The Days of Anna Madrigal

You might have grown up like me, reading the the nine-volume Tales of the City series written by Armistead Maupin.  The books began in 1976 as a serial story in a San Francisco newspaper and the first three books (Tales of the City, More Tales of the City and Further Tales of the City) were made into a television miniseries starring Olympia Dukakis and Laura Linney.  One of Maupin's other books, The Night Listener was also made into a film starring Robin Williams and Toni Collette and a stage-musical version of Tales of the City premiered at San Francisco's American Conservancy Theater in May 2011.  The Tales of the City books discuss the stories of several inhabitants of an apartment building in San Francisco, run by the beloved and fabulous Anna Madrigal.  In the latest book in the series, The Days of Anna Madrigal, Anna is 92 and committed to the notion of "leaving like a lady."  Mrs. Madrigal

has found peace with her "family of choice" and is patiently living her life.  Some members of Anna's chosen family are traveling to Burning Man, the art community in Nevada's Black Rock Desert where 60,000 revelers gather to construct a city designed to last only one week, and want her to travel with them, but she has another destination in mind--Winnemucca, Nevada, her Depression-era childhood home.  Anna hopes to attend to some unfinished business before she gracefully lives out her life, and face some demons she has long avoided. If you wish to read the series, you must start from the beginning, because the each book begins where the last one ends.  Armistead Maupin was the 2012 recipient of the Lambda Literary Foundation's Pioneer Award, and may be contacted at www. armisteadmaupin.com or at www.facebook.com/ArmisteadMaupinAuthor.

Mary Ann in Autumn

I remember voraciously reading Armistead Maupin's "Tales of the City" series when they were first published and I have remained a fan ever since. I especially enjoyed meeting him many years ago at a breakfast when I attended the American Library Association's Conference in San Francisco. Maupin has recently written a new installment in the Tales of the City series, starring Mary Ann Singleton, one of my favorite characters. In Mary Ann in Autumn, Maupin revisits the characters who used to live in the apartments on 28 Barbary Lane, cared for by the stately Anna Madrigal. In this book, Mary Ann has returned to San Francisco to receive a hysterectomy because she has cancer. She is staying with Michael "Mouse" as she recovers and it is wonderful to experience her return as she experiences it. This book is the eighth one in the series and it does a fabulous job of describing the city of San Francisco and its unique neighborhoods and people. The books read like a soap opera,and I always enjoy the twists and turns until Maupin tidies up the story at the end of the story. This is a truly delightful book! If you have never read the series, start with the first volume, Tales of the City---you MUST read them in order because a lot of things occur and build on each other and you'll be disappointed if you skip one!