Book ‘em 

Pulitzer Prize finalist, culture critic, producer, and screenwriter Xochitl Gonzalez is a staff writer at The Atlantic and the author of its newsletter Brooklyn, Everywhere, about class, gentrification, and the American Dream. Her debut novel, Olga Dies Dreaming, was a critical fave in 2022, while the follow-up, Anita de Monte Laughs Last, came out this spring. Gonzalez delivers the lecture Latinx Voices Are American Voicesat Campbell Hall on Friday, May 17. Visit https://artsandlectures.ucsb.edu.

The Butterfly Wood House, by Robert Ooley, FAIA, an architect and the Director of Facilities at Santa Barbara Museum of Art, delves into the story behind the architect’s last commissions of his Prairie Style and is the only example on the West Coast. The book traces how the family and the embattled architect collaborated in the creation of the 4,500-square-foot redwood treasure that now serves as the Montecito home of writer T. C. Boyle, who wrote the introduction. Ooley talks about the book at SBMA on Sunday, May 19. Tickets at www.sbma.net.