Sunday, April 25, 2010

Sunday Salon - Newburyport Literary Festival

On Friday and Saturday, the town of Newburyport, Massachusetts, again hosted its annual literary festival. The event kicked off Friday night with a dinner, and Saturday included a lengthy roster of readings and discussions. Saturday was a gorgeous day in this beautiful seaside town dotted with lovely homes, rolling hills and a picturesque waterfront and it seemed like everybody was out and about for the festival.

The highlight for me was attending a recording of the Books on the Nightstand podcast, with
stars Ann Kingman and Michael
Kindness. They spoke for an hour or so on how they started the podcast and then each talked about four books they recommended to book clubs and finished with their signature "Books We Can't Wait for you to Read" segment. They chose The Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors, by Michele Young-Stone, and Sue Miller's new novel, The Lake Shore Limited. Both sounded great!

It was a really great day. Later, my husband and I explored one of Newburyport's two indie bookstores, its used bookstore and a large antiques mart selling used books. I walked away with two Margaret Atwood first editions- The Handmaid's Tale and Oryx and Crake, and the latter was signed! I'm not an obsessive collector of first editions but I could hardly pass those up!

Today? I'm enjoying Peter Carey's new novel, Parrot and Olivier in America, and working my way though Dmitry Zlotsky's wonderfully bizarre Monster: Oil on Canvas. I'm going to pick a short book out of my TBR pile for a "quick hit", probably The Dolly Dialogues. What are you reading today?

More Sunday Salon here.

18 comments:

Harvee said...

Congrats on finding Atwood first editions! Enjoy your day of reading. Here's my Sunday Salon

Laurel-Rain Snow said...

Oh, fabulous finds! I love Atwood's books, but to have first editions...bliss.

Your town sounds so lovely, and I must admit to being VERY envious! lol

My Salon is here:

http://laurel-rainsnowsaccidentallife.blogspot.com/2010/04/sunday-salon_25.html

Anonymous said...

Margaret Atwood first editions! Jealous! So jealous! If I came across a first edition of Cat's Eye, I would probably faint. I'm getting ready to read Oryx and Crake...only three books away from it, and looking forward to it.

Michelle (Red Headed Book Child) said...

Sounds like a beautiful way to spend a gorgeous day. Congrats!

Anonymous said...

It sounds like it was a perfect day in every aspect!

I am reading more than one book, but am almost finished reading Beatrice and Virgil, by Yann Martel.

Vasilly said...

It sounds like you had a great day. I still haven't read Atwood but I'm hoping to change that next month with Atwood in May.

JoAnn said...

That's my idea of a perfect day! I'm reading Tinkers, but thinking it might end up a DNF :-(

bermudaonion said...

What a great weekend - a literary festival and a couple of great treasures bought.

Alexia561 said...

The literary festival sounds wonderful! Glad you had nice weather for it! And so cool that you found two Margaret Atwood first editions! Loved The Handmaid's Tale. Happy reading!

jlshall said...

The literary festival sounds wonderful, and like others, I'm definitely envious of those Atwood first editions! Especially The Handmaid's Tale - one of my favorites. Hope you enjoy all your reading today.

Frances said...

Fantastic weekend! Envying you that copy of Parrot and Olivier In America. And really get the need for a "quick hit" right now as I finish Life A User's Manual by Georges Perec. Wonderful but dense. Happy reading!

nomadreader said...

The festival sounds wonderful! I'm hoping to read the Peter Carey soon too.

Deb Nance at Readerbuzz said...

Sounds like you had a delightful day! Wish there were more book festivals close to me....

Anonymous said...

So glad that you got to go! And I love Michael and Ann's podcast - they have the best podcast for readers around

Felicity Grace Terry said...

What a wonderful sounding event and how lucky to find the first editions. Great for doing special book events for children, I wish our city would arrange such a festival for us adults.

Zibilee said...

Oh wow, Marie! It sounds like you had an amazing time and it's awesome that you got those first editions! What a great weekend for you!!

Kathleen said...

Sounds like an amazing weekend. I love literary festivals and am really disappointed that I missed the LA Times Book Festival that just took place this last weekend.

Care said...

WOW! congrats on the Atwood finds. SCORE