Tag archives: author

Healing Fiction
By Ann Brode   |   November 16, 2021

Lawrence Spann writes every day in a Mead notebook — with a fountain pen. For him, this practice is more than journaling, it’s therapeutic introspection that allows the unconscious to become conscious. To accomplish this, he writes without an agenda, letting the pen rather than the mind lead the way. What results is a kind […]

‘Crossing the Chasm’ Author to Speak at Luncheon
By Scott Craig   |   November 9, 2021

Geoffrey Moore, a bestselling author, speaker, and adviser, whose work focuses on the market dynamics caused by disruptive innovation, speaks at a Mosher Center for Moral and Ethical Leadership luncheon on Friday, November 5, from 12-1:30 pm in the Simmons Center of Westmont’s Global Leadership Center. A limited amount of in-person tickets, which cost $100 […]

Staying Civil
By Richard Mineards   |   October 26, 2021

Former corporate attorney and Harvard Law School graduate David Gersh has published his seventh book, The Whisper of a Distant God, an historical fiction of the Civil War. “It explores a little-known battle in that war and the struggle with duty, honor, and compassion by the Union commander’s wife, Louisa Canby, which made her the […]

Community Discusses Members Only
By Kim Crail   |   October 5, 2021

Race, class, family, and belonging are central themes in Members Only, a novel by local author Sameer Pandya. Accused of racism at both his tennis club and university teaching job, the main character’s experiences provide ample opportunity for readers to use the book as both a mirror and a window.  How do we respond when […]

Honoring the Heroes of Hospice: For Elizabeth Gilbert, It’s Personal
By Steven Libowitz   |   September 14, 2021

Hospice of Santa Barbara (HSB) could hardly have found a more appropriate keynote speaker for its 9th Annual Heroes of Hospice than Elizabeth Gilbert. The author best known for her memoir Eat Pray Love about her year-long globe-travelling journey to heal from a devastating divorce more recently penned Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear, revealing […]

Marcus Samuelsson’s The Rise Takes Foodies on a Black American Food Adventure
By Claudia Schou   |   August 24, 2021

A few months ago, my bestie, Lynn, a librarian and bibliophile, gave me a vintage copy of How to Talk with Practically Anybody About Practically Anything (Doubleday & Co., 1970), a guidebook to the art of conversation, written by none other than the godmother of celebrity interviews, Barbara Walters. Among her subjects: tycoons, royalty, politicians, […]

New Montecito Library: Hours Start on August 10
By Kim Crail   |   August 12, 2021

Expanding public library access is important to our entire community. Visitors or folks new to the area often come here first to get a sense of what Montecito is all about and to connect with a helpful person face-to-face. The Montecito Library hours are: • Tuesday and Thursday, 10 am – 5 pm • Wednesday […]

Summer in Solvang
By Steven Libowitz   |   June 10, 2021

With the continued easing of pandemic restrictions, PCPA is returning after two summers to the Solvang Festival Theater, the charming outdoor amphitheater in the heart of the Santa Ynez Valley village. The stars will be live on stage as well as visible in the sky above starting in mid-July, when PCPA debuts an original production […]

Finding Hope in the Dark
By Leslie Zemeckis   |   May 6, 2021

Deep in the sewers of Kraków dwell humans, hiding, starving, barely surviving.  NY Times bestselling author Pam Jenoff (The Lost Girls of Paris) has finished another taut historical fiction. Imagine living in darkness and filth for over a year? That is the premise – based on true events – of The Woman with the Blue […]

‘Gone and Mostly Forgotten’: Essays Keep Memories of Little-Known Santa Barbara Authors Alive
By Steven Libowitz   |   May 6, 2021

Shortly after moving to Santa Barbara more than four decades ago, Steven Gilbar found he spent a lot of his off hours from his day job as an attorney doing things that are all about authors and writers. An avid reader, Gilbar has also published more than 20 books over the course of his writing […]

Montecito Author Releases New Poetry Book
By Kelly Mahan Herrick   |   May 6, 2021

OPEN, the newest book of poetry by Susan Read Cronin, explores issues of love, life, death, and family. Sometimes written as seen through the eyes of a child, Cronin’s poems remind the reader of what it is like to try to make sense of the world around us. Weaving steadily between dark and light, her […]

Talking Baseball in Tokyo
By Steven Libowitz   |   April 21, 2021

Veteran journalist and author Robert Whiting is one of only a few Western writers to have written a regular newspaper column in the Japanese language. The author of several highly successful books on Japan and the city where he has lived on and off for more than half a century include the best-selling You Gotta […]

Timing is Everything
By Calla Corner   |   April 8, 2021

If you saw John Sant’Ambrogio walking down Coast Village Road, you might mistake him for Larry David. On the other hand, if you saw Larry David walking down Coast Village Road, you might mistake him for John Sant’Ambrogio, the world renowned cellist. That is, if you’ve been the beneficiary of a private birthday concert given […]

Poof! The Magic Castle Cabaret is Gone
By Richard Mineards   |   April 8, 2021

Two years after it opened, the owners of Montecito’s Magic Castle Cabaret Milt and Arlene Larsen are moving on, I can exclusively reveal. “The Cabaret has been closed for a long year and we are not getting any younger,” laments Arlene. “When we started, we seemed a lot younger. “After talking it over for many […]

Book ’Em: Chaucer’s Choices Crowd Calendar
By Steven Libowitz   |   April 7, 2021

Prolific Santa Barbara-based children’s book author/illustrator Bruce Hale, whose 60-plus books include the Clark the Shark and the award-winning Chet Gecko mysteries series, kicks off four straight afternoons of conversations with writers about their new books hosted by Chaucer’s. The Edgar-nominated Hale, whose books also include Snoring Beauty, one of Oprah’s Recommended Reads for Kids, […]

Dark, But Optimistic: Paula McLain’s ‘When the Stars Go Dark’ Addresses Reality of Child Abduction
By Leslie Zemeckis   |   April 1, 2021

It is every parent’s nightmare. Their child goes missing. It is 1993 and young girls are disappearing in Northern California.  The New York Times bestselling author Paula McLain (The Paris Wife) makes an abrupt departure from her popular historical novels to delve into the world of suspense and crime mystery in When the Stars Go […]

Savvy and Sassy Sharp Advice from Marcus for Women Over 50
By Steven Libowitz   |   March 11, 2021

From the very first paragraph in Bonnie Marcus’ Not Done Yet!, the Santa Barbara author leaves no doubts about the attitude readers can expect from her new self-help book subtitled “How Women Over 50 Regain Their Confidence & Claim Workplace Power.”  “Okay. Right from the get-go, I’m gonna be straight with you. I’m pissed,” Marcus […]

Historian Nancy Koehn Speaks on Courageous Leadership
By Scott Craig   |   February 18, 2021

A celebrated Harvard historian and bestselling author, Nancy Koehn will discuss courageous and principled leadership at the 16th annual Westmont President’s Breakfast on Friday, March 5, at 8 am. Tickets to the virtual event, which cost $35, go on sale February 12 at westmont.edu/breakfast. Koehn, the James E. Robison professor of business administration at the Harvard […]

Drought & Flood
By James Buckley   |   February 18, 2021

I’ve lived in Montecito – in the same house – for over 35 years and find it necessary to point out to folks just moving here that while we live in a beautiful place, ensconced as we are between the 4,000-ft Figueroa Mountains and the deep blue Pacific Ocean, it isn’t perfect. Add a near-ideal […]

Baking and Reading Your Way Through a Pandemic
By Claudia Schou   |   February 4, 2021

In the Kitchen with Leslie Zemeckis  When Leslie Zemeckis saunters into a room, people pay attention. That’s because the Montecito-based actress-baker-author exudes a kind of charm and poise that makes it possible to swan her way through any room – even a kitchen. Her kitchen is her temple, her place for Zen. So is her […]