Category

  Author Brian Rogers will discuss his latest book, “The Whole of the Moon,” at 4 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 1, at Laguna Beach Books, 1200 S. Coast Highway. Six crisscrossing narratives unfold in the novel set along old Route 66, from the Inland Empire to its Chicago terminus,...

Local author, leadership consultant, and motivational speaker Mary Scifres published her first book on transformational leadership and discusses the work at 4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 24, at University United Methodist Church, 18422 Culver Dr., in Irvine. A veteran of other works on...

Local Laguna author Kaira Rouda will be at Laguna Beach Books, 1200 S. Coast Highway, at 5 p.m. Sunday Sept. 17, to talk about her new book, “Best Day Ever.” A reception with refreshments is planned; all are invited. The suspenseful tale of deception and betrayal was named one of...

Paul Freeman has written a novel, “Stop, Go, Murder,” set in the coastal environs of California and Florida. The story involves a struggling ex-gangster who learns his former boss has been murdered. One of the plot twists involves Go, an ancient game of strategy that Freeman has...

“Laguna Beach of Early Days,” a personal historical account by Joseph S. Thurston, whose parents settled in Aliso Canyon in 1871, is now available thanks to a reissue by his grandson, Kelly Boyd. During a City Council meeting last week, Mayor Pro Tem Kelly Boyd said that he and...

Laguna local Ellen Giradeau Kempler’s latest book of haiku and photographs, “Thirty Views of a Changing World” is now available for pre-order from Finishing Line Press. The book was inspired by the Japanese artist Hokusai’s series of woodblock prints, “Thirty-six Views of...

  Poets Kathryn Nuernberger and Noah Blaustein join Kate Buckley, Laguna Beach’s inaugural poet laureate, at a 7:30 p.m. reading Tuesday, July 18, at The Sawdust Festival, 935 Laguna Canyon Road. The reading will be followed by an audience Q&A with the poets, as well as...

Laguna Beach native and author Grant Ginder will be discussing his new book, “The People We Hate at the Wedding” at Laguna Beach Books at 5:30 p.m., Wednesday, July 5.  

Former Los Angeles Times reporter and author Terry McDermott discusses his new book, “Off Speed: Baseball, Pitching, and the Art of Deception” at 4 p.m. Sunday, June 4, at Laguna Beach Books, 1200 S. Coast Highway. McDermott traces the evolution of pitching and the pitcher’s art...

Master of Ceremonies John Gardiner will host a public reading of winning poems from the Laguna Beach Library’s annual community poetry contest, Seaside Butterflies, Saturday, June 3, at noon. The top three winners in each age category will be recognized and are invited to read...

Laguna local Rossandra White will introduce her new book, “Monkey’s Wedding” at 4 p.m. Sunday, May 21, at Laguna Beach Books, 1200 S. Coast Highway. The protagonists, adolescents Elizabeth and Tururu share an uneasy friendship on a remote sisal plantation in 1953’s Zimbabwe when...

  Join the Third Street Writers as they celebrate the release of the anthology “Beach Reads: Here Comes the Sun,” at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, May 11, at Laguna Beach Books, 1200 S. Coast Highway. The anthology of 30 short stories, poetry, and personal essays explores the sun as...

By Cassandra Reinhart, Special to the Independent Veteran broadcast journalist Lesley Stahl, a White House correspondent for CBS News during three presidencies and a 25-year “60 Minutes” correspondent, spoke Friday evening at the Norman P. Murray Community Center in Mission Viejo...

Local author Dr. Edward Kaufman will discuss ‘Tales of a Prison Psychiatrist: 50 Years of Criminalization of the Mentally Ill and Addicted,” at 5 p.m. Sunday, April 30, at Laguna Beach Books, 1200 S. Coast Highway. Using the stories of mentally ill and addicted patients and...

Laguna Beach author Jean Hastings Ardell and her co-author, baseball player Ila Jane Borders, will discuss their new book, “Making My Pitch: A Woman’s Baseball Odyssey,” at 4 p.m. Sunday, April 23, with a reading at Laguna Beach Books, 1200 S. Coast Highway. They tell the story...