Spotlights, Deep Dives, and Author Talks

Between the inaugural Santa Barbara Literary Festival and the 52nd annual Santa Barbara Writers Conference, an almost incalculable number of authors were in town speaking about their works over the last two months. Now things slow down a bit for the summer, especially with UCSB Arts & Lectures on hiatus until late September. But there are still author signings and bookstores around town as well as speaker series, poetry readings and more for our warmer weather months. 

Chaucers Choices

Diabolical deeds, our subjective senses and surgical saves are the subjects of book talk & signing events at the midtown store this month. Inspired by a true story of resistance during the Armenian Genocide, Never Hide from the Devil is a powerful coming-of-age novel about friendship, survival, and impossible moral choices in the face of unimaginable horror. Author N. T. McQueen shares about the work of historical fiction on Wednesday, July 8… Paul Skokowski’s Sensing Qualia: Solving the Hard Problem of Consciousness draws on neuroscience, physics and philosophy to provide a naturalistic framework for studying qualia in the physical world – our subjective, interior, conscious experiences of nuanced phenomena like color, taste, pain, smell, and more – and explores the limits of qualia in the rapidly emerging world AI. The executive director and co-founder of the Center for the Explanation of Consciousness at Stanford University discusses his sensory naturalism theory with Santa Barbara psychiatrist Dr. John A. Cervantes on Tuesday, July 21… In Great Saves and Terrible Losses: The Journeys of a Surgeon, Dr. Anthony Goodman recounts memorable events from his career as a surgeon from 1967-1993, including stints at hospitals and as a surgical medic in Vietnam, in the era before CAT scans, MRIs and minimally invasive surgery greatly reduced risks of operations. He also covers his second career as a professor and coping with his own mild Alzheimer’s diagnosis, subjects that will likely come up in his conversation with his wife, Maribeth Goodman at Chaucer’s on Wednesday, July 29. 

Visit www.chaucersbooks.com

Spotlight on Solutions 

The second event in the new Spotlight Santa Barbara series at the Lobero Theatre is a panel discussion around the topic of “California’s Problems, Santa Barbara’s Choices,” more specifically how to solve the existential problems facing the state and the local area including high costs of living, high poverty, homelessness rates, housing shortages, uncertain water supplies, subpar educational outcomes and healthcare challenges. On Thursday, July 23, Noozhawk’s publisher Bill Macfadyen, a longtime Montecito resident, moderates the panel, which will attempt to take a bite out of these seemingly intractable issues. Panelists will include Pete Peterson, dean of Pepperdine’s School of Public Policy; UCLA Professor of Economics and Hoover Institution Senior Fellow Lee Ohanian; former two-time Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin, the CEO of the Central Valley Community Foundation; and Kristen Miller, president & CEO of the Santa Barbara Chamber of Commerce.

The event opens at 6 pm with “Cocktails & Community Dialog” on the esplanade in front of the theater, followed by the 7 pm panel. 

Next up: “Free Speech Under Fire: Greg Lukianoff on the New Age of Censorship,” with the New York Times best-selling author, lawyer, free-speech warrior, and CEO of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, at the Lobero on Thursday, October 8. 

Visit www.spotlightsb.com

Hot Topic at SBMM

Could there be better timing? It’s been just a few weeks since the Santa Rosa Island fire was finally contained, and here comes a talk about “A Deep Dive into Island Conservation.” Jennifer Sachs, senior development officer at Island Conservation, will take the dais in the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum’s Maritime Distinguished Speaker Series on Thursday, July 16 to explore how restoring island ecosystems helps protect biodiversity, strengthens climate resilience, and improves ocean health worldwide.  Island Conservation is a global nonprofit organization dedicated to restoring islands for both nature and people through collaborative, science-based conservation strategies. Working closely with local communities, scientists, and conservation partners, the organization focuses on holistic restoration to bring back biodiversity; the foundation of all healthy sustainable ecosystems benefitting both terrestrial and marine environments.

Sachs will provide an overview of the organization’s global initiatives and its impact across island ecosystems, with a special focus on conservation efforts connected to California’s Channel Islands and sites of maritime significance, offering regional context for the global work being undertaken. The presentation will be followed by a Q&A session. 

Visit www.sbmm.org

Twisty Tecolote Talk

Bestselling author Carol Snow sets her newest novel, The Girl on the Beach, in Santa Barbara, where a missing four-year-old child disappears into the Pacific Ocean on a perfect August afternoon, tearing a formerly formidable family apart. The switchback roller coaster of a psychological thriller builds to a final jaw-dropping twist, which will likely not be discussed in detail when Snow appears in the Upper Village bookshop on Saturday afternoon, July 18.  

Visit www.carolsnow.com or https://tecolotebookshop.indiecommerce.com