1: great orientation for newcomers
It can be hard to find in-depth introductions to the East Bay, which, though lovely and a big city in its own right, is generally overshadowed by the glamor and tourist-readiness of San Francisco. This fills that gap.
The author has been a long-term newspaper reporter in the area, and the writing has the great casual assurance that only years of professional experience, *plus* first-hand understanding and affection, can easily convey. So much guidebook writing is such hackwork, a boosterish string of addresses and cliches, but the narrative here has intelligence, a sense of recent history and occasionally some understated-yet-sharp insights behind its listings and descriptions.
While most of the book focuses on Berkeley and Oakland, the author also gives some attention to "beyond the tunnel" -- the suburbs that are inland from O & B. This wasn't important to me, but could be useful as an even-rarer info source for folks who are looking to live in or visit those communities.
So far, I've used the book as background info for an apartment hunt in Oakland and Berkeley in preparation for an upcoming move. Oddly, one of the more useful sections for this was the "Shopping Districts." Although I had zero plans to buy anything in a "cute shop," knowing where the little neighborhood mainstreets were made it easier for me to judge whether potential apartments were in walkable neighborhoods, and the description of the mix of stores gave me a sense of whether I'd find the shopping useful, rather than malled-out or gentrified.
Once I get there, I definitely plan to consult the book some more, for restaurants, festivals, parks, etc.
If I had any gripe, it might be the design and layout, which does *not* negatively affect the content, but makes me think the publisher was cheaping out a little. The cover is really bland, with that over-familiar Cal gate, and what's up with the way-early-90s purple-and-green "desktop publishing" fade-effects? The visual presentation gives Oakland and Berkeley short shrift as cities, implying that the university is the only interesting thing. The text inside seems to have been mostly flowed-in and auto-formatted -- if you're looking for large-ish text, great, but if you like information presented compactly and efficiently, well, get your page-turnin' finger ready! Repeat: That's no gripe on the above-average writing and helpful info, though, which makes up for the basic design.
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