Book
Anne Lamott: Grace (Eventually)
(RiverHead books)
This being the third book from Anne Lamott with “thoughts on faith” in the subtitle, it’s fair to ask whether she’s just doing schtick now. Maybe, but even so: alert, twitchy, humane, self-effacing, progressive Christian, piecemeal recovery memoirs don’t get much better. Jaunting through familiar but not always comfortable territory, Lamott negotiates relations with her late parents, her son, her politicians, her god, and her all-powerful inner critic. What she’s after here is what we all deserve: a bit more than “the spiritual authority of someone chirping ‘No worries!’ at Starbucks.” What she has is soul and a needed light touch. So what if it’s more of the same? Reading any Lamott essay feels like taking a constitutional or catching up with a cherished friend. Even when she wears you out, you adore her. B+
JONATHAN KIEFER

CD
Paula Frazer and Tarnation: Now It's Time
(Bridman)
Paula Frazer is the grand dame of the Bay Area alt-country scene. In fact, her musical roots go back to the ’80s, when she played guitar with alterna-metalers Faith No More and girl punks Frightwig. But she’s best known for Tarnation’s two triumphant discs, 1995’s Gentle Creatures and 1997’s Mirador, which combined ethereal British pop with the country traditions of her Georgia beginnings. After releasing Mirador, Frazer retired Tarnation and took to crafting solo works enamored of the gritty, dusty sound tracks of composer Ennio Morricone (For a Few Dollars More and more). With this CD, the one-time Bernal Heights resident resurrects Tarnation’s name and its lush, epic sound, although without any of her original band members. Once called the “Patsy Cline of the apocalypse,” Frazer seems to have come to terms with her inner demons on tracks like “All the Time,” leavening her dark meditations with the occasional optimistic line and upbeat falsetto melody. Also, longtime collaborator Patrick Main now bathes her gorgeous voice in warm keyboard washes and jaunty piano figures, making sure that her lyrical profundity doesn’t overwhelm the listener. The result is like a meatier K.D. Lang or Chris Isaak: melancholic and moody, certainly, but oh so pretty. A-
DAN STRACHOTA

Book
Catherine Crier: Final Analysis
(Regan)
Co-written (hastily, one suspects) with Cole Thompson, “the untold story of the Susan Polk murder case” ought to offer the perfect locally tuned guilty pleasure, dishing all the dirt on the Bay Area’s most famous desperate housewife. What led Susan Polk to stab her husband, Felix, 27 times—in the pool house, no less? Was it self-defense or cold-blooded murder? Why did she choose to represent herself in court? Which son was telling the truth on the witness stand? If these questions riveted you when the Polk saga began drawing headlines, then by all means, dive in. But prepare to drown in a sea of details. Crier and Thompson provide an exhaustive account of every aspect of the case, complete with photos, court records, and information from

Crier’s own coverage on Court TV. Unfortunately, the drama unfolds with all the style and juice of a court transcript. Filled with clunky prose and warmed-over insights, Final Analysis feels less like getting a guided tour of the Polks’ gilded closets than like being plunged face first into a basket of their dirty laundry. C-
SHEERLY AVNI

Website
www.mogopop.com
One drawback of the iPod is that it’s difficult to share content with friends, let alone the rest of the world. This new site makes it a lot easier. Think of it as a YouTube of iPod-size websites that you can create and download to your iPod for free. With almost no technical skills—if I can do it, a 3-year-old can—you can create, for instance, a profile of your indie band complete with sample tracks; a guide to the city’s best wine bars with a map (please); or a personal bio with a resume, video, and sound track. On my iPod, using relatively few megabytes, I have an In-N-Out Burger locator, the complete works of Edgar Allan Poe, a profile of Bay Area rapper Yung Mars with free tracks, and a video-rental guide for those crisis nights at Blockbuster. One downside is that you can’t see much of the Mogopop modules before downloading them, although the interface is nicely streamlined. Who knows? With the release of the iPhone, “mogopop” could soon be a verb. A-
JAIMAL YOGIS

Book
Thomas McNamee: Alice Waters and Chez Panisse
(the penguin press)
Alice Waters, the visionary behind Berkeley’s famed Chez Panisse, is perhaps the closest thing the Bay Area has to a living saint. Thankfully, although McNamee, who has written for the New Yorker and the Washington Post, was handpicked by Waters to write her life story, this is no hagiography. McNamee unflinchingly highlights his subject’s many idiosyncrasies, including her struggle for perfection, her messianic drive, even her penchant for younger men. The result is a portrait that captures the woman behind the media-savvy figurehead. Food dorks in particular
will enjoy the freewheeling recipes and the behind-the-scenes glimpses of the restaurant’s inner workings. McNamee’s objectivity slips, though, when he writes about the utopian goals of the restaurant and its like-minded peers. If he is to be believed, the Slow Food movement that Waters champions is saving Italy from the crush of modernity, and most anyone who has worked at Chez Panisse over the past 35 years, and lasted, must be brilliant. It’s hard to argue with Waters’s lofty goals, but they would be easier to stomach if the writer discussing them had not been seduced by devouring perhaps one too many goat cheese and mesclun salads. B
Scott Hocker