The Magic of Found Family: In Conversation with Author TJ Klune

Come have a magical moment with New York Times bestselling author TJ Klune as he chats about his Cerulean Chronicles, with special emphasis on his newest in the series, Somewhere Beyond the Sea. 

If you’re new to the Cerulean Chronicles, that’s okay! Let us lay the groundwork. Klune’s The House in the Cerulean Sea introduces us to Linus Baker. A by-the-book caseworker in the Department in Charge of Magical Youth. He's tasked with determining whether six dangerous magical children are likely to bring about the end of the world. Arthur Parnassus is the master of the orphanage. He would do anything to keep the children safe, even if it means the world will burn. And his secrets will come to light. The House in the Cerulean Sea is an enchanting love story, masterfully told, about the profound experience of discovering an unlikely family in an unexpected place―and realizing that family is yours.

Klune’s most recent book in the Cerulean Chronicles, Somewhere Beyond the Sea, welcomes us back for Arthur’s story. 

Arthur Parnassus lives a good life built on the ashes of a bad one. He’s the headmaster of a strange orphanage on a distant and peculiar island, and he hopes to soon be the adoptive father to the six dangerous and magical children who live there. Arthur works hard and loves with his whole heart so none of the children ever feel the neglect and pain that he once felt as an orphan on that very same island so long ago. He is not alone: joining him is the love of his life, Linus Baker, a former caseworker in the Department in Charge of Magical Youth. Together, they will do anything to protect the children. But when Arthur is summoned to make a public statement about his dark past, he finds himself at the helm of a fight for the future that his family, and all magical people, deserve.

Somewhere Beyond the Sea is a story of resistance, lovingly told, about the daunting experience of fighting for the life you want to live and doing the work to keep it.

Join the conversation and register at https://libraryc.org/santacruzpl/64507.

For upcoming author talks, visit https://libraryc.org/santacruzpl/upcoming.

About the Author: TJ KLUNE is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling, Lambda Literary Award-winning author of The House in the Cerulean Sea, The Extraordinaries, and more. Being queer himself, Klune believes it's important—now more than ever—to have accurate, positive queer representation in stories.

SCPL's Virtual Author Talks are made possible by the Friends of the Capitola Library.

Join SCPL in commemorating Martin Luther King Jr. Day with Civil Rights veteran and author Maria Gitin. Gitin will share her experience in the Civil Rights Movement and suggest how its successful strategies might inform our current culture. Her one-hour presentation will include historic photographs and personal stories from Gitin’s friends and co-workers. Her memoir, “This Bright Light of Ours: Stories from the Voting Rights Movement” (University of Alabama Press, 2014 and 2023), will be available for purchase and signing.

Following “Bloody Sunday” and the promised passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, Civil rights organizations launched an all-out effort to register thousands of new Black voters in the Deep South. Maria Gitin was an idealistic 19-year-old college freshman at San Francisco State College who responded to Dr. Martin Luther King’s call to join the Summer Community Organizing and Political Education project (SCOPE) of the Southern Christian Leadership Council (SCLC). After intensive training in Atlanta, Maria was assigned to work with leaders and local youth in violently segregated rural Wilcox County, Alabama. She will read from her published memoir which is the only in-depth account of the Freedom Summer of 1965 from the perspective of a teenage participant.

Bettina Aptheker, Emeritus Professor of Feminist Studies at UCSC says: “Maria Gitin’s book is a unique blend of her own story and those of the local community with whom she worked in Wilcox County in the exceptionally challenging struggle of the 1960s civil rights movement. These are powerful stories profoundly relevant for our own times.”

ABOUT MARIA GITIN

Since the first publication of “This Bright Light of Ours,” Maria Gitin has presented at numerous universities, civil rights and history museums, libraries and bookstores. She was the Martin Luther King Jr. Day keynote speaker for King County in Seattle; for the U.S. Army Defense Language Institute at the Presidio of Monterey and for the Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University.  She was curator of a voting rights art and history exhibit at Pajaro Valley Arts Gallery and the Santa Cruz County Government Center 2018-2020.

From 1993-1999, Gitin co-led public schools training with National Coalition Building Institute (NCBI) Monterey County Chapter. In Santa Cruz County, she served as President of the Emergency Food and Shelter Board, Advisor to the NAACP Kwanzaa Collective, and to Girlz Space, a program of Santa Cruz County Probation Department for in-risk girls in Watsonville.  As co-founder and first co-chair of the Pajaro Valley Cesar Chavez Democratic Club, Gitin worked for many years supporting the voter registration, education, and canvassing efforts of Latino led political action in Watsonville.

For twenty-eight years she was principal of Maria Gitin & Associates, a national organizational development and diversity consulting group. She served on the Peter F. Drucker Foundation national training team, was a coach for CompassPoint’s Fundraising Academy for Communities of Color, and led training for the National Center for Nonprofit Boards, WK Kellogg, Tides and the Peter F. Drucker Foundation. She founded the Monterey Bay Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) and developed a Diversity Fundraising training presented at AFP international conferences.

Projects in the Monterey Bay region included leading the founding of the Monterey YWCA domestic violence emergency shelter, directing start-up of the Carmel Public Library Foundation, and directing capital campaigns for California community health clinics including the Santa Cruz Women’s Health Center. Gitin also developed strategic plans for the Pajaro Valley Health Trust, Santa Cruz Resource Conservation District, and Community Bridges, among others.

Gitin is the recipient of numerous racial justice awards in recognition for her lifetime commitment to civil rights. She is a member of the NAACP, Bay Area Civil Rights Veterans, J Street, and of Aptos Temple Beth El. She and her photographer husband, Samuel Torres Jr., live in Santa Cruz County.  For more on Maria Gitin:

Visit http://www.thisbrightlightofours.com

e-mail: msgitin@mariagitin.com                                             

Notes on Modern Irrationality with Bestselling Author Amanda Montell

Join us as we chat with the New York Times bestselling author, Amanda Montell about her newest book, The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality. 

In a delicious blend of cultural criticism and personal narrative that explores our cognitive biases and the power, disadvantages, and highlights of magical thinking, Amanda Montell now turns her erudite eye to the inner workings of the human mind and its biases in her most personal and electrifying work yet.

“Magical thinking” can be broadly defined as the belief that one’s internal thoughts can affect unrelated events in the external world: think of the conviction that one can manifest their way out of poverty, stave off cancer with positive vibes, thwart the apocalypse by learning to can their own peaches, or transform an unhealthy relationship to a glorious one with loyalty alone. In all its forms, magical thinking works in service of restoring agency amid chaos, but in The Age of Magical Overthinking, Montell argues that in the modern information age, our brain’s coping mechanisms have been overloaded, and our irrationality turned up to an eleven.

In a series of razor sharp, deeply funny chapters, Montell delves into a cornucopia of the cognitive biases that run rampant in our brains, from how the “halo effect” cultivates worship (and hatred) of larger-than-life celebrities, to how the “sunk cost fallacy” can keep us in detrimental relationships long after we’ve realized they’re not serving us. As she illuminates these concepts with her signature brilliance and wit, Montell’s prevailing message is one of hope, empathy, and ultimately forgiveness for our anxiety-addled human selves. If you have all but lost faith in our ability to reason, Montell aims to make some sense of the senseless. To crack open a window in our minds, and let a warm breeze in. To help quiet the cacophony for a while, or even hear a melody in it. 

Don't be irrational, register now for a conversation you just don’t want to miss! 

Join the conversation and register at https://libraryc.org/santacruzpl/64986.

For upcoming author talks, visit https://libraryc.org/santacruzpl/upcoming.

SCPL's Virtual Author Talks are made possible by the Friends of the Capitola Library.

About the Author: Amanda Montell is a writer and linguist from Baltimore. She is the author of the acclaimed books Wordslut, Cultish, and The Age of Magical Overthinking. Along with hosting the podcast Sounds Like a Cult, her writing has also appeared in The New York Times, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, and more. She holds a degree in linguistics from NYU and lives in Los Angeles with her partner, plants, and pets. Find her on Instagram @Amanda_Montell.

Tasting Life Twice

Stephany's story is one of Triumph over adversity. As an only child of two alcoholic parents, she had no one to confide in or help her. She was told time and time again she would amount to nothing. So she found another family, the hippies. They believed they could change the world and as the Vietnam war raged she did too, tripping on LSD and smoking pot. Then her parents died and she was left an orphan. But the one thing she had going for her was a huge determination to prove people wrong about her. She could amount to something and baking was her way in! 

Stephany Buswell is now a retired pastry chef instructor. She worked in the baking industry for many years. Mostly at local places like the Staff of Life Bakery, Gayles Bakery, her own place Stephany's Desserts and the Buttery before she landed a job teaching at Cabrillo College Culinary Arts Department and the International Culinary Center. 

Her stories will reflect the time she learned about her craft at these local institutions. 

Elbina Batala Rafizadeh, a local poet and former public health nurse for Santa Cruz County, will be reading from her first published book of poetry, “Keepers of the Malicgong Rice Terraces.”  This collection of poems describes her experiences as a Filipina Indigenous, nature, and social injustices. In the second half of this event, you will also have an opportunity to write about your experiences through a writing prompt followed by an optional reading with the group. She has led a short story writing group and poetry groups at various times since 1996. She is a member of the Santa Cruz Writers of Color and is President of the Garfield Park Library Friends Chapter.