2019 Tucson Festival of Books

Last weekend I got to spend two days running from author event to author event, adding dozens of books to my TBR list, and basking in the glow of thousands of fellow book nerds. The Tucson Festival of Books is one of the Top 5 book festivals in the U.S. and it is easy to see why. The festival organizers were expecting 140,000 people to visit the University of Arizona campus and take part in the event. There were science tents, children's tents, cooking demonstrations, and more books to buy than you can imagine. There were Children's authors, Young Adult authors, and authors from every fiction and non-fiction genre you can name.

I was especially excited to see Elizabeth Berg, author of The Story of Arthur Truluv and Night of Miracles. I was even selected to ask her a question! ("Are we going to get a book of Lucille's recipes?" She gave me a strong "maybe." I'll take it.) I also got to see Kate Quinn, author of The Alice Network and hear about newly released book The Huntress. Other than those two, I mostly chose sessions to attend that sounded like the topics might be interesting and then of course, I discovered authors I wanted to read. Here is a list of all the books I am adding to my TBR list:

The Mere Wife by Maria Dahvana Headley

She Would Be King by Wayetu Moore

Gross Anatomy by Mara Altman

Okay Fine Whatever by Courtenay Hameister

Sustainability: A Love Story by Nicole Walker

Lost Connections by Johann Hari

Kitchen Yarns by Ann Hood

The Book That Matters Most by Ann Hood

The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff

The Age of Wonder by Richard Holmes

Sum by David Eagleman

The Bookshop of Yesterdays by Amy Meyerson

Read or Die by Daphne Russell

Virgil Wander by Lief Enger

The Confession Club by Elizabeth Berg

Whoa! That's a lot to read! I'm really excited about these books and a book festival is a great place to freshen up your reading. Off to read! See you soon!

Texas Book Festival 2015

I am still recovering from a fabulous weekend down in Austin, Texas, at the Texas Book Festival. My sister and I drove down and had a wonderful time hearing authors speak, buying books and getting our books signed by the authors. It won't surprise you to hear that I added a TON of books to my TBR list, which is a little unfortunate considering my last post about how I have two boxes full of books I need to read. However, this festival gave me back the spark for reading I've been missing over the last few months and has motivated me further to get rid of books I don't really want to read. There are just too many good books out there to waste time on something I feel like I should read. No more of that for me. As we wandered through the ginormous Barnes & Nobel book tent, I couldn't help but feel like I just want to sit and read them all.

So let me share with you a few highlights of the weekend. First of all, the festival was excellently organized. We had no trouble finding where we needed to be. If I have any complaint it's that I couldn't be in two (or three, or four) places at once. There were so many interesting panels and I think really something for everyone. The Festival even had its own app and it was very useful. The only thing they could have added was the author signing schedule.

I was able to hear so many interesting authors speak about their work and about their love of writing. Some of these authors I knew and was excited to hear, some were new to me and sparked a lot of additions to my Goodreads Want to Read list. I can't wait to read A School for Unusual Girls, A Step Toward Falling, Kissing in America, The Great Good Summer, Wish Girl, and Famous in Love. Erin Bow did a reading of her book The Scorpion Rules and I ran right out to buy it and have her sign it for me. I'm starting it TODAY! I also really enjoyed Nova Ren Suma's reading of her book The Walls Around Us and Peter Kujawinski's reading of his book Nightfall. It didn't hurt things at all that those last two scary stories were read to us in the dark at the Texas State Cemetery Saturday night. Creepy and awesome! I loved hearing Jessica Day George and Michael Buckley and it was fun seeing Emory Lord again. Lauren Oliver was very high on our must-see list and my sister was completely star-struck by Marie Lu. I have heard such amazing things about Julie Murphy's book Dumplin' and hearing her panel was a great way to end the weekend.

And I have to tell you about the amazing dinner we had Saturday night. A friend suggested Gourdough's Donuts. I was really confused because I had no idea you could have dinner at a donut place. Oh, how much I had to learn. We went to the Downtown location and it was unbelievable. Donut burgers, entrees served over a hot donut, salads served with a garlic donut.

My sister had the Ron Burgundy burger:

Angus beef, lettuce, tomato, guacamole, bacon and a fried egg. She said it was delicious!

And I had the Mother Clucker:

It was two fried chicken breasts served on a hot donut, drizzled with a honey butter sauce. It was delicious, but it could have used a side salad, as silly as that may sound.

And of course, there was dessert. I ordered The Carney:

It was a hot donut with cream cheese icing, caramel, peanuts and grilled apples. I loved the caramel and cream cheese, but I flicked the apples and peanuts off to the side after a bite or two. I can't recommend this place enough and I would definitely go again. There are so many things I wanted to try!

It was a very busy, very fun weekend. We will most definitely be back!

The Boldly Bookish Tour

What a fun night! I was invited to an author reception for the Boldly Bookish Tour hosted by Bloomsbury Children's and it was such a great time. We met at Buca di Beppo and had some delicious appetizers and pizza and over an hour of great chat time with the authors and other book lovers. I really enjoyed talking with these lovely ladies and hearing about their writing and all the fun things they've done while on this tour and because I love you, Smart Girls, I'll share a bit of what I learned.

Trish Doller is the author of The Devil You Know, an exciting book that I can't wait to read. It was described last night as a feminist thriller that is terrifying, but in the best way possible. I was sitting a bit away from her, so I didn't get to hear as much as I would have liked, but I did hear her say how much this tour has meant to her. She didn't share details, but she said that one night a young woman came up to her and told her how much her book had influenced her and that it had prompted her to make some real changes in her life. Trish said it really got to her and "isn't that why we do this in the first place?". It was very moving to see an author so touched by a fan's response to her work.

I was intensely happy to have been seated so closely to A. C. Gaughen. She said we could call her Annie and that the best way she has to help people pronounce her last name goes back to a high school election in which her campaign slogan was "Use your noggin, vote for Gaughen!" The slogan and the election were both successes. Annie is the author of the Scarlet series, historical novels based on the tale of Robin Hood and rewriting the character of Will Scarlet as a woman named Scarlet. I so enjoyed the conversation we were able to have. Annie helped found Boston Glow, an organization aimed at helping girls and women become leaders in their communities and use their voices for change. Previous to the event, I had found Annie's Ted Talk and I gushed to her about how wonderful I thought it was. We talked about the need for art in education (she is a teaching fellow at Harvard focusing on that very subject) and also her desire to encourage more girls in the STEM fields. Seriously, if you ever get the chance to sit next to Annie at talk for a while (or longer if you're lucky), TAKE IT!

Near the end of the table sat Emery Lord, author of The Start of Me and You, which I loved! Emery is funny and a little goofy and a vegetarian. She is obsessed with RuPaul's Drag Race and she told a hilarious story about taking the other tour ladies out to an appearance of some of the participants of the show. Tiffany found a rainbow colored sequined dress that Annie convinced her to wear and then the two of them challenged Emery to find something equally appropriate for meeting her drag queen heroines. Tiffany had to twist her arm a bit, but Emery spent the evening in a lace jumpsuit and she was rewarded by the firm approval of one of the queens. It was a riot listening to the whole group get in on telling this story.

Finally, I was so happy to be able to sit across from the lovely Tiffany Schmidt. She is the author of Hold Me Like a Breath and I am also really looking forward to reading this retelling of The Princess and the Pea set within a human-organ black market trading crime family. Really- how can anyone resist that premise? Tiffany was very sweet and friendly and she told me about her twin four-year-olds that she was missing while on tour. She also told me that her next novel is set in Texas so the trip yesterday was a good start on her research. She also spoke about her writing process and how her editor continues to push her to "write from her edges". If she is comfortable with what she is writing, she needs to push herself a little further. I thought this was wonderful advice for all writers, actually for everyone. Don't we all want to push ourselves beyond our comfort zones to see what we can accomplish?

It was a lovely evening and I am so grateful to Barnes and Nobel and Bloomsbury Children's for hosting and inviting me. I highly recommend you look for book events in your local area. I have had the most wonderful time meeting these ladies and hearing them speak, not to mention all the other amazing book lovers and Smart Girls!

A Signing Event with Deborah Harkness

I had the BEST TIME last night! As much as I love books and the authors who write them, I have never been to a book signing event and last night I was able to rectify that. Deborah Harkness, the author of the All Souls Trilogy came to the Barnes and Noble in the town where I live. I have been so excited for months waiting for today, but I had begun to worry that it might not live up to my expectations. Luckily for me, it did. Last week, I stopped in at B&N to get a wristband for the event so when I showed up tonight I had a reserved seat in the third row. I arrived about forty-five minutes early anyway and it was wonderful chatting with the people around me. I met a few members of a very active All Souls Discussion Group from Facebook and the woman sitting next to me was just lovely. We had a great time getting to know one another. Her name is Kristen and she is about to launch her own book blog which I cannot wait to read. She also told me about an amazing-sounding day camp in Austin called Camp Half-Blood run by Book People, the largest independent bookstore in Texas. We talked about how much we love books and how, when we meet new people, we always try to pick out the "book nerds" like us. Needless to say, this was a book nerd- infested event and we loved it!

While we waited for Ms. Harkness to arrive, the B&N employees kept us well entertained and even gave away a few prizes. The young woman who appeared to be in charge of the event even hand-crafted these fun little necklaces, one of which I was so excited to win. How cool is that?!

When Ms. Harkness joined us, a whisper immediately swept over the crowd to alert us all that "She's here!" and "Look! It's her!" After a little trouble with the microphone, of which she very amiably joked, she launched right in by asking if any one of us had not yet completed reading The Book of Life, the book she was currently promoting. A few people raised their hands and Ms. Harkness was considerate enough of them to ask the rest of us to carefully meter our questions during the Q&A portion of the evening to avoid the lion's share of the spoilers. I was a little worried about how this might hamper the discussion, but she handled it seamlessly. She then read two sections from the early part of the book and gave us further information about them. One of my favorite things I learned tonight was that Ashmole 782 is an actual manuscript that belongs to the Bodleian Library in Oxford and that it is, in fact, missing. She told us of how, in 1982 while there on a research trip she had attempted to call Ashmole 782 for her historical research at the time, but the slip returned to her informing her that the manuscript was missing. She even joked about how greatly the calls for it have increased over the last few years.

I was also lucky enough to be one of the six people chosen to ask a question. I asked about how difficult it is to allow a character in a book to die and if she had made that decision or if she had always know it must happen that way. She told of how she had been watching so much of the news at the time about all the service men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan who were being killed and how she knew that not everyone can survive a war. She said she knew it had to be one of two characters that would die, but each time she attempted to write it one way, that character would not be killed. I love the way she discussed each of her characters as if they each have their own will. I was also rather pleased that she ended her answer by saying it was a good question - and then I realized she said that to everyone and that it was very nice of her and I'll hold on to my tiny bit of praise anyway.

She ended with telling us about how she is in the development stage of bringing the All Souls Trilogy to BBC in a miniseries and we were all very happy to hear that those plans are still moving forward. She also said that she has much yet to write and compared the stories in her head to wriggling puppies- she gets hold of one and it gets away from her- but she assured us that she would begin her next project soon. I cannot wait to read what she writes next. I envy all her students at USC and I can't help but imagine myself in one of her lecture halls.

It was a fantastic evening and I'm so glad I was able to attend. I loved meeting other book nerds like myself and hearing them speak as passionately about books as I do. Thank you to Barnes & Noble for hosting and a very special thank you to Ms. Harkness for putting us on her tour schedule. It was wonderful.