Thanks for wanting to join our literary side hustle: the CH Projects and San Diego Magazine Book Club. It’s a clunky name, but it’s ours.
We created this club because we believe in the regenerative power of independent bookstores. And the power of a well-chosen cluster of words to shift whole lives. The club will be based around the books that shaped our own.
To join this sexy book club, enter your information in the form below. As esteemed members, you’ll be the first to know each month’s selected book. Expect to receive an email soon announcing the October book.
We also announce each month’s pick in San Diego Magazine. We encourage you to subscribe (this is also a scheme to support local media and creatives).
Please visit one of the participating local, indie bookshops listed below to get your copy. Keep your receipt, snap a photo, and email it to us at [email protected].
We’ll randomly select one member each month to win $300 to any Consortium Holdings Projects establishment (Born & Raised, Neighborhood, Polite Provisions, Ironside, Craft & Commerce, Part Time Lover, Fortunate Son, etc.).
More details to come.
A sincere thank you,
Consortium Holdings Project & San Diego Magazine
Enter your information below to sign-up for the CH x SDM Book Club
CH Projects x San Diego Magazine Book Club is back, and mutated. Our life goal now: indie bookstores and good, old-fashioned bribery.
SDM’s gonna tell the stories of our city’s indie bookstores. Those fantastic culture beasts. And CH Projects will dole out bribes for you to walk into one of them, browse your brains out, and buy something from a well-read neighbor. Nothing against online supermega retailers and their one-click seducery. We just think local bookstores should be obsessively supported and exalted.
Please visit one of the participating local, indie bookshops listed below. Keep your receipt, snap a photo, and email it to us at [email protected].
We’ll randomly select one member every three months to win a $200 gift card to Craft & Commerce.
Don’t matter if your vice is literary nonfiction or eyelid-sweat romance smut. All books are equal under the eyes of the bribe.
Support indie bookstores. Our holy word churches. Join the club.
The Pulitzer-winning author of A Visit from the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan, joined SDM content chief Troy Johnson for an IG Live to talk about her award-winning novel, which kicked off the CH + SDM Book Club.
We’re kind of geeked.
When we started this book club with Consortium Holdings Projects, we were just two companies with a shared affinity for books that have the power to shape lives. Now, we’re 1,000+ members strong, breaking down a novel’s themes with the author herself.
Jennifer Egan does not like to go backwards in time. She likes to go forward and she has been gracious enough to go backwards 10 years to A Visit From the Goon Squad, which was her amazing, visceral, beautiful book. She’s written a ton.
In fact, she just released a new one, The Candy House, which Obama said was one of his favorite reads of the summer. Watch the full conversation above, or read the condensed transcript below, which highlights some of our favorite moments.
Chief Content Officer, Troy Johnson (TJ):
I wouldn’t say that [Goon Squad] is a rage against the machine, but you show a little trepidation about the machine. And social media…
Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author Jennifer Egan (JE):
I’m kind of an incompetent machine. I think about a new device and I think how long will it take me to be able to use it and how much will I screw it up? But I have nothing inherently against any of it.
TJ:
I was reading about your process of writing, which is fascinating and a bit luddite too.You write everything out by hand?
JE:
I write by hand for fiction [because] fiction requires a connection with my unconscious, with the part of me that is not thinking and not critiquing the part of me that in some ways can surprise myself and handwriting. And by that I really mean cursive because printing doesn’t do it. But cursive seems to activate that part of my brain, and it has some additional advantages. I can’t really read it very well because my writing is appalling. And so again, I don’t have that urge that I think we all have when we look at a screen to like back up and make it better, I can’t do that. And it seems that I get into a less thought driven state of mind in which I can enact a kind of improvisation on the page. And that’s what leads to my best material.
TJ:
Athletes get that way… performers get that way … they talk about it being a flow. Where you’re so engrossed and you don’t have the backspace button, the only way through it is forward, right?
JE:
Absolutely. And what you said about the only way forward is actually really important because I don’t do much editing at all as I write. Most importantly, I don’t read over what I’ve written until the next day, and I do that basically just to reenter that flow.
TJ:
In [the first couple pages of] Goon Squad, Sasha is staring at a purse, which is sitting on the floor in a bathroom… and she’s listening to somebody pee. It’s so imperfectly human… How do you come up with those first [scenes] and how do you know when you found them?
JE:
For me, starting with a physical environment is a crucial part of the process because I want to sort of be in a sensory environment [or] space where someone is observing sensory details of a physical environment. Then the question is, who is making these observations? Who is perceiving the woman peeing or anything else that is the beginning of a character? And then what does that person do or who else is there? And now we have the beginning of more characters and action.
In that particular case… there was a corollary from my own life, which is that I was in a hotel bathroom; I did see a wallet. And what it evoked for me was one of too many memories of having actually been robbed. I saw that wallet and I thought, Oh my God, someone’s gonna take it. And then I thought, Well, I’m the only one here. I’m obviously not gonna take it. But in general, I don’t write about my own life. And what I’m most curious about is a point of view opposed to mine. So if I’ve been robbed… what’s it like to be the one who steals the wallet and my curiosity was provoked.
TJ:
It seems to me you love imperfection [and] fallibility of humanity. Every character lives with myriad flaws in Goon Squad yet they’re not unlovable… you have so much compassion for them.
Troy Johnson is the magazine’s award-winning food writer and humorist, and a long-standing expert on Food Network. His work has been featured on NatGeo, Travel Channel, NPR, and in Food Matters, a textbook of the best American food writing.
For Executive Chef Emily Brubaker, Omni La Costa Resort & Spa feels like home. She grew up just a mile-and-a-half away from the 400-acre property and fondly recalls walking the golf course perimeter as a kid. Though her ambitions led her away from San Diego for nearly two decades in which she honed her craft in some of the highest of high-profile Las Vegas restaurants—including triple Michelin-starred Joël Robuchon at MGM Grand—they ultimately brought her back to North County.
Courtesy of Omni La Costa
Today, the classically French-trained chef, who’s fresh off a victory on NBC’s Yes, Chef!, judged by Martha Stewart and José Andrés, oversees Omni La Costa Resort & Spa’s seven distinct dining concepts. Her goal is to elevate the resort’s culinary program with her creative, hyperlocal ingredient-driven approach while maintaining the Spanish- inspired flavors and fresh California coastal cuisine that are the bedrock of its culinary identity.
“The San Diego food scene is really growing, and in North County alone, it’s really exploded in the last five years,” Brubaker says. “There are Michelin stars, beautiful tasting menus, craft bakers, and all this food—when I was growing up in La Costa, it was fish tacos. Now there are really cool things popping up, and I’m so happy to be here to see where it’s going to go.”
Brubaker gives chefs de cuisine at each individual restaurant autonomy, however, her influence is evident across the resort.
For example, lobby restaurant Bar Traza serves as Omni La Costa’s culinary centerpiece and features bold Spanish flavors in a lively, social atmosphere. Brubaker overhauled the menu to be more consistent and centered on casual bites with that signature vibe. Think smoky paprika, vibrant citrus, and Spanish meats and cheeses.
At VUE, the focus is on seasonal offerings, California coastal cuisine, and Baja-inspired dishes. She and Chef de Cuisine Cameron Dixon change the menu biannually, which heading into summer, will highlight farm-fresh produce and hyperlocal ingredients—the resort even has its own herb garden and honeybee hives.
Courtesy of Omni La Costa
Poolside dining options are leaning into the country’s 250th this summer with a selection of classic American dishes with an Omni La Costa twist. And Bob’s Steak & Chop House (Brubaker is a trained butcher) offers a classic steakhouse experience with elevated service.
The chef and company also plan menus for special events at the resort where her creativity can really shine. For an upcoming National Ski Association dinner, the banquet hall will be transformed into an Alpine-themed winter wonderland complete with a snow machine, savory sausages, and melty, decadent raclette. A recent dinner was built around the Carlsbad Flower Fields and each course was matched to a color of ranunculus (Did you know pink dragonfruit are grown in North County? You do now.).
“It’s my zen to be in the kitchen playing with food,” Brubaker says.
Omni La Costa’s culinary program is a key part of the resort experience. And with Brubaker’s leadership, it’s becoming a draw for visitors and locals alike.
“These aren’t just hotel restaurants, these are restaurants that you should go to. They’re destinations, and I’m really hoping for the future that’s where we’re going,” Brubaker says.
Courtesy of Omni La Costa
Brubaker is also channeling her experience on Yes, Chef! into the culture at Omni La Costa—more emphasis on teamwork and collaboration, empowering her staff to share constructive critiques, and embracing different perspectives. Alongside her leadership role, Brubaker has become an advocate for mental health in the hospitality industry, serving as chief ambassador for the Burnt Chef Project and serves on the Board of Advisors for the Apex Culinary Program, where she mentors and develops future talent.
While glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agents have been used to treat Type 2 diabetes for more than 20 years, their recent emergence as weight-loss wonder drugs marked a new frontier in medicine. But their effectiveness has left some patients wondering what to do once they’ve reached their goal. Stopping the medication could mean regaining some, if not all, of the weight. A Scripps Clinic internal medicine physician recently conducted a small study of whether GLP-1 patients who had reached their goal weight could maintain that weight by taking their regularly prescribed injection every other week instead of weekly. Spoiler alert: 30 of 34 patients did. Read more about the study here and what that may mean as pharmaceutical companies roll out oral GLP-1s.
For more nutrition, wellness, and healthy living tips, sign up for the San Diego Health newsletter here.
