Most requested Art, Music & Recreation Center books (Dewey 700s) - March 2023

It's not surprising to see our list topped with a celebrity autobiography like Love, Pamela by actress Pamela Anderson. Rock star autobiographies also popular with U-2 front man Bono's Surrender and Los Angeles punk rocker King Congo Powers' Some New Kind of Kick. Another popular book in this category is A Heart that Works, actor-comedian Rob Delany's memoir of losing a young child.

The Grand Affair is being regarded as the definitive biography of prolific American expatriate artist  John Singer Sargent whose paintings are currently on display at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor.

There are two sports related titles. Good for A Girl by Lauren Fleshman is both a memoir and a work of advocacy for young women runners. The Inner Game of Tennis, published 15 years ago, is a surprising title on a list of otherwise current titles showing that must continue to provide insights into achieving success in that competitive sport.

Interior design books are consistently popular at the San Francisco Public Library. How to Live with Objects, Patina Modern and Home Therapy are the latest titles to appeal to our patrons.  Ballet books also circulate well and there are two new works on that subject on our list. Mr. B. is a biography of famed choreographer George Balanchine; The Wind at My Back is a memoir by African-American ballerina Misty Copeland who pays tribute to pioneering ballerina Raven Wilkinson who served as an important inspiration to her.

Women Holding Things is a collection of art and essays by another San Francisco favorite, Maira Kalman. The most surprising title on the list is The Architecture of Suspense. This university press title mixes architectural history with the corpus of director Alfred Hitchcock's films.

Happy reading!

Love, Pamela by Pamela Anderson (Dey St., 2023).

Good for A Girl: A Woman Running in A Man's World by Lauren Fleshman (Penguin Press, 2023).

The Grand Affair: John Singer Sargent in His World by Paul Fisher (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2022).

Patina Modern: A Guide to Designing Warm, Timeless Interiors by Chris Mitchell and Pilar Guzman (Artisan, 2022).

How to Live with Objects: A Modern Guide to More Meaningful Interiors by Monica Khemsurov & Jill Singer; photographs by Charlie Schuck (Clarkson Potter/Publisher, 2022).

The Architecture of Suspense: The Built World in The Films of Alfred Hitchcock by Christine Madrid French (University of Virginia Press, 2022).

Home Therapy: Interior Design for Increasing Happiness, Boosting Confidence, and Creating Calm by Anita Yokota, principal photography by Ali Harper, additional photography by Sara Ligorria-Tramp (Clarkson Potter/Publishers, 2022).

A Heart that Works by Rob Delaney (Spiegel and Grau, 2022).

Mr. B: George Balanchine's 20th Century by Jennifer Homans (Random House, 2022).

Surrender: 40 songs, One Story by Bono (Alfred A. Knopf, 2022).

The Wind at My Back: Resilience, Grace, and Other Gifts from My Mentor, Raven Wilkinson by Misty Copeland, with Susan Fales-Hill (Grand Central Publishing, 2022).

The Inner Game of Tennis: The Classic Guide to The Mental Side of Peak Performance by W. Timothy Gallwey (Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2008).

Some New Kind of Kick: A Memoir by Kid Congo Powers with Chris Campion (Hachette Books, 2022).

Women Holding Things, text and art by Maira Kalman (Harper Design, 2022).

Top Fifteen Most Requested Books in the Art, Music and Recreation Center, March 2022

Often rock memoirs top these lists of titles most in demand (think of books like Just Kids by Patty Smith, Life by Keith Richards, or Girl In A Band by Kim Gordon). With by far the longest waiting list of any of our books, Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner is not only a rock music memoir as an Asian-American's poignant tale of coming of age through adversity. 

There are a number of other memoirs among current titles including 1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows by artist Ai Weiwei, All About Me! by writer and director Mel Brooks, The Chiffon Trenches by fashion journalist André Leon Talley, Will by actor Will Smith, Putting The Rabbit in the Hat by actor Brian Cox, Enough Already by actress Valerie Bertinelli.

Worn is an wide-ranging socio-cultural history of clothing. The Method traces the history and influence of this school of acting. The mystery behind a posthumously famous photographer is revealed in Vivian Maier Developed. Camera Man focuses on actor and director Buster Keaton to examine societal and technological developments in the early 20th century.  Dilla Time provides both a biography and musical analysis of the late hip hop producer J Dilla.

Two sports and recreation books complete the list. Blood In The Garden tells the tale of the NBA's rugged New York Knicks of the early 1990s.  Seven Games traces the history of the enduringly popular, but less than rugged, games of checkers, backgammon, chess, go, poker, scrabble, and bridge.

1. Crying in H Mart: A Memoir by Michelle Zauner (Alfred A. Knopf, 2021).

2. 1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows: A Memoir by Ai Weiwei, translated by Allan H. Barr (Crown, 2021).

3. All About Me!: My Remarkable Life in Show Business by Mel Brooks (Ballantine Books, 2021).

4. The Chiffon Trenches: A Memoir by André Leon Talley (Ballantine Books, 2020).

5. Worn: A People's History of Clothing by Sofi Thanhauser (Pantheon Books, 2022).

6. The Method: How The Twentieth Century Learned To Act by Isaac Butler (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2022).

7. Will by Will Smith with Mark Manson (Penguin Press, 2021).

8. Putting The Rabbit In The Hat: A Memoir by Brian Cox (Grand Central Publishing, 2022).

9. Vivian Maier Developed: The Untold Story Of The Photographer Nanny by Ann Marks (Atria Books, 2021).

10. Camera Man: Buster Keaton, The Dawn of Cinema, And The Invention of the Twentieth Century by Dana Stevens. New York : Atria Books, 2022.

11. The Beatles: Get Back by the Beatles featuring photography by Ethan A. Russell and Linda McCartney, edited by John Harris from transcripts of the original sound recordings. (Apple New York, 2021).

12. Enough Already: Learning To Love The Way I Am Today by Valerie Bertinelli (Mariner Books, 2022).

13. Dilla Time: The Life and Afterlife Of J Dilla, The Hip-Hop Producer Who Reinvented Rhythm by Dan Charnas with musical analysis by Jeff Peretz (MCD / Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2022).

14. Blood In The Garden: The Flagrant History Of The 1990s New York Knicks by Chris Herring (Atria Books, 2022).

15. Seven Games: A Human History by Oliver Roeder (W.W. Norton & Company, 2022).

See also:

The Most Requested Art, Music and Recreation Center Books in November 2017

The Most Requested Art, Music and Recreation Center Books in January 2017

The Most Requested Art, Music & Recreation Books - December 2015

The 25 Art, Music and Recreation Center Books with the Most Holds in April 2015

The Most Requested Art, Music and Recreation Center Books in December 2013

The Most Requested Art, Music and Recreation Center Books in May 2013

Art, Music and Recreation Center Books in Demand, Late December 2012

The Most Circulated Art, Music & Recreation Books of SFPL-To-Go up to December 2020

The Covid-19 pandemic has had a radical effect upon library service. At San Francisco Public Library our readers have relied eBooks and other eResources more than ever. However, many other readers either cannot or prefer not to read online, or the books they want are not yet available online. The launch of SFPL-To-Go on August 10 brought the San Francisco Public Library's print collections back into the public's hands after a nearly five month break. 

Most of the books in the subjects of Art, Music and Recreation are assigned a call number in the Dewey 700 range (Dewey Decimals numbers 700 to 799). Among the top 15 most circulated in the Dewey 700 range, seven are pre-2020 titles.

The most borrowed print book by far is Ali Wong's Dear Girls. It was already among the most popular titles a year ago. Two other books that have continued from last year's list are Trevor Noah's Born A Crime and Hamilton: The Revolution.  Some other no longer current titles that have continue to be frequently borrowed include The Mamba Mentality by the late Kobe Bryant, Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson, Making Comics by Lynda Barry and Just Kids by Patti Smith.  Noah's and Smith's books are possibly the most popular arts related books of this century so far.

Naturally, most of the books that are frequently requested and checked out are current titles.  Hollywood often figures into these choices and currently The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood and Barry Sonnenfeld, Call Your Mother are hot titles.  Two new books by popular music divas Jessica Simpson and Mariah Carey are also racking up a large number of holds.

It's a great pleasure the see the positive attention our readers are giving to Marilyn Chase's biography of San Francisco's own Ruth Asawa, Everything She Touched.

The Victory Machine by Ethan Sherwood details the rise and fall of our Golden State Warriors (who are hopefully soon to rise again!)  Sanam Maher's A Woman Like Her: The Story Behind the Honor Killing Of a Social Media Star would not immediately seem like a hot title (we initially only ordered three copies for our system) but it has proven popular in its rich investigation of fame, faith gender roles and social media.

Homebody: A Guide To Creating Spaces You Never Want To Leave from 2018 by Joanna Gaines is the most apt title for our times. If the experts tell us to stay at home, then, of course, we want to make it a place that we never want to leave.

The Top 15 Titles of December 2020

Dear Girls: Intimate Tales, Untold Secrets & Advice For Living Your Best Life by Ali Wong (Random House, 2019).

Born A Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah (Spiegel & Grau, 2016).

The Big Goodbye: Chinatown And the Last Years of Hollywood by Sam Wasson (Flatiron Books, 2020). 

The Mamba Mentality: How I Play by Kobe Bryant (MCD, Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, 2018). 

Open Book by Jessica Simpson with Kevin Carr O'Leary (Dey St., 2020). 

Everything She Touched: The Life of Ruth Asawa by Marilyn Chase (Chronicle Books, 2020).

A Woman Like Her: The Story Behind the Honor Killing Of a Social Media Star by Sanam Maher (Melville House Publishing, 2020).

A Very Punchable Face: A Memoir by Colin Jost (Crown, 2020). 

Homebody: A Guide To Creating Spaces You Never Want To Leave by Joanna Gaines (Harper Design, 2018). 

Just Kids by Patti Smith (Ecco, 2010). 

Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson (Simon & Schuster, 2017). 

Making Comics by Lynda Barry (Drawn & Quarterly, 2019)

Barry Sonnenfeld, Call Your Mother: Memoirs Of a Neurotic Filmmaker (Hachette Books, 2020).

The Meaning of Mariah Carey by Mariah Carey with Michaela Angela Davis (Andy Cohen Books, 2020). 

The Victory Machine: The Making And Unmaking Of the Warriors Dynasty by Ethan Sherwood Strauss (PublicAffairs, 2020).

Hamilton: The Revolution: Being the Complete Libretto of the Broadway Musical, With a True Account Of its Creation, and Concise Remarks On Hip-hop, the Power of Stories, And the New America by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter (Grand Central Publishing, 2016).

The Most Popular Art, Music and Recreation Center books, May 2018

Highest Circulating Books March 2015

Highest Circulating Books June 2014

Highest Circulating Books June 2013

Highest Circulating Books June 2011

Because this list reflects the cumulation of an entire years circulation it does not include 2018 titles that have not had enough time to circulate as highly.  Unsurprisingly, the top three titles on the list were among the books with the largest number of holds placed in November 2017.

Given the excitement over the Golden State Warriors, it's no surprise that Golden: The Miraculous Rise of Steph Curry is ending up the hands of a lot of our readers.  Memoirs by entertainers and comedians continue to be circulate well represented here with books by Tiffany Hadish, Kevin Hart, Gucci Mane, John Hodgman and Eddie Izzard.

The musical Hamilton appears twice -- both the accompanying book with the libretto and a score of the songs arranged for easy piano.  Along the lines of easy piano, the piano instruction manual Adult Piano Adventures.  This interest in musical self-learning in our community is also evident in the popularity of Music Theory for Dummies and Jake Shimabukuro Teaches Ukulele Lessons.

There are a few older titles on the list.  Molly's Game: From Hollywood's Elite to Wall Street's Billionaire Boys Club, My High-stakes Adventure In the World of Underground Poker became a successful movie.  Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud has become a classic on the subject.

Happy reading!


Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah (Spiegel & Grau, 2016).

Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson (Simon & Schuster, 2017).

Reckless Daughter: A Portrait of Joni Mitchell by David Yaffe (Sarah Crichton Books, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2017).

Golden: The Miraculous Rise of Steph Curry by Marcus Thompson II (Touchstone, 2017).

The Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Haddish (Gallery Books, 2017).

I Can't Make This Up: Life Lessons by Kevin Hart with Neil Strauss (37 Ink; Atria, 2017).

Hamilton: The Revolution: Being the Complete Libretto Of the Broadway Musical, With a True Account of Its Creation, and Concise Remarks on Hip-hop, the Power Of Stories, And the New America by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter (Grand Central Publishing, 2016).

The Autobiography of Gucci Mane (Simon & Schuster, 2017).

Music Theory For Dummies by Michael Pilhofer, MM and Holly Day (John Wiley & Sons, 2015).

Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud (Paradox Press, 1999).

The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, The Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made by Greg Sestero & Tom Bissell (Simon & Schuster, 2013).

Molly's Game: From Hollywood's Elite to Wall Street's Billionaire Boys Club, My High-stakes Adventure In the World of Underground Poker by Molly Bloom (It Books, 2014).

A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction by Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa, Murray Silverstein, with Max Jacobson, Ingrid Fiksdahl-King, Shlomo Angel (Oxford University Press, 1977).

Rock Climbing: Mastering Basic Skills by Craig Luebben (Mountaineer Books, 2014).

Jake Shimabukuro teaches ukulele lessons (Hal Leonard, 2017).

Vacationland: True Stories From Painful Beaches by John Hodgman (Viking, 2017).

Believe Me: A Memoir of Love, Death, and Jazz Chickens by Eddie Izzard (Blue Rider Press, 2017).

Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool: A True Love Story by Peter Turner (Picador, 2017).

Adult Piano Adventures: A Comprehensive Piano Course: All-in-one Lesson Book: Solos, Technique, Theory. 1 by Nancy and Randall Faber (Faber Piano Adventures, 2010).

Hamilton: An American musical; Easy Piano Selections / book, music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hal Leonard, 2015).

The Most Borrowed Books in Art, Music and Recreation - March 2015

 It's always interesting to learn what books in our subjects have the greatest current appeal to our readers. The most striking thing about this list of most borrowed books is the high percentage are the high number of memoirs by women - 12 out of 20 titles.  

The Boys in the Boat isn't a surprising title for the list -- it is presently ranked at number 2 on the San Francisco Chronicle's best-selling nonfiction titles.  Patti Smith's books, Just Kids and M Train, remain popular.  Interest in Tina Fey's Bossypants has never died down and her friend Amy Poehler's Yes Please tops the list.  Greil Marcus's Mystery Train, now in its 6th edition, and H.G. Bissinger's Friday Night Lights, reissued in a 25th anniversary edition, are a perennial favorites.

Perhaps the most unexpected title here is The Art of The Con, which brings the true crime genre to the fine art marketplace.  Bohemian Modern is new book on interior design, a genre that always circulates well.  The list is rounded out with Barbarian Days, a surfing memoir partially set in San Francisco.


1. Yes Please by Amy Poehler (Dey St., 2014).

2. Hold Still: A Memoir with Photographs by Sally Mann (Little, Brown and Company, 2015).

3. M Train by Patti Smith (Alfred A. Knopf, 2015).

4. Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling (Crown Archetype, 2015).

5. The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Olympics by Daniel James Brown (Viking, 2013).

6. Reckless: My Life as a Pretender by Chrissie Hynde (Doubleday, 2015).

7. Bossypants by Tina Fey (Little, Brown and Co., 2011).

8. The Art of the Con: The Most Notorious Fakes, Frauds, and Forgeries in the Art World by Anthony M. Amore (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015).

9. Just Kids by Patti Smith (Ecco, 2010).

10. Girl in a Band by Kim Gordon (Dey St., 2015).

11.Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock 'n' Roll Music by Greil Marcus, revised 6th edition (Plume, 2015).

12. Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl: A Memoir by Carrie Brownstein (Riverhead Books, 2015).

13.Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream by H.G. Bissinger, 25th anniversary edition (Da Capo Press, 2015).

14. Always Pack a Party Dress: And Other Lessons Learned from a (Half) Life in Fashion by Amanda Brooks (Blue Rider Press, 2015).

15. Bohemian Modern by Emily Henson, photography by Katya de Grunwald (Ryland Peters & Small, 2015).

16. Agnes Martin: Her Life and Art by Nancy Princenthal (Thames & Hudson, 2015).

17. The Rainman's Third Cure: An Irregular Education by Peter Coyote (Counterpoint, 2015).

18. Ivory Vikings: The Mystery of the Most Famous Chessmen in the World and the Woman Who Made Them by Nancy Marie Brown (St. Martin's Press, 2015).

19. I'll Never Write My Memoirs by Grace Jones as told to Paul Morley (Gallery Books, 2015).

20. Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan (Penguin Press, 2015).

World Cup Reading

Just like the crescendo in Ravel’s Bolero imposes itself onto the listener’s ear, the rising popularity of soccer (football for the rest of the world) in the USA is an undeniable fact. American fans have finally joined a global phenomenon. It is one thing to support the American team for as long as it is in the running, but also equally important to have several alternative favorite teams. As soon as Brazil was crushed by Germany in one of the quarter finals, newly initiated American fans had to decide who to root for not only between Argentina and Netherlands, but also who to root for in the final since Brazil is not going to be there. Do we support Messi’s team or Klose’s? That is the question weighing on our minds. Such is the world of soccer.

It may come as a surprise to many to learn that the USA not only took part in the first World Cup held in 1930 in Uruguay, but the team also managed to reach the semi-final against Argentina, which it lost 6-1.  Team USA won Bronze and that remains her best to date. In 2002, USA managed to reach the quarter final when they lost to Germany 2-1.  In 2014, the USA also reached the knock-out stage.

Just like any other major international game, soccer has a rich history that includes rivalries between teams, players' personal achievements, global superstars such as Pele and Maradona, and statistical wonders. Brazil has won the most world cups (5) followed by Italy (4) and Germany (3). 2014 is the first World Cup where two teams from the continent of Africa have advanced to the knock-out stage.

San Francisco Public Library boasts of a good collection of circulating books on the subject as well as numerous reference resources.  Explore some of the titles below, or perform a broader search in the catalog under the terms World Cup (Soccer) and Soccer for additional materials.  Other useful headings for players include:  Soccer - Training, Soccer - Rules, and Soccer - Coaching.

General Reference
The official rules of soccer.

The World Cup : the complete history / Terry Crouch.

The complete encyclopedia of soccer / Keir Radnedge.

A history of the World Cup, 1930-2010 / Clemente Angelo Lisi.

 

High Interest Materials
2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil official book.

The ball is round : a global history of soccer / David Goldblatt.

Inverting the pyramid : a history of football tactics / Jonathan Wilson.

Outcasts united : a refugee soccer team, an American town / Warren St. John. 

Finding the game : three years, twenty-five countries, and the search for pickup soccer / Gwendolyn Oxenham. 

Soccer in sun and shadow / by Eduardo Galeano ; translated by Mark Fried.

Soccernomics : why England loses, why Germany and Brazil win, and why the US, Japan, Australia, Turkey-- and even Iraq-- are destined to become the kings of the world's most popular sport / Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski. 

The big fix : the hunt for the match fixers bringing down soccer / Brett Forrest.

Soccer men : profiles of the rogues, geniuses, and neurotics who dominate the world's most popular sport / Simon Kuper. 

Soccer against the enemy : how the world's most popular sport starts and stops wars, fuels revolutions, and keeps dictators in power / Simon Kuper. 

The rough guide to cult football / edited by Andy Mitten ; with contributions by Joe Ganley ... [et al.] 

Collected Essays
The global game : writers on soccer / edited by John Turnbull, Thom Satterlee & Alon Raab. 

The thinking fan's guide to the World Cup / edited by Matt Weiland and Sean Wilsey. 

By Region
Africa united : soccer, passion, politics, and the first World Cup in Africa / Steve Bloomfield. 

African soccerscapes : how a continent changed the world's game / Peter Alegi. 

Tor! : the story of German football / Ulrich Hesse-Lichtenberger.

Morbo : the story of Spanish football / Phil Ball. 

Winning at all costs : a scandalous history of Italian soccer / John Foot. 

Pay as you play : the true price of success in the Premier League era / Paul Tomkins, Graeme Riley & Gary Fulcher ; introducing the transfer price index. 

Ajax, the Dutch, the war : the strange tale of soccer during Europe's darkest hour / Simon Kuper. 

Video Highlights
FIFA fever [videorecording] : celebrating 100 years of FIFA soccer 

World Cup Soccer highlights, 1966-1974 [videorecording] / director, Philippe Scanff. 

World Cup Soccer highlights, 1978-1986 [videorecording] / director, Philippe Scanff.

World Cup Soccer highlights, 1990-1998 [videorecording] / director, Philippe Scanff
World Cup Soccer highlights, 2002 [videorecording] / director, Philippe Scanff. 

Know Your SFPL call numbers - 796.3 "Ball Games"

"Base Ball in Alaska" - source: America's National Game; Historic Facts Concerning the Beginning, Evolution, Development and Popularity of Base Ball by Albert G. Spalding; cartoons by Homer C. Davenport (American Sports Publishing Company, 1911).
The Dewey Decimal call number 796 comprises "Athletic and outdoor sports and games."  It's not surprising surprising that more than half of this section falls within the Dewey Decimal section for ball games point -- 796.3.

Here is a delineation of subjects within the 796.3 section:

796.31 - Ball thrown or hit by hand -- includes handball and lawn bowling

796.32 - Inflated ball thrown or hit by hand -- including basketball (796.323), netball (796.324), and volleyball (796.325).

796.33 - Inflated ball driven by foot -- including football (actually American football - 796.332), rugby (796.333), soccer (called football everywhere else - 796.334), Canadian football (796.335), and Australian rules football (796.336)

796.34 - Racket games -- including tennis (796.342), squash (796.343), badminton (796.345), table tennis (796.346), and lacrosse (796.347)

796.35 - Ball driven by club, mallet, bat -- including golf (796.352), polo (796.353), croquet (796.354), field hocket (796.355), baseball (796.357), and cricket (796.358).

The numbers apply to the history of each sport as well as information on watching, coaching or playing each sport. Biographies of sports figured are shelved on the 3rd floor in the General Collections Department in the "B" section.

Now that you have been coached with this knowledge -- Play ball!

Season of the Witch - The Art, Music and Recreation Center reading list

David Talbot's Season of the Witch: Enchantment, Terror, and Deliverance in the City of Love (Free Press, 2012) is the story of a turbulent but formative period in recent San Francisco history from 1967 to 1982.  This book has stayed on San Francisco Chronicle's local best-sellers list.  Another indication of this book's popularity is that presently 195 San Francisco Public Library patrons are borrowing one of our copies of the book.

Talbot goes far beyond the social turmoil of the time to devote many pages to the City's performing arts and sports.  Each chapter of his book includes a reading list.  Naturally, the music of the Summer of Love is prominently discussed.  The story of the seminal, gender-bending performance group The Cockettes also gets told.  Finally, as a story of redemption, Talbot narrates the San Francisco 49ers path from perennial failure to the Super Bowl.

Here is a listing of the titles that Talbot cites in his book, all available to borrow from the Library.


780.2 J745d2 1991 - Piece of My Heart: A Portrait of Janis Joplin by David Dalton (Da Capo Press, 1991).

780.2 J745e 2000 - Scars of Sweet Paradise: The Life and Times of Janis Joplin by Alice Echols (Henry Holt and Co., 2000).

780.2 J745f 1992 - Buried Alive: The Biography of Janis Joplin by Myra Friedman (Harmony Books, 1992).

780.2 J745j 2005 - Love, Janis by Laura Joplin (Harper, 2005).

784.5 ZG76b - Bill Graham Presents: My Life Inside Rock and Out by Bill Graham and Robert Greenfield (Doubleday, 1992).

784.5 ZG76g - Rage & Roll: Bill Graham and the Selling of Rock by John Glatt (Carol Pub. Group, 1993).

780.2 ZG771m - A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead by Dennis McNally (Broadway Books, 2002).

780.2 ZJ356t - Got a Revolution!: The Turbulent Flight of Jefferson Airplane by Jeff Tamarkin (Atria Books, 2003).

784.5 ZSe48s - Summer of Love: The Inside Story of LSD, Rock & Roll, Free Love, and High Times in the Wild West by Joel Selvin (Dutton, 1994).

791.0922 T26m - Midnight at the Palace: My Life as a Fabulous Cockette by Pam Tent (Alyson Books, 2004).

796.33 M762a - Audibles: My Life in Football by Joe Montana and Bob Raissman (W. Morrow, 1986).

796.3326 B2336w - We Were Champions: The 49ers' Dynasty in their own Words; text by Phil Barber; photography by Michael Zagaris (Triumph Books, 2002).

796.3326 D559g - Glenn Dickey's 49ers: The Rise, fall, and Rebirth of the NFL's Greatest Dynasty by Glenn Dickey (Prima Pub., 2000).

796.3326 M9924c - The Catch: One Play, Two Dynasties, and the Game that Changed the NFL by Gary Myers (Crown Publishers, 2009).

New Sports Books for the New Year

Here are a few of the titles we have just arrived on our shelves in the subjects of sports and recreation.  These include histories, appreciations, and instruction guides.  Follow the links below for location information.  Place a hold on title you want to have sent to your branch.

The Last Boys Picked: Helping Boys Who Don't Play Sports Survive Bullies and Boyhood by Janet Sasson Edgette with Beth Margolis Rupp (Berkley Books, 2012) - this title for parents is to help boys for whom the masculine and competitive world of sports and physical education is not a good fit.

Football Skills and Drills by Tom Bass (Human Kinetics, 2012) - has 114 drills to teach the fundamentals of football.

The National Forgotten League: Entertaining Stories and Observations from Pro Football's First Fifty Years by Dan Daly (University of Nebraska Press, 2012) - traces the early history of the National Football in its earlier less professionalized and more idiosyncratic days.

Ajax, The Dutch, The War: The Strange Tale of Soccer During Europe's Darkest Hour by Simon Kuper (Nation Books, 2012) - a weaving together of soccer, World War II, the Dutch, and Nazi persecution of the Jews into a unique history.

The New Rules of Lifting Supercharged: Ten All-New Programs for Men and Women by Lou Schuler and Alwyn Cosgrove (Avery, 2012) - the latest installment in the New Rules of Lifting fitness and bodybuilding series.

Running for Women by Jason R. Karp and Carolyn S. Smith (Human Kinetics, 2012) - incorporates factors like physiology, menstruation, pregnancy and menopause into a training manual for women runners.

Grace, Gold and Glory: My Leap of Faith by Gabrielle Douglas with Michelle Burford (Zondervan, 2012) - written by the inspirational teen gymnast from the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Classic Hikes of North America: 25 Breathtaking Treks in the United States and Canada by Peter Potterfield (W.W. Norton and Co., 2012) - a richly illustrated guide to some of the most remarkable hiking experiences in our country and Canada (includes chapters on Yosemite and Kings Canyon in California).

Tom Danielson's Core Advantage: Core Strength for Cycling's Winning Edge by Tom Danielson and Allison Westfahl (VeloPress, 2013) - exercises and workouts to build strength and endurance for the bicycle racer.

How to Fish: An Angler's Meditation by Chris Yates (Overlook Press, 2012) - an extended musing on the joys of fishing.

The 2012 San Francisco Giants - World Series Bound Once More

Our San Francisco Giants are National League Champions once again after coming from behind to win two dramatic playoff series against the Cincinnati Reds and St. Louis Cardinals.  Now it's on to Detroit!

The 2012 Giants share several players from the 2010 roster, and they also share a similar tendency to inflict delightful torture upon their fans.  In 2010 we presented a reading list of books covering San Francisco Giants history.  Since then, quite a few books have been published that allow readers to relive that magical season.



Several of these books are written by Bay Area sports journalists.  San Jose Mercury News reporter Andrew Baggarly has written A Band of Misfits: Tales of the 2010 San Francisco Giants.  In this book, Baggarly brings the season back to life with personal anecdotes about players and the day-to-day experiences of the team.  This Is Our Time!: The 2010 San Francisco Giants World Series Champions, written by Chris Haft, the Giants' beat reporter for Mlb.com, also provides insights from his daily coverage of that team.  



Worth the Wait is a photographic celebration of the season featuring photography by Brad Magin; KNBR sports radio personality Brian Murphy, the author of San Francisco Giants: 50 Years, wrote the accompanying text and player profiles.  San Francisco Giants: Torture to Rapture recounts 2010 campaign through words and images from the San Francisco Chronicle.  Giant Surprise: San Francisco's 2010 World Champions is a richly illustrated summary of the team's playoff and World Series run.  

Two earlier books, Tales From the San Francisco Giants Dugout by Nick Peters and Giants Past And Present by Dan Fost have also been republished in updated editions that include the 2010 championship season.



Another recent title, 100 Things Giants Fans Should Know And Do Before They Die by Bill Chastain, features short chapters about 100 players and events from throughout the team's San Francisco. Finally, San Francisco Giants by Tricia O'Brien is a black and white photo collection spanning the team's history from its arrival in 1958 to 2011.


Let's hope this year's team will continue to give us exciting memories that will captured in future books about our San Francisco Giants.

Let's go Giants!


A Band of Misfits: Tales of the 2010 San Francisco Giants by Andrew Baggarly (Triumph Books, 2011).

Giant Surprise: San Francisco's 2010 World Champions (Triumph Books, 2010).

Giants Past And Present by Dan Fost (MVP/MBI Pub. LLC, 2011).

100 Things Giants Fans Should Know And Do Before They Die by Bill Chastain (Triumph Books, 2011).

San Francisco Giants by Tricia O'Brien (Arcadia Pub., c2011).

San Francisco Giants: Torture to Rapture: 2010 World Series Champions (KCI Sports Pub., 2010).

Tales From The San Francisco Giants Dugout: A Collection of the Greatest Giants Stories Ever Told by Nick Peters with Stuart Shea (Sports Pub., 2011).

This Is Our Time!: The 2010 San Francisco Giants World Series Champions: The Inside Story: Improbable, Wild, Unforgettable by Chris Haft and Eric Alan (Confluence Books, 2011).

Worth the Wait by Brian Murphy (Skybox Press, 2011).

"Your 2010 National League Champion San Francisco Giants: A Reading List," San Francisco Public Library Art, Music and Recreation Center [blog] (October 26, 2010).