Author spotlight: Leslie Zemeckis

Leslie Zemeckis is a best-selling author, actress, writer, and award-winning documentarian. She is the founder of the program “Stories Matter,” female storytellers mentoring the next generation of female storytellers in partnership with SBIFF. In 2021, she will be awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor for “sharing and preserving stories of women who were once marginalized and stigmatized,” but are now celebrated. Follow her on IG @lesliezemeckis or visit www.lesliezemeckis.com

From Rogue Ballerinas to Meg Tilly, Here are a Few Must-Reads
By Leslie Zemeckis   |   July 15, 2021

You do not have to be a ballerina, or a dance mom, as I am — quick shout out to Gustafson Studios for managing an end of year, in-person ballet show — to enjoy Georgina Pazcoguin’s memoir Swan Dive: The making of a Rogue Ballerina. Pazcoguin’s rise from ABT Summer Intensive student to NYCB’s first […]

Offset June Gloom with Some Great Storytelling
By Leslie Zemeckis   |   June 3, 2021

It is time to start our beach reading, even with June gloom hovering. Finding Tessa by Jaime Lynn Hendricks is a thriller with an unforeseen twist that will keep you turning pages. Tessa and Jace are in love. When Tessa goes missing, evidence against Jace mounts: blood, a gun, and an affair with a co-worker. […]

Finding Hope in the Dark
By Leslie Zemeckis   |   May 6, 2021

Deep in the sewers of Kraków dwell humans, hiding, starving, barely surviving.  NY Times bestselling author Pam Jenoff (The Lost Girls of Paris) has finished another taut historical fiction. Imagine living in darkness and filth for over a year? That is the premise – based on true events – of The Woman with the Blue […]

Dark, But Optimistic: Paula McLain’s ‘When the Stars Go Dark’ Addresses Reality of Child Abduction
By Leslie Zemeckis   |   April 1, 2021

It is every parent’s nightmare. Their child goes missing. It is 1993 and young girls are disappearing in Northern California.  The New York Times bestselling author Paula McLain (The Paris Wife) makes an abrupt departure from her popular historical novels to delve into the world of suspense and crime mystery in When the Stars Go […]

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah (St Martin’s Press)
By Leslie Zemeckis   |   March 4, 2021

“The four winds have blown us here, people from all across the country, to the very end of this great land.”  For those of us who live in Montecito we are all too familiar with the land we love. Though lush and verdant, it has on occasion betrayed us with drought, fires, and mudslides. Still, […]