A review by poke_it
Cool Gray City of love: 49 Views of San Francisco by Gary Kamiya

2.0

I really wanted to like this book more than I did. I enjoyed the premise and I think it's clear that Kamiya loves this city. But I just struggled to get into the structure. I think perhaps I brought an expectation to the book that would have engaged more directly with the history of the city, including more minor personal insight. But I found the actual personal insight to overshadow and diminish the rest of the history of the city. Again, that may be my own fault for not having the appropriate frame of mind to read this, but I think that the personal insight Kamiya offers at times feels too shallow, and thus the historical work that he does gets washed away, like so many ships that were marooned in the Bay during the gold rush.