With psychedelics now undergoing a broad cultural reassessment as a tool for therapeutic use, UC Santa Cruz associate professor of history Benjamin Breen is filling in the colors on a crucial period in psychedelic history with his new book, “Tripping on Utopia: Margaret Mead, the Cold War and the Troubled Birth of Psychedelic Science.” Breen comes to Bookshop Santa Cruz on Jan. 23 to talk about the new book and the history it unfolds.
Bookshop Santa Cruz
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Whether it’s improv or writing, Clifford Henderson is steeped in storytelling
Santa Cruz-based Clifford Mae Henderson is poised to release her sixth novel, “Bait and Witch,” with a reading and book signing at Bookshop Santa Cruz on Jan. 18. But many locals might be surprised to learn that Henderson has ever written fiction at all. That’s because she’s best known for performing and teaching improv comedy with the Fun Institute.
Posted inArts & Entertainment, City Life
After a career as a high-profile journalist, Santa Cruz’s Peggy Townsend is living the novelist’s life
Since her retirement from journalism, longtime Sentinel writer Peggy Townsend has shifted her storytelling skills to the realm of fiction. In her latest novel, “The Beautiful and the Wild,” Townsend explores the depths of isolation and the power of secrets, drawing from her personal experiences as a journalist and a seven-week van trip across Alaska. She appears at Bookshop Santa Cruz on Tuesday.
Posted inEnvironment
Can California continue to fight the ocean? A new book argues for new approaches
As last winter made clear all over Santa Cruz County, nothing is permanent when confronted with the power of the Pacific. In “California Against the Sea,” Los Angeles Times journalist Rosanna Xia examines the postwar coastal development boom and the daunting challenges facing the 27 million Californians who live in the coastal zone as sea-level rise and coastal erosion become urgent facts of life. She’ll talk about it Tuesday at Bookshop Santa Cruz.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
‘A Dark and Rising Tide’: Novelist’s supernatural twist on Capitola Village’s devastating winter storm
The latest novel from former KION-TV news director Debra Castaneda is directly inspired by Capitola’s experience with the Storm of ’23. “A Dark and Rising Tide” imagines a scary winter storm that actually brings forth some enormous and mysterious sea creature, and a couple trying to survive both the ocean’s fury and the monster it washed to shore.
Posted inFood & Drink
A bountiful fall: 23 foodie events happening in Santa Cruz County this month
Local calendars are filling up with food-themed fall events. Lookout food and drink correspondent Lily Belli collected them all in one place, and notes her picks for the best events of the season.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Nina Simon’s ‘Mother-Daughter Murder Night’ is the September pick for Reese Witherspoon’s book club
The new novel authored by Nina Simon, longtime director of the Museum of Art & History in Santa Cruz — “Mother-Daughter Murder Night” — was selected as September’s Book of the Month on Tuesday by actor Reese Witherspoon and her Reese’s Book Club.
Posted inCity Life
Nina Simon’s new path: A daughter’s story of love, told in the form of a murder mystery
Nina Simon, former director of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History, put her life and nonprofit leadership on pause in 2020 to care for her mother after a cancer diagnosis. What “started out completely like a fantasy or a distraction” evolved into “Mother-Daughter Murder Night,” a mystery novel she’ll discuss Tuesday at Bookshop Santa Cruz.
Posted inCity Life
Remember to have fun: Lauren Crux and the life lessons of her new book, ‘Difficult Beauty’
Author, artist and psychotherapist Lauren Crux’s latest work is a collection of what she calls “rambles” — short impressions, crafted like poems and meant to be exchanged in the mail, like postcards. She’ll discuss “Difficult Beauty: Rambles, Rants and Intimate Conversations” next week at Bookshop Santa Cruz.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
How Lara Love Hardin survived addiction, incarceration and shame to rebuild her life
As “The Many Lives of Mama Love” hits bookshops Tuesday, the tale by Santa Cruz County author and literary agent Lara Love Hardin of rebounding from rock bottom to stability — and fame — shows a dizzying transformation.
