T H I S+W E E K

Forbidden island:
Travel to Cuba
By Don George, Editor

Cuba libre!
By Mark Schapiro
A hot art scene brings the world to Havana's door
-A gallery of images
-Books on Cuba

Irish idyll
By Patric Kuh
Savoring Ireland's greatest hotels

D E P A R T M E N T S

The Surreal Gourmet
By Bob Blumer
Your own sitcom, with curry

Postmark
San Francisco:
The borrowed city
By Gary Kamiya
>Books on San Francisco

Passages:
"Paris in Pink"
An affair in Paris
By Katya Macklovich

Readers' Tips and Tales
Philadelphia: Weirdness Capital of America?

A letter to the Editor
An Uzbek responds

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Your virtual travel agency

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L A S T + W E E K

Saturday, May 24

Praise the Titanic!
By Doug Cruickshank
Eighty-five years later, they're still going down with the ship

A full list of all
Wanderlust articles

               B O O K S   O N   S A N   F R A N C I S C O

HERB CAEN'S SAN FRANCISCO: 1976-1991

BY HERB CAEN | when Caen passed away in February, the residents of San Francisco poured into the streets to mourn him and honor his life's work. To them, Caen represented the city and everything they loved about it. Starting in 1938, when the San Francisco Chronicle replaced the young newspaperman's radio column with his around-the-city items, Caen pumped out an astonishing 1,000 words per day for over 50 years. And he fiercely adhered to deadlines. Caen could romanticize the city, but he also could be brutal. He was the city's inner conscience and its bard. This book is one of several collections of his better columns. Through his daily musings Caen managed to record San Francisco's rich and varied history -- and to capture its spirit and soul.

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LITERARY HILLS OF SAN FRANCISCO

BY LURREE MILLER | san Francisco has served as host city to a wide and varied spectrum of literary talent, from Mark Twain and Robert Louis Stevenson to Armistead Maupin and Amy Tan. Robert Frost, Shirley Jackson and Alice B. Toklas were San Francisco natives. The city nurtured the Beat movement and the literary antics of the Merry Pranksters. "Literary Hills of San Francisco" is a short but sweet guidebook to the city, explaining neighborhood by neighborhood where these writers lived and passed their time. Each chapter concludes with a one-hour walking tour complete with map and points of literary and historical interest.

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TALES OF THE CITY

BY ARMISTEAD MAUPIN | "tales of the City" is the first of six novels chronicling the adventures and lives of the tenants of 28 Barbary Lane. Published in 1976, the novel began as a newspaper serial and ended up being made into a TV miniseries. Maupin unravels the lives of his characters in an honest but compassionate way, and his love for San Francisco fills the spaces between every line. In language that's witty and concise, Maupin's depiction of San Francisco in the 1970s -- its romantic hot spots and quirky, spiritual culture -- is unmatched in its accuracy and style.

Select this link to order this book online.