Herb Caen (1916–1997)

Mark Twain called San Francisco, "heaven on the half-shell". It's a city with a bejeweled skyline framed against the blue ocean and the blue sky. It's also known as Baghdad By The Bay and The Barbary Coast, nicknames which provide an honest glance of a place which could slip beneath the waves at any moment. When the Loma Prieta quake hit at rush hour in 1989, San Francisco could have been a disaster much worse than the 1906 catastrophe, but it took the slip of the earth and kept going, show more although its character changed.

The staff of the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper were there to witness the losses, the bravery, and the shock, with many photos ending up in this book. It is, in fact, what makes this book so good...photographs galore of the last great quake to rock the Bay Area. The magnificent Marina apartment houses are shown collapsed on themselves, the Bay Bridge's top deck displayed in its broken suddenness, the horrific crushing of life in West Oakland. Because the baseball World Series was being played at the moment of impact between the two local teams, the 1989 earthquake was the first to be broadcast live to a worldwide audience.

We live in Cali with the knowledge that there aren't any tornado sirens or hurricane alerts to forewarn us of The End. There is just the here-it-is rumbling of the earth and the knowledge in the back of our heads that we all live on or near a major fault line. If that explains why we are the way we are, so be it.

Book Season = Autumn (quake weather) show less

This is a cute story of a very weary cable car that climbs the hills of San Francisco, then is propelled around and a downward journey occurs. In this story, the cable car is 60 years old and his name is Charlie.

On a magical night, Charlie climbs Nob hill. And instead of taking his usual route, he heads to Chinese New Year by taking a right turn on Jackson Street.

He befriends the dragon who is the center of attention. Soon Chu and Charlie take a marvelous journey.

Delightful, filled with fun, show more this is a book most children (and adults) will enjoy. show less

I grew up reading Herb Cain, lying on the kitchen floor by the heating vent puzzling out editorial cartoons, Odd Bodkins, and much else. This marvelous anthology is a blast from the past, copyright 1953; I first read it in the early 70s. For me and my family in Mountain View long before "Silicon Valley" was coined, San Francisco shall always be "The City".

It would help to have lived in San Francisco during this time to appreciate this book, but it is still interesting to a native Californian who grew up hearing about and visiting San Francisco. Well worth the read just to see what Caen can do with our language. The illustrations are also great. Possibly modern readers would be cynical about Caen's exuberance over his city, but I don't find it hard to swallow. It is, after all, San Francisco.