All Booked | Amazing Area Authors

By Tessa Reeg Tue Dec 31, 2024 | 10:43am

The original version of this newsletter was sent out on Tuesday, December 31.

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Hello, fellow bookworms!

I think of myself as lucky to be able to read all sorts of interesting things for my job as the Independent’s Copy Chief, and this year, taking over as the editor of All Booked has only further allowed me to delve into my passion for books. I’ve been able to connect with my coworkers who step in as guest writers, meet incredible people in the S.B. book community, and learn about wonderful books that might have never crossed my radar otherwise.

While I would need much more free time than I currently have to be able to open up All Booked to reviews by request, sometimes the stars align and I am able to dive into some of the books that authors send me (thank you!). Here are just a few of the books written by authors with Santa Barbara ties that impressed me this year.

Cheers to 2025! May it be full of books.

Wildlife Crossings of Hope: Connecting Creatures Around the Globe by Teddi Lynn Chichester

As a lifelong lover of animals of all shapes and sizes, I love learning about the work people do all over the world to keep wildlife safe and thriving, and about the authors who write about them! Teddi Chichester’s book Wildlife Crossings of Hope — approachable and written for ages middle grade to adult — highlights the incredible things humans have done to keep animals safe from harm on our roadways as they navigate their way through their various habitats. These methods involve wildlife crossings such as bridges over roadways or tunnels underneath them; dam removal and even “fish elevators” for various aquatic creatures such as salmon and eels; and aboveground highways called “canopy bridges” for treetop-dwelling lion-tailed macaques. From tiny toads and salamanders to majestic deer and elk, cheeky tamarins and macaques, and the famous mountain lion P-22, Chichester details the ways in which people have been and are continuing to modify the world — from India to Australia to right here in Southern California — to keep our animal neighbors safe.

Rock ’n’ Pole: A Memoir by Aimee Bushong

I’m sure many of us had fantasies about being famous rock stars when we were young — but not all of us were as determined as Aimee Bushong to make it happen. After discovering her love of music and songwriting at an early age, as well as the fact that it costs more money to make a demo tape than one might think, Bushong’s 18-year-old life changes when she attends a birthday party involving a stripper — and realizes how she might combine her love for performing, desire for male attention, and need for money into one profession. The next 13 years involve a rollercoaster of performing, from strip-o-grams and strip clubs that range in seediness to getting to write and perform her own music on stage, as well as figuring out to make one’s way in the world as a woman with her own ambitions and identity, even when her night job sometimes involves degradation and disrespect.

While this book is every bit as brow-raisingly raunchy as you would expect, what stood out to me was Bushong’s ingrained optimism that persists throughout her journey. We’ve all had dreams, but not all of us had Bushong’s determination nor her toughness, and I wholeheartedly cheered her on as I read about her building her dreams, dance by dance and step by step. While she doesn’t end up with the sparkly Hollywood dream involving a rich strip-club patron making a star out of her, her story ends up with the much more satisfying realization that everything she accomplished, she accomplished herself, out of grit and hard work and songs written and songs danced, one crumpled dollar bill at a time.

Check out her Spotify and thank me later — I’ve already put “Chicken on My Stove” on my favorites list.

The Dark Room: A Memoir of Triumph by Claudia Chotzen

While incest by a mother perpetrated against a child may be, as Claudia Chotzen describes it on her website, “perhaps the last taboo in our culture’s awareness,” growing up, it was an unspoken part of her family life. Her memoir, The Dark Room, takes us along on the story of her life: growing up as one of eight children to parents who fled Nazi Germany and built lives in Seattle; her complicated relationships with her parents and siblings; beautiful family memories such as camping and ski trips, love and laughter, education and activism; and darker memories involving abuse, molestation, and assault. Chotzen’s attention to detail as she unravels the story of her life makes the reader feel as though she’s sitting at the kitchen table across from you, telling her story, and alternately made me smile and laugh and broke my heart.

Despite the dark subject matter, Chotzen demonstrates, through her resilience, sheer kindness, and ability to love, the possibility for other survivors of abuse and assault to heal, grow, and stop the cycle of further harm. Her memoir, true to its name, feels like a helping hand offering a way out of the dark room and toward the shining triumph of being able to choose and build oneself a beautiful life.

—Tessa, allbooked@independent.com

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.

An Epic, 3,000-Person First Date Comes to Santa Barbara by Meaghan Clark Tiernan

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.

Stay & Play
Thursday, January 2, 9 a.m. | Eastside Library

Wiggly Storytime
Thursday, January 2, 4:30 p.m. | S.B. Central Library

Story Time: Author Meredith May
Saturday, January 4, 11 a.m. | Godmothers Bookstore

Preschool Storytime
Monday, January 6, 10 a.m. | Carpinteria Community Library

Storytime at Solvang Library
Tuesday, January 7, 10:30 a.m. | Solvang Library

Stay & Play
Tuesday, January 7, 9 a.m. | Montecito Library

Bilingual Songs & Stories for Kids
Tuesday, January 7, 11 a.m. | Eastside Library

Storytime at Solvang Library
Wednesday, January 8, 10:30 a.m. | Solvang Library

Baby & Me Storytime
Wednesday, January 8, 11 a.m. | S.B. Central Library

Read to a Dog
Wednesday, January 8, 3 p.m. | Eastside Library

Romance Book Club
Wednesday, January 8, 5:30 p.m. | S.B. Central Library

In Conversation: Wade Weissmann and Mark Weaver
Wednesday, January 8, 6 p.m. | Godmothers Bookstore

Stay & Play
Thursday, January 9, 9 a.m. | Eastside Library

Wiggly Storytime
Thursday, January 9, 4:30 p.m. | S.B. Central Library

On the Stage: Shira Gill
Thursday, January 9, 6 p.m. | Godmothers Bookstore

Baby & Me Storytime
Friday, January 10, 10:30 a.m. | Goleta Valley Library

On the Stage: Moon Unit Zappa
Friday, January 10, 6 p.m. | Godmothers Bookstore

Story Time at Godmothers
Saturday, January 11, 11 a.m. | Godmothers Bookstore

Story Time with Local Author Taran Collis
Sunday, January 12, 2 p.m. | Chaucer’s Books

Preschool Storytime
Monday, January 13, 10 a.m. | Carpinteria Community Library

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.

A Thousand Seas by Latasha Ball

Writing by Starlight: A Divine Ink Journal by Janet Lucy

Seek Me and You Will Find Me: I Did and I Did by Ron Ziegler You Can Be an Exorcist: What You Don’t Know About Yourself Is Christ Jesus Is in You by Ron Ziegler

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.

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