Tag archives: reading
‘Killer Vibes’ Jack Friday, a pseudonym for author John Fram, delivers a funny, entertaining detective novel in Killer Vibes: The First Peter Key Mystery. Set in Austin, Texas, the story follows Peter Key, the self-proclaimed laziest detective, as he stumbles into a case that becomes dangerously personal. When Peter inherits a broken-down property from an […]
‘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 […]
‘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, […]
‘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 […]
‘Doll Parts’ Penny Zang makes a spectacular debut with Doll Parts. Zang’s story is infused with her own personal loss and grief in this compelling psychological thriller about two college friends navigating sad girl obsessions during the 1990s. Sadie and Nikki are buddies attending an all-girls school. On campus is an eerie obsessed Sylvia Plath […]
The River is Waiting Wally Lamb is back with The River is Waiting and I am so excited for it. Full disclosure: I have not read this yet, but I can assure you if it’s half as good as any of his other heartbreaking books, this is bound to be a winner. If you read […]
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 […]
‘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 […]
‘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 […]
‘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, […]
El Encanto, A Belmond Hotel, holds a monthly “Lunch with an Author Literary Series,” led by lectiophile and host of The Bookshop Podcast, Mandy Jackson-Beverly. The program includes meeting the author, a signed copy of the book, the author interview hosted by Jackson-Beverly, a three-course lunch, and complimentary valet parking. This year saw A-List authors […]
Turning from the stage to the page, it took a full century for Santa Barbara to buddy up to Bloomsday, the annual celebration of the life and work of Irish writer James Joyce every June 16; the day his 1922 novel Ulysses takes place in 1904, and named after its protagonist Leopold Bloom. Dublin’s been […]
‘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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
The veteran experience is also a jumping off point for The Hardest Year: A Love Story in Letters During the Vietnam War, a just-published memoir by author-poet Carole Wagener and her husband, William Wagener, that has been called a personal snapshot of the turbulent ‘60s as framed through the hearts of two souls divided by […]
Medora Steedman Bass is the daughter of Carrie and George Steedman, owners of Casa del Herrero. Earlier this year, various papers and journals of hers were discovered at the house, which document her love of books and reading, and spawned the creation of a book club in her honor called The Medora Book Club. Medora […]
