father. Mike Leonard February 06.

The author has created a gorgeous book by simply capturing racetrack life as it happens. She gingerly sprinkles quotes throughout to accentuate her beautiful photographs. A must for your coffee table!

A friend purchased this book for me as a surprise. I was so excited! It is truly a work of art. So beautiful. What a joy!

I don't usually do my Christmas shopping in April, but this was just too easy! This will be THE book on everybody's coffee table this year; I bought one for every friend who loves horses, sunrise, or beautiful photography. Gorgeous!

Astounding! This *is* a rhapsody! She has written a whole piano concerto while the rest of us are doing finger exercises ... produced a Raphael while we are finger painting. The rest of us run around snapping pictures but she has given birth to art. Those of us not endowed with such gifts wonder in awe. It is an intimate creation, even for those who don't know the place. Of the highest standard throughout. A masterpiece!

Davis is a genius with a camera. Her book consistently takes your breath away. Passionate, dramatic, and purely gorgeous, with each turned page your eyes widen and you say "Wow!" Women weep. Men get goose bumps. I've watched people. A photographic page-turner! Many horse photos are beautiful but can seem "staged" and artificial. Davis's photos make you feel like you're standing right there. They're alive. Vibrant. And suddenly so are you. But the whole book is a work of genius. From the magnificent sunrise cover, past the stunning and stormy inside front, you're drawn into the private world of morning thoroughbred training at Santa Anita racetrack ... starting in the dark, full moon setting over silent paddock, walking to the back side, looking down a predawn shedrow, horses hungry, fed and saddled, off to the track in mysterious fog, sun rising over galloping steeds, horses getting loose, caught, walked, bathed, and brushed. Bunnies, goats, and cats keep them company. Horses are magnificent animals most would agree, but Davis reveals so many personality traits. Mischievous, stubborn, frightened, trusting, gentle, bored, as playful as a child. We see everything, in a setting so real you smell the hay and want to peel a paint chip off the barn, and drop your jaw at the glorious mountain surroundings. Davis's composition in a photo is perfection, but the order of photos equally captures you, as does the ingenious design ... not just a photo per stark white page, but riders chasing loose horses across two pages; arresting scenes laid against backdrops of *other* photos or pieces of photos enlarged to bring out remarkable detail; a center gatefold that leaves you gasping. Incredible! And just when it couldn't get any better, some of the most evocative lines of Shakespeare---about horses---send chills through you. All professionals aspire to images that leave the clinical, two-dimensional realm and achieve art. Davis succeeds. Sheer genius. Sweet perfection. Passion. They're within her, in her heart and eye. Included are the praises of over a dozen famous jockeys, trainers, artists (practically unheard of in a first edition)! This book puts other horse and track, and many plain old photography, books to shame.

Please note: This book contains an error. When visiting the Koret Health & Recreation Center, the Red Pass ONLY allows you access before 2pm (Monday-Thursday) and anytime on Friday-Sunday. You can NOT attend a group exercise class if time restrictions apply.

In the City by the Bay and its surrounding other cities. Change and Restructure in the Work place is so common that Time Off from the corporate grind is expected and can be useful too. This book shows you how to make excellent use of your Time Off in between the next career adventure.

I've been reading this book while commuting to work. Yes, I wrote work! I still have one, but I have uncertainties. So I thought "Hmm this can be a good how-to book just in case in a couple of weeks I get fired or laid off. Excellent! hehehe." The book is very helpful as it suggests where to eat and shop when your tiny little checking account is about depleted. Saying that, they mentioned as well how to obtain/maintain your finances. Humor and tidbits of SF made this book a best buy. There are some websites that are no longer up, but not to worry, just email the writers for updates. Whether you're working or not, who's in a tight budget or no budget at all, this is a great book! And.. you'll be surprise of how much you don't know of SF, I don't till this book.

Yesterday was my one year anniversary of not working. I picked up this book shortly afterwards and as a result, I have to say that this last year was the best year of my life. I have to highly recommend it for the unemployed of the SF Bay Area. Not only does it provide some interesting, low-cost things to do in the City, but also (and more importantly), it addresses the psychology of unemployment. It's easy to get in a funk when you're unemployed - this book will help you see it for a chance of an excellent adventure.

Escaping unscathed from the dot-com fallout, Dean LaTourrette and Kristine Enea have taken a cue from Cary Grant's character in 1938's "Holiday" when he chose to take an extended period of adventurous unemployment despite pressure from his fiancée's family to accept a staid, unfulfilling job at a bank. Although they state that they have been "successfully unemployed since 2001", each has found the financial means to pursue their creative interests in order to build an ideal leisure lifestyle. Their most renowned outlet has been their "Time Off!" books, which I think are terrific, eminently readable resources for those wondering how to handle the abrupt reversal between time and money when between jobs.

I still have a ragged, used copy of the first edition which was called "The Unemployed Guide to San Francisco". The switch to "Leisure" seems quite intentional, especially since much of the text is directed to anyone in a high-stress situation. In fact, the first part of the book is devoted to the art of leisure, and it gives informative stepwise advice on managing the transition to unemployment. This section covers not only the psychological aspects, including nagging feelings of guilt and dismantling time schedules based on going to work, but also practical advice on dealing with dwindling financial resources. I particularly like how they clearly define the three phases of money management - Finance 101 for planning and budgeting, Finance 202 for paying off debt and keeping a cash reserve, and Finance 303 for getting cash in the immediate term.

By far the biggest part of the book, Part 2 is a cleverly organized guide to free or low-cost activities in San Francisco, including museums, festivals, volunteer organizations and a great matrix of the more famous coffeehouses. Granted some of the information is dated (e.g., the National Maritime Museum is closed until 2009), this was still immensely helpful to me when I was unemployed and trying to live comfortably in one of the world's most expensive cities. There is even a large section on travel and how you can reasonably journey to far-flung locales on a budget. It's inevitable that the book should end with how to manage the transition back to the job hunt and work, and the co-authors remain steadfast in ensuring you incorporate leisure even during this process. The revised book feels a bit heavier, but the graphics remain pleasing and the text relatively light-hearted. I think it's a great instructional resource for those trying to make the best of a most trying time.

As a minority faculty in the academics Frances Conley's book vividly portrays the reality of the ivory tower that, though pretentiously progressive in ideas, is way behind the iota of gender equality that exists outside the academe. I, sometimes, feel I am living in the medieval period when entering the academe.

When I first came across this book I thought this must have been written in the seventies and I could share it with my students as a historical autobiography of sexism in an academic institution. I was horrified to find that it was written in the nineties about one of the most prestigious institution in California.

I have always felt alone, alienated in the academe and of course disconnected from other women who were struggling too much to bother with the problems of their women peers. This book validated my experience and helped me understand where my alienation was coming from.

I wish this book could be a standard read for all freshman students in all universities. Only when women who appear to be in power tell their stories of powerlessness and abuse can we act collectively to stop the misogyny that exists among our men and more particularly among our elite men.

Frances Conley offers a compelling indictment of gender discrimination at Stanford Medical School, past and present, focussing on her own recent experience. I started this book at midnight and could not put it down until finishing it at 4 a.m. Conley provides case after case of medical school professors given virtually absolute and unchecked power over their subordinates and their subordinates' careers, abusing that power, and the medical school administration covering up that abuse. While she never addresses the issues of solidarity in the face of sexual harassment, her cases all indicate that when one woman protests, she loses, and only a pattern of abuse reported by multiple women leads to any punishment of the harassers at all. Conley was fortunate and grateful that 37 others came forward to support her claim that Gerald Silverberg engaged in inappropriate sexual contact and other activities counterindicating his capability for leadership. I'll be passing this book onto many women who have had the choice to be treated at Stanford Hospital and may well now rethink that choice.

Men groping women. Men coming on to women, and making incredible jackasses of themselves in the process. Men getting drunk and acting like barbarians. Men with one thing in mind. Men whose compulsion to talk about sex is so strong that they do it at highly inappropriate times in public. Men who think that pressuring women is their God-given right. If you think that what I just described is a high school football team on an overdose of steroids, you're wrong. These sexual antics weren't perpetrated by adolescents with testosterone bubbling out their ears, they were committed by male doctors at Stanford University. Not being stupid, these demigods put two and two together and realized that they could use their power to pressure women. One of these men made a fatal mistake, though: he pressured Dr. Frances Conley, a topnotch neurosurgeon and renowned researcher at Stanford. Bad move, fella. I suppose that guy never learned that if you're going to pick a fight, you don't provoke someone who can whack you back so hard you just might rethink whether it's wise to be a bully.

As publicity spread about Dr. Conley's fight, more and more women came forward to reveal their stories. This was certainly an eye-opening book. Before reading it, I'd never given much thought about the sexual harassment of women in medicine and allied healthcare fields. Perhaps we're more civilized here in Michigan, because I've never seen or heard of any such hanky-panky. Well, let me revise that last statement: I have witnessed a lot of sexual inducement, but what I saw was women chasing men not the other way around. But everyone knows that those California folks are trendsetters.

Dr. Conley never envisioned herself as a trendsetter, though. For years, she passively participated in the abuse until a concatenation of events convinced her that it was time to draw a line in the sand. To make a long story short, the men didn't believe she'd put up much of a fight, but she did, and they lost. Big time.

(...) Perhaps the most chilling message in this book is that some men in positions of power are willing to use that power to stifle the careers of women. So what is an attractive woman to assume? That if she goes into medicine her pulchritude will serve as a magnet for sexual harassment? Perhaps this abuse is, unbeknownst to me, more pervasive than I think. I suppose because most of my friends are women, I can't understand men who view women as being somehow inferior. However, you shouldn't necessarily construe from that statement that I think women physicians are as competent, on average, as male physicians. There's no doubt that some are, and there's no doubt that Dr. Conley is a superior physician, not just competent. (...) My only major criticism of the book is that it is too focused upon abuse of women by men. Since the core of this book is hinged upon some of the depredations that ensue when power is abused, I think she could have achieved a more balanced perspective by pointing out that powerful people often use their power against men, too ý not just women. I've seen male docs fight one another with such a vehemence that it made the stories in Dr. Conley's book seem as pleasant as afternoon tea and cookies with a neighbor. Consequently, while I don't intend to trivialize the unfortunate reality of the abuse Dr. Conley documents, it's important to keep in mind that this abuse is but one aspect of a much larger problem. In defense of Dr. Conley, broadening the scope of this book to include other aspects of hospital politics would have diluted the message she wished to inculcate, and it would have made for a very unwieldy book. With that in mind, I suppose I'm on shaky ground by wishing that her book had a wider focus. Her book, her demeanor, her dedication, her resolve, and her competence are commendable. Dr. Conley is a great doctor and I am happy to have met her, however indirectly, by reading this book.

Review by Kevin Pezzi, M.D.

I'm not an MD or a PhD; I don't work in a hospital or academia. Yet I too have experienced sexual harassment, and I too have consulted the EEO department that is supposed to get involved in handling these issues, and I found that they were disinterested, that they gave subtle and obvious messages that the problem was "my" problem and not the corporation's, and that they relied on my being too timid or unmotivated to initiate a lawsuit so the whole thing could be, well, ignored. Sexual harassment exists because the society permits men (even encourages men) to expect that it is their right to harass women. Not all men harass, and not all men admire harassers. In fact, it is quite the opposite, but those who possess the attitude that women who dare to compete must be put down through sexual threat or debasement will harass (they also enjoy and even need it, since these men have very real problems). Through her description of her own experiences, the author illuminates the social mechanism of harassment. She also brings to light the story that all we women know -- what it feels like to be the victim not just of a troubled person but of an organization that insists she accept the role of victim. When we are harassed, we women discover the battle we are in, not against one man but against all those societies which are founded on (this does sound harsh, I know) the hatred of women. This is a marvelous book -- hard to read at times if you've been there -- but it is important that women know what we are facing (especially our daughters, who like us may have been programmed to think that all men will be nice to us, will treat us fairly, and that if someone is abusive, it is our own fault, there is something wrong with me, etc.). Important too is having the author detail the steps she took to handle the harassment. This is a very supportive book for anyone enduring just such a situation (harassment as well as gender discrimination, which is a lot more rife and a lot less obvious). I'd recommend this to any woman who is willing to step outside of the traditional role, because we all need to know what we are up against, how the system is going to fail us, and especially all the steps we are entitled to take to combat this problem so that we change society's viewpoint and not just our own. I'd also recommend this to men, because there are many who are supportive of women in the workplace. Our husbands and boyfriends need to read this book to know how difficult it is for women, because in the end we can only effect a change if we all stand together.

Sadly, any woman who's achieved a doctorate (& not just in medicine) will relate wholeheartedly to this book. I greatly admire Dr. Conley's unbelievable courage in standing up to the Boys' Club & trying to make things better for women in academia. Hopefully this book will encourage ALL women to stand up to the misogyny & be heard.