All Booked | Road Trip Roundup

The original version of this newsletter was sent out on Tuesday, September 10.

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Hello, fellow bookworms!

This week, our amazing Advertising Director Sarah Sinclair pops in to share a roundup of reads from a recent road trip! Now I’m entertaining fantasies of recruiting my own book-loving friends and hitting up as many indie bookstores around the country as we can … maybe someday!

—Tessa, allbooked@independent.com

Hi, friends! I’m excited for my turn at the wheel of our literary roundup. Summer is my favorite season for reading, so here’s a summer vacation installment of All Booked.

On a recent weekend road trip with a few of my smart, savvy gal pals, I asked them to share something that they’ve read recently that has stuck with them. Yes, I hijacked the road trip for work purposes! And they obliged. Here are their reflections:

Joanne Recommends: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

I read this one, too, and also give it two thumbs up. This is a novel about Sam and Sadie, childhood friends who reunite in college and become creative partners and video game designers. Joanne says she appreciated the duration of the characters’ friendships, and the way that their relationships ebbed and flowed over time. She loved Sam’s vulnerability, intelligence, and self-awareness, and his relationships with Sadie and his grandparents, and how they continued to love each other even when they weren’t easy to love. Joanne just returned home from three months in Italy, and she admits that she chose this book partly because it was one of the few books in English that she was able to find while on her trip.

Joanne: “I’ve never played video games, nor even liked the idea of video games. This book surprised me and pulled me in so much that I think I might find video games interesting.”

Carole Recommends: The Women by Kristin Hannah

This is another book that I also read and loved. It’s a novel about three female nurses serving in the Vietnam War who really “get” each other. The experiences that they have when they are “in country” juxtapose with their not-so-welcome-home when they return to the U.S. after their service. Carole says that she didn’t want to read a Vietnam-era war story, but she had loved Hannah’s other work, especially The Nightingale, so she gave it a shot and got completely pulled in. Favorite plot threads were the characters’ painful relationships with men, the deep connections that they had with some of their patients, and the disrespect and pain they experienced upon coming home. Carole noticed something about the way this story was written that I hadn’t realized: As readers, we are introduced to characters in this book in an intimate way, and then never see them again, which mirrors the experience of the nurses, and the transient nature of the work they were doing in active service.

Carole: “This is a story of strong, connected women helping each other through crises and staying the course, even when they came home and physically went their separate ways. Her friendships were really what got her through, both during and after the war.”

Starshine Recommends: The Cormoran Strike series by Robert Galbraith

Galbraith is a pseudonym for JK Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series. This is a series of crime fiction novels about a British army veteran named Cormoran Strike. After having his leg blown off by a landmine in Afghanistan, Strike returns home to become a private detective. Each of the stories in the series takes us deep into the worlds that Strike and his partner, Robin Ellacott, enter to solve the crimes, milieux as disparate as online chat rooms and the infiltration of cults. Starshine has been listening to the series and says that Galbraith’s masterful character craftsmanship is enhanced by the versatility of audiobook narrator Robert Glenister. She describes the duo as having a Pacino/Scorcese magic. Starshine is almost to the end of the last book, The Running Grave, and says that she’s been savoring the series to the point that she forces herself to read other books in between, and she admits that she finds herself sitting in her car listening, even after she has arrived at her destination — definitely the audio version of not being able to put a book down.

Starshine: “I’ve always wondered why people would stick with the same characters over and over in a series like this. Now I understand.”

Kelly Recommends: Three Women by Lisa Taddeo

This is a nonfiction work that many say reads like fiction. Author and journalist Taddeo spent eight years researching and interviewing women about their sex lives. The result is a meticulous accounting of the lives of three women from different walks of life. One young girl has an affair with her high school teacher; one woman runs a restaurant with her husband, who likes to watch her have sex with other people; and the third woman, in a marriage with a husband who won’t touch her, embarks on an affair with an old flame. Kelly shares that reading these women’s accounts caused her to realize and question her own opinions. She felt herself at times wanting to advise and warn the women, and this made her very aware of how easy it is to see red flags for other people. She loved the descriptions of the women and the intricacies of their personalities, and said that by the end of the book she felt a strong kinship with them.

Kelly: “As women, no matter your age or upbringing, there’s always a shared experience. The author told their stories by feeding us morsels bit by bit, so I was able to relate to every one of the women. I could feel how and why their stories happened.”

As for my own summer reading? I just finished Tom Lake by Ann Patchett; narrated mesmerizingly by Meryl Streep. Other recent reads include The House of Eve by Sadeqa Johnson, The Farewell Tour by Stephanie Clifford (recommended here by Tessa), and the delightful Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt. After our road trip last week, I’ve got my work cut out for me with the first of the Cormoran Strike series up next in my queue. Enjoy your summer selections, and don’t forget the sunscreen.

—Sarah Sinclair, sarah@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.

Storytime at Solvang Library
Tuesday, July 30, 10:30 a.m. | Solvang Library

Book Talk and Signing: Julian Gresser
Tuesday, July 30, 6 p.m. | Chaucer’s Books

Bilingual Songs & Stories for Kids
Wednesday, July 31, 11 a.m. | Franklin Elementary School

Wiggly Storytime
Friday, August 2, 10:15 a.m. | Central Library

Writing Workshops with Literary Agent Toni Lopopolo
Four dates starting Saturday, August 3 (Aug. 3, Aug. 10, Aug. 17, Aug. 24), 1 p.m. | Virtual

Preschool Story Time
Monday, August 5, 10 a.m. | Carpinteria Community Library

Storytime at Solvang Library
Tuesday, August 6, 10:30 a.m. | Solvang Library

El Encanto Literary Club with Steven Rowley
Tuesday, August 6, noon | El Encanto, A Belmond Hotel

Storytime at Solvang Library
Wednesday, August 7, 10:30 a.m. | Solvang Library

Bilingual Songs & Stories for Kids
Wednesday,  August 7, 11 a.m. | Franklin Elementary School

Book Talk and Signing: Claudia Chotzen
Wednesday, August 7, 6 p.m. | Chaucer’s Books

Book Talk and Signing: Michael Salsbury
Thursday, August 8, 6 p.m. | Chaucer’s Books

Book Tasting
Thursday, August 8, 6:30 p.m. | The Eddy

Wiggly Storytime
Friday, August 9, 10:15 a.m. | S.B. Central Library

Book Talk: Danica Nava
Saturday, August 10, 6 p.m. | Bart’s Books

Preschool Story Time
Monday, August 12, 10 a.m. | Carpinteria Community Library

Wiggly Storytime
Monday, August 12, 10:30 a.m. | Buellton Library

LOCAL BOOK SPOTLIGHT

We at the Independent get many books sent to us by local 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 have a local spin. They are all either written by a local 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. Click here for a more comprehensive list.

The Burning Years by Felicity Harley

How Gaviota Pass Shaped the History of Santa Barbara by Mark R. Preston

Mysteries of Bowie and Other Oddities by Joseph Raffetto

Written to Die by Ann Simas

Chnawaway and the Sky Coyote by HA Bustos

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 “Local Author 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:

Joan Mitchell, edited by Sarah Roberts and Katy Siegel; review by David Starkey

Gilded Age Cocktails by Cecelia Tichi, review by George Yatchisin

*At the present time, all of the Independent’s book reviews are provided in collaboration with California Review of Books (calirb.com).