What We're Talking About This Week

Fleet Week has been taking place in San Francisco this week, and festivities are scheduled through this weekend. The highlight is always the Blue Angels, scheduled to fly over San Francisco around 3pm. We'll be heading up to the roof to check them out for sure. The full schedule for the air show can be found on their website.

Town & Country took us inside the beautiful yacht architect Frank Gehry designed, and it has made us want to visit LACMA's comprehensive exhibit covering his career even more. We'll be wearing our Torque necklace.

We were excited to hear about Restoration Hardware's fine art launch, and became enamored with Brice Bischoff's photographs of the Bronson Caves. Using long exposure film photography, he moves colored paper around, creating what looks like colorful haze in the final prints. Can we please have these?

This weekend kicks off Litquake. The cofounders of the festival note 'there are a number of possible answers (why is San Francisco and the Bay Area so obsessed with literature). First and foremost, the fog sets the mood, perfect weather for reading and writing. We are surrounded by universities and libraries. The city offers a long history of groundbreaking West Coast literature, from Mark Twain reading his work at McGuire’s Academy of Music theater on Pine Street, to the San Francisco Renaissance, the Beats, the poetry festivals of the 1970s, the 1980s spoken-word scene, and the ever-growing list of MFA programs.' We couldn't agree more, and want to check out the literary trivia night...

Movies and food are two of our favorite things, so Street Food Cinema seems perfectly tailored to us. With over 14 food trucks to choose from, this weekend they are showing Scarface on the big screen. Actor Stephen Bauer is scheduled to drop by as well. This is a little friend we'll gladly say hello to.

What We're Talking About This Week

Tomorrow is a very special day in Los Angeles: It's the LA Weekly's Burgers & Beer event at the centrally located Memorial Coliseum.  Be sure to get tickets in advance.  We can't wait to try all off the offerings, especially those from our favorite spots, such as Little Dom's and Plan Check.  

 We have spoken about our love of the annual Peaches Christ Showgirls extravaganza at San Francisco's Castro Theatre before, and now is your chance to see the action for yourself at tomorrow's show!

The other big event going on in San Francisco this weekend is obviously Outside Lands, which starts today and runs through Sunday.  The city's biggest musical festival, this year's line up includes Elton John, Kendrick Lamar, The Black Keys, St. Vincent, D'Angelo, and Chet Faker.  As excited as we are for the music, the food and drink tents are always stiff competition for our attention.

Like any city, LA is constantly changing, and sadly, bringing in the new means saying good bye to some favorite old haunts. This list remembers some of the best places of the past decades that are closing or moving.  We still can't believe that House of Blues won't be in its legendary Sunset Boulevard location anymore.

We are currently loving Keith Richards' memoir Life, especially his reflections on his career and musical influences.  We already knew some of the work of Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, and Robert Johnson, but it's been especially enjoyable to revisit their music knowing the massive influence they had not only on Richards, but the Rolling Stones as a whole, as well as the Beatles, and other contemporary bands.

Lindsey's Summer Reading List

Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari - Ansari's stand-up routines are always hilarious, and his debut book delivers as well. He partnered with sociologist Eric Klinenberg, and together they interviewed and researched modern dating habits. Some of the findings are what you would expect, but there are surprises thrown in as well.

What if? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe - The creator of web comic xkcd has gathered together existing blog posts along with new content, providing scientific answers to questions such as 'Could you build a jetpack with downward facing machine guns?' It's a fun beach read, with short chapters that go by quickly, but cause you to think as well.

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr - This novel recently won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, and it's well deserved. Following both a blind French girl and a young German soldier it takes place during World War II and explores human connection and interaction.

On Lindsey's to-read list:

Sick in the Head by Judd Apatow - Apatow has been fortunate enough to interview comedy legends since he was only 15 years old. This book gathers together some of his favorites, including conversations with Jerry Seinfeld, Jon Stewart and Louis C.K. It seems certain to make one laugh out loud.

Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee - The follow up novel to To Kill a Mockingbird, this book tells the story of Scout returning home to visit her father when she is in her mid-twenties. With the civil rights movement happening in the background of the story, this book seems very timely for today as well.

Tyler's Summer Reading List

It's hard to believe we're halfway through summer!  We have had time to get through a few juicy, beach-y reads, and have a few still to get to.  Some of Tyler's favorites so far:

A Fine Romance by Candice Bergen - This one is great as an audiobook, with Bergen herself reading her story.  The model, actress, and Murphy Brown star has lived a pretty amazing life, and we loved hearing about her family, marriages, career, travel, and bi-coastal lifestyle.

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins - This book has been compared to Gone Girl countless times, but it's definitely one of the best can't-put-down mysteries to come along in awhile.  Perfect for a lazy weekend at the beach, in the backyard, or on the couch.

Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan - A fun and frothy story of a big, super-wealthy Asian family based in Singapore, this book is at once informative (there is a lot we didn't know about the culture in Singapore) and a total guilty pleasure (love, fashion, and money are major themes).

On Tyler's to-read list:

My Paris Dream by Kate Betts - Betts has long been a favorite fashion editor, and we can't wait to read this memoir of her time in Paris, where she got started in the industry.  The cover is also gorgeous!

A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson - A companion book to the recent bestseller Life After Life, this tells the story of one of Life's supporting characters, heroine Ursula's brother Teddy, focusing on his childhood and his experience in WWII.  Anything by Atkinson is always well worth reading.

Gift Guide: For the Literary Dad

Clockwise from top left: The Curious Bartender, What If?, Designed In CA, Cryptonomicon, glasses,

blanket, cocktail kit, anvil bookends, lamp, feather bookmark, wing chair & ottoman

What We're Talking About This Week

It's finally May! As the French say, "En mai fais ce qu'il te plaît" (In May, do whatever you like).  Despite the lovely weather, we seem to be devouring a lot of media this week...

If you aren't quite feeling Spring in your area (or if the warm weather is bringing on too many allergies to go outside), we highly recommend the amazing Thomas Cromwell novel Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, and the gorgeous BBC/PBS Masterpiece miniseries depiction of the book and its sequel, Bring Up the Bodies.  If you prefer more contemporary British events, J.K. Rowling's The Casual Vacancy is worth a read, and we'll be catching up on the the BBC/HBO miniseries based on the novel this weekend.

It is Paris Photo weekend in LA!  Pre-booking is a must, but tickets are still available for this incredible photography exhibit at Paramount Pictures in Hollywood.

While most of the songs on this list aren't current, it shares alternate versions of songs we already know and love.

Last Spring, California Bookstore Day was created.  This Saturday, it goes nationwide!  The highest concentration of events will be in Northern California, but you can celebrate anywhere by supporting your local independent booksellers - we have plenty of reading suggestions.

We have been loving the SFIFF this year, and one of the biggest stars of it is the fabulous Iris Apfel.

Cheesy as it may be, we can't start the month of May without this song getting stuck in our heads!

We Recommend: Station Eleven

We recently read Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, and the story has stuck with us. Set before, during and after a great pandemic, the fluid storyline muses about fame, happiness and the meaning of life.

Multiple main characters offer varied viewpoints: Arthur Leander, a movie star in the twilight of his career; Miranda, Arthur's first wife, who analyzes her reality by creating comic books; Kristen, an actress in a new version of America, performing Shakespearian plays; Clark, an apocalyptic museum curator, who catalogs things that were mundane before the outbreak; the prophet, a celebrity for this new age...

Set in Toronto, Hollywood, and near Lake Michigan, the author's descriptive writing style is engrossing from beginning to end.

Here is a favorite passage, about a house in the Hollywood Hills:
"Miranda's study window looks out over the side yard, where the lawn terraces down to a pool. Beside the pool stands a lamp from the 1950s, a crescent moon atop a tall dark pole, placed in such a way that there's always a moon reflected in the water. The lamp is her favorite thing about the house, although she wonders sometimes about the reason for its existence. A diva who insisted on permanent moonlight? A bachelor who hoped to impress young starlets? There's a brief period most nights when the two moons float side by side on the surface. The fake moon, which has the advantage of being closer and not obscured by the smog, is almost always brighter than the real one."

book cover from amazon. moon photo by leonid tishkov.

We Recommend: Favorite Scary Books and Stories

Last year around Halloween we shared our favorite scary movies, and this year we want to share some of the books and story collections that have spooked us and held us in suspense over the years.  Some of them are factual, some are fiction, and others we aren't sure of...

Don't Look Now by Daphne du Maurier - Part of the 1971 collection of short stories Not After Midnight, Don't Look Now deals with a British couple who've lost their young daughter and go to Venice to try to move on.  It was later made into an excellent film starring Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland, be sure to read this first - du Maurier also wrote Rebecca and The Birds, and is a master of suspense!

A Suspension of Mercy by Patricia Highsmith - Many people know Highsmith for the Ripley books, but she was a prolific writer who wrote a number of thrillers. This story is perfectly creepy, and keeps the reader wondering the whole way through if this murderous story of a young, Bohemian married couple is all in the disturbed husband's head or not. 

 The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston with Mario Spezi - This is a true story that follows the authors on their quest to discover who the mysterious Monster of Florence really is.  It's a fascinating book about the Italian justice system, Florentine culture, and the many suspects in the case - made all the more terrifying by the fact that the murderer is still at large.

Spook by Mary Roach - Roach examines death and the afterlife through science, trying to discover if the paranormal actually exists.  Sometimes science can explain things away, sometimes it cannot, but in either case this is a fascinating book.

The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton - This is a very elegant selection of Wharton's ghost stories, many of them taking place in Edwardian New England. They aren't too outright terrifying, but just the right amount of spooky to get you into the Halloween spirit.

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories for Late at Night by Alfred Hitchcock - This collection of short stories curated by Alfred Hitchcock features writers such as Ray Bradbury, John Collier and C.L. Moore. From ghost stories to science fiction, there's a tale for everyone in this book.

Essential Tales and Poems by Edgar Allan Poe - The master of the macabre, Poe's stories capture one of our favorite horror story elements: dread.  From The Raven to The Telltale Heart to The Cask of Amontillado to the Mask of the Red Death, there's much to send a shiver down your spine.

Summer Reading List

We are halfway through summer, but still have so many weekend trips, beach days, and afternoons by the pool ahead of us. These are some of our all time favorite books for those days.

Tyler's Picks
-Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe, 1987
An engrossing read that deals with themes of race, class, and status, and that has barely aged in the nearly three decades since it was written.
-Stories I Only Tell My Friends by Rob Lowe, 2011
Rob Lowe's memoir is a fascinating tale of his life from Midwestern lawyer's son, to part of the Brat Pack, to happily married father and TV star.
-Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter, 2012
This was a must-read last summer, and well worth picking up if you haven't read it yet. The narrative takes place between Hollywood and the Amalfi Coast, and bridges half a century.
-People Who Eat Darkness by Richard Lloyd Parry, 2010
Sometimes you want a darker beach read; this book is a fascinating true crime story that explores British, Japanese, and Korean cultures.
-Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann, 1966
The ultimate guilty pleasure, this book is campy and fun - perfect for a summer's day. But it's also a classic, so it will inspire some interesting conversations.

To Read: The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas, 2008
This Australian novel is an international best seller has long been on my to-read list. The Slap is told from multiple points of view after an incident involving a child being slapped by an adult at a party, and it seems just the right balance of thought-provoking and sensationalist for summer.

Lindsey's Picks
-Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger, 1953
Short stories are always a favorite option for a vacation read, since they are easy to start and stop. Salinger captivates with this selection. 'Teddy' especially is a great piece of writing.
-Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, 1813
If you've never read any of Austen's work, this is a great place to start. Even if you've seen the movie(s), I recommend picking this up.
-The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood, 2000
I love Margaret Atwood's story within a story writing style for this book, and the mystery will have you intrigued until the end.

- A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness, 2011
This vacation read has a little bit of everything: history, science, technology, romance, mystery... Part one of a three part series, this one is set in Oxford, France and New York and follows a witch discovering her power.
-Hell's Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga by Hunter S. Thompson, 1966
This memoir holds a special place in my heart since it takes place in the Bay Area. For anyone who's ever wondered what life is like in a motorcycle gang...

To Read: Artemisia by Alexandria Lapierre, 2001
This work of historical fiction tells of the life of Artemisia Gentileschi, a female Renaissance painter who overcame some pretty serious hurdles on her way to a place in history.

We Recommend: Comfort Me With Apples

Comfort Me With Apples is the second in a series of former food critic Ruth Reichl's memoirs, and one of our favorites for her stories of living in 1970s Berkeley and 1980s Los Angeles.  It's a wonderful book for foodies, as Reichl chronicles the evolution of West Coast cuisine from her firsthand point of view.  From the co-op friendly Bay Area that brought us Alice Waters, to the decadence of Southern California which spawned Wolfgang Puck, Reichl was there through it all.  She truly loves food, is a beautiful writer, and has lived a life we are more than a bit envious of. 

Favorite California Books

Winter is always a great time to take a step back and curl up with a good book. We love to be
transported to different times, places, and experiences through literature, but sometimes it's
 also nice to read something more familiar, or to choose a book that reacquaints you with a
place you know well. As California natives, we have a special soft spot for some
West Coast writers and their work. These are our favorites:

Tyler's Picks

Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner

Play it as it Lays by Joan Didion

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

All We Ever Wanted Was Everything by Janelle Brown

Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann

Lindsey's Picks

Hell's Angels by Hunter S. Thompson

Pulp by Charles Bukowski

Portrait in Sepia by Isabel Allende

Mildred Pierce by James M. Cain

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

Green Apple Books

We love browsing a good bookstore to find our next favorite read. One of the best bookstores in San Francisco is Green Apple Books, located in the Inner Richmond. With hundreds of thousands of titles to choose from, we never leave empty-handed. You can also sell books to the store, which has been around since the late 60s.

If you can't make the trip to San Francisco the website is great as well, and features their recommendations as well as allowing you to purchase online.

Gift Guide - California Cookbooks

Clockwise from top left: Nepenthe, Cowgirl Creamery, Ad Hoc, Big Sur Bakery,

Lemonade, LA Son, Arts & Eats, Alice Waters, Mission Street Food

Interior Design Inspiration: A Painted Lady in Alamo Square

Clockwise from top left: bookcase, lamp, book collection, armoire,

diary, chair, desk, globe, scissors, magnifying glass, map

We Recommend: David Bowie's Reading List

David Bowie - Self Portrait

Our all time Glam Rock hero, David Bowie, is participating in an exhibition entitled David Bowie Is, which features 300 items from his personal archive, and which is currently showing at The Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto.  Unfortunately for us Californians, the only US stop on the exhibit's tour is in Chicago; but to ease the pain of those of us who are not able to see the show in person, the curators have released a list of Bowie's 100 favorite books.  We know what we'll be reaching for when we need a book or two to get lost in this fall and winter...


The Age of American Unreason, Susan Jacoby, 2008
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz, 2007
The Coast of Utopia (trilogy), Tom Stoppard, 2007
Teenage: The Creation of Youth 1875-1945, Jon Savage, 2007
Fingersmith, Sarah Waters, 2002
The Trial of Henry Kissinger, Christopher Hitchens, 2001
Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder, Lawrence Weschler, 1997
A People’s Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1890-1924, Orlando Figes, 1997
The Insult, Rupert Thomson, 1996
Wonder Boys, Michael Chabon, 1995
The Bird Artist, Howard Norman, 1994
Kafka Was The Rage: A Greenwich Village Memoir, Anatole Broyard, 1993
Beyond the Brillo Box: The Visual Arts in Post-Historical Perspective, Arthur C. Danto, 1992
Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson, Camille Paglia, 1990
David Bomberg, Richard Cork, 1988
Sweet Soul Music: Rhythm and Blues and the Southern Dream of Freedom, Peter Guralnick, 1986
The Songlines, Bruce Chatwin, 1986
Hawksmoor, Peter Ackroyd, 1985
Nowhere To Run: The Story of Soul Music, Gerri Hirshey, 1984
Nights at the Circus, Angela Carter, 1984
Money, Martin Amis, 1984
White Noise, Don DeLillo, 1984
Flaubert’s Parrot, Julian Barnes, 1984
The Life and Times of Little Richard, Charles White, 1984
A People’s History of the United States, Howard Zinn, 1980
A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole, 1980
Interviews with Francis Bacon, David Sylvester, 1980
Darkness at Noon, Arthur Koestler, 1980
Earthly Powers, Anthony Burgess, 1980
Raw (a ‘graphix magazine’) 1980-91
Viz (magazine) 1979 –
The Gnostic Gospels, Elaine Pagels, 1979
Metropolitan Life, Fran Lebowitz, 1978
In Between the Sheets, Ian McEwan, 1978
Writers at Work: The Paris Review Interviews, ed. Malcolm Cowley, 1977
The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, Julian Jaynes, 1976
Tales of Beatnik Glory, Ed Saunders, 1975
Mystery Train, Greil Marcus, 1975
Selected Poems, Frank O’Hara, 1974
Before the Deluge: A Portrait of Berlin in the 1920s, Otto Friedrich, 1972
In Bluebeard’s Castle : Some Notes Towards the Re-definition of Culture, George Steiner, 1971
Octobriana and the Russian Underground, Peter Sadecky, 1971
The Sound of the City: The Rise of Rock and Roll, Charlie Gillete, 1970
The Quest For Christa T, Christa Wolf, 1968
Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom: The Golden Age of Rock, Nik Cohn, 1968
The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov, 1967
Journey into the Whirlwind, Eugenia Ginzburg, 1967
Last Exit to Brooklyn, Hubert Selby Jr. , 1966
In Cold Blood, Truman Capote, 1965
City of Night, John Rechy, 1965
Herzog, Saul Bellow, 1964
Puckoon, Spike Milligan, 1963
The American Way of Death, Jessica Mitford, 1963
The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea, Yukio Mishima, 1963
The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin, 1963
A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess, 1962
Inside the Whale and Other Essays, George Orwell, 1962
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark, 1961
Private Eye (magazine) 1961 –
On Having No Head: Zen and the Rediscovery of the Obvious, Douglas Harding, 1961
Silence: Lectures and Writing, John Cage, 1961
Strange People, Frank Edwards, 1961
The Divided Self, R. D. Laing, 1960
All The Emperor’s Horses, David Kidd,1960
Billy Liar, Keith Waterhouse, 1959
The Leopard, Giuseppe Di Lampedusa, 1958
On The Road, Jack Kerouac, 1957
The Hidden Persuaders, Vance Packard, 1957
Room at the Top, John Braine, 1957
A Grave for a Dolphin, Alberto Denti di Pirajno, 1956
The Outsider, Colin Wilson, 1956Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov, 1955
Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell, 1949
The Street, Ann Petry, 1946
Black Boy, Richard Wright, 1945

Read more about the exhibition here.