The editor of San Francisco Magazine, Bruce Kelley, has written a strong review of Towers of Gold: How One Jewish Immigrant Named Isaias Hellman Created California. I think the article captures the spirit of the book. Here it is, from the November 2008 edition of the magazine: Visionary financier Isaias Hellman was the Warren Buffett…

   I will will be talking tonight at the California Studies Association, a group of professors, independent academics, journalists, and writers who are interested in the state’s history, economy, ecology, culture and more. When I attended a recent meeting to hear Charles Wollenberg talk about his new book on Berkeley, I was stuck by how…

The Claremont Book Club must certainly be one of the oldest book groups in the nation: it has been in continuous existence for 90 years.   Every month, women who live within the gates of the Claremont residential section of Berkeley — once the most exclusive area in the East Bay — gather to hear…

Is it ethical to disguise yourself as a businessman and interview Washington D.C. lobbyists about how they can help promote a totalitarian government? Is it okay to tape those conversations? Can a reporter sign up for a poetry conference, attend without identifying he is a reporter, and write about it for Harper’s Magazine? Is it…

There’s so much going on in the Bay Area that I sometimes finish a weekend more exhausted than when I started.   On Saturday, I attended the 20th anniversary benefit luncheon for the Kidney Foundation of Northern California. This is one of the premier author events in the country as it showcases top authors. They…

I got my first taste of book touring this past weekend, and it was a thrill. I didn’t start out tentatively, one toe in the water. I leapt, making my first appearance on in a 15-minute interview Saturday on West Coast Live, a radio program from KALW 91.7. I think I got through it with…