San Francisco Guide Books

Frommer's Napa & Sonoma Day by Day

Frommer's San Francisco 2009

Michelin Red Guide San Francisco 2008: Bay Area and Wine Country 4 stars

Circling San Francisco Bay: A Pilgrimage to Wild and Sacred Places by Ginny Anderson
This book lights the way for readers to forge a deeper link between themselves and the natural world, as it explores the meaning and connections between sacred place, personal space, open hearts, and intent. It describes the author's pilgrimage as it unfolds in the mountains that surround San Francisco Bay, and invites the reader to embark on one as well.

Birds of San Francisco and the Bay Area
by Chris C. Fisher
We have an amazing assortment of beautiful birds here,Yes I know we have a lot of bird-brained people too.

Bay Area Wild :By Galen Rowell, Michael Sewell(Contributor), David J. Brower
A Celebration of the Natural Heritage of the San Francisco Bay Area

Ghost Hunter's Guide to the San Francisco Bay Area

San Francisco As You Like It: 23 Tailor-Made Tours for Culture Vultures, Shopaholics, Neo-Bohemians, Famished Foodies, Savvy Natives & Everyone Else

The Cafes of San Francisco: A Guide to the Sights, Sounds, and Tastes of America's Original Cafe Society guide to the cosmopolitan San Francisco Bay Area through its unique cafés.Includes over 300 full-color photographs, 35 in-depth profiles, a directory of more than 340 cafes, and café stories, thoughts, and recipes from café lovers including former Mayor Willie L. Brown Jr., Francis Ford Coppola, Chef Joey Altman, Caffe Trieste, Jane.org, Absinthe, Zero Degree, Caffe Proust, The Republic of Tea, and more

Stairway Walks in San Francisco
by Adah Bakalinsky, Marian Gregoire
Veteran walker Adah Bakalinsky has combined dozens of her favorite stairways into these guided neighborhood walks, each with its own unique personality.

San Francisco: The Unknown City by Josh Krist
The Unknown City series of alternative guidebooks shares stories of notorious murders, city hall scandals, and untold tales of Chinatown, Haight-Ashbury, and Castro Street share pages with secret dining pleasures, shopping meccas, and nightclub hotspots.

Night+Day San Francisco(Pulse Guides Cool Cities Series) 
The debut of this new book series Pulse Guides Cool Cities Series) by Julianne Balmain and Kate Chynoweth looks at the hip cool as well as the classic spots and activities that make up San Francisco's unique character.

Walking San Francisco
This selection of San Francisco walking tours is the most diverse and complete. Not only are familiar and less familiar parts of the city covered, but also how to reach starting points by pubic transportation (vital for pedestrians), time required, degree of difficulty, and special points to note. It's a great introduction to this fair city.

Walking San Francisco: 30 Savvy Tours Exploring Steep Streets, Grand Hotels, Dive Bars, and Waterfront Parks  by Tom Downs

Plants of the San Francisco Bay Region: Mendocino to Monterey, Revised Edition by Linda Beidleman (Author), Eugene Kozloff (Author)

Cruising Guide to San Francisco Bay - 2nd Edition
by Carolyn Mehaffy, Bob Mehaffy

Sailing The Bay
by Kimball Livingston

Golden Gate Gardening: The Complete Guide to Year-Round Food Gardening in the San Francisco Bay Area & Coastal California

Gardening with Heirloom Seeds: Tried-and-True Flowers, Fruits, and Vegetables for a New Generation

Celluloid San Francisco: The Film Lover's Guide to Bay Area Movie Locations
by Jim Van Buskirk, Will Shank
This comprehensive guide to thousands of movie and television locations in the San Francisco Bay area includes easy-to-follow maps to identify significant historical film sites.

San Francisco Noir by Nathaniel Rich
In this guide to the great films noir and the locations where they were shot, the mythic noir city meets San Francisco‛s own dark past. Photographs and period film stills are included.
"Nathaniel Rich has written a fascinating work of criticism disguised as a guided tour around a great city."..Martin Scorsese

Secret San Francisco: The Unique Guidebook to San Francisco's Hidden Sites, Sounds, & Tastes by David Armstrong
Secret San Francisco was written to help you lose yourself in the city and come to know it the way locals do. So you'll fall in love with San Francisco, but your love won't be blind.

The Cheap Bastard's Guide to San Francisco: Secrets of Living the Good Life--for Free! by Karen Solomon
First edition September 1, 2007
A San Francisco insider reveals, with wit and humor, hundreds of ideas for free or ridiculously cheap goods and services.
Self described certified cheap bastard Karen Solomon is a writer for San Francisco Magazine and SFGate.com and a contributor to Chow! San Francisco Bay Area. She lives in San Francisco.

Stairway Walks in San Francisco
A wonderfully informative guidebook, custom-made for a city with challenging hills and picture-perfect views. Painstakingly indexed and chock full of fascinating details...an exciting and valuable resource for lifelong residents and first-time visitors alike.

 Streetwise San Francisco
Revised yearly, STREETWISE(r) is the best-selling map of SAN FRANCISCO, with coverage from McLaren Park to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Localities covered are Fisherman Wharf, China Town, and Golden Gate Park. Points of interest such as museums, hotels, parks, and popular sites are highlighted and fully indexed. Bus routes are clearly indicated on a map inset. Laminated for durability, accordion folded to fit in your pocket or purse, STREETWISE(r) gives you SAN FRANCISCO in a clear, concise, and convenient format.

Travelers' Tales San Francisco: True Stories
From the Pacific surf to Nob Hill to Chinatown, the legendary City by the Bay comes to life in this diverse collection of essays celebrating America's favorite playground. Skate through the wonders of Golden Gate Park, discover culinary delights in the Mission, and relive the days of the gold rush with these true stories written by Andrei Codrescu, Barnaby Conrad, Herbert Gold, Michele Anna Jordan, Herb Caen, Linda Watanabe McFerrin and Richard Rodriguez.

Time Out San Francisco Seventh edition(May 28, 2008)
Time Out guide takes visitors through the boulevards and byways of a world-class city. Informed locals profile the cultural background and how to make the most of it, from San Francisco's Gold Rush origins to its beatnik and hippie subcultures. Here too are the best ways to enjoy the city's renowned gay scene, its superb walking-tour opportunities, and the outlying Wine Country.

LITTLE BLACK BOOK OF SAN FRANCISCO by Marlene Goldman (Author), Kerren Barbas Steckler (Illustrator)
I do feel a bit sad when I see tourists doing the same things, going to top 5 places in our city and missing so much more of its flavor without even realizing it. For me one the best things to do in San Francisco is to explore the neighborhoods. I am always partial to Guideboodks that offer more than just the usual rounds, This little book has many different suggestions and includes pull out maps to some of our most chrming neighborhoods.

Literary Hills of San Francisco by Luree Miller
Mark Twain, Robert Louis Stevenson,John Muir, Robert Frost, Jack London, Eugene O'Neill, Shirley Jackson, Alice B. Toklas, Armistead Maupin, Oscar Wilde,Kipling, Kerouac, Maya Angelou, and Amy Tan, all enjoyed their time here as many writers still do. This book tells of the different neighborhoods they lived in as well as how they spent their days. Each chapter has a suggested walking tour with map and points of literary and historical interest

CHILDREN

Good Night San Francisco (Good Night Our World series)
by Adam Gamble, Santiago Cohen (Illustrator)
Ages 4-8

Play Around the Bay: A Guide to Bay Area Outings for Parents of Young Children
by Robin Bennett (Editor)

Maybelle the Cable Car
by Virginia Lee Burton

Reading level: Ages 4-8

City by the Bay: A Magical Journey Around San Francisco
by Tricia Brown, Junior League of San Francisco, Elisa Kleven (Illustrator)
Reading level: Ages 4-8

Pop's Bridge by Eve Bunting, C.F. Payne (Illustrator)
( Ages: 5 to 8 years )
A picture book about the building of the Golden Gate bridge, told from the point of view of a boy whose father is on the crew.
Also includes lengthy note that fills in detailed background information about the famous bridge.
interview with author, Eve Bunting

The lilaguide: Baby-Friendly San Francisco Bay Area, 2005: New Parent Survival Guide to Shopping, Activities, Restaurants and More

Fodor's Around San Francisco with Kids, 3rd Edition: 68 Great Things to Do Together (Around the City with Kids)

Fly High, Fly Low
by Don Freeman (Illustrator)
All Ages
Read it aloud to ages 3 to 6

This is San Francisco by Miroslav Sasek
(Ages 4-8)
This 2003 reissue edition also includes a number of annotations about how certain locales have changed since the book was first published in 1962. "City by the Golden Gate, Queen of the West, with only one drawback - "'tis hard to leave" M. Sasek echoes Kipling with more views than the 42 hills. The bridge across the bay; Golden Gate Park with 1,000,000 trees; Stow Lake and koala bears; Chinatown's Grant Avenue; Peking ducks and pagoda phone booths; Union Square, Presidio, Alcatraz, City Hall and Fisherman's Wharf.Foggy day, bright blue sky - This is San Francisco!...Childrens Nonfiction

Guy Fox San Francisco Children's Map
by Kourtney Harper (Illustrator)
March 1, 2007
(Ages 4-8)

Earthquake in the Early Morning
Mary Pope Osborne's tremendously popular Magic Tree House series offers young readers a chance to immerse themselves in spellbinding adventures even as they learn about history. The terrible San Francisco earthquake is described with great historical accuracy, but with admirable age-appropriateness. (Ages 5 to 8) --Emilie Coulter

West from Home: Letters of Laura Ingalls Wilder, San Francisco, 1915 by Laura Ingalls Wilder
{Ages 9-12)
Laura Ingalls Wilder was born in 1867 in the log cabin described in Little House in the Big Woods. As her classic Little House books tell us, she and her family traveled by covered wagon across the Midwest. She and her husband, Almanzo Wilder, made their own covered-wagon trip with their daughter, Rose, to Mansfield, Missouri. There Laura wrote her story in the Little House books, and lived until she was ninety years old. For millions of readers, however, she lives forever as the little pioneer girl in the beloved Little House books.

Journey Around San Francisco from A to Z (Journey Series) by Martha Day Zschock
(Ages 4-8)
A charmingly illustrated book with friendly pelican guides to take you on a tour of San Francisco. My grandson is especially fond of this book. and enjoys reading it reading to his younger cousins when they come to visit.

The Balloon Boy of San Francisco
By Dorothy Kupcha Leland.
"A delightful read for children and adults alike"
Newsboy "Ready" Gates, as his nickname implies, is ready for anything. For starters, the plucky redhead stows away on a riverboat, searches for a lost miner, meets the glamorous Lola Montez, and flies in a runaway balloon. Based on real people and events, the fictionalized story immerses readers in the sights, sounds, and smells of San Francisco at the height of the Gold Rush. Grade 4