July 11, Friday evening -- Reading Gregory Maguire

At the de Young museum in Golden Gate Park, before the band played


Reading Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, by Gregory Maguire. He's read it before but wants to refresh his memory before reading the sequel.

Recently he's read something by Ian Rankin; Janet Evanovitch's latest Stephanie Plum novel, Lean Mean Thirteen; and Stephenie Meyer's latest book, Host.

His favorite book of all time--The Sand Pebbles, by Richard McKenna, about the Boxer Rebellion.

When he was a kid he liked Tom Clancy and C.S. Lewis.

His own book--he'd write a book about being a stage hand; that is, what he's doing right now. He's waiting for the band to come on. Friday nights are great at the de Young--live music, a dinner menu, cocktails served in compostable glasses that you can drink on a patio area with grass so green you want to do headstands....which I tried and failed miserably until my sister (who is reading Orhan Pamuk's Istanbul and is going to Istanbul tomorrow) held my feet up.

Does anyone remember/know the name of the artist who created the wallsized piece behind the reader?