California - Santa Barbara Books

Patricia Gebhard does a wonderful job describing the courthouse in Santa Barbara. During a visit to the city I went on a tour of the building and it really is sensational. The book explains the hard work and lucky breaks behind the design and construction. I was particularly impressed that the chief site architect spent seventeen years living in Spain which goes some way to explain the attention to detail. Spanish Revival buildings of this stature and quality are a rare.

This map was purchased prior to our vacation to this region for some wine tasting. It was extremely helpful in identifying the locations and tasting room hours of the various wineries! Made our vacation just a little easier, just knowing the places that were along the same trails. Plus the laminated format made it last in the car! The only thing we noticed is that this is slightly old now. We passed at least 3 or 4 new vineyards not yet on this map. But that's with any map! A must if you are traveling to the region and want to come up with a plan for seeing particular vineyards or trails!

I saw this cookbook in a Santa Barbara shop but didn't want to pay the big bucks for it! Luckily, I checked EBay and there it was! And for about half the cost! I've tried many of the receipes inside and every one is great!! I highly recommend this cookbook!

On the whole a good map/guide book, the lay-flat ring binder style of the book is great, and makes for easy viewing and usage. The listing of towns/cities only contains the page listings, no grid directions at all, and the streets that are numbered in addition to having a name are only listed by their number. The ease of use, bright colors, and detail make the book a worthwhile purchase, despite a few flaws.

In Santa Barbara, California, the first victim was Jake Higgins whose penis was cut off. At the Santa Barbara Community Hospital, Nurse Alisha Telford looks at the corpse and recognizes him as the man who raped her when she was sixteen. Her present boyfriend, Police Detective Joe Morsen and his partner Quinn Anderson lead the official investigation. However, when Joe observes Alisha looking strangely at the body of Higgins, he wonders what is going on until suddenly he suffers a heart attack in front of her; she takes her time before calling for help and Joe dies.

The second victim is a wife abuser whose spouse is friends of Alisha and her best buddy Kelsey, whose boyfriend is Quinn. As he sees the obvious connection between the two victims beyond the physical slicing off of their precious jewel, he wonders if either Alisha, Kelsey or an associate of both from the Women Against Violence group has a literal ax to grind with men.

TWISTED SISTER is an entertaining but strange combo police procedural psychological thriller. The fast-paced story line grips the reader from the opening moment when the fatale assaults Higgins and never slows down until the final slice is served. Although readers know the identity of the killer early on (and so should Quinn), fans (males may feel squeamish with a killer providing "penectomy" services) will appreciate this exciting suspense filled tale as a serial killing avenger castrates male predators.

Harriet Klausner

Let me start by saying that I am a little biased toward this book because the photograph on the cover is the view from my parents' living room. I did not take the picture but the oak tree and the grapevines in that picture have been a familiar sight for many years. This is a good overview of the wines and wineries of the Central Coast. It is a good place to start to build your own "Sideways" trip. I have my favorites as I am sure others have theirs. The Central Coast is often overlooked by many as a serious wine country but those who actually know what they are talking about know this region as the real wine country in California, not our Napa neighbors up north.

Another bore-ring story about the super wealthy (20,000 acre cattle ranch in Santa Barbara County, Calif.). Only this time with a rude, crude, insensitive female PI.. Personally I can not relate to the wealthy ....I have absolutly no synpathy (boohoo) for them and can care less if they live or die.

Against the Wind is Freedmans ONLY good book.

I struggled through this book until I was half-way, thinking it would get better (that and I was stuck in an airport). I literally threw it away as the lesbian scene started to develop. If that is not your thing, the rest of the book will be equally a turn-off. Boring, slow developing and disgusting.

I loved this book. It had a great twist of real life situations which you don't normally find completely in books. I found it hard to believe that a man actually wrote this book because the main character is a woman, and the veiws and feelings he expresses from her part are just to real. It was thick in the sexual experiences which made it a bit odd to me, but I still loved it. Her job is what puts you on the edge of your seat because you never know what will happen next...getting attacked at your deserted pool or ending up with some gangsters. Definently worth reading

"House of Smoke" begins with an explosive prologue revealing only some of what haunts Kate Blanchard, ex-cop turned private detective. As she investigates the death of Frank Baucomb, foreman of the Sparks family ranch and lover of young Laura Sparks, Kate delves into the personal and financial dealings of Santa Barbara's wealthiest family, to the dismay of Laura's larger-than-life mother, Miranda. The sprawling mystery encompasses marijuana dealing and oil drilling, but the real story is how Kate works to overcome her inner demons while fighting very real threats to her life.

Kate's character flaws range from the serious (she has lost custody of her children) to the silly (she shares with other Freedman characters a tendency to get drunk and go skinny-dipping when common sense suggests remaining sober and clothed), and the action is more melodrama than realism. Featuring a wealthy family's scheming and infighting and tough female protagonists who aren't shy about using their bodies to get what they want, "House of Smoke" has much in common with a Judith Krantz ("Scruples") novel or a season of "Dynasty." The sex scenes are also more explicit than usual for a detective novel. At nearly 500 pages, "House of Smoke" is written on an epic scale, with characters slowly revealed through lengthy, detailed vignettes and even lengthier speeches. However, the material doesn't really carry the weight of an epic family drama; you can often skip a few pages and not miss anything (except maybe some explicit sex). "House of Smoke" isn't great literature, but it's an absorbing, not-too-demanding book perfect for beach, airplane, or tub.

I loved this book. It started with a bang, storywise, and the main character was complex, authentic, sympathetic, and very sexy. The ending was a surprise and the journey there was completely transporting. Great read -- especially if you've spent time in Santa Barbara where it is set.

Limited information and so many wineries were left out. Livermore, where I live, has numerous wineries, especially Wente and Concannon which are world renown, was not mentioned at all. Even the areas they mentioned, such as Napa and Sonoma, were not covered as they deserve. I realize that this is a field guide and designed to cover the most "popular" and "newsworthy", but if you are real wine enthusiast, you will probably be as disappointed as I was.

There are plenty of wine travel books on the market, but what makes CALIFORNIA WINE COUNTRY special is several attributes. First, a coat-pocket-sized appearance with a hard cover lends to take-along tote and easy consultation, especially the numerous maps and charts with display the latest wine country wineries, hotels, restaurants and more. Review of hundreds of wineries from 11 top regions throughout the state also lend to travelers who plan on going beyond the usual Napa/Sonoma Northern California regions. From suggested touring routes to winery web pages, phones, descriptions of wines and more, CALIFORNIA WINE COUNTRY is a top field guide not to be missed: a pick for any California visitor or resident who loves wine and travel.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Ordered this book as a gift and received it just before we were heading for visit to California. We decided to keep it and use it for ourselves. We visited areas "off the beaten path" and were delighted to visit some of the wineries highlighted and to find others on our own. Would have liked maps to have given greater detail, but that would be our only quibble.

I checked out several tour books before we left for our southern California vacation, but chose the Ray Riegert book for it's unique suggestions for food, lodging, and tourist site recommendations. The book is well organized. We followed the chapters from San Diego through the beach towns all the way to Los Angeles. We were delighted with all of the "hidden" restaurants that we tried. It helped that all of the information was current too. Riegert's suggestions for interesting routes and parks led us through some of the most beautiful country imaginable - places we would never have seen if it were not for this book. Hidden Southern California is a great resource that we will use again and again.

While the guide may review restaurants, hotels or museums that are not typically covered in other guides, its failure to address local activities was disappointing. Information on bike rental shops, scuba shops, fun tours or other things are absent. If you want a guide to more than hotels, restaurants and museums you might want to reconsider this purchase.

There are several books out there about SB hikes, and this is one of the better for all around ones available in the county. the drawback is that some of them are not really "hikes" persee, but rather "walks". For instance there are several walks that are about a mile long, on flat terrain, near the city. These are OK to explore, but by no means worthy of an afternoon's hike. However it does have some new takes on some of the old classic hikes such as Seven Falls, Rattlesnake Trail, etc. It is very detailed on how to get to the trails, and how to make the proper turns on the trial. It even throws in some historical or natural facts that are interesting. All in all, a good guide, and very well rounded, but not neccesarily for the regular SB hiker. If you are new or a visitor, it is perfect.

This is a well-organized and nicely written hiking guide and would be great for beginning hikers. However, if you're experienced and want some strenuous, long treks, this is definitely not the best guide for you. I was looking for some serious high mileage hikes in the mountains, but all of the trips described here are not hikes at all, they are walks. Incredibly, the author includes many little city strolls on pavement, and several one mile jaunts on the beach. Now I love Santa Barbara as much as anyone, and strolling on State Street and the beaches is fantastic. But that is simply not hiking and I was very disappointed to see these included in what is marketed as a hiking book.

If you're a beginning hiker or have children, or just aren't up to 20 mile hikes, this is a nifty little book, and perfectly adequate for your needs. But if you want a serious workout, you'd best look for another guide. There's nothing longer than a 7 mile "hike" with minimal elevation gain. I'm not knocking the book for novices, but if you're not a beginner, this is not recommended.

As a long time resident of SB, I found this book to be both educational and entertaining. Most of the hikes in this book are hikes I've been on before, but with reading this book, they became new and exciting. In addition, several of these hikes I had never heard before, and found those to be very enjoyable. I would recommend this book to anyone who hasn't been in SB before, as well as to anyone who has.