December 8, 2007 -- Saturday afternoon

At the foot of Lombard Street

Reading Rule of the Bone, by Russell Banks. She's traveling around the world and picked this up at a used bookstore here in San Francisco.

Favorites include Ian Rankin, who writes crime thrillers and lives in Edinburgh, her hometown; John Irving's Widow for One Year; and Scarlett Thomas, for how well she researches her books, for the puzzles she creates, and the characters, who are are usually females with interesting homeopathy.