The original version of this newsletter was sent out on Tuesday, July 15.
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Hello, fellow bookworms!
In Santa Barbara literary news, our current Poet Laureate, George Yatchisin, is putting out a call to all poets living in Santa Barbara, Ventura, or S.L.O. counties to submit their work to be included in a collection of poetry celebrating our local food, drinks, restaurants and agriculture! For more information and to submit your work, click here.
Today, we’re double booked: Nathan Vived brings us a review of the first book in a duology by Santa Barbara author Simon Tolkien (yes, grandson of that Tolkien!), and Richelle Boyd brings us two short story collections, one by area author Max Talley.
Happy reading!
—Tessa, allbooked@independent.com
The Palace at the End of the Sea by Simon Tolkien
Recently, I was asked to read and give my thoughts on the new duology from Simon Tolkien, starting with The Palace at the End of the Sea. The novel follows Theo Sterling from his childhood in New York City to being a young man in the U.K. and Spain, set against the turbulent backdrop of the early 1900s. Young Theo is perennially trapped between seemingly mutually exclusive identities; he’s the son of persecuted parents, with his father, a Jewish immigrant desperately trying to forget his background, and his Catholic Mexican mother fleeing religious persecution who is perpetually haunted by the horrors she endured. Theo is solidly middle-class thanks to his father, but the Great Depression sunk all into abject poverty.
He simultaneously benefits from the powers that be and economic success and wishes for an end to the exploitation of the poor and meagre for the avarice of the few. He sees the good and ill in conflicting ideologies; yet, in an era of radical politics and a rise in violence, where not choosing a side is tantamount to treason to both extremes, Theo struggles to find his True North while sparks edge ever closer to a growing powder keg.
Palace is an engaging, vibrant, personal look into life in an era when life was being pulled towards the two extremes of right and left, where the desire for things to stay the same conflicted with the want to help people, escalation was a mutual bedfellow, and gray was often overpainted with red. Sound familiar?
I’m greatly looking forward to reading its sequel, The Room of Lost Steps, out September 16.
—Nathan Vived
Destroy Me Gently, Please by Max Talley
Though we all love to travel, it’s hard to snag up some vacation time or plan out an inexpensive getaway these days. What I enjoyed most about Destroy Me Gently, Please was the way Max Talley takes the reader on a journey across the U.S. more personal and real than any planned trek could take you. Each story focuses on characters who are facing a boiling point in their lives — whether the character’s marriage is ending, or they are clinging to their music career, or a teenager desperate to leave their small town.
Talley, who currently resides in Santa Barbara, really dives into the nooks and crannies of everyday people all over the country, each story switching pacing and narrative to match the style of the main character. From brutal endings to hopeful ones, each story by Talley was an intriguing adventure alongside someone in a place I had never been to before, or one that was all too familiar (having grown up in the Inland Empire, I felt transported back to Hesperia once again upon meeting Ruby). Between heartbreaks and new beginnings, Talley brought a thought-provoking and intriguing read with these pieces.
Exhalation by Ted Chiang
I was first introduced to this collection during my time at UC Santa Barbara taking a class on — you guessed it — short stories. Though I had only read the main story from this collection, which it is named for, in that class, I fell in love with Chiang’s writing and bought the book to read the entire thing before he visited in 2022. Mind-expanding and thought-provoking, Exhalation will have you rethinking the way you interact with technology or think about the future of our planet. Each story is built in a sci-fi dystopia that’s easy to dip your toes into if that’s not your typical genre. On top of all of this, Chiang is truly a master of the short story form with novella-sized ideas expressed perfectly in limited pages.
He explores everything from the way language shapes our thinking to expanding on scientific theories in alternate universes. Exhalation will have you thinking about the weight of time, the enormity of the universe, and questioning what free will really is. And, if you’re like me, “The Lifecycle of Software Objects” will have you missing your Nano Pet from back in the day.
—Richelle Boyd
FROM OUR PAGES
We’ve had some great author visits and interviews recently, so don’t miss out. Here is some of our book-related coverage from the last two weeks! Read all this and more at Independent.com.
Todd Purdum and Steve Oney to Come to Montecito on Saturday by Alice Dehghanzadeh
Chaucer’s Hosts Artists of the Moving Novel Deep Dive by Madeline Slogoff
UPCOMING BOOK EVENTS
Below, you will find a few bookish events coming up in Santa Barbara. If you are hosting a bookish event in Santa Barbara, be sure to submit the event to our online events calendar.
Book Talk and Signing: Carrie KC West
Saturday, July 19, 3 p.m.| Tecolote Book Shop
Grace Fisher Book Club: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Dominique Bauby
Thursday, July 17, 1 p.m. | Grace Fisher Foundation
Chaucer’s Book Talk & Signing: Jane Asher Reaney and Barbara Urbonas
Thursday, July 17, 6 p.m. | Chaucer’s Books
Godmothers Storytime: Ballet Brown by Bellen Woodard
Saturday, July 19, 11 a.m. | Godmothers
Godmothers on the Stage: My Train Leaves at Three by Natalie Guerrero
Saturday, July 19, 6 p.m. | Godmothers
Free On-Site Community Seminar Series: The Poetry of Rumi
Tuesday, July 22, noon. | Ojai Mountain Estate
Montecito Book Club: Calypso by David Sedaris
Tuesday, July 22, 2 p.m. | Montecito Library
Shiver Me Timbers! Pirate Storytime
Wednesday, July 23, noon. | S.B. Central Library
Godmothers in Conversation: Scott Clark & Cheyenne Ellis
Thursday, July 24, 6 p.m. | Godmothers
Chaucer’s Book Talk & Signing: Michael C. Higgins
Sunday, July 27, 4 p.m. | Chaucer’s Books
S.B. SPOTLIGHT
We at the Independent get many books sent to us by area authors, sometimes too many! It’s practically impossible for us to read and review them all, but just because we are busy bees does not mean that they aren’t worth the attention. In an attempt to not completely drop the ball, we have compiled a list of books here that are either written by a Santa Barbara author, feature someone in our community, or have another tie to Santa Barbara. I urge you to look through this list. Perhaps you will find your new favorite read!
The following are the most recent titles that have been sent to us.
Fraud, Murder, & Mayhem by Ed Shiffman
Unfaithful: A Translator’s Memoir by Suzanne Jill Levine
If you are a local author and would like us to feature your book in this section, please email allbooked@independent.com with the subject line “S.B. Spotlight.”
Book Reviews Courtesy of CALIFORNIA REVIEW OF BOOKS*
Thanks to the generous contributions of David Starkey, Brian Tanguay and their team of reviewers at California Review of Books, we are able to provide a steady stream of book reviews via our content partnership. Recent reviews at Independent.com include:
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad; review by Brian Tanguay
Golden State: The Making of California by Michael Hiltzik; review by David Starkey
*At the present time, all of the Independent’s book reviews are provided in collaboration with California Review of Books (calirb.com).
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