A very gossipy account of how the old Hollywood studio system gave in to a new breed of director, starting with the movies Easy Rider and Bonnie and Clyde, peaking with the stunning success of the Godfather movies. The era of artistic and commercial transformation described closed with Jaws and Star Wars, which led to an ongoing obsession with box office grosses and huge opening weekends.

A romance that spans a life, albeit a life that progresses in a most unconventional way - the compelling narrator is a physical oddity who grows young rather than old. The story is largely told in San Francisco, and the period detail describing the young city around the early 20th century is fascinating. The first-person narrator created by Greer is a remarkable storyteller.

A novel in verse set in San Fran and on the Peninsula, with a great cast of characters wondering what it's all about. It might be seen as trite, if it weren't for the success of the mode in which it is told (did that rhyme?).

A group of programmers takes refuge from Microsoft's Washington State to live and work as a unit in Silicon Valley. The plot is decidedly not the point - each brief nugget of a chapter (many of them, in fact) describes the extent to which this self-conscious and heady group dwells - and somehow thrives - on minutiae.

A wealthy-beyond-belief family of contemporary Los Angeles inhabits this Dickensian saga. Of the three generations depicted, the three very privileged children of the family and their adventures take center stage, although a very Anglified, charming gentleman of the streets also takes a bow.

The author planned to write about Silicon Valley and his personal relationship to it, but somehow got sidetracked by the story of his family. Although there is a tragic aspect to its dissolution, Goodell never allows his account to fall into cheap bathos. Silicon Valley is part of the real world after all!