SAN FRANCISCO: City on Golden Hills

A gift book combining the talents and style of top resident columnist and perennial Caen (Only In...Herb Caen's S.F., Baghdad by the Bay. Don't Call it Frisco) and artist Kingman is a brand name item with a distinctive flavor associated with San Francisco. Herb Caen's jazzy impressionism takes in the sights on Market Street and elsewhere, recalls the days when every other home was a house, takes on the coloration of ""a hopeless nostalcoholic."" His unwearying spiel (not his best) is spelled by Kingman's attractive, controlled watercolors. Not a formal portrait but the scene, downbeat.