Local Bookstores Report Surge in Volumes About Spirituality : Santa Barbara author Marianne Williamson will sign copies of ‘Illuminata’ on Sunday in Ventura.

A curious dichotomy is occurring within the American psyche. While voters became cranky and bitter about social welfare programs and embraced negative political campaigns, they also were scooping up books about angels, soul awareness, after-death “I-saw-a-heavenly-light” experiences and spiritual aphorisms. According to local booksellers, these titles are “flying out the door,” and customers flock to meet authors who have attained celebrity status.

Santa Barbara resident Marianne Williamson is one of those authors. She will sign her new book “Illuminata,” subtitled “Thoughts, Prayers, Rites of Passage,” at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Ventura Bookstore, 522 E. Main St. Her first book, “A Return to Love,” was on the bestseller list for 35 weeks in 1992 and with over 2 million copies in print was the fifth best-selling book in America that year. Her second title, “A Woman’s Worth,” remained on bestseller lists for five months this year. Williamson has been lecturing professionally on spirituality and metaphysics since 1983.

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Mysteries to Die For, 2940 Thousand Oaks Blvd., Thousand Oaks, is planning a double header. Robert Campbell, whose fourth novel “Wizard of La-La-Land” features Isaac Canaan, the cop who never sleeps, will be at the bookstore at 1 p.m. Saturday with Robert Irvine, whose new mystery “The Hosanna Shout” continues the adventures of Salt Lake City private detective Moroni Traveler.

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Local poet Joyce Lombard will read her own work and also read from the new anthology, “I am Becoming the Woman I’ve Wanted,” the latest in the series that began with the best-selling “When I Am an Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple,” at 2 p.m. Saturday, Barnes & Noble, 4360 E. Main St., Ventura.

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Gerald McDermott, Caldecott Award-winning author/illustrator, will share stories from his latest book “Coyote” at 3 p.m. Saturday at Adventures for Kids, 3457 Telegraph Road, Ventura.

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The Ojai Table of Contents, 208 E. Ojai Ave., will host two authors at champagne receptions this week. Jerry Dunn, author of “Tricks of the Trade for Kids,” will sign at 4 p.m. Saturday. His book is written for 8- to 15-year-olds and features 50 experts who reveal their secrets. Contributors include Arnold Schwarzenegger on building biceps, Sergio Aragones on cartooning and a National Geographic photographer on how to take great vacation pictures.

Reanne Hemingway-Douglass will be at the bookstore at 4 p.m. Tuesday to sign “Cape Horn, One Man’s Dream, One Woman’s Nightmare,” a true tale of how she and her husband, Don, survived storms and shipwreck while trying to sail around Cape Horn.