The idea for the The California Review of Books took root in late 2020, during the third wave of the pandemic, after the local weekly news and arts paper, for which Brian Tanguay and David Starkey were the main book reviewers, shifted its from coverage of national and international books to a hyperlocal focus.
While they will always support writers in their beloved city of Santa Barbara, Brian and David were keen to continue reading and reviewing important new books from around the world. Thus, with the technical help of contributing editor Chryss Yost, and the contributions of Elizabeth Starkey, and others, The California Review of Books was launched on January 31, 2021.
CRB‘s mission is offer readers smart, concise and timely reviews of new books, along with regular reviews of older books that we think deserve another look. While we will consider reviewing any good book published anywhere in the world, we admit to having a special fondness for work published in our home state. As we say: Our hearts are in California, but our interests are everywhere.
Read more about each editor here: David Starkey, Brian Tanguay, and Chryss Yost.
To have your work considered for review, contact David Starkey at dmstarkey1@gmail.com. Due to the many queries we receive, we can only respond if we think we will be able to review the book.