A Bart’s Book Talk on Quickly, While They Still Have Horses with author Jan Carson in conversation with Mandy Jackson-Beverly on Thursday, September 5 from 6 - 7 pm

Winner of the EU Prize! A surreal and darkly comic collection of stories from “one of the most exciting and original Northern Irish writers of her generation” (The Sunday Times, London)

Humorous and horrifying, tender and absurd, the stories in Quickly, While They Still Have Horses offer a fresh, irreverent look at life in post-conflict Northern Ireland. From first loves to strained relationships, the thrills and terrors of growing up to the dangers and challenges of parenthood, Carson infuses all her stories with empathy, dark wit, and a surreal edge.

In “A Certain Degree of Ownership,” a distracted couple on a beach fail to notice their baby crawl perilously toward the sea. In “Grand So,” the ghost of a car’s previous owner haunts the backseat. In “Troubling the Water,” a rumor of miraculous healing creates chaos at a public swimming pool. Carson never fails to shock and delight as kids go missing in jungle gyms, a baby washes up on a riverbank in a biscuit tin, and a bloody hand appears (and reappears) in a refrigerator. Every so often, these stories travel into alternate versions of our world where pillars of fire are a new treatment for mental illness and animals deemed nonessential are going extinct by legislative orders.

Jan Carson is a writer and community arts facilitator based in East Belfast. Jan’s novel The Fire Starters was published by Doubleday in April 2019 and subsequently won the EU Prize for Literature for Ireland 2019 and the Kitschies Prize for Speculative Fiction. The Raptures was shortlisted for the An Post Irish Novel of the Year, the Dalkey Book Prize and the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Prize in 2022. Jan has been shortlisted for the Sean O’Faolain Short Story Prize, the BBC National Short Story Prize and An Post Irish Short Story of the Year Award,” and in 2016 won the Harper’s Bazaar Short Story Prize. Her work has been translated into more than 15 languages.

Mandy Jackson-Beverly is the host and executive producer of The Bookshop Podcast, event manager for the Lunch With An Author Literary Series at El Encanto, Santa Barbara, and has taught publishing and creative writing workshops for the University of London, Cal Poly, Publishers & Writers (San Diego, Orange County), California Writers Club, Writers & Publishers Network, Ventura Writers Club, and served as a guest interviewer for BookFest, Los Angeles. Mandy writes creative non-fiction and fiction and avidly supports independent bookshops and authors worldwide. She is the author of The Creatives Series: A Secret Muse, The Devil and the Muse, The Immortal Muse, and The Legend of Astridr: Birth.

Praise for Jan Carson

"Original, hard-won, properly inspired . . . [Carson is] deeply talented. These sixteen stories, set in post-Troubles Northern Ireland, plumb questions of conflict and morality through mysterious bloody hands, a backseat ghost, and more." —Kevin Barry, New York Times Book Review

“An admirable collection of stories, saturated with acerbic wit and startling empathy.” —Kirkus (starred review)

“A collection of 16 darkly comic short stories that move fluidly between decades and genres. . . . Carson's blend of dark humor and unwavering compassion for her characters will appeal to fans of Louise Kennedy and Rebecca Miller.” —Booklist (starred review)

"These stories are pure magic, funny, sharp, heartbreaking, the short form at its absolute best. Jan Carson is a unique and very special writer, one of the greatest of the modern fabulists." —Donal Ryan, author of The Queen of Dirt Island

“Oh, the imagination! Oh, the inventiveness! In every zany story. Apparently, there’s a branch on the language tree that belongs entirely to Jan Carson.” —Sidik Fofana, author of Stories From the Tenants Downstairs

"[Jan Carson] is most definitely a free-thinking, trailblazing writer of well-observed, quirkily humorous fiction. . . . This book is a wild but somehow, totally grounded read. Superb." —Sunday Independent

"Vivid, original, and moving. . . . Carson excels in offering an accumulation of detail, deftly painting portraits that convince even as they alarm. . . . Long after the reader has closed the book, these tales linger in the mind." —Irish Times

Author Olivia Gatwood in conversation with Emma Bailey on Saturday, August 17 from 6:00 - 7:00 pm

A kind of Stepford Wives meets Grey Gardens for the age of artificial intelligence

On the Santa Cruz waterfront, every house is as flawless as the people inside—except for Mitty and her elderly roommate, Bethel. For ten years, Mitty has found refuge in their secluded existence after a traumatic adolescence. Now, they’re the oddball pair in the dilapidated bungalow, the last vestiges of a town taken over by the tech elite. But their lives are about to be irrevocably disrupted when a new couple, Lena and Sebastian, move in next door. Because on the quiet outskirts of Silicon Valley, nothing is off-limits, and what was once considered dystopia is now reality... Whoever You Are, Honey is gripping, seductive, and prescient as it dissects relationships between women, unpacks perfection and desirability, and explodes the intersection of passion, technology, and power.

Olivia Gatwood is a poet, novelist, and screenwriter from Albuquerque, New Mexico. She has received international recognition for her poetry, writing workshops, and work as a Title IX Compliant educator in sexual assault prevention and recovery. Her performances have been featured on HBO, HuffPost, MTV, VH1, and the BBC, and more. Her poems have appeared in The Poetry Foundation, Sundance Film Festival, Lambda Literary, and The Missouri Review. She is the author of two poetry collections and one novel. She lives in Ojai, California

Emma Bailey is the director of Bart’s Books events. You can find her in the courtyard in conversation with authors and readers and online with her newsletter10,000 Books. She has been a bookseller at Bart’s since 2015.

Praise for Olivia Gatwood

“The twin themes of women’s loneliness and desire are the timeless beating hearts of Olivia Gatwood’s debut novel, propped up by of-the-moment ruminations on queerness and artificial intelligence.”—Vogue, “The Best Books of 2024 So Far”

“This debut, written with traces of Steinbeck and The Stepford Wives, is a meditative novel about femininity, friendship, and aging. . . . An erotic thriller.”—The New York Times Book Review
 
“[An] evocative work of speculative literary fiction . . . Its prescience continues to be more apparent with each new headline out of Silicon Valley.”—Elle, “Best New Books of Summer 2024”
 
“A literary page-turner exploring questions of technology, gender, obedience and intimacies amongst women . . .”—Chicago Review of Books

“Perfect for sweltering summer days that stretch into steamy nights, Olivia Gatwood’s Whoever You Are, Honey feels like a fever dream for the AI age.”—People

“Whoever You Are, Honey is a sensual, detail-rich, utterly immersive novel. So propulsive and atmospheric, and at times creepy, I never wanted to put it down and longed for its company when not turning the pages. . . .”—Jenny Mustard, YouTuber and author of Okay Days

“Whoever You Are, Honey reads like a thriller, but it’s also a tender and searching exploration of what it means to inhabit a female body.”—Kelly Link, author of The Book of Love

“Here’s a novel about the vastness of feeling and friendship—their unruliness a brilliant counterpoint to the glazed screens and aspirations of the modern world.”—Anna Metcalfe, author of Chrysalis
 
“Sharp, captivating, and apt—an intimate, pitch-perfect fable of the time, I immediately went back to the start.”—Yrsa Daley-Ward, author of The Terrible

“As lush and hypnotic as a dreampop album, this is an intoxicating debut about two women, each carrying a dark secret, who desire more than they’ve been allowed to want.”—Leigh Stein, author of Self Care

“Whoever You Are, Honey looks directly into the deep, dark depths of what makes us alive—and what sustains that life.”—Gabrielle Korn, author of Yours for the Taking

“Whoever You Are, Honey is a gripping, heartfelt novel—a moving exploration of unconventional friendships and the desire to be accepted and loved, not in spite of but because of our flaws.”—Kate Folk, author of Out There

“Whoever You Are, Honey is a brilliantly written exposé of the ubiquity and entanglement of the male and technological gazes, and the culture of loneliness and despondency they create.”—Ling Ling Huang, author of Natural Beauty

“Whoever You Are, Honey makes the familiar new; the everyday is made sensuous, rich, and jewel-bright.”—Claudia Cravens, author of Lucky Red

“The Stepford Wives for a new generation is finally here in this gripping, immersive, and uncanny novel.”—Jenny Fran Davis, author of Dykette

Join Bart’s Books for an evening under the California sky with William Selby on Saturday, July 27th from 6-7!

Ride across California on the back of the wind and learn about the dramatic impact that seasonal weather and climate change have on the Golden State.

Often stereotyped as the land of unflaggingly perfect weather, California has a world-renowned reputation for sunny blue skies and infinitely even-keeled temperatures. But the real story of the state’s weather is vastly more complex. From the scorching heat of Death Valley to the coastal redwoods’ dripping in dew, California is home to a dizzying array of landscapes and bespoke weather patterns.

In The California Sky Watcher, earth scientist William A. Selby takes readers on a journey through the seasons and across the state, exploring the atmospheric science that connects us all under our single sky dome. With more than 125 photographs, diagrams, and explanatory charts, Selby guides us through the grand cycles that govern the world we see, feel, and hear every day, from the cirrus clouds that swirl overhead to the breezes that beckon us outside. Unraveling the mysteries behind the state’s fog, floods, fires, droughts, and snowstorms, Selby shares his love affair with the sky and reveals what these changeable energies forecast for the future of California’s climate.

William A. Selby is an earth science researcher and teacher. A former professor at Santa Monica College, where he taught for three decades, Selby is the author of the popular textbook Rediscovering the Golden State: California Geography, whose fourth edition was published in 2019. He has conducted research on behalf of the National Weather Service, and he continues to present at professional conferences and lead teacher trainings and docent workshops. His academic and practical expertise within California’s myriad landscapes make him an invaluable guide to the developments that are changing California’s climate in the twenty-first century. He lives in Santa Monica, CA. Follow along at Rediscovering the Golden State.

Lesley Jacobs Solomonson joins Bart’s Books for a double feature on her two books: Gin and Liqueur on Saturday, July 20th at 6:00. After the talk, enjoy curated cocktails designed by Lesley using Ventura Spirits!

Publishing in July, Liqueur: A Global History looks at liqueurs travelling the Silk Road, awaiting travelers at the Fountain of Youth, and traversing the globe from ancient times through the industrial revolution and beyond. In this thrilling exploration of liqueur’s global history, Solmonson describes how a bitter, medicinal elixir distilled by early alchemists developed into a sugar- and spice-fueled luxury for the rich before garnishing a variety of cocktails the world over. The book invites readers on a multi-faceted journey through culinary history, driven by humanity’s ages-long desire for pleasure.

In her previous book, Gin: A Global History, Solomonson takes us back to gin’s origins as a medicine derived from the aromatic juniper berry, describing how the Dutch recognized the berry’s alcoholic possibilities and distilled it into the whiskey-like genever. Mother’s Milk, Mother’s Ruin, and Ladies’ Delight. Dutch Courage and Cuckold’s Comfort. These evocative nicknames for gin hint that it has a far livelier history than the simple and classic martini would lead you to believe. In this book, Lesley Jacobs Solmonson journeys into gin’s past, revealing that this spirit has played the role of both hero and villain throughout history.

Lesley Jacobs Solmonson is a spirits and cocktail writer, whose work can be seen in the Los Angeles Times, Imbibe, Wine Enthusiast and Sierra magazine, among others. Two of her books -- Gin: A Global History and The 12 Bottle Bar -- were finalists at the Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards. She is also a curatorial consultant at the Center for Culinary Culture in Los Angeles.

Ventura Spirits has been using the natural and agricultural bounty of California's central coast to hand-craft novel and delicious spirits since 2011. Their tasting room in Ventura offers the opportunity to try their six most popular spirits, including their famous Wilder Gin made of wild-harvested California purple sage, bay, yerba santa, pixie mandarin peel and chuchupate.

Sam’s Place is a neighborhood bar located at 308 E. Ojai Avenue

Join Bart’s Books for a behind-the-scenes talk on Hollywood producing with Carol Baum on Saturday, June 29th from 6-7!

Creative Producing: A Pitch-to-Picture Guide to Movie Development is a master class in production––from pitching, script development, and packaging, to working with stars, directors, and difficult executives. Full of stories from Baum's successful career in the industry, Creative Producing offers a peek behind-the-scenes to give film students, cinephiles, aspiring executives, and industry insiders a must-have guide to understanding film development from successful pitch to hit picture.

This book is inspired by Carol Baum’s teaching experience at the American Film Institute and USC, where, as an active producer, she instructs students how to enter Hollywood once they graduate.

"Carol is one of the most decent, capable, and talented people I’ve ever worked with. She was the heart and soul of my company Sandollar during the years that she was with us." ––Dolly Parton

"Carol Baum was the first real producer who saw my potential as a creator. She has always been one of the most astute, wise, kind, funny and indefatigable producers in our business and working with her was a total pleasure." ––Mike White, Writer/Director, The White Lotus, The Good Girl

Carol Baum, film and TV producer, has produced 34 movies, 17 of them independently. Baum teaches producing in the Film and Television Production Division at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. She is a mentor for the Peter Stark Producing Program at USC. As co- president of Sandollar Productions, Dolly Parton and Sandy Gallin’s production company, she produced such hits as Father of the Bride; Jacknife; Buffy the Vampire Slayer; Kicking and Screaming; and many more. As an indie producer, Baum's films include The Good Girl, My First Mister, and Boychoir, as well as television movies for Hallmark and several documentaries.

Join Bart’s Books for an evening with Zito Madu on Friday, June 21st from 6-7!

An author’s trip to Venice takes a distinctly Borgesian turn into the labyrinth of memory and the monsters lurking there.

As a pandemic rages across the globe, soccer club Venizia F.C. offered Nigerian American author Zito Madu a writing residency as part of its plan “to turn the team into a global entity of fashion, culture, and sports.” Madu finds himself in a nearly deserted city, its walls and basilicas humming with strange magic. As he wanders a haunted landscape, we see him twist further into his own past: his family’s difficult immigration from Nigeria to Detroit, his troubled relationship with his father, the sporadic joys of daily life and solitude, his experiences with migration, poverty, foreignness, racism, and his own rage and regret. But as it is with all labyrinths, after finding its center, will he come away unscathed, or will he transform into the gripping, fantastical monstrousness that’s out to consume him whole?

"Difficult to categorize but hauntingly effective… It will reward whoever picks it up." —David Keymer, Library Journal (STARRED REVIEW)

Zito Madu was born in Nigeria and moved to the United States in 1998. He grew up in Detroit and now lives in Brooklyn, New York. His writing has been published in many publications, including Plough Quarterly, Victory Journal, GQ Magazine, the New Republic, and the Nation. The Minotaur at Calle Lanza is Zito Madu’s debut book.

Bring your friends to BART'S OPEN MIC! We've got a slew of local writers and singers who've been asking us to bring back our open mic. Maybe you're one of them? Bringing new work is highly encouraged to cultivate a feeling of freshness in the warm summer air. Arrive early to sign up for a slot. 

Join Bart’s Books for an evening with Emily Taylor on Saturday, May 18th from 6-7!

Rattlesnake wrangler and herpetologist Emily Taylor invites readers to embark on an enchanting exploration of California’s legless reptiles with her new book, California Snakes and How to Find Them. Celebrating the striking biodiversity of nearly 50 snake species inhabiting California’s diverse habitats, Taylor effortlessly guides readers on what you need to develop snake-hunting skills and cheerleads you to be persistent enough to find the snakes you seek.

In this ode to the charms of California’s snakes, Taylor dispels common misapprehensions surrounding these creatures and shares her knowledge, enthusiasm, and practical advice for both seasoned naturalists and budding snake enthusiasts. The book features profiles of diverse species, including the Common Garter, Rosy Boa, and the elusive Alameda Striped Racer. In addition to helping you learn how to find, observe, and identify the snakes around you, Taylor encourages a responsible and sustainable interaction with the world around us.

“This book is for snake lovers and snake lovers-to-be. Few animals capture our imaginations like snakes do, but their reputation is as forked as their tongues,” writes Taylor, “For many people, snakes are scary, gross, and even considered bad omens. For others, like me, snakes represent grace, beauty, and resilience—they are just as fantastic as any beasts that Harry Potter encountered in the wizarding world.”

California Snakes and How to Find Them provides critical insights on handling advice, identification guides, and addresses the myths surrounding venomous encounters, making this guide an essential resource for anyone eager to explore California’s diverse snake population. For those who dare to venture into the hidden realms of California’s serpentine wonders, Emily Taylor’s California Snakes and How to Find Them shows us a new side of our slithering friends.

Emily Taylor is a professor of biological sciences at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, where she conducts research on the physiology, ecology, and conservation biology of lizards and snakes. A staunch advocate for improving the public image of snakes, especially rattlesnakes, Taylor is founder of the community science initiative Project RattleCam (rattlecam.org), where members of the public help her and other scientists learn about rattlesnakes by analyzing photos and livestream footage from snake dens. She is owner of Central Coast Snake Services, which helps people and snakes in California coexist safely and peacefully. She lives in Atascadero with her husband, Steve, and their menagerie of rescue animals, including Pax the dog, Baby the boa constrictor, Aperol Spritz the bearded dragon, and rattlesnakes Buzz and Snakeholio. Follow her on social media @snakeymama.

Join Bart’s Books for an evening with Stewart Lawrence Sinclair on Saturday, April 13 from 6-7! RAINY DAY VENUE CHANGE TO KIM MAXWELL STUDIO, 226 W OJAI AVE, NEXT TO JIM AND ROBS

From the author Juggling, Sinclair’s Space Rover is a brief book that brings a keen eye and a skillful voice to the rich cultural history of mechanical wanderers.

In 1971, the first lunar rover arrived on the moon. The design became an icon of American ingenuity and the adventurous spirit and vision many equated with the space race.

Fifty years later, that vision feels like a nostalgic fantasy, but the lunar rover's legacy paved the way for Mars rovers like Sojourner, Curiosity, and Perseverance. Other rovers have made accessible the world's deepest caves and most remote tundra, extending our exploratory range without risking lives. Still others have been utilized for search and rescue missions or in clean up operations after disasters such as Chernobyl.

For all these achievements, rovers embody not just our potential, but our limits. Examining rovers as they wander our terrestrial and celestial boundaries, we might better comprehend our place, and fate, in this universe.

As meandering and revelatory as its subject, Stewart Lawrence Sinclair's Space Rover takes us on a trip through space and time that's full of universal and personal discovery. Rovers are our mechanical avatars and assistants in hostile environments, but they are also, in their own way, our friends and family.”
—Fred Scharmen, Program Director and Associate Professor of Architecture, Morgan State University

Stewart Lawrence Sinclair is a writer and journalist based in New York. He has been published in Guernica Magazine, Literary Hub, 3:AM Magazine, The Millions, Avidly: A Channel of the Los Angeles Review of Books, and the New Orleans Review, among others. He is the author of Juggling (2023) and is originally from Ventura, California.

Join Bart’s Books for an evening with Kristine Tompkins in conversation with Mandy Jackson Beverly on Friday, April 5 from 6 - 7 pm!

Patagonia National Park: Chile dives deep into the conservation and rewilding initiatives of Kristine McDivitt Tompkins, former CEO of Patagonia, and Douglas Tompkins, the co-founder of The North Face and Esprit, as seen in the recent NatGeo documentary Wild Life.

Located in the Aysen region of southern Chile, Patagonia National Park is a 1,700-mile scenic route connecting 17 national parks and over 60 communities. The photographs and stories within the book are devoted to Patagonia National Park’s diverse landscapes, encompassing deciduous forests, glaciers, high alpine terrain, rivers, wetlands, and Patagonian steppes, as well as the park’s wild residents and the ongoing efforts to bring back healthy populations of fragile species, such as the highly endangered huemul deer, Darwin's rhea, puma and Andean condor.

“National Parks are the jewels of a country where all are welcome,” says Kris. “Where citizens and foreigners alike can walk the hills, meander along the rivers, and watch Patagonia grasslands slowly, patiently, regenerate forward toward the powerful, plentiful territories they once were.

Kristine McDivitt Tompkins is a former CEO of Patagonia and cofounder and president of Tompkins Conservation. She has been a key figure in the creation of Patagonia National Park in Chile and other conservation projects that have so far resulted in 15 million acres protected in new or expanded national parks in Chile and Argentina, in addition to 30 million acres of marine national parks in Argentina. She holds several global leadership positions in conservation, and formerly served as a Patron for Protected Areas for the UN Environment Programme. The organization she created in Chile with Douglas Tompkins is now an independent entity known as Rewilding Chile which continues the Tompkins legacy in the region.

Mandy Jackson-Beverly is the host and executive producer of The Bookshop Podcast, event manager for the Lunch With An Author Literary Series at El Encanto, Santa Barbara, and has taught publishing and creative writing workshops for the University of London, Cal Poly, Publishers & Writers (San Diego, Orange County), California Writers Club, Writers & Publishers Network, Ventura Writers Club, and served as a guest interviewer for BookFest, Los Angeles. Mandy writes creative non-fiction and fiction and avidly supports independent bookshops and authors worldwide. She is the author of The Creatives Series: A Secret Muse, The Devil and the Muse, The Immortal Muse, and The Legend of Astridr: Birth.

Join Bart’s Books for an evening with author Tessa Hulls in conversation with Lucy Bellwood on Thursday, March 21 from 6 - 7 pm!

In her evocative, genre-defying graphic memoir, Tessa Hulls tells the story of three generations of women in her family: her Chinese grandmother, Sun Yi; her mother, Rose; and herself.

Extensively researched and gorgeously rendered, Feeding Ghosts is Hulls’s homecoming, a vivid journey into the beating heart of one family, set against the dark backdrop of Chinese history. By turns fascinating and heartbreaking, inventive and poignant, Feeding Ghosts exposes the fear and trauma that haunt generations, and the love that holds them together.

"Feeding Ghosts reminds us how much the personal is political . . . an audacious, awe-inspiring feat. For me, it was an essential read." —Ling Ma, author of Bliss Montage

Tessa Hulls is an artist, a writer, and an adventurer. Her essays have appeared in The Washington Post, Atlas Obscura, and Adventure Journal, and her comics have been published in The Rumpus, City Arts, and Spark. She has received grants from the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture, 4Culture, and the McMillen Foundation, and she is a recipient of the Washington Artist Trust Arts Innovator Award. Feeding Ghosts is her first book.

Lucy Bellwood is a professional Adventure Cartoonist based in Ojai, CA. Her documented expeditions include rafting trips through the Grand Canyon, cutting-edge oceanography in the Pacific, and an expedition aboard the last wooden whaling ship in the world. Her talks and essays explore the intersections of community, authenticity, and financial sustainability for creators. She is the author of Baggywrinkles: a Lubber’s Guide to Life at Sea, an educational memoir about her time working aboard tall ships, and 100 Demon Dialogues, a helpful guide to living with imposter syndrome.

Gather in our darkening courtyard with poet-naturalist Charles Hood to hear about the exquisite and intricate inner workings of nature after nightfall, flora that unfurl under moonshine, and the creatures that go bump in the night.

“Hood is the love child of Rebecca Solnit and Edward Abbey, assuming such a child had been raised in an art colony by demented garden gnomes.” (Michael Guista)

“I’ve just reached a stage where the High Church rhetoric of Emerson and the pristine skies of Ansel Adams are not enough. What about nature for the rest of us? There are trees (lots of them) in downtown Los Angeles, parrots in Phoenix, coyotes in Chicago, peregrine falcons in Boston. Just yesterday I saw a condor over I-5 in Gorman, which is the freeway between Los Angeles and Bakersfield. Even in my pokey little tract house on a regular street in a working-class neighborhood, I have tallied 74 species of birds. I am not trying to repudiate the Romantic Sublime—I just want to expand the conversation. In photographic terms, I guess I am asking for less Ansel Adams and more Robert Adams.” Charles Hood in conversation with Kristine Morris

This event is free to attend, no need to RSVP. Come join us, buy a book, and grab a seat in our courtyard.
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Join local art and culture writer Stacie Stukin in conversation with Adam Blackman of the famed design duo Adam Blackman and David Cruz. Perfect for lovers of Architectural Digest, this talk will explore their design ethos that runs the gamut from operatic to telenovela. Full of color photographs of Blackman Cruz spaces and pieces that gravitate toward the rare, dramatic, and playful, this beautiful book is a piece of art in and of itself.

This event is free to attend, no need to RSVP. Come join us, buy a book, and grab a seat in our courtyard.
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Building upon a Pulitzer finalist Los Angeles Times explanatory piece on sea level rise, Rosanna Xia’s California Against the Sea explores our shifting relationship with the space between land and sea. “Few people are more qualified to explain and analyze this landscape.” (Science Magazine)

Xia’s courtyard conversation with Santa Barbara oceanography professor Dr. Stephanie Mendes is not to be missed by anyone who loves the wide horizon of our California coast.

Listen to Rosanna Xia on NPR’s Here and Now

“I’m constantly wrestling with how I want the reader to feel at the end of any story about climate change. The more I’ve tried to balance the “right” amount of hope versus despair, or an urgent sense of loss, I’ve come to realize that it’s not the feeling of hope that I should be indexing on. It’s responsibility. We have a responsibility to take better care of the air we breathe, the forests we rely on, and, of course, the ocean, this massive body of water that has quietly absorbed the brunt of our emissions. We have a duty to clean up these messes of our past, and to reconsider how we want to live in the future. And embracing this responsibility takes courage.

I feel like courage, and not being afraid of change—and being brave enough to question whether we need to change—is at the heart of both our books. Can we reimagine and rebuild in a way that is in better relationship with our natural world?” from Wildfires and Vanishing Coastlines: Rosanna Xia and Lizzie Johnson on Turning Their Climate Reporting into Books

This event is free to attend, no need to RSVP. Come join us, buy a book, and grab a seat in our courtyard.
Subscribe to our mailing list here.

Join James Beard Award winner and veteran party thrower Amy Thielen for a talk on her newest cookbook all about rethinking the way you entertain, making dinner parties less formal, more frequent, and as fun for the cook as for the guests.

After living for years in the rural countryside, Thielen has developed a steep aversion to the formality of entertaining. But don’t be mistaken, Amy throws a lot of parties—holiday parties, birthday feasts, longest-day-of-the-year barbecues, no-occasion dinner parties. According to Amy, “the best dinner parties are always a little off. They hit both high notes and low notes. They swing. The missteps make us human, and cause the understanding to flow around the table, unbroken, like good conversation.”

Winter feasts on freezing midwestern nights. Big sprawling summer bashes. In Amy’s corner of the world, northern Minnesota, in-house entertaining is more than a way of life—it’s pretty much the only option. “You can call cooking a compulsion or you can call it an art or you can call it a drag, but you can’t call it a waste of time. A meal with friends or family is nothing more, and nothing less, than a fleeting event that fills a momentary spiritual need. If you think about it that way, nearly every inconsequential occasion calls for [a party].” And when a dinner party is done right—aligning people and season and mood—the food will fade into the background. “The next day, it will resurface as an idyllic sense memory of flavors and textures that everyone will remember as better than they actually were. That’s just how it works,” notes Amy. “The real hostess gift is the fact that everything— absolutely everything—tastes better at someone else’s house.”

Preaching leniency, not-guilty pleasures, and the art of making it in advance, Thielen soothes the most common party anxieties one by one. Not afraid of meat (but obsessed with vegetables), these 125 loyal recipes are arranged in menu form—from intimate dinner parties to larger holiday feasts to parties that serve up to twenty. With a feast of gorgeous photography and plenty of down-in-the-pan cooking nerdery, Company encourages a return to the habit, and the joy, of cooking for family and friends.

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Meet us in the courtyard for our first open mic (in recent memory)... The rules are simple. Upon arrival, add your name to the list to read and our emcee will grant you five minutes on the mic.

California Poet Laureate Lee Herrick joins us for an evening of readings and reflections on the place of poetry in our lives.

“As a teacher, poet, and father, Lee writes movingly about his identity as a Californian and encourages others to reflect on what the state means to them,” said Governor Newsom. He is the 10th California Poet Laureate, and the first Asian American to serve in the role.

Herrick writes eloquently on the immigrant experience – bringing to life the smell of chapchae and the sound of mariachi trumpets, the farmers market at midnight, and the small talk of Armenian neighbors. Herrick’s work is a Whitmanesque celebration of the best spirit of our state, the vibrancy of the Central Valley, and ourselves.

Read and Listen to Lee Herrick’s poem My California.

“In my California, free sounds and free touch / Free questions, free answers / Free songs from parents and poets, those hopeful bodies of light.”

This is a free event. RSVP here to reserve a seat!

RSVP here for this one-of-a-kind cross-community evening featuring the work of our neighboring writers and performers from the The Townies, Inc. Get to know the artists behind the monthly new work space StoryWorks, hear from young writers, and celebrate Tim Cummings’ new book.

RSVP here for Addiction Surf Mag’s new issue launch party. Jeff Grimes, Evan apRoberts, and Melissa Castellano join us for an event celebrating homegrown surf culture and its ever-evolving relationship with art, rock ‘n’ roll, nature, and free expression. Come hear about the new issue and stay for the hang. Featuring a live vinyl set by Grady of Grady’s Record Refuge.