Tag archives: book

Gersh Unleashed
By Richard Mineards   |   October 15, 2024

Montecito author David Gersh, a Harvard Law School graduate and retired attorney, just launched his ninth book – and the third in his comic novel series Unleashed: A Comic Relief – with a bijou bash at the bustling bibliophile bastion Tecolote in the upper village. “It poses the existential question of whether people can trust […]

Martin’s Mystery
By Richard Mineards   |   October 15, 2024

Peter Martin is launching his third children’s book The Mystery of Trash Island, with a distinct environmental message. Peter – husband of Santa Barbara Symphony president Kathryn Martin – took a year to write the colorful issue with illustrations by local artist Danuta Bennett. He says it is also an introduction to geography teaching as […]

Tico Tells All
By Steven Libowitz   |   September 17, 2024

Jenna Tico – the multi-generational Santa Barbara native who has served as everything from a dancer to community organizer to grant writer for local nonprofits, Summer Solstice aficionado to AHA! staffer – is also the driving force behind Backbone Storytelling, a The Moth-style program that hosts periodic pop-up events at local watering holes. (Latest themes […]

Beebe to Sign New ‘Crucibles’ Book 
By Scott Craig   |   August 27, 2024

Gayle D. Beebe, entering his 18th year as president of Westmont College, will sell and sign copies of his new book, The Crucibles That Shape Us: Navigating the Defining Challenges of Leadership, on Thursday, Aug. 29, from 4-6 pm in front of the turtle fountain at La Arcada Plaza, 1114 State Street in downtown Santa […]

Think Ink
By Richard Mineards   |   August 13, 2024

In search of the ‘shibui’ in life, Montecito author William Dalziel touches upon inspirational musings and insights while doodling and sketching his way through observations, life lessons, and experiences in his latest book, Ink & Inklings. Bill portrays life with its many twists and turns, through colorful portraits, daily renderings and fantastical graphic designs as […]

Steve & Steven
By Richard Mineards   |   July 9, 2024

Writer and comedian Steve Martin turned up at Tecolote, the bijou bibliophile bastion in the upper village, when prolific Montecito author Steven Gilbar launched his latest tome Montecito Noir: True Tales of Murder & Mayhem in Paradise. Gilbar has lived in our rarefied enclave for 40 years and has written myriad works over four decades.

The Channel Islands as Curse and Salvation
By Jeff Wing   |   July 2, 2024

‘The Devil in My Friend’ by Ivor Davis Malibu has been called a colony, an enclave, and several other things along an overwrought continuum that can stray into bad poetry. The very idea of Malibu can be so frankly dazzling it beggars reliable description, this macabre strip of trillion-dollar stilted waterfront huts peopled by reclusive […]

Gilbar Gets all Ghastly and Grisly
By Steven Libowitz   |   May 7, 2024

Montecito’s lawyer turned prolific author-about-town Steven Gilbar, who has written some 20 “shamelessly non-commercial” volumes in and about Santa Barbara since 1979, has spent the last several years more micro-focused on Montecito. Gilbar penned The Little Book of Montecito Writers in 2022 and followed it up a year later with a similarly casual treatise about […]

Chaucer’s Choice: ‘Poor Ghosts’
By Steven Libowitz   |   March 26, 2024

David Starkey is one of Santa Barbara’s most entrenched writers. His varied literary career spans poetry, textbooks and fiction, and a term as Santa Barbara’s 2009-2011 Poet Laureate. Starkey was Founding Director of the Creative Writing Program at SBCC, co-editor of the California Review of Books, and the publisher and co-editor of Gunpowder Press. Over […]

On Tour with Ivor
By Richard Mineards   |   March 12, 2024

How fitting that on the 60th anniversary of The Beatles “invasion” of America, an old friend, Ivor Davis – who toured with the Fab Four as an “embedded” correspondent for the London Daily Express, one of the world’s largest newspapers at the time with five million readers – should give a fascinating talk at the […]

The Universal Language
By Richard Mineards   |   February 27, 2024

It wasn’t exactly Dr. Dolittle, but Montecito oceanographer resident Dove Joans, who writes under the pseudonym Dolphingirl, claims to be able to communicate with animals, particularly whales and dolphins. In 2019, she wrote We Are the Ocean: 50 Waves to Wonder! and has just published the second edition of Dolphin Talk, which she wrote in […]

Diana Raab at Tecolote 
By Jeffrey Stewart   |   January 16, 2024

Celebrated advocate of the profound healing properties of writing, Dr. Diana Raab will be discussing and signing her book Hummingbird: Messages from My Ancestors at Tecolote Bookshop in Montecito’s Upper Village, and at Summerland’s enchanting and indescribable Sacred Space. “Hummingbird coincides with my 70th birthday, a time when many of us intuitively reflect on our […]

A-Paws for ‘Top Dogs’
By Richard Mineards   |   November 7, 2023

It was definitely paws for thought at Hudson Grace, the charming vintage design shop in the Montecito Country Mart, when British author Georgina Montagu promoted her colorful 300-page coffee table tome Top Dogs: A British Love Affair, featuring boldface named owners and their beloved canines. One of the more notable is Camilla, wife of King […]

A Bellosguardo Affair
By Richard Mineards   |   October 3, 2023

I was last at Bellosguardo, the 24-acre oceanfront estate owned by the late copper heiress Huguette Clark, who died in 2011 at the age of 104, for a megabuck fundraising gala five years ago, so it was nice to return to the magnificent aerie when the Bellosguardo Foundation, with assistance from the Santa Barbara Historical […]

Taupin’s Timely Tome ‘Scattershot: Life, Music, Elton, and Me’
By Steven Libowitz   |   September 26, 2023

Bernie Taupin, Sir Elton John’s lifelong lyrical collaborator, steps out from the 22nd row to share his account of the 55-years-and-counting creative relationship between the duo, and just about everything else in his adventurous life. Scattershot: Life, Music, Elton, and Me is much more than a companion piece to 2019’s biopic Rocketman,or John’s autobiography Me, […]

John Holman and ‘A Horse in My Suitcase’
By Jeff Wing   |   September 12, 2023

John Holman – U.K. expat, adventurer, programmer, grandson, and nephew of a storied horse-trader and Royal jockey, respectively – has written an affecting and often hilarious memoir of his youth in a tiny, post-war West Sussex village. His bittersweet memoir of village life in rural England is called A Horse in My Suitcase, and will […]

“All’s Fair” in Love and Tecolote
By Richard Mineards   |   September 12, 2023

A bevy of bibliophiles descended on Tecolote, the upper village literary gem, when retired corporate attorney David Gersh hosted a launch bash for his latest art mystery, All’s Fair, featuring Jonathan Benjamin Franklin. It is one of eight books that Montecito resident David, a Harvard Law School graduate, has written. His last tome, published in […]

This Book Speaks Volumes
By Richard Mineards   |   September 12, 2023

Oceanographer Jean-Michel Cousteau, 85, and his partner Nancy Marr met in Maui in 1985, living there for 11 years before moving to our Eden by the Beach in 1992. “I lived with my family on the island for 22 years and have many friends who have been devastated by the Lahaina Fire,” says Nan. To […]

Staying Creative and Engaged Later in Life: A Conversation With Author Karen Roberts
By Ann Brode   |   August 15, 2023

Recently, I sat with author Karen Roberts on the Bonnymede deck listening to the soft sounds of surf nearby and talking about her new book, The Blossoming of Women – A Workbook on Growing from Older to Elder. Always curious about the experience that inspires the writing, I asked Karen to share a bit about […]

‘All’s Fair’ in Art Scams
By Richard Mineards   |   July 18, 2023

Retired Montecito corporate attorney David Gersh has published his latest art mystery tome featuring Jonathan Benjamin Franklin, All’s Fair. It is the fourth in the series and one of eight books David, a Harvard Law School graduate, has written. “This is undoubtedly the best art scam work I have ever created,” he enthuses. The novel […]