Why is Berkeley famous worldwide? Because of its inventiveness, its liberal attitudes, and its artists and writers. Did you know that public radio, California cuisine, the lie detector, the atomic bomb, free speech, the hot tub, and yuppies were all invented in this all-American city? J. Stitt Wilson, Berkeley's first Socialist mayor, once said, "Any kind of a day in Berkeley seems sweeter than the best day anywhere else." In How Berkeley Became Berkeley, Dave Weinstein goes about showing us just that. He tells the story of this unique city from the beginning-the 1840s-to present day by focusing on the events and people that made Berkeley into the famous-and infamous-place that it continues to be. More than any other general book about Berkeley, How Berkeley Became Berkeley brings the history of the town and the university to life with anecdotes that are amusing, surprising, sometimes shocking, and often touching. Dave Weinstein, a native of Long Island, New York, received his undergraduate degree in art history at Columbia University in 1973, and then studied journalism at UC Berkeley. He has lived in the Bay Area for thirty years, and spent twenty years as a reporter and editor for daily newspapers. Dave has written two books, Signature Architects of the San Francisco Bay Area, and the text for a photo book Berkeley Rocks. He writes for the magazine CA Modern, and for four years has been writing a popular series of architect profiles for the San Francisco Chronicle.

This book is a memoir and a history of Berkeley in the early Sixties. As a young undergraduate, Jo Freeman was a key participant in the growth of social activism at the University of California, Berkeley. The story is told with the "you are there" immediacy of Freeman the undergraduate but is put into historical and political context by Freeman the scholar, 35 years later. It draws heavily on documents created at the time--letters, reports, interviews, memos, newspaper stories, FBI files--but is fleshed out with retrospective analysis. As events unfold, the campus conflicts of the Sixties take on a completely different cast, one that may surprise many readers.

"A sweeping panorama of Berkeley by one of California's finest historians. Wollenberg knows this city like no one else, and he has the rare capacity to link a compelling local narrative to larger currents in American politics, economics and culture. This book has no rivals. Anyone who cares about Berkeley—and there are many—will devour it with pleasure."—Richard Walker, Professor of Geography, University of California, Berkeley

The Great Depression was defined by poverty and despair, but visionary American filmmaker Busby Berkeley (1895-1976) managed to divert the public's attention away from the economic crash with some of the most iconic movies of all time. Known for his kaleidoscopic dance numbers featuring multitudes of performers in extravagant costumes, his musicals provided a brief respite for an audience whose reality was hard and bitter. Buzz: The Life and Art of Busby Berkeley is a revealing study of the director, drawing from interviews with his colleagues, newspaper and legal records, and Berkeley's own unpublished memoirs to uncover the life of a Hollywood legend renowned for his talent and creativity. Jeffrey Spivak examines how Berkeley's career evolved from creating musical numbers for other directors in films such as 42nd Street (1933) and Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933) to directing his own pictures, such as Strike up the Band (1940) and The Gang's All Here (1943). Though Berkeley claimed he was no choreographer, his movies revitalized the public's waning interest in musical pictures. While other popular filmmakers advertised their works specifically as nonmusical, Berkeley embraced his niche, eventually becoming the premier dance director of his time. However, the happy face Berkeley presented publicly did not necessarily reflect his life. Offstage and away from the set, the director met with scandal, and his fondness for liquor and women was well known. In September 1935, he was involved in a car accident that left three people dead and four others severely injured. Accused of driving under the influence, he was put on trial for second-degree murder. The accident significantly changed the nature of his stardom.

A long time Bay Area writer and journalist explores residential San Francisco architecture and fifteen of the lesser-known architects who designed the homes, including a summary of each architects' birth and death dates, style, active projects, famous projects, and a list of houses to visit. h formality without stuffiness. Faudree is a designer wit iture. Plus, learn how to discover additional storage nooks around the house. Ideal for anyone looking to reorganize, this book includes ways to contain hobbies, collections, tools, office materials, media, and more; and great ideas for using outbuildings and sheds for additional storage. 'Home Storage' is an essential resource. ovided by the nation's top designers and architects; construction blueprints available for every home; and planning and design advice, and tips throughout. lanning on building a shed or having one installed on a property. A complete guide to the types of sheds available, it offers tips for adding storage systems and other accessories, and building information that is geared to both the novice do-it-you rselfer and ith maps, photographs, illustrations, and at the out

The story of five students who try to solve a mystery that has baffled theologians for centuries. -- front cover

A Lithub, Good Reads, Bustle, and The Millions Most Anticipated Book of 2021 "The Vietri Project is a riveting, shifting quest, an evocative trip to Rome, and a beautiful portrayal of the ways you need to return to the past in order to move forward. A great delight from start to finish.”--Lily King, New York Times bestselling author of Writers and Lovers A search for a mysterious customer in Rome leads a young bookseller to confront the complicated history of her family, and that of Italy itself, in this achingly intimate debut with echoes of Lily King and Elif Batuman. Working at a bookstore in Berkeley in the years after college, Gabriele becomes intrigued by the orders of signor Vietri, a customer from Rome whose numerous purchases grow increasingly mystical and esoteric. Restless and uncertain of her future, Gabriele quits her job and, landing in Rome, decides to look up Vietri. Unable to locate him, she begins a quest to unearth the well-concealed facts of his life. Following a trail of obituaries and military records, a memoir of life in a village forgotten by modernity, and the court records of a communist murder trial, Gabriele meets an eclectic assortment of the city’s inhabitants, from the widow of an Italian prisoner of war to members of a generation set adrift by the financial crisis. Each encounter draws her unexpectedly closer to her own painful past and complicated family history—an Italian mother diagnosed with schizophrenia and institutionalized during her childhood, and an extended family in Rome still recovering from the losses and betrayals in their past. Through these voices and histories, Gabriele will discover what it means to be a person in the world; a member of a family and a citizen of a country—and how reconciling these stories may be the key to understanding her own.