November 4, 2007 - Sunday afternoon

In Dolores Park, enjoying the sun and reading Prince of Thieves, by Chuck Hogan.

When it was raining the other day she stepped into a bookstore to stay dry and found it when she was browsing around. She bought it because she liked the cover...and because it looked good. It's about a bank robber who falls in love with a bank manager. Generally she gets her books not from bookstores, but from friends.

She moved to San Francisco in January and has recently read Tales of the City, by Armistead Maupin. She likes all the characters—they’re so different and magical, and is looking forward to reading the other books in the series.

Most of her reading, though, is in French, as that's what her background is. Something good she’s read in French -- Soie, which means silk, by Alejandro Baricco. It’s about a French gentleman who sells silk and his silk worms die because of an epidemic, so he goes to Japan to get more worms and while he is there he falls in love with a Japanese woman. This is problematic, not only because he speaks no Japanese and she speaks no French, but also, more significantly, because he’s married to a French woman back home. The author is Italian.

A good French author she likes—the poet, Joachim du Bellay.

If she were to write her own book it would be about a journey around the world, filled with meetings with people of different backgrounds. She is French, but was born in the Philippines, grew up in Japan, studied in England, and has lived and visited in many other places as well....including lovely San Francisco.