Floating in Sausalito

This oversized photography book showcases the charming houseboat community in Sausalito, a small coastal town on the northern side of the Golden Gate Bridge in California. The community, one of the largest houseboat communities in the U.S., is a hippie’s dream. It sprang up in the 1960s thanks to the benign neglect of a former shipyard owner, and still bobs along with both the tides and the music of Moby Grape and Big Brother and the Holding Company (both of whom played there). Originally a destination for free spirits, the community of over 400 floating homes has more recently been sustained by the ample wealth in the Bay Area. In addition to photo tours inside some of the houses, the book provides a light history of the community, including the so-called “Houseboat Wars” that took place when local authorities hoping to develop the waterfront tried to relocate the residents. There are also interviews with key denizens, such as two nonagenarians who reside on a balloon barge that was once the home of Shel Silverstein. The community is still a beautifully unconventional site, handsomely documented in the book, with houseboats such as the Unlimited Joy, Esperanza, and Chateau Bateau boasting more visual variety than the most bohemian of neighborhoods on that squarest of surfaces, dry land. Color photos. (Sept.)