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Dibi and Herbie Fletcher November 14, 2019 The Fletcher Family: A Lifetime in Surf Dibi Fletcher is a writer, unofficial Chief Operating Officer of the Astrodeck surfing-equipment company, and matriarch of the Fletcher family. Herbie Fletcher is a prolific and legendary surfer, shaper and entrepreneur. The Fletcher Family: A Lifetime in Surf (2019) is Dibi’s reflection on the mark that she, Herbie, sons Christian and Nathan, and grandson Grayson have made on the worlds of surfing and skateboarding. Contributors to this Rizzoli publication include Mike Diamond from the Beastie Boys, Steve Van Doren from Vans; artist Julian Schnabel; surfer Kelly Slater, and photographer C.R. Stecyk III.

Allison Davis Maxon and Sharon Kaplan RosziaOctober 24, 2019 Seven Core Issues in Adoption and PermanencyIf you have seen the Paramount Pictures movie, Instant Family, written and directed by Sean Anders, then you are familiar with the types of challenges Maxon and Roszia address in their new book Seven Core Issues in Adoption and Permanency: A Comprehensive Guide to Promoting Understanding and Healing in Adoption, Foster Care, Kinship Families and Third-Party Reproduction (2019). According to Seneca Orange County over 50,000 children in California are waiting for a safe home and loving family. Maxon and Roszia’s work illuminates the issues and offers tools to support people who chose to adopt and the youth/children who are adopted as they develop into a family and enter as a unit into a neighborhood, school system, religious and youth organizations, and the local community.

Amy WalterMarch 8 & 9, 2019Amy Walter is the national editor of The Cook Political Report where she provides non-partisan analysis of issues, trends and events that shape the political environment. Over the past 19 years, she has built a reputation as an accurate, objective, and insightful political analyst with unparalleled access to campaign insiders and decision-makers. Known as one of the best political journalists covering Washington, she is the former political director of ABC News. She is also a regular panelist on NBC’s Meet the Press, Fox News’ Special Report with Bret Baier and CBS’s Face the Nation. According to Charlie Cook of The Cook Political Report, Amy’s “work is trusted and respected by Democrats and Republicans alike. She knows how to get beyond bluster and spin to unearth – and explain – what really matters.”

Richard BlancoFebruary 8 & 9, 2019Richard Blanco is the fifth presidential inaugural poet and the first Latino immigrant and gay person to serve in such a role. He is the author of numerous award-winning works such as The Prince of Los Cocuyos: A Miami Childhood and An Inaugural Poet’s Journey. Blanco is the recipient of three honorary doctorates and has been a guest on numerous television programs as well as NPR. Born in Madrid to Cuban exiled parents and raised in Miami, the themes of his books center on the negotiation of cultural identity and place in society. Whether speaking as the Cuban Blanco or the American Richard, the homebody or the world traveler, the civil engineer or the civic-minded poet, Blanco’s writings possess a story-rich quality that illuminates the human spirit. His  work asks those universal questions we all ask ourselves on our own journeys: Where am I from? Where do I belong? Who am I in this world? We welcome Mr. Blanco to our series.

Hanna Rosin January 25 & 26, 2019The #MeToo climate has created a stunning year of revelation and change. Author Hanna Rosin has researched and lectured on this unfolding topic of the male/female dynamic in the workplace and world at large. She is the author of The End of Men and the Rise of Women, a national bestseller that addresses this sensitive topic with deft humor and insightfulness. She is a regular contributor to The Atlantic and Slate where she has authored notable articles including The Overprotected Kid, The Case Against Breastfeeding, The Silicon Valley Suicides, and Murder by Craigslist. Rosin is also the co-host of the acclaimed NPR show, INVISIBILIA, a program about the invisible forces that shape human behavior. Awards from the Education Writers Association and nominations for a National Magazine Award round out her status as a noteworthy author. Rosin has appeared on The Daily Show, The Colbert Report and The Today Show. Ms. Rosin is the mother of a daughter and two sons and is married to David Plotz, CEO of Atlas Obscura. Where better to study gender dynamics than with one’s own family? Be sure to join us for Hanna Rosin’s researched view on a most contemporary topic: how men and women are going to work and live side by side in these hypersensitive times.

David FrumFebruary 9-10Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American RepublicDavid Frum is currently a senior editor at The Atlantic who served as speechwriter and special assistant to President George W. Bush from 2001-2002. He will be speaking about his ninth book, Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American Republic, recently published by Harper Collins. Frum is the author of eight books, including most recently Why Romney Lost. His first book, Dead Right, was described by Frank Rich of the New York Times as “the smartest book written from the inside about the American conservative movement” and by the late William F. Buckley as “the most refreshing ideological experience in a generation.” Frum’s memoir of the Bush administration, The Right Man, was a #1 New York Times bestseller.

Panel discussion with contributors to the anthology moderated by local literary rock stars Andrew Tonkovich and Lisa Alvarez.Gustavo Arellano, who is also a contributor, says “this book excels by paying attention to all the quirks that define this place…and in finding the best writing to give each of our flaws and virtues its proper justice or evisceration.”

Stephanie Danler is the author of the international and New York Times bestseller, Sweetbitter. The debut novel garnered international attention just one week after its release. Danler's work has appeared in Vogue Magazine, Travel and Leisure, Bon Appetit and O Magazine to name a few.Hailing from California, Danler wound up working in the fast-paced and often chaotic Manhattan restaurant life before enrolling in graduate school at The New School, where she wrote Sweetbitter whose backdrop is that very experience in New York City.

Dr. Wade Davis was named by the National Geographic Society as one of the Explorers for the Millennium, and has been described as "a rare combination of scientist, scholar, poet and passionate defender of all of life's diversity." His lecture will explore the world's indigenous cultures to answer a fundamental question: What does it mean to be human and alive?Dr. Davis is Professor of Anthropology and the BC Leadership Chair in Cultures and Ecosystems at Risk at the University of British Columbia. Between 1999 and 2013 he served as Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society and is currently a member of the NGS Explorers Council. Author of 19 books, including The Serpent and the Rainbow, One River, The Wayfinders and The Sacred Headwaters, he holds degrees in anthropology and biology and received his Ph.D. in ethnobotany, all from Harvard University.

Viet Thanh Nguyen is an associate professor of English and American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California. He will speak about his debut  novel The Sympathizer, which won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the Edgar Award for Best First Novel from the Mystery Writers of America, the First Novel Prize from the Center for Fiction, the Carnegie Medal for  Excellence in Fiction from the American Library Association, a California Book Award, and the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature in Fiction from the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association. It was also a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction. The novel made it to over thirty book-of-the-year lists, including The Guardian, The New York Times,  The Wall Street Journal, Amazon.com, Slate.com, and The Washington Post.

Viet Thanh Nguyen is an associate professor of English and American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California. He will speak about his debut  novel The Sympathizer, which won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the Edgar Award for Best First Novel from the Mystery Writers of America, the First Novel Prize from the Center for Fiction, the Carnegie Medal for  Excellence in Fiction from the American Library Association, a California Book Award, and the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature in Fiction from the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association. It was also a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction. The novel made it to over thirty book-of-the-year lists, including The Guardian, The New York Times,  The Wall Street Journal, Amazon.com, Slate.c [...]

If you have ever wondered what hardcore surf travel is all about, Search for the Perfect Wave is your ticket, and surf travel pioneers Kevin Naughton and Craig Peterson are the perfect tour guides.  Kevin and Craig spent over ten years looking for the perfect wave from the early 70s to early 80s. Two surfers from the same town, this photographer and writer duo set out to find the mythical ‘perfect wave’ and became lifelong best friends in the process. After ten-plus years of hardcore surf-travel-adventure there’s a lot to show and tell.  These authors will present a slide show and colorful accounts of their fantastic adventures delivered with their trademark humor and the awe that they both possess, after all these years, of having the good fortune to be following their dreams of a life filled with surf adventures.

If you have ever wondered what hardcore surf travel is all about, Search for the Perfect Wave is your ticket, and surf travel pioneers Kevin Naughton and Craig Peterson are the perfect tour guides.  Kevin and Craig spent over ten years looking for the perfect wave from the early 70s to early 80s. Two surfers from the same town, this photographer and writer duo set out to find the mythical ‘perfect wave’ and became lifelong best friends in the process. After ten-plus years of hardcore surf-travel-adventure there’s a lot to show and tell.  These authors will present a slide show and colorful accounts of their fantastic adventures delivered with their trademark humor and the awe that they both possess, after all these years, of having the good fortune to be following their dreams of a life filled with surf adventures.

Pulitzer Prize–winning art critic Sebastian Smee tells the fascinating story of four pairs of artists—Manet and Degas, Picasso and Matisse, Pollock and de Kooning, Freud and Bacon—whose fraught, competitive friendships spurred them to new creative heights. Smee is the art critic of the Boston Globe. He was a Pulitzer Prize winner in 2011 and a finalist in 2009. His writing about art has appeared in many of the leading papers in Australia, Great Britain, and the United States. He has given lectures about art at many major universities and institutions, including Harvard, Yale, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Pulitzer Prize–winning art critic Sebastian Smee tells the fascinating story of four pairs of artists—Manet and Degas, Picasso and Matisse, Pollock and de Kooning, Freud and Bacon—whose fraught, competitive friendships spurred them to new creative heights.Smee is the art critic of the Boston Globe. He was a Pulitzer Prize winner in 2011 and a finalist in 2009. His writing about art has appeared in many of the leading papers in Australia, Great Britain, and the United States. He has given lectures about art at many major universities and institutions, including Harvard, Yale, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The author of Last Train to Paradise tells the story of the largest public water project ever created—William Mulholland’s Los Angeles aqueduct—a story of Gilded Age ambition, hubris, greed, and one determined man who’s vision shaped the future and continues to impact us today. With energy and colorful detail, Water to the Angels brings to life the personalities, politics, and power—including bribery, deception, force, and bicoastal financial warfare—behind this dramatic event. At a time when the importance of water is being recognized as never before—considered by many experts to be the essential resource of the twenty-first century—Water to the Angels brings into focus the vigor of a fabled era, the might of a larger than life individual, and the scale of a priceless construction project, and sheds critical light on a past that offers insights for our future.

The author of Last Train to Paradise tells the story of the largest public water project ever created—William Mulholland’s Los Angeles aqueduct—a story of Gilded Age ambition, hubris, greed, and one determined man who's vision shaped the future and continues to impact us today.With energy and colorful detail, Water to the Angels brings to life the personalities, politics, and power—including bribery, deception, force, and bicoastal financial warfare—behind this dramatic event. At a time when the importance of water is being recognized as never before—considered by many experts to be the essential resource of the twenty-first century—Water to the Angels brings into focus the vigor of a fabled era, the might of a larger than life individual, and the scale of a priceless construction project, and sheds critical light on a past that offers insights for our future.

The Lincoln Rhyme series continues with The Steel Kiss to be released on March 8 in the U.S. A former journalist, folksinger and attorney, Jeffery Deaver is an international number-one bestselling author. His novels have appeared on bestseller lists around the world, including the New York Times, the Times of London, Italy’s Corriere della Sera, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Los Angeles Times. His books are sold in 150 countries and have been translated into over twenty-five languages. The author of over thirty novels, three collections of short stories and a nonfiction law book, Deaver has received or been shortlisted for a number of awards around the world. His The Bodies Left Behind was named Novel of the Year by the International Thriller Writers Association.

The Lincoln Rhyme series continues with The Steel Kiss to be released on March 8 in the U.S. A former journalist, folksinger and attorney, Jeffery Deaver is an international number-one bestselling author. His novels have appeared on bestseller lists around the world, including the New York Times, the Times of London, Italy’s Corriere della Sera, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Los Angeles Times. His books are sold in 150 countries and have been translated into over twenty-five languages.The author of over thirty novels, three collections of short stories and a nonfiction law book, Deaver has received or been shortlisted for a number of awards around the world. His The Bodies Left Behind was named Novel of the Year by the International Thriller Writers Association.

Jessica Fellowes is an author and journalist, best known as the writer of the official companion books to Downton Abbey. Niece of Julian Fellowes, creator of Downton Abbey, Jessica will share her insights into the history of the period and the production of the enormously popular series, from the painstakingly historic accuracy of costumes and customs to the breathtaking location at Highclere Castle.