.Best Local GuidebookLooking for a queer Laundromat?

Clearly it’s not for everybody, but this doorstop-size guide to all things gay, lesbian, bi, and transgendered from the East Bay hills to the sea beneath Land’s End is a scream to read. It’s lit with a bold but often hilarious honesty as decisively droll coauthors Betty Pearl and Pansy dissect more than 350 bars, clubs, cafes, restaurants, gyms, hotels, bathhouses, theaters, museums, shops, tourist meccas, annual events, nearby resorts, and cultural attractions from the obvious to the insiders-only. Where to go if you’re deaf and queer; a queer of color; queer and looking for a Laundromat? Now in its seventh edition, published by San Francisco’s Cleis Press, it’s as useful for the visitor as for the permanent resident and the new arrival striving to choose a neighborhood in which to settle. And it’s packed with the sorts of facts you’ll never find in Fodor’s, such as where to find tearooms — but not the kind with crumpets.