Laura Shumaker

The House Guest

Posted by Laura Shumaker | Jul 1, 2007 | Feature |

It was July 30, and the first day of relief from a record- breaking heat wave in the San Francisco...

Summer Reading —A collection of essays

Posted by Laura Shumaker | Jul 1, 2007 | Feature |

“Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,” wrote William Shakespeare in Sonnet 18. His comment on the intensity of summer is a theme taken up by our Bay Area bards this month as they describe a near-drowning, an awkward houseguest, teenagers on vert ramps, poignant slices of lemon meringue pie and so much more.

Ask the Expert: Estate Planning with Sara Diamond

by The Monthly Staff | Sep 22, 2021 | Faces of the East Bay, Family Care

The pandemic created the urgency for many East Bay families to set up an estate plan. Richmond Estate Planning Attorney, Sara Diamond answers questions about wills, trusts, powers of attorney and advance health care directives.

Berkeley-based bio honors SF architect Bernard Maybeck’s daughter-in-law

by Pam Valois | Jul 29, 2021 | Architecture, Faces of the East Bay, History

Jacomena van Huizen Maybeck’s life began in 1901 on a Javanese sugar plantation and ended ninety-five years later in her house in the Berkeley hills. I met her in 1977, as my boyfriend and I followed the rumors of a unique cottage for rent. From the time of our first...