Carmel Valley resident publishes ‘Reflections’ of 1960s music, culture

Carmel Valley resident Carol Sveilich released her third book, “Reflections From a Glass House,” a memoir about the music, culture and politics during her Bay Area upbringing in the 1960s.

Sveilich, who moved to Encinitas in the early 1980s and has lived in Carmel Valley since 1989, said she started writing Facebook posts years ago about her childhood memories.

“People were just going crazy for the stories, and I thought, ‘well, maybe there’s a book here.’ That’s how it really started,” she said.

After deciding to follow through on the idea, it took her about four years to write the book.

“It actually became a very cathartic and reflective book for me because I was writing about my own family and growing up in that pop culture,” she said.

Sveilich was a counselor at UC San Diego for 20 years before turning her attention to writing. Her first two books, “Just Fine: Unmasking Concealed Chronic Illness and Pain” and “But You Look Just Fine,” were in the self-help genre.

Sveilich added that the protests and unrest taking place throughout the country over political and social justice issues resemble the events that unfolded in the Bay Area during the 1960s.

“A lot of things that are happening now are very similar to what was happening back then,” she said. “There’s a big revolt, there’s two ways of thinking about how life should be. There are the traditionalists and then there are people who want change.

“The unrest that’s going on now in this country, it was going on back then over slightly different issues, but it was still going on.”

Music is also a central theme of the book. Sveilich said she remembers being a fan of many of the most influential musical artists of that era.

“The Bay Area was kind of a special happening place for music at that time,” she said.

Sveilich said the book will resonate with baby boomers who lived through the time period described in the book, and that it can also bring the era alive for younger readers.

“I think my primary audience would be baby boomers, of course, but I think also their kids to see what was such a big deal about the ‘60s, what was politically going on, what was musically going on, TV shows, movies — why was that such a significant time period?”

“Reflections From a Glass House: A Memoir of Mid-Century Modern Mayhem” is available on Amazon (amazon.com).