A San Francisco Chronicle sportswriter since 1973, and a sports columnist since 1989, Bruce Jenkins has covered twenty-seven World Series and nineteen Wimbledons. In 1999 he was named one of the nation's top ten columnists in the Associated Press Sports Editors awards and has twice been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. His previous books include Goodbye: In Search of Gordon Jenkins, about his father, A Good Man: The Pete Newell Story, and North Shore Chronicles: Big-Wave Surfing in Hawaii. He lives in Montara, CA, with his wife and daughter.

"I loved it. Bruce Jenkins manages to accomplish the always dangerous task of describing music with words as well as anyone I've read. His knowledge is formidable and his passion is infectious. He can sure write sports, but Bruce missed his calling. He should have been a music critic. Man, does he get it." --Huey Lewis "Bruce Jenkins' Shop Around is a must read for every child of the '60's who ever listened to AM radio. The sounds of Motown and Stax that moved Bruce moved me as well. As a veteran Bay Area bandleader, I still get folks on the dance floor with the wicked grooves of Steve, Marvin and Otis. It took Bruce's book to remind me why I love that music so much to this day." --Dick Bright, San Francisco bandleader and musician. "An absolutely essential read. An awesome story about a priceless time in music history." --Emilio Castillo, bandleader, Tower of Power "A warm and witty memoir about how music binds us all. --Joel Selvin, San Francisco Chronicle pop music critic "I'd read whatever Bruce Jenkins has to write on any subject, but Shop Around is a perfect marriage: Bruce's smooth, rhythmic prose describing his lifelong love of music. The book itself is a song." --Tim Keown, ESPN the Magazine "I always knew Bruce Jenkins was a cool dude, but I didn't know how cool he was until I heard him talking music. You can't be that cool unless you've got some deep roots." --Dusty Baker, author, Kiss the Sky "What do you get when you combine art (Bruce Jenkins' smoooth writing) with heart (his passion for '60s soul music)? Shop Around. It flows like a great Smokey Robinson song and when you come to the end, you'll want to cue it up all over again." --Scott Ostler, San Francisco Chronicle "I fell madly in love with Motown and the sounds of Memphis when I was a junior in high school, A whole new world opened wide. And I knew Bruce Jenkins then; we were classmates at Santa Monica High. After all these years, he's still spinning wonderful yarns on whatever topic moves him, still passionate, entertaining and illuminating. Shop Around took me on an emotional ride that brought a few tears along the way." --Lyle Spencer, former sports columnist, Los Angeles Herald Examiner and Riverside Press-Enterprise "Jenkins' memoir riffs knowingly on Louis Armstrong, Smokey Robinson, Otis Redding, Harry Nilsson, Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, Tower of Power and the masterly studio musicians at Motown and Memphis' Stax label -- among them guitarist Steve Cropper and bassist James Jamerson -- who went uncredited for years. The book takes its title from the 1960 Smokey Robinson & the Miracles hit that turned Jenkins' head around when he was 12. He'd dug the music of Ray Charles, Sam Cooke and Jackie Wilson, but there was something about Robinson's voice and style that was so fresh it floored him." --Jesse Hamlin, San Francisco Chronicle

A San Francisco Chronicle sportswriter since 1973, and a sports columnist since 1989, Bruce Jenkins has covered twenty-seven World Series and nineteen Wimbledons. In 1999 he was named one of the nation's top ten columnists in the Associated Press Sports Editors awards and has twice been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. His previous books include Goodbye: In Search of Gordon Jenkins, about his father, A Good Man: The Pete Newell Story, and North Shore Chronicles: Big-Wave Surfing in Hawaii. He lives in Montara, CA, with his wife and daughter.

"I loved it. Bruce Jenkins manages to accomplish the always dangerous task of describing music with words as well as anyone I've read. His knowledge is formidable and his passion is infectious. He can sure write sports, but Bruce missed his calling. He should have been a music critic. Man, does he get it." --Huey Lewis "Bruce Jenkins' Shop Around is a must read for every child of the '60's who ever listened to AM radio. The sounds of Motown and Stax that moved Bruce moved me as well. As a veteran Bay Area bandleader, I still get folks on the dance floor with the wicked grooves of Steve, Marvin and Otis. It took Bruce's book to remind me why I love that music so much to this day." --Dick Bright, San Francisco bandleader and musician. "An absolutely essential read. An awesome story about a priceless time in music history." --Emilio Castillo, bandleader, Tower of Power "A warm and witty memoir about how music binds us all. --Joel Selvin, San Francisco Chronicle pop music critic "I'd read whatever Bruce Jenkins has to write on any subject, but Shop Around is a perfect marriage: Bruce's smooth, rhythmic prose describing his lifelong love of music. The book itself is a song." --Tim Keown, ESPN the Magazine "I always knew Bruce Jenkins was a cool dude, but I didn't know how cool he was until I heard him talking music. You can't be that cool unless you've got some deep roots." --Dusty Baker, author, Kiss the Sky "What do you get when you combine art (Bruce Jenkins' smoooth writing) with heart (his passion for '60s soul music)? Shop Around. It flows like a great Smokey Robinson song and when you come to the end, you'll want to cue it up all over again." --Scott Ostler, San Francisco Chronicle "I fell madly in love with Motown and the sounds of Memphis when I was a junior in high school, A whole new world opened wide. And I knew Bruce Jenkins then; we were classmates at Santa Monica High. After all these years, he's still spinning wonderful yarns on whatever topic moves him, still passionate, entertaining and illuminating. Shop Around took me on an emotional ride that brought a few tears along the way." --Lyle Spencer, former sports columnist, Los Angeles Herald Examiner and Riverside Press-Enterprise "Jenkins' memoir riffs knowingly on Louis Armstrong, Smokey Robinson, Otis Redding, Harry Nilsson, Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, Tower of Power and the masterly studio musicians at Motown and Memphis' Stax label -- among them guitarist Steve Cropper and bassist James Jamerson -- who went uncredited for years. The book takes its title from the 1960 Smokey Robinson & the Miracles hit that turned Jenkins' head around when he was 12. He'd dug the music of Ray Charles, Sam Cooke and Jackie Wilson, but there was something about Robinson's voice and style that was so fresh it floored him." --Jesse Hamlin, San Francisco Chronicle