Sunday, September 25, 2011

Sunday Salon- The Salem Lit Fest

Well today is the second day of the Salem Literary Festival! Yesterday Jeff and I attended two sessions, one a panel of literary agents and the second a panel on writing strong women, with authors Brunonia Barry, Katherine Howe and Julia Glass. Both were very informative; I'll have more detail tomorrow or Tuesday on the whole event. Today is the blogger panel at 11:00 and I hope to see some of you there!

This week has been pretty busy. On Thursday I attended a half-day of the Online News Association 2011 Law School for Digital Journalists conference at Harvard Law School; I attended sessions on copyright and access; the copyright session was the most applicable to what I do but both were very interesting and I learned a lot. Later in the day I attended a booksellers' afternoon hosted at the New England Independent Booksellers' Association offices and put on by the Book Publishers Representatives of New England. Reps from seven publishers and distributors presented their fall books and passed out galleys and prizes. I picked up a galley of Robert Massie's Catherine the Great, among other things. I'm looking forward to the NEIBA show in mid-October along with a lot of other great bookish events.

Today I'll be spending most of the day at the Salem festival and doing a little reading if I get the chance. I'm working my way through In a Free State by V.S. Naipaul, which I am not enjoying but I'm not going to let that miserable geezer defeat my effort to read all of the Booker Prize winners! For fun, I'm reading Nairobi Heat, an entertaining crime novel set in Kenya about a Rwandan humanitarian hero, modeled on Paul Rusesabagina, who lands at the center of a murder investigation in America. It's very good and I can't wait to see how it all turns out.


What are you reading today? Any fun activities your way? Or an ordinary Sunday? Whatever you're up to I hope you're having a great day.

More Sunday Salon here.

9 comments:

Laura said...

In a Free State was my least favorite Booker winner. Yech!

Anonymous said...

Hahah oh miserable geezer! I love it. I haven't read In a Free State but I know it's worth it to keep pushing as MOST of the other winners are not that bad. ;0) Enjoy Salem. Wish I could be there!

Tracy Hahn-Burkett said...

"[T]hat miserable geezer." Ha! Love it!

I'm looking forward to reading more detail about the panel on writing strong women. Enjoy the second day of the festival!

Frances said...

Have never been able to finish a Naipaul title. For a variety of reasons. So I really get that miserable geezer comment. Have a fantastic bookish weekend (as you always seem to do). Is the big Boston to-do coming up next month? Would love to be there for that.

Anonymous said...

Football, football and, yes, more football today...reading? Eh...maybe.

Mowing the lawn. Should. But we'll see. If do read, it will be The Killing of the Tinkers by Ken Bruen.

Sandy Nawrot said...

That Catherine book was highly sought after at SIBA. They only had one copy, and Swapna ended up getting it. She was so excited! These festivals are wonderful, and I think you are all so lucky to have so many of them up there. I look forward to hearing more!

Zibilee said...

I was following your tweets the other day on the copyright session, and finding them very informative. It sounds like this weekend was just packed for you, and that you are having a great time. Here's hoping that your panel went swimmingly!

bermudaonion said...

I wish I had a budget that allowed me to travel to all these bookish events. We drove home from visiting our son today, so it was pretty uneventful.

bookmagic said...

How fun to be in Salem for a book festival!