Coronado Times

From Plate to Page: An evening with Jessica Secrest
2026-01-13 19:00 - 20:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Coronado Performing Arts Center, 650 D Avenue, Coronado, CA, 92118, United States
Coronado Public Library, in partnership with Warwick’s Bookstore, welcomes @applesauceandadhd Jessica Secrest as she discusses her new cookbook OF COURSE IT’S GOOD! on Tuesday, January 13.
This event is a fundraiser for the Friends of the Coronado Public Library and a paid ticket is required to enter. Ticket options are:

$10 entry only
$31.60 for admission for one person and one copy of OF COURSE IT’S GOOD
$39.83 for admission for two people and one copy of OF COURSE IT’S GOOD
Check-in starts/doors open at 6:15 pm. Please print out your tickets or have the QR code available on your phone.
Seating is first-come, first served.
“With Book” ticketholders will receive a paperback copy of OF COURSE IT’S GOOD at check-in.
Additional books will be available for purchase at this event.
The Performing Arts Center is directly behind the Coronado Public Library. You can view a parking map HERE. The two lots marked “school parking lots (for select events only)” will be available.
Purchase tickets online HERE.

About the Author
Jessica Secrest is a mom, home chef, and the creator of the popular social media page @applesauceandadhd.

About OF COURSE IT’S GOOD: None of the Nonsense, All of the Flavor
Prepare delicious meals with this no-frills, all-flavor recipe collection from Jessica Secrest, the wildly popular home chef known for her hostile humor and affordable recipes. Her long-awaited debut cookbook has an array of mouthwatering meals that focus on low-effort ingredients and techniques — think pre-shredded cheese, tater tots galore, and your handy-dandy slow cooker — so you’ll have an endless source of recipes to feed your family without wasting time or money.
Jessica’s signature style is present throughout each page, loudly guiding you in the kitchen and reminding you that tasty cooking doesn’t always need to be done with a smile. Recipes include:
– The BEST Baked Mac and Cheese
– Taco Potato Tot Casserole
– Egg Roll in a Bowl
– Cowboy BBQ Burgers
– Teriyaki Pork
– Fried Pickle Quesadillas
– Sloppy Joe Fries
– Slow Cooker Spinach Artichoke Dip
Whether you are looking to tackle weeknight dinner, Sunday breakfast, or an out-of-nowhere dessert craving, you’ll have Jessica in your corner each step of the way, aggressively reminding you that no matter what you create, there’s no doubt it’ll be good.

Mystery Book Club: M is for Malice
2026-01-26 14:00 - 15:00 | Coronado Public Library, 640 Orange Ave, Coronado, CA, 92118, United States
The Coronado Public Library’s Mystery Book club will meet regularly on the third Monday of each month. Due to the holiday this month, we will be meeting on the fourth Monday. Receive reminder emails about our meeting by registering below. Registration is encouraged but not required.
We will be discussing M is for Malice by Sue Grafton. Check out the book in print or ebook format from the Coronado Library Catalog by clicking here.

An evening with Oscar nominee and author John Sayles
2026-01-27 19:00 - 20:00 | Coronado Public Library, 640 Orange Ave, Coronado, CA, 92118, United States
Be one of the first to hear acclaimed filmmaker and two-time Oscar nominee John Sayles discuss his latest novel, Crucible. This newest historical novel is a complex and sweeping story about Henry Ford—the Elon Musk of his day—and his attempt to rule not only an automotive empire but the rambunctious city of Detroit. It is an epic tale ranging from the 1920s through the second World War, featuring violent labor disputes, misbegotten jungle expeditions, a tragic race riot, and the Gestapo tactics of Ford’s private army.
Sayles will be in conversation with Coronado Island Film Festival Executive Director Merridee Book, discussing the inspirations behind the book and how the novel’s characters create the tapestry of differing points of view that John Sayles has become famous for.
A book-signing will follow. This event is free and open to the public. Seating is first-come, first-served, subject to availability. Limited preferred seating is available with purchase of Crucible through Warwick’s bookstore. Please visit www.warwicks.com/sayles-2026-reserved-seat or call the store at 858-454-0347 for more information.

John Sayles is a much-celebrated film director who has made 18 movies, beginning in 1980 when his debut Return of the Secaucus Seven was released. Among the other movies he is known for directing—and often writing as well—are Lianna, Brother from Another Planet, Matewan, Eight Men Out, City of Hope, Sunshine State, Passion Fish, and Lone Star, the last two of which earned him Academy Award nominations for Best Original Screenplay. He also has written screenplays for other directors, including the iconic 1980s horror movies The Howling and Alligator. Sayles also directed three of Bruce Springsteen’s most famed music videos for the songs Born in the USA, Glory Days and I’m on Fire.
As an author, Sayles has written numerous novels and short stories since 1975, when his first novel, Pride of the Bimbos, appeared. His second novel, Union Dues, was nominated for both the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Subsequent books include At the Anarchist’s Convention, Los Gusanos, Dillinger in Hollywood, A Moment in the Sun, and Yellow Earth. Sayles has been honored by, or been guest speaker for, such respected organizations as the American Historical Association, the Modern Language Association, and the American Studies Association. His screenplay for the film Sonora, released in 2021, won the Ariel Award, Mexico’s equivalent to the Oscar, for Best Adapted Screenplay. Sayles divides his time between Los Angeles and Connecticut.
About the Book
Already the gateway for illegal Canadian liquor during Prohibition, the Motor City becomes a crucible for American class conflict during the Great Depression, with an army of laid off Ford workers drifting into the ranks of the burgeoning union movement—Henry Ford’s worst nightmare. To keep the hundreds of thousands still employed by him in thrall, the man who was formerly ‘America’s favorite tycoon’ recruits black laborers migrating from the deep South to serve as ‘strike insurance’, and gives Harry Bennett, pugnacious as he is diminutive, free reign over the legion of barroom brawlers and ex-cons who make up the company’s ‘Security Department’.
The Model T mogul has also bought a sizable chunk of Brazil’s Amazonian rainforest, vowing to grow his own rubber for tires, but stubbornly refusing to include a botanist in his troop of would-be jungle tamers. As a series of biological plagues descend on the Fordlandia plantation, the racial melting pot he has created in Detroit begins to boil over, and not even the Sage of Dearborn can control the forces that have been unleashed.
Merridee Book is the CEO + Artistic Director of the Coronado Island Film Festival. Before that, she spent three years as the Vice President of Development at the San Diego International Film Festival. She has held key positions in the arts and entertainment industry, and the non-profit sector for 30 years, working with bestselling authors, artists, musicians, filmmakers, major studios and record labels. These relationships culminated in producing and hosting an inspirational television program, DeeperLiving. She has held several board director positions including the Coronado School of the Arts and she currently sits on the board of the well-respected Patrons of the Prado, a non-profit that raises funds for ten beneficiaries in Balboa Park, the largest urban park in the U.S.

Best of the Best Book Club: "The Narrow Road to the Deep North" by Richard Flanagan
2026-01-28 11:00 - 12:00 | Coronado Public Library, 640 Orange Ave, Coronado, CA, 92118, United States
The Coronado Public Library’s Best of the Best Book Club meets regularly on the fourth Wednesday of each month to discuss books that have won major awards.
For our January meeting, we will discuss the 2014 Booker Prize Winner The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan, a magisterial novel of love and war that traces the life of one man from World War II to the present.
Place this title on hold via our online catalog, or check out the e-book through the CloudLibrary app.
About The Narrow Road to the Deep North
August, 1943: Australian surgeon Dorrigo Evans is haunted by his affair with his uncle’s young wife two years earlier. His life, in a brutal Japanese POW camp on the Thai-Burma Death Railway, is a daily struggle to save the men under his command. Until he receives a letter that will change him forever.
A savagely beautiful novel about the many forms of good and evil, of truth and transcendence, as one man comes of age, prospers, only to discover all that he has lost.

Secrets before shelf date: A pre-pub launch with Kaira Rouda on "We Were Never Friends'
2026-01-28 18:00 - 19:00 | Coronado Public Library, 640 Orange Ave, Coronado, CA, 92118, United States
Join the Library and Adventures by the Book for a special author event and book launch featuring thriller author Kaira Rouda and her new book We Were Never Friends.
Five former Theta Gamma Mu sorority sisters reunite at Roxy Gentry’s luxurious Palm Springs estate for what’s supposed to be a celebratory engagement weekend, but old grudges and long-buried secrets quickly surface. The glamorous setting echoes a Spring Break tragedy from 25 years ago, and as tensions rise, the weekend spirals into a dangerous reckoning. Darkly funny, deliciously dramatic, and dripping with suspense, this is a reunion you’ll never forget. Dive into the twisty world of We Were Never Friends, where sisterhood is forever, friendships are… complicated, and the past never stays buried.
This event is free and open to the public. Seating is first-come, first-served, subject to availability. Limited preferred seating is available with purchase of We Were Never Friends through Adventures by the Book.
Please visit adventuresbythebook.com/calendar-event/kaira-rouda-01-28-26/or more information.

About the Author
Kaira Rouda is an award-winning USA Today, Amazon #1, and International Bestselling Author of contemporary fiction that explores what goes on beneath the surface of seemingly perfect lives. Three of her novels have been named Amazon Editor’s Picks for Best Mystery, Thriller & Suspense. The Next Wife was named a Suspense Magazine’s Best Book of 2021 Award, and a 2022 Silver Falchion for Best Suspense Novel and a 2022 Silver Falchion first runner-up for Best Book of the Year. To date, her novels have been translated into a dozen languages.
A former magazine editor and society columnist, Kaira won the Stevie Award for Women in Business for creating the first female-focused residential real estate brand, Real Living, and growing the brand to more than 22 states before its sale to Berkshire Hathaway. Her first book, Real You Incorporated: 8 Essentials for Women Entrepreneurs led to a national speaking tour where she inspired thousands.
About the Book
Sisters? Forever. Friends? NEVER. Who knew a reunion weekend could be so deadly?
Meet the sorority sisters of Theta Gamma Mu:

Roxy Callahan Gentry, the ruthless former sorority president and current hostess who has painstakingly choreographed every detail of this weekend—even matching the cocktails to her couture—to prove that she remains their undisputed queen
Amelia Dell, the widow drenched in old money and alcohol, with her big pot-stirring spoon and uninvited boy-toy in tow
Jamie Vale, the double-legacy pledge, straight-A student with no sparkle, now a top cardiologist with a picture-perfect family—and a well-guarded bad habit
Beth Harrison, the scholarship student who never quite fit in and was only admitted because her best friend Sunny insisted that the two were a package deal
Sunny Spencer, the carefree and beloved friend to all, or so it seemed—until she wasn’t

They’ve been summoned to Roxy’s luxurious Palm Springs vacation home to celebrate the engagement of her son to Beth’s daughter. But the refurbished 1920s estate is eerily reminiscent of the hotel where tragedy struck during Spring Break twenty-five years ago. Long-simmering tensions and shocking secrets begin bubbling to the surface like bodies—because while the weekend was supposed to be about celebrating the future, it’s not so easy to bury the past…

Ink & intrigue: "Hooked" with Caitlin Rother
2026-02-05 19:00 | Coronado Public Library, 640 Orange Ave, Coronado, CA, 92118, United States
Join us for an evening with Caitlin Rother, bestselling author and investigative journalist, as she explores the twists and turns of her latest thriller, Hooked, set right here in San Diego. Drawing on her background in true-crime reporting — including her acclaimed Death on Ocean Boulevard, set in Coronado — Rother brings real-world tension and insight to her fiction. Hear how investigative journalism fuels her suspenseful storytelling and what it takes to keep readers guessing until the final page.
Books will be available for sale at the event and a book signing will follow the talk.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Investigative reporter Katrina Chopin is back home in San Diego on a mission (or two). The first is personal: reheating the cold case of her parents’ murder and investigating her brother’s reported suicide. The second involves a new spate of deaths with alleged causes that just don’t smell right. She and Detective Ken Goode need each other’s help for both. But she has to keep the sexy surfer at arm’s length, because dating him is off limits. For now.
Teaming up, they make coordinated progress down each path. Digging deeper into La Jolla’s corrupt network of elites, they uncover a pattern of lies, depravity, and greed. And with every new discovery, Katrina is pulled closer to danger…and to Goode.
Sharing sexy phone calls and sunset drinks isn’t exactly following the rules, but fully crossing that line could jeopardize the case. As they start to connect the dots, they realize they must risk everything to bring down the shadowy cabal that kills to keep its secrets.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Caitlin Rother has written or co-authored 16 books, ranging from true crime to thrillers and memoir. A New York Times-bestselling author and investigative journalist, Rother worked nearly 20 years for daily newspapers. Writing books full-time since 2006, she draws from decades of watchdog reporting on topics from addiction to suicide, mental illness, murder, government, political corruption and the criminal justice system. A popular speaker, she has appeared more than 250 times on TV, radio, and podcasts as a crime expert. A former writing instructor of 10 years, she coaches a limited number of aspiring author clients. In her spare time, she goes ocean swimming, sings and plays keyboards in a jazzy, bluesy trio called In the Lounge. Explore the photo galleries and learn about her latest titles, backlist, videos, and podcasts!
