Vampires, Dark Fairy Tales and John Waters: Santa Barbara's Fall Reading List

The Santa Barbara Independent's bi-monthly book newsletter, All Booked, lands this week with three light-read recommendations chosen by Marketing & Promotions Manager Richelle Boyd: a 2008 paranormal romance, a 2009 anti-fairy-tale graphic novel, and John Waters's 2017 manifesto Make Trouble.

The timing is deliberate. As newsletter editor Tessa put it, even with Halloween over and darkness arriving by 5 p.m., fall is a season that "appeals to one's whimsical side." Boyd's brief was to counter the shrinking daylight with what she calls her collection of "fun fall reads" — a to-be-read list featuring "the girls, the gays, and lots of fun art to lighten my days."

What's on the list?

Boyd reviews three titles, two of them picked up at the Planned Parenthood Book Sale:

• Real Vampires Get Lucky by Gerry Bartlett (2008) — the third book in a series set in Austin, Texas, where vampires and other paranormals live out what Boyd calls their "Sex & the City dreams." Protagonist Gloriana "Glory" St. Clair runs a vintage clothing shop and juggles a will-they-won't-they situationship with fellow vampire Jerry. When she finds a dying woman in an alley — Luciana Cavarelli, daughter of a loan shark known to the paranormal community — and saves her, someone films the encounter and blackmails Glory. Boyd admits she grabbed the book partly "because the cover has a black cat like mine on it," and praises its explicit scenes and its "perfectly 2008" Jimmy Choo fashion references. She calls it "a perfect nostalgic throwback that was a breeze to read through."

• Beautiful Darkness by Fabien Vehlmann and Marie Pommepuy (2009) — a graphic novel that drew Boyd in with its beautiful nature cover but delivers what its blurb calls "a searing condemnation of our vast capacity for evil writ tiny." Princess Aurora falls into a lush watercolor world, but the story darkens as characters reveal their pettiness and greed. Boyd found "bleak death and wild showing through the perfectly painted nature," while Aurora emerges as "a fighting light" whose courage and resourcefulness flip the ending. She recommends it as "a quick read that will keep you on your toes."

Make Trouble by John Waters (2017) — the book Boyd keeps permanently shelved and recommends most often. Part advice manual, part scrapbook, it reads "like a notebook that Waters scribbled in and sent off to the printers." Boyd quotes her favorite passage verbatim: "Contemporary art's job is to wreck what came before. Is there a better job description than that to aspire to? Here another trigger warning, and pardon me for swearing: go out in the world and fuck it up beautifully." Waters's advice to be nosy is one she endorses — "and mostly to dig your nose into this book."

What does this change for readers?

Practically, it points Santa Barbara book lovers to a loaded events calendar running through late November. Highlights include:

• UCSB Arts & Lectures hosts novelist Min Jin Lee on Thursday, November 12, 7:30 p.m. at Campbell Hall.
• SBCEO's 74th Annual Breakfast with the Authors takes place Saturday, November 14, 8:45 a.m.–noon.
• The Ojai Art Center Book Festival runs Saturday, November 14, noon–5 p.m.
• Writers Jan Carson and Lucy Caldwell appear at two "Lunch with an Author" events: November 11 in Ojai and November 12 at the University Club of Santa Barbara.
• Dustin Hoffman discusses Look at Me at Godmothers on Sunday, November 15, 6 p.m., one of a run of Godmothers Gather events featuring guests including Rabbi Sharon Brous, Terri Cole, Priyanka Mattoo, and Rhonda Byrne.
• Book clubs convene across the city, from the Polyamorous Book Club reading Sex at Dawn at Draughtsmen Aleworks (November 12) to a Romance Book Club on Paladin's Grace (November 18) and a Social Justice Book Club on Assata Shakur's autobiography (November 18).
• Fall book sales run at Buellton Library (November 14–17) and the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History (November 18–21).

Local authors get a spotlight

The Independent also flags four recent titles sent in by Santa Barbara–connected authors: Van Fleisher's Yogi's Story: The Meaning of Life Lives, Richard Handley's The Hawks Are Not Dying, Wayne McCulley's Lucille Rises, and Moe Mitchell's Unlicensed Massage Therapy. Local writers can submit future titles via [email protected].

The newsletter's review coverage currently runs through a content partnership with California Review of Books, whose recent contribution includes David Starkey's review of George Singleton's Wounded Boarders: Stories. For a city of Santa Barbara's size, the calendar suggests the local literary scene isn't slowing down as the days shorten — it's just moving indoors earlier.