Tag archives: Leslie Zemeckis
‘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 […]
‘Looking at Women Looking at War’ If you read just one book, read Victoria Amelina’s Looking at Women Looking at War. When Russia invaded Ukraine three years ago this month, Amelina was a novelist living in Kyiv with her husband and son. War changed everything for the young woman who felt she had to do […]
Happy New Year. My hope for everyone in the coming months is that we embrace more stories, smart stories, entertaining and transportive stories. I’ve set my reading goals high to bring you even more recommendations. There is power, solace, and joy that comes from books and I think this month I have found something for […]
‘Thorns, Lust and Glory’ The doomed queen, Anne Boleyn, is given another look in Estelle Paranque’s Thorns, Lust and Glory: The Betrayal of Anne Boleyn. This is an excellent biography which goes into great detail on Boleyn’s early years spent at the French court, and the lasting influence that made her a worthy prize/wife for […]
‘What I Ate In One Year’ Stanley Tucci is back with another memoir chronicling a year’s worth of meals in What I Ate in One Year. On and off the set, with and without a famous friend or two, Tucci’s memoir takes the form of diary entries as he dines in restaurants and home cooked […]
‘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 […]
‘Lola in the Mirror’ Brisbane is the setting in Trent Dalton’s Lola in the Mirror. Our hero is a 17-year-old “houseless” girl living in a broken car with her mother, who has never told the teen her real name. She promises to reveal the name when she turns 18. When tragedy strikes before her birthday, […]
‘When Women Ran Fifth Avenue’ When Women Ran Fifth Avenue is a fascinating look at the rise of the department store in America. It will make local readers long for the days when we had department stores in Santa Barbara. Julie Satow takes a deep dive into the culture and rise of the female executive […]
I am admittedly a big fan of NY Times bestselling author Kim Michele Richardson and her Troublesome Creek books. Her children’s book, Junia: The Book Mule of Troublesome Creek – with illustrations by David C. Gardner – is out now and it is a delight. Set in 1936, it is Junia’s job to carry the […]
The Golden Days of Hollywood were remembered when the Santa Barbara Symphony under guest conductor Constantine Kitsopoulos, general director of the New York Grand Opera, performed an Oscar-themed concert at the Granada hosted by the vivacious Leslie Zemeckis. Leslie, a bestselling author and award-winning documentarian, as well as being a near Montecito neighbor and fellow […]
March is a big publishing month. I could not cover all the new releases below but will have more recommendations on my social media posts. Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera is an unexpectedly hilarious thriller. When Lucy’s best friend is murdered, Lucy becomes suspect number one. After all, she is covered in her […]
Kristin Hannah has a sure winner with The Women. Hannah expertly crafts a heartbreaking, emotional story about love and loss. From a family of “heroes,” Frankie follows her brother to Vietnam feeling she wants to do her part for her country. It is 1965. Frankie comes from a conservative family where she is expected to […]
Happy New Year. My hope for all of us in the coming months is that we embrace more stories, smart stories, entertaining and transportive stories. I’ve set my reading goals high to bring you even more recommendations. There is power, solace, and joy that comes from books and I think this month I have found […]
Meet the Benedettos by Katie Cotugno is exactly as the cover promotes – The Kardashians meets Pride and Prejudice. Five famous sisters, famous for being famous, are living in a crumbling mansion when the man (or men) of their dreams moves in next door. It’s light, it’s funny. Lost Hours is Paige Shelton’s latest mystery. […]
As a member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, author Vanessa Lillie’s compelling Blood Sisters is based on a real crime involving multiple missing indigenous girls and women. Syd, an archeologist for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, finds herself back in her small-town home in Oklahoma to solve the mystery of a recently discovered skull. […]
Ivy Pochoda returns to the dark side of life in Sing Her Down with some very violent women. Two women are released early from prison. One returns to California and her mother’s home, pursued by the other woman. Florida and Dios circle each other like wary gunslingers in this cowboyesque drama. Dios wants to force […]
Where Yellow Flowers Bloom: A True Story of Hope through Unimaginable Loss by Kim Cantin is honest, heartbreaking, and inspiring. Cantin and her daughter survived Montecito’s 2018 debris flow, but her son and husband did not. In vivid detail she recalls that night, and the subsequent months as she recovered and desperately sought the remains […]
Strangers in the Night by Heather Webb chronicles the heart-pounding love affair between Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner. Told from both Frank and Ava’s points of view, the book spans the whole arc of their tempestuous romance, from the slow burn, through the sizzle and the fireworks that ultimately blew the couple apart. This is […]
With the holidays behind us, if you’re like me, you long to travel. Well, this month’s list of books will send you from Havana to Singapore, and all from the comfort of your couch. In Armando Lucas Correa’s tremendously moving The Night Travelers, we arrive in Berlin in this story spanning three generations of women. […]
‘Tis the season for gift giving and there are a variety of excellent reads for family and friends. For the dancer in your house, Misty Copeland’s The Wind at My Back: Resilience, Grace, and Other Gifts from My Mentor, Raven Wilkinson, is an inspiration. It is not only the story of Copeland’s rise to become […]
