*****Saturday's Literary Events Thread *******

[taterguy]

The Southern Festival of Books is in Nashville.

It features Charles Frazier, Tom Perrotta Ann Patchett, Clyde Edgarton and about 200 other authors.

What Literary Events are you looking forward to this weekend?

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[trof]

1. Um...Alabama-Ole Miss game?

Well, they're both universities and universities have lots of books.
;-)

[taterguy]

2. William Faulkner went to Ole Miss

Go team!

[petronius]

11. In honor of Robert Penn Warren, I'm watching the LSU game

:)

[siligut]

3. I am finally going to crack open Assassination Vacation.

I saw Sarah Vowell on BookTV, so that makes this a literary event. Here is a summary of the book.

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. What do you get when a woman who's obsessed with death and U.S. history goes on vacation? This wacky, weirdly enthralling exploration of the first three presidential assassinations. Vowell (The Partly Cloudy Patriot), a contributor to NPR's This American Life and the voice of teenage superhero Violet Parr in The Incredibles, takes readers on a pilgrimage of sorts to the sites and monuments that pay homage to Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley, visiting everything from grave sites and simple plaques (like the one in Buffalo that marks the place where McKinley was shot) to places like the National Museum of Health and Medicine, where fragments of Lincoln's skull are on display. An expert tour guide, Vowell brings into sharp focus not only the figures involved in the assassinations, but the social and political circumstances that led to each-and she does so in the witty, sometimes irreverent manner that her fans have come to expect. Thus, readers learn not only about how Garfield found himself caught between the Stalwarts and the Half-Breeds, bitterly divided factions of the Republican party, but how his assassin, Charles Guiteau, a supporter of the Stalwarts and an occasional member of the Oneida Community, "was the one guy in a free love commune who could not get laid." Vowell also draws frequent connections between past events and the present, noting similarities between McKinley's preemptive war against Cuba and the Philippines and the current war in Iraq. This is history at its most morbid and most fascinating and, fortunately, one needn't share Vowell's interest in the macabre to thoroughly enjoy this unusual tour.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

[JitterbugPerfume]

5. I first saw Sarah Vowell on the Daily Show

She was smart and funny . Her books are the best!

[siligut]

7. Good to know

I hadn't heard of her until I saw her on BookTV, she seemed very down-to-earth. I like history when it is incorporated into an interesting story. :hi:

[JitterbugPerfume]

8. I am a book TV fanatic!

I DVR my favorites,especially the History and Science.
:hi:

[siligut]

15. You are so right!

I am thoroughly enjoying Assassination Vacation. Sarah Vowell is funny, irreverent and the antithesis of pretentious. She references popular culture, such as Hooters and The Big Lebowski, and her respectful but pointed disdain for the W Bush administration puts me in a comfortable and trusting frame of mind. I think this is what came through and made me buy the book, when I saw her on C-Span 2, her intelligent, educated, liberal bent. The font and spacing indicate the book is written for young adults, I will definitely donate this one to the public library when I am finished with it.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. My dear taterguy!

A good friend, and a fellow poet, is having his book launch party tonight, and I am going!

There will be lots of poetry, some great music (he used to have a band) and tons of cool people to see.

I can hardly wait!

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[JitterbugPerfume]

6. I (hope to) finish two books

The Magic of Reality by Richard Dawkins and In Other Worlds by Margaret Atwood

[nolabear]

9. I'm intensely promoting my novel.

Writing is easy. Marketing is hard!

[taterguy]

10. Marketing and writing are usually two different skill-sets

Only really lucky folks can do both well.

That's why publicists have jobs.

[fishwax]

12. Manufacturing Hysteria: A History of Scapegoating, Surveilance, and Secrecy in Modern America

On Book TV at 1 am central time :bounce:

[WinkyDink]

13. John Barth taught at PSU (vs. Purdue)!

[Sisaruus]

14. A Sunday literary report:: Books or laundry?

Just finished Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply by Vandana Shiva and as soon as I fold the laundry, I'll start Chango's Beads and Two-Tone Shoes by William Kennedy. I'm trying to bribe myself - if I fold the laundry, then I get to start a new book (because if I start the new book first, I'll be living out of the laundry basket for a week).