By Jean Farrington I’m a big fan of big cities, London, New York, Philadelphia, and Hong Kong, to name just a few.  I like their energy and bustle, the sense of purpose that comes from striding along a busy sidewalk.  The crowds of people, the noise, the sheer density of bodies and buildings are exhilarating. [...]

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By Katie Sue Ambellan America’s favorite drunk umpa-lumpa, Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi is now a best selling author.  My reaction. No, like, furreals, tho, she’s on that list–#24.  A Shore Thing hit bookshelves on January 4th and is ahead of books by popular authors Nicholas Sparks and Stephen King. I am pretty shocked, but then again, [...]

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By Rosie Levy Merlin Last weekend, my friend, and fellow new mom, and I were (somewhat) leisurely browsing at Dog Eared Books while the baby daddies were hanging outside in the sunshine on Ergo-carrying duty.  As we passed the “F”s I pointed out the stack of Tana French paperbacks and asked her if she had [...]

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By Mary Ellen Hannibal It’s kind of paradoxical, but sometimes when I really need to escape into fiction it isn’t the beach read or the legal thriller that really does it for me but something mandarin, puzzling, interior, a work that you must give yourself to in order to sit with it at all.  In [...]

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By Rennie Ament I used to put a lot of creative energy into drafting floor plans for a minimum ten million-square-foot dream palace.  I knew that by eighteen (at the latest) I’d marry Brian, Peter and Kyle, my three kindergarten sweethearts, and that we’d need plenty of room for the plague of children we’d be [...]

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Huh…What does that make Jesus? Daily Treats are sweet finds from our Treat Avenue Donation Center. Hungry for more collectibles?  Follow us on Twitterand Facebook! Find more rare reads at AmazonandAbeBooks.

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By Byron Spooner I was home with the flu last week. The latest John LeCarre was not the wisest choice of reading given that I had an illness that already disposed me toward nodding off.  My wife brought me tea and re-tucked the quilt all day, making dozing even easier. I finally got sick of [...]

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By Rosie Levy Merlin, Program Outreach Librarian, SFPL I recently gave birth to a fourth generation San Franciscan. I take that seriously. I also gave birth to at least a third generation book lover (My paternal grandmother died before I was born and though I hope she loved books, I cannot confirm at this point). [...]

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By Mary Ellen Hannibal Travel writing is one of literature’s great categories, opening up the world to readers through distinct sensibilities, delivering a time and a place along the trajectory of lived experience. Jeff Greenwald has been at this art for quite some years and many readers probably know his frequent journalism contributions to probably [...]

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By Katie Sue Ambellan How valuable is a lifetime subscription to Black Ocean?  Worth a sweet new bod mod? That is the question East Coast indie press Black Ocean is asking in a recent blog post: If you’d like to get a tattoo inspired by a Black Ocean title, you too can receive a lifetime [...]

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