three booksThree New Books Worth the Read

By Nick Petrulakis


When you cross the fascinating story of Gordon Jenkins—composer, conductor, arranger, one of the few men who could tell Frank Sinatra to pipe down and live to tell about it—with Bruce Jenkins, the talented columnist from the San Francisco Chronicle who felt compelled to tell his father’s story (even though he didn’t know many of the details because his dad “came from a generation of successful men who spoke little of their life, [who] worked like madmen with great humility”), you get the wonderfully entertaining Goodbye, In Search of Gordon Jenkins.

The book chronicles the highs (winning a Grammy with Sinatra for the 1965 album September of My Years) and the lows (the awful mystery behind his song “Goodbye”). In between, Jenkins give us a whirlwind tour of a finger-snapping, whiskey-drinking time. And coloring it all, ever present, is the music, from Judy Garland to Nat King Cole, from Louis Armstrong to Bing Crosby. If only all such talented fathers had such talented sons to tell their stories.

Goodbye: In Search of Gordon Jenkins by Bruce Jenkins (Frog Ltd, 2005, 341 pp., $25.95)

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We knew the Bay Area teemed with talented writers, but who knew so many were single women of a certain age? April Sinclair and Jean Gonick, Kathi Kamen Goldmark and Joyce Maynard, they—and an impressive list of other writers from all around the world—answered Jane Ganahl’s siren call and contributed to the laugh-out-loud funny Single Woman of a Certain Age. I know, I know, the only thing harder to sell than a collection of short stories is an anthology. But please, trust me; don’t miss this one. The premise is simple: get a bunch of “over 40” women together. Make sure they’re single. Have them tell a story, their story. It of course helps if the women are all terrifically talented writers. Fortunately, with Ganahl (the writer behind the San Francisco Chronicle’s “Single-Minded” column) at the helm, that was a gimme. What we’re left with is an amazing collection dealing with motherhood, sex and loneliness—always handled with grace, often with delight and never, ever with whining.

Did I mention it was laugh-out-loud funny?

Single Woman of a Certain Age edited by Jane Ganahl (Inner Ocean Publishing Inc., 2005, 242 pp., $21.95)

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If you were unable to attend the yearly gathering at Lotta’s Fountain in San Francisco—they met as they always do at 5:14 in the morning on April 18—you may want to look at Earthquake Exodus, 1906, one of the many titles from the past year observing the 1906 earthquake.

The book, by Berkeley’s Richard Schwartz, relates one of the few untold stories associated with the Great Quake—the selfless efforts by the city and citizens of Berkeley to aid the thousands of earthquake refugees that descended on the East Bay. In light of the disastrous federal response to 2005’s Hurricane Katrina, the book could be read as a primer on how local officials can coordinate relief to ensure public health and safety.

One of the more intriguing tidbits is the explanation that, because the quake hit during the flourishing Arts and Crafts movement, and because the East Bay suddenly looked like a fine alternative to the ruins of San Francisco, many of the Craftsman gems in our cities would not have been built if there had not been the devastation across the bay. How’s that for a silver lining? g Earthquake Exodus by Richard Schwartz (RSB Books, 2005, 148 pp., $24.95)