Sierra Madre just finished One Book One City, reading one of my all-time favorites: Zorro, by Isabel Allende. Zorro is among Allende’s lighter works (not much magical realism, but a healthy dose of feminism, and family-friendly on the love scenes). It’s a headlong but thoughtful re-imagining of our own California Robin Hood epic, starring the San Gabriel Mission (though Palos Verdes and Barcelona make appearances, too). I was hooked from the first page; the book is Dickensian in scope and plotting, detailing the social conflicts among the colliding worlds of native tribes, Spaniards and Americans in early California. I liked it so much on paper that I bought the audio version; Blair Brown rolls her R’s with such conviction you can almost imagine Isabel herself reading to you by a roaring fire.