Sunday, October 12, 2008

I was gone

for a day to Nashville, to the twentieth annual Southern Festival of Books, held here:



where I enjoyed a highly entertaining presentation by Julia Reed, Newsweek writer and reporter, of her book Ham Biscuits. She actually made a very boozy milk punch and some crab mornay canapes and passed them out to the fifty or so of us in the audience. What a great raconteur. Later, I was assessing a copy of another of her books at the big tables holding books by all the participants (quite a list), when I felt a tap on my should and it was she. We had a nice little conversation.

Then I went to hear Mason-Dixon Knitting's Ann Shayne and Kay Gardiner showing the ACTUAL GARMENTS from their new book


I also walked the block to the Nashville Public Library, which features this wonderful rooftop garden. It must be a hidden gem, because there were only two or three other people there:



A look from the outside, in to the Children's Room of the Library:



looking up, catching the sun's reflection:






Ubiquitous Cat in the Hat, mugging it up. It was almost 90 degrees F, so he/she must have been sweltering in there, but seemed very cool on the outside.

16 comments:

JGH said...

That looks like a fun event and not too terribly crowded either, which always ruins things for me.

Isn't Julia Reed a fun lady? I got to meet her earlier this year. Is Ham Biscuits her memoir about Katrina?

tut-tut said...

JGH: It was the perfect number of people; not too crowded, but enough of a crowd to be exciting. Sherman Alexie was there; someone I went up with heard him speak, and she said he was like a stand-up comedian.

The book is really a memoir about her culinary history, not the Katrina one. but she talked about Katrina and New Orleans.

Anonymous said...

Oh. If you can get to Nashville and home again and do all this in a day, then you live nowhere near where I'd guessed you lived.

Which isn't surprising, given my extremely limited understanding of how the US all fits together.

Joanne said...

Wow! Love that rooftop garden. Could've lingered there for awhile. I'm with JGH, not much for big crowds. This looks nice, nice weather too.

carolyn said...

Looks like you had a great day out.

Reya Mellicker said...

What a beautiful place! And what a wonderful thing to do - celebrating books (books are an endangered species, at least I think so).

Did you see Steve's pic this morning, of a statue with an arm extended upward? You're on a wavelength with Steve, always a Very Good Thing.

Nashville looks great. Maybe I'll get there some day.

Squirrel said...

I wish I could have gone to this event! I did buy 3 books at a street fair though, and ate 2 Sweet Potato Jacks, so I feel I might have been with you in spirit a little bit.

Janelle said...

oh lucky lucky you! sounds so inspiring! xx janelle

Angie Ledbetter said...

Looks/sounds very similar to the Louisiana Book Festival, which I'll be writing about soon. Isn't it wonderful to get lost in such a good event? The sounds, sights, smells....ah!

dennis said...

Dennis loves books.

Coffee Messiah said...

Great event.

We saw Sherman Alexie once and he's a great speaker and a very good writer about Native American stories also! ; )

Anonymous said...

wow, where do we get these in England??

mouse (aka kimy) said...

how fun! and a library with a rooftop garden....how green is that!

Linda said...

My sister used to live in Nashville. What a great city-but so hot in the summer. Lucky you, going to a book festival. I adore books.

DineometerDeb said...

Books and food. My kind of place. The last time I went to a book festival (Decater GA) I bought SO many books. There is something about meeting the author and listening to them speak that made me buy more books than I should have. I would have loved to have seen the Mason Dixon people.

Anonymous said...

That looks like a lot of fun, and I love the library's garden.