Tag archives: books
‘The Witches of Cambridge’ The Witches of Cambridge from Alice Hoffman is everything you want and expect from the writer of “The Practical Magic” series. The story mixes magic and longing as two friends attending Radcliff navigate their burgeoning power in a buttoned down 1950s Cambridge, Massachusetts. Ava, a beautiful redhead who has always felt […]
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 […]
Montecito resident Keith Yeager traded FIFA gear during an exchange with FIFA/Qatar football club staff, one local example of promoting international friendship and cooperation, at the Rosewood Miramar on June 25th. The Qatar team was well hosted by Montecito, staying at the Rosewood Miramar hotel as their base camp, and training on Westmont’s Thorrington Field. […]
‘Ghalen’ The Santa Barbara Literary Festival is loaded with talented bestselling authors descending on Santa Barbara May 2-3. Many of them have new books published this month. For example, one of our keynote speakers, Walter Mosley, has his love story, Ghalen: A Romance in Black. A coming-of-age take on Ghalen, a brilliant young Black man, […]
Just back after a wonderful week as a guest of the San Miguel Writers’ Conference. Many of the best-selling authors I met have terrific books I wanted to make sure were on your radar. ‘Without Consent’ Greta Rideout’s harrowing tale is an empathetic investigation into a once-controversial subject in Sarah Weinman’s Without Consent: A Landmark […]
Before we left for Southern Patagonia, our South American travel agent insisted, “The most important thing to remember is you must go with a driver and a guide. The roads are terrible, and each hotel is isolated. There are no gas stations between hotels, and no place to stay if you cannot reach the next […]
Once upon a time, an English lad named John Holman was sojourning in Australia some 10,000 miles away from his home village of West Grinstead in the U.K. Searching for himself, really, John had incautiously entered a passageway provided by his family’s wartime past. At Tecolote Book Shop this coming Saturday, November 8, from 3 […]
Hahn Hall is back in action again on October 29 as Camerata Pacifica plays on a rare Wednesday evening for the local launch of “Beethoven 32,” its momentous three-year cycle featuring principal pianist Gilles Vonsattel performing all 32 of Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas. Vonsattel dives right in, beginning the cycle with the “‘Hammerklavier,’ Sonata No. 29 […]
I will say it on our common behalf: We Love Fannie Flagg! But which one? Fannie Flagg has been all over the map, and it is one of those largish maps one can never hope to refold. Are we endeared to the Literary Grande Dame of Fried Green Tomatoes (and a score of other beloved […]
‘The Whistler’ “Don’t whistle at night… it attracts bad things.” You’ve been warned. Just in time for Halloween is Nick Medina’s creepy The Whistler; a chilling tale wrapped in Indigenous myths, a ghost story with a twist. When a young ghost-hunting man on the cusp of success screeches to a halt, he must learn to […]
Just because it’s back-to-school that doesn’t mean the summer reading ends. ‘Ready for my Close Up’ Are you ready for Norma Desmond’s closeup? David M. Lubin explores the dark side of Hollywood and the making of Sunset Boulevard in Ready for My Close Up. This is a terrific behind-the-scenes peek at Billy Wilder’s comeback vehicle […]
Tecolote Bookshop? Our flagstone-wrapped salon in the Upper Village? This year the place turned 100. Yeah, as in “years old.” This means [holds fingers aloft like a savant and moves them algebraically] … Tecolote Bookshop opened in 1925. There’s more. “My mother would drop me off at Cold Spring Elementary School every morning and I […]
Here it comes now, written in a hurried and bulleted present tense meant (frankly) to offset the section’s brevity with a mitigating sense of telegram-like urgency. Please play ball, reader. •Roger Sherman Gates Boutell, Sr. retires from the Library of Congress and moves to, of all places, Santa Barbara, California. •A comfortably liquid […]
If a crime could ever be called delightful, Abbi Waxman is its likely author. Her latest One Death at a Time will have readers laughing all the way to the final page. Julia is a former actress newly arrested for the murder of her sworn enemy who, most inconveniently, was found floating in her pool […]
‘The Jackal’s Mistress’ Two terrific new books centered around the Civil War are out. The first is Chris Bohjalian’s The Jackal’s Mistress, an unlikely love story between a wounded Yankee and a lonely Southern woman who is struggling after her husband is captured by the North. Libby can do nothing but help to save the […]
Higher education is expensive. It’s no accident that for decades academic dorm cuisine has been lovingly built around the Cup O’ Noodles® tradition, an affordable scholastic delicacy whose variants include beef, chicken, shrimp, teriyaki, and the always-worrisome “spicy” – an indefinable “flavor” commonly avoided the night before a mid-term. Apart from higher ed’s tuition, fees, […]
‘Queen Esther’ I am just back as a guest of the San Miguel Writers’ Conference, where I taught a workshop and gave a reading from one of my books. I was also privileged to interview the literary legend John Irving who has a new book coming out in November, which I will review. He read […]
Carpinteria TV host Conan O’Brien is hosting the next Oscars. Announcing Taco Bell’s new Cheesy Chalupa Supreme, O’Brien then said: “In other news, I’m hosting the Oscars.” He told his fans at the weekend. It will be his first time as Oscars host. He has emceed other high profile shows like the Emmy Awards in […]
‘Dorothy Parker in Hollywood’ Dorothy Parker in Hollywood by Gail Crowther is a revelatory look at the writer and Algonquin member’s time in Hollywood. For over 35 years Parker worked on screenplays’ trademark snappy dialogue (mostly uncredited) with husband Alan Campbell. The two cavorted with Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Orson Welles while punching up scripts with […]
A crowd of 80 guests descended on The Voice Art Gallery for a celebratory book lunch of the A History of Psychology Through Symbols, a two-volume set of textbooks written by local psychologist Dr. James Broderick and illustrated by Montecito artist Dr. Danuta Bennett. The curious crowd included Peter and Kathryn Martin, Brendon Twigden, Keith […]
