This year’s National Book Festival is almost here (September 6), and I wanted to write up the highlights of last year’s event even if unconscionably late. Let this report serve as a prompt to attend this year if you never have – it’s one of my favorite events, and another thing I love about living around here.
I noticed this guy as I was walking in, just before opening hours. He couldn’t wait to start reading!
One could meet librarians from all over the country in the Hall of States. They each brought two state books (one child and one adult), the focus of state-wide community reading programs. Several, Oregon and Kentucky among them, were food-oriented, and the author of one of them was on the NBF program.
And did you know Jolly Ranchers candy was invented in Colorado?
The Hall of States and the exhibits were, as usual, lots of fun to walk around and meet fellow book-lovers. There were photo-ops galore.
And the bookshop area was filled shoulder-to-shoulder with shoppers. It gives you a good feeling about the future of reading!
Authors Up
The Secret Life of James Patterson
Some famous authors were interviewed onstage. James Patterson talked with David M. Rubenstein about his latest book – not one of his best-selling novels but nonfiction about book-pushers: booksellers and librarians. He’s a great interview. His first words were, “Hi, I’m Steven King!” and went on from there. But the best part was, he gives money to support libraries.
The Good Lord Prize
James McBride was given the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction by Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, then spoke with NPR’s Michel Martin about his latest novel, The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, and his writing process. “I’m the person in the room who holds the handkerchief when God coughs.” Nice work if you can get it?
Not a Cookbook,
despite the title, but a modern classic. Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street, written forty years ago, is taught in schools (including my daughter’s). An opera will premiere next summer at the Glimmerglass Festival. This session was a celebration of longevity, of both the book and the author. Rachel Martin asked about her writing process: “Pretend no one’s going to read it, and say anything.”
Also Not a Cookbook, Paired With One That Is
Here’s a fruity coincidence. Annabelle Tometich’s The Mango Tree: A Memoir of Fruit, Florida, and Felony, despite the author’s credentials as a chef, food writer, and restaurant reviewer, contains no actual recipes. It’s mostly about her childhood, coping with the consequences of her mother’s behavior (the mango tree figured in her mother’s run-in with the law). “Why not double down on the most traumatic memories of your life during the pandemic layoff?” Hence the book, which I am reliably informed is lighthearted and entertaining, about a Filipina growing up in Florida.
Crystal Wilkinson’s Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts: Stories and Recipes from Five Generations of Black Country Cooks is a memoir of a different color. There have been Black folks living in Appalachia since the early nineteenth century, and culturally, “the kitchen was the center of the universe.” For Ms. Wilkinson, the former poet laureate of Kentucky, five generations of Black women haunt her kitchen, and she can feel their presence when she cooks. Forty of their recipes are included in her book.
A Little Party on the Stage
Tamron Hall, a popular talk-show host, has collaborated with her chef friend Lish Steiling to produce A Confident Cook: Recipes for Joyous, No-Pressure Fun in the Kitchen. Librarian Carla Hayden interviewed them both. She was clearly a fan. This book was written to instill confidence in a new or timid cook. “You only need three knives!” “Heating the pan before you add fat makes it non-stick!” (Who knew?) And here’s a good one: when cooking, “use all your senses!” At the end of the discussion, the three joined in a selfie session.
Two in One
My long day wrapped with a high point. Ty Franck and Daniel Abraham (who write under the pseudonym James S. A. Corey) talked about their new trilogy, The Captive’s War. The first book is titled The Mercy of Gods. The TV series based on their nine-book saga, The Expanse, was one of the best of the century so far (IMHO). The trilogy has already been optioned for TV adaptation. The world breathlessly awaits!
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