The original version of this newsletter was sent out on Tuesday, June 23.
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Hello, fellow bookworms!
Anyone out there looking for summer love? Well, allow me to be your literary wingwoman and suggest a roundup of reads by authors with local ties to aid you on your quest. But I’m not just talking about the romantic kind of love here (though that’s included).
If you’re feeling in the mood for a hilarious fiction read that will make you more optimistic about your own dating prospects, a wonderfully thoughtful nonfiction that spells out the virtues of completely embracing a life of singleness and self-love, or a beautiful collection of musings about family, history, heritage, love, romance, eroticism, and self, I’ve got them all listed here.
Also, as you’re reading this, the S.B. Writers Conference is in full swing, but it’s not too late to get in on the fun! Check out the website for the full list of events.
Whatever your relationship status, I hope your summer is off to a wonderful start.
Happy reading!
—Tessa, allbooked@independent.com
Dating Under the Influence of Estrogen by Jann Winford
How far would you go to meet your soulmate? Would you go on a singles cruise? Purposely seek out a horrible date to get that bad luck out of the way? Start a worm ranch? (Yes, a worm ranch.) Well, Ruby Ann Wilson is about to do all that and more.
Just shy of 50, Ruby is about to take one last, hearty swing at the dating game in the hopes of finding her forever person. It won’t be easy — but plucky, good-humored Ruby has enough can-do spirit to handle anything that comes her way … even if what comes her way includes the mama’s boy of all mama’s boys and a mortician who won’t let a little thing like “currently being on a date” stop him from getting the job done.
But with the support of her best friend, Dixie; her hilarious, straight-talking Aunty Lu; and her kind, handsome neighbor Jack to remind her what a real man ought to be like, Ruby’s more than up for the challenge.
I have a caveat that romance stories generally aren’t my thing — unless they’re funny. Jann Winford more than delivers with this one, serving up shenanigans with a side of sexy and a huge helping of heart. Ruby is a refreshingly endearing protagonist — interesting enough on her own without a man to complete the picture, with much more determination and good humor than “woe is me,” and living her own life and maintaining her own supportive relationships with her family and friends. She’s a dreamer yet still down to earth, a balance that I enjoyed while reading about her wacky escapades, from her personal ad in the newspaper on page one all the way to the end — which I won’t spoil, but let’s just say, Ruby ends up very happy. Next time one of my friends laments being single, I’ll recommend this book to remind them that you never know what could be around the corner.
Memory Rehearsal by Eleni Sikelianos
“It turns out our ancestors aren’t there to show us ‘the way’ we’ve lost, they’re there to give depth to the story, even when they themselves are missing in the fields of time. …,” writes Eleni Sikelianos. “You are the ancestor holding the ancestors. It’s how you go on living.”
Sikelianos’s Memory Rehearsal is what I can only describe as a treasure trove. Beautifully defying strict categorization, it could be described as a memoir that also encapsulates the author’s family history and Greek heritage, as a stunning showcase of the author’s original poetry, and as a display of photographs that bring both the author’s direct ancestors and rich Greek culture into beautiful focus. In someone else’s hands, the end result could end up being a chaotic mishmash; in Sikelianos’s, the result is teeming with all the beautiful complexities of the lives she’s writing about, with the excitement of something new and intriguing with every turn of the page.
The poetry is particularly beautiful, dripping with vivid imagery and laying the themes of mythology, misogyny, and mystery painfully bare, particularly when describing the story of Io from Greek mythology: “Io tries to lull the gadfly she runs from, but it’s stitched into her very garments. / … / ‘Write what I tell you,’ says Prometheus, ‘in your book of memory’ (the book happens to be / her body).” I smiled at the pages and photos chronicling the adventures of Sikelianos’s vivacious great-grandmother, Eva, and her lovers: three women frolicking, “naked and wild, at their favorite swimming spots,” beautifully free and at home in themselves.
Part memoir, part family history, part poetry collection, and part photography showcase, Memory Rehearsal is a glowing, lyrical expression of all the ways artistic spirit shows through, and how it is inherited from the artists of our past.
Single at Heart: The Power, Freedom, and Heart-Filling Joy of Single Life by Bella dePaulo, PhD
From the time we’re little kids, the earliest stories we’re told seem to end with, “And they lived happily ever after.” Even as adults, and especially for women, we’re constantly asked, “Are you seeing anyone?” and reminded of such things as the biological clock, and introduced to phrases that range from my better half to the old ball and chain. Harvard-educated professor and researcher Bella DePaulo dares to ask, “What if some of us would be a lot happier rejecting these pervasive tropes and living life on our own terms?”
Now, I don’t want you to get the wrong impression that this is a book that says that we should all be actively avoiding relationships.
DePaulo’s tone throughout is overwhelmingly kind and mindful of the thousands of shades of gray that may exist on this topic. What she encourages is an embrace of self-expression rather than automatically following what I’ve often seen referred to as the “life script.” We’re not all meant to fit in the same cookie-cutter mold, after all. I was extremely impressed by her ability to take a topic that, on paper, could come across as further encouraging the “toxic individualism” we often see in this age of social media and our current political administration, and instead put forth a message of choosing your own happiness while encouraging emphasis on relationships with family (bio and/or chosen), friends, pets, mentors or mentees (you name it!) to fill your cup and make your community a better place.
From those who don’t want marriage or kids to those who want kids but don’t want to be in a committed relationship; from those who identify as aromantic or asexual to those who enjoy romance or sexual relationships but not both in one; from couples who maintain their independence by living apart to those who would prefer to never enter into a relationship in the first place, DePaulo acknowledges that being “single at heart” can look like a myriad of things — and that what matters is you making the choices that work best for you.
—Tessa Reeg
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.
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.
Bilingual Songs & Stories for Kids
Tuesday, June 23, 11 a.m. | Eastside Library
Santa Barbara Writers Conference: Agents Panel
Tuesday, June 23, 4 p.m. | Mar Monte Hotel
Goleta Beach: Beach Book Club
Tuesday, June 23, 5 p.m. | Goleta Beach
Goleta Valley Library Mystery Book Club: Rhys Bowen, The Rose Arbor
Tuesday, June 23, 5:30 p.m. | Goleta Community Center
Santa Barbara Writers Conference Author Talk: Jess Walter
Tuesday, June 23, 7 p.m. | Mar Monte Hotel
Lit on the Lawn
Wednesday, June 24, 1 p.m. | Buellton Library
Comic Chaos Club
Wednesday, June 24, 1 p.m. | S.B. Central Library
Montecito Book Club: bell hooks, All About Love
Wednesday, June 24, 2 p.m. | Montecito Library
Santa Barbara Writers Conference: Novel Panel
Wednesday, June 24, 4 p.m. | Mar Monte Hotel
Godmothers Gather: Kate Doerge, Reimagining Grief
Wednesday, June 24, 6 p.m. | Godmothers
Santa Barbara Writers Conference Author Talk: Rachel Howzell Hall
Wednesday, June 24, 7 p.m. | Mar Monte Hotel
Santa Barbara Writers Conference: Nonfiction Panel
Thursday, June 25, 4 p.m. | Mar Monte Hotel
Santa Barbara Writers Conference Author Talk: Adriana Trigiani
Thursday, June 25, 7 p.m. | Mar Monte Hotel
Santa Barbara Writers Conference Author Platform Panel
Friday, June 26, 4 p.m. | Mar Monte Hotel
Storytime at the Sea Center
Saturday, June 27, 10:30 a.m. | S.B. Museum of Natural History Sea Center
Solvang Library Magpie Book Club
Saturday, June 27, 1:30 p.m. | Solvang Library
Library on the Go at Pollinator Palooza
Sunday, June 28, 10 a.m. | Arroyo Burro Open Space
Godmothers Gather: Lisa See, Daughters of the Sun and Moon
Sunday, June 28, 6 p.m. | Godmothers
Bilingual Songs & Stories for Kids
Tuesday, June 30, 11 a.m. | Eastside Library
Godmothers Gather: The Enduring Classics Book Club: James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room
Tuesday, June 30, 5:30 p.m. | Godmothers
Chaucer’s Books: Poetry Reading & Signing: Swamini B., I’m Not My Story: A Poetic Journey of Healing
Tuesday, June 30, 6 p.m. | Chaucer’s Books
Lit on the Lawn
Wednesday, July 1, 1 p.m. | Buellton Library
Social Justice Book Club
Wednesday, July 1, 5:30 p.m. | S.B. Central Library
SBMAL Open House
Saturday, July 4, 9:30 a.m. | S.B. Mission Archive-Library (SBMAL)
Storytime at the Sea Center
Saturday, July 4, 10:30 a.m. | S.B. Museum of Natural History Sea Center
Storytime at the Sea Center
Sunday, July 5, 10:30 a.m. | S.B. Museum of Natural History Sea Center
Godmothers Gather: Alisha Das, Your Angelic Ancestry
Sunday, July 5, 6 p.m. | Godmothers
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.
Spanktown Papers by Jane Hulse
Midnight Patriots: An Einstein–Chaplin Thriller by Paul Levine
1978 Santa Barbara: Discovering Paradise by Mark Lewis Stienecker
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:
Land by Maggie O’Farrell; 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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