$19.95 |
Explore the Famous Sites, Neighborhoods, and Vistas in 17 Enchanting Walks by Kristine Poggioli and Carolyn Eidson Every visitor to San Francisco has seen the classic roadside signs showing a seagull that beckons motorists to follow the famous 49 Mile Scenic Drive. Walking San Francisco’s 49 Mile Scenic Drive shows how walking—rather than driving—San Francisco’s famous scenic route gives both tourists and natives an active, funway to enjoy and fall in love with the most beautiful city in the world. Walking San Francisco’s 49 Mile Scenic Drive invites readers to explore quirky locales face-to-face, so they can fully savor the City’s beauty and cultural riches — while also enjoying a healthy urban hike. Written by two long-time San Franciscans who have explored every nook and cranny of the 49 Mile Drive, Walking San Francisco’s 49 Mile Scenic Drive presents 17 bite-size walks, complete with turn-by-turn instructions, maps, and historical facts and information. Each chapter introduces the sights, landmarks and secret treasures of a specific San Francisco neighborhood, while leading the reader along a route that will pro vide healthy exercise for both brisk and sedate walkers. Each chapter includes detailed maps, points of interest, info on bus routes and parking, recommendations for visiting hidden gems and must-see museums, plus plenty of tips and stats to help walkers, such as step counts and mile distances, hill steepness rating, weather tips and more. The perfect guidebook for today’s urban enthusiast who values walkable neighborhoods, hyperlocal culture and the pleasure and health benefits of walking, Walking San Francisco’s 49 Mile Scenic Drive is the most intimate way to explore one of America’s greatest cities. Audience: San Francisco Bay Area residents, visitors to San Francisco, urban enthusiasts and hikers. About the Authors: Kristine Poggioli is a native San Franciscan, copywriter and storyteller. Carolyn Eidson is an award-winning filmmaker and comedian. Together, they are the first people to have walked the entire length of San Francisco’s 49 Mile Scenic Drive, resulting in a combined 75-pound weight loss. $19.95 • Trade Paperback • 6" x 9" • 180 pages ISBN 978-1-61035-279-6
$16.95 $10.17 |
Even celebrities die — and he was the man who picked up the bodies! Allan Abbott ran the leading mortuary in Hollywood and got an unprecedented glimpse of how celebrities really live and die. The Forrest Gump of the funeral industry, Abbott was everywhere celebrities died, from helping to prepare Marilyn Monroe’s body to standing next to Christopher Walken at Natalie Wood’s funeral. Now in his new memoir Pardon My Hearse, Abbott tells the rags-to-shroud story of how he went from a young man with a hearse to the funeral director to the stars — a rollicking, unexpectedly hilarious story of glamorous funerals, mishaps with corpses and true-life glimpses of celebrities at their most revealing moments. When he wasn’t transporting celebrity corpses, Abbott used his funeral limos to transport living celebrities to Hollywood parties and rented his vast collection of cars and funeral props to movie and TV productions. Pardon My Hearse presents a dazzling A-List of celebrities, living and dead, whom Abbott encountered during his career, including Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Joe DiMaggio, Robert Redford, Frank Sinatra and others. Pardon My Hearse takes readers behind the scenes to tell the secrets of Marilyn Monroe’s funeral (where Abbott acquired the most unlikely souvenir of Monroe’s falsies) and dishes the inside story of disgraced crematorium operator David Sconce, who ordered an attack on Abbott’s business partner Ron Hast to cover up Sconce’s criminal mishandling of bodies and remains. Abbott also shares gruesome details of removing corpses from the devastation of the 1971 Sylmar earthquake, reburying corpses dislodged from the 1978 mudslide that swept through the Verdugo Hills Cemetery and more. A treasure trove of insight and gossip you can’t get anywhere else, Pardon My Hearse is an eye-opening look at secret Hollywood from the man who literally knows where the bodies are buried.
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?Showdown!: Lionhearted Lawmen of Old California? is a engaging collection of six biographies of early California lawmen: Sheriff John Bogard of Tehama County, Detective Emil Harris of Los Angeles, Deputy Sheriff Hiram Rapelje of central California, William J. Howard of Mariposa County, Sheriff David Douglas of Nevada County, and Lafayette Choisser of Mariposa County. Punctuated by gunshots and posse hoofbeats, these true tales illustrate, in both words and illustrations, the perilous lives of Old California?s brave lawmen, and vividly describe a time now gone forever. The courageous men profiled in this book were all colorful personalities. Hiram Rapelje rose to the heights, and depths, of his profession, while Emil Harris was a widely known detective throughout the state. William J. Howard was a member of Harry Love?s California Rangers that tracked down Joaquin Murrieta. Sheriffs Bogard and Douglas were both killed in the line of duty in dramatic showdowns.
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The biography of Charles de Foucauld, a French nobleman who put off the trappings of nobility and a career in the military to take on the ascetic life of a desert priest. An amazing story of self discipline, courage and self sacrifice. Foucauld transformed himself from a high living nobleman to a desert priest who found his life work in the deep Sahara.
$15.95 $9.57 |
In the late 19th century, Christopher Evans, a former scout for George Custer?s 7th Cavalry, and John Sontag, an ex-railroad man, became the most wanted criminals in all of California. What series of events could have transformed such men into despised outlaws? How did Evans and Sontag end up in a frenzied life and death struggle with the law? Prodigal Sons tells the exciting and entertaining saga of these two men, detailing their lives from childhood until the aftermath of their violent collision with the powerful interests controlling California at that time. The cast of real-life characters enmeshed in this lurid account include the Dalton gang, U.S. Marshal Vernon C. Wilson (who boasted he had 27 notches on his gun and Evans and Sontag would make 29), Pelon and Jericho, the Southern Pacific Railroad, and Wells Fargo & Co.
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Downtown Fresno?s historic architecture comes to life once more in this review of remarkable buildings. Stunning watercolor portraits, paired with brief passages that address each of the 24 buildings? rich past, highlight a variety of extant structures. Images of buildings familiar to local residents, including City Hall, the Brix Mansion, and Fire Department Station #3, accompany other landmarks famous even beyond the city limits, among them the original McDonald?s restaurant and the Russ Clements Service Station. A useful glossary of architectural terms and additional images of key architectural points complete a fascinating look at Fresno?s charming local heritage.