Salt Lake City Book Festival, Part Two

I was a bit hesitant about going to the festival this year because the list of authors was not drawing me. My mother and I have attended this event for the past three years, so it was a fun tradition that I didn't want to see end. Finally, we decided to go. My sister and daughter decided to join us, which made it even more fun. Once in Salt Lake another daughter and a niece joined us. The company was great.

Friday night there was only one presentation - Ken Jennings of Jeopardy fame. We were all lukewarm about attending, but enjoyed Jennings very much. He's a Utahn who has recently had his first book published, Brainiac, Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs. Here's a couple of excerpts from the inside flap of the jacket: "Whisking us from the coffeehouses of seventeenth-century London to the Internet age, Jennings chronicles the ups and downs of the trivia fad." "Jennings also investigates the shadowy demimonde of today's trivia subculture, guiding us on a tour of trivia hotspots across America." All the chapter headings are written as questions. He signed my book, "Who is Ken Jennings?" Cute, huh?

Saturday I attended the following sessions:
Peter Brown, author and illustrator of children's books. I bought and had him sign Chowder and Flight of the Dodo. Both books are fabulous.
Lawrence Yep, author of nearly 60 YA books. I bought Dragon's Gate for my daughter. Yep signed it and etched a little picture on the title page.
Tracie Morris, poet. This session was interesting. Morris read a few poems and also performed some of her sound poems. I wasn't extremely fond of her stuff, but I was happy to be exposed to something so innovative as sound poetry.
Janet Tashijan, author of YA fiction. She is a high-energy person, who talked fast and fidgeted a lot while sitting. She wrote True Confessions which was later made into a Disney TV movie.
Karl & Anne Taylor Fleming, journalists. Karl covered stories such as the Watts riots and Martin Luther King. Anne told a little about her first interview which was with Truman Capote.
Shannon Hale, author of Princess Academy, Goose Girl, Enna Burning, and River Secrets. This was the one person I really wanted to hear. We got seats on the front row and were also first in line for book signings. She was delightful and very funny. She told about her adult novel coming out in the spring. It's about a woman who can't get passed her infatuation with Mr. Darcy, as played by Colin Firth. I can't remember the title. Good grief! But it sounds funny.

In addition to the Festival, we ate at delectable restaurants and were joined by family members who lived in or close to Salt Lake. Lots of good times and memories.

Salt Lake City Book Festival

I'm off for 3 days to the SLC Book Festival. My mother, sister, daughter and I are going out together. Should be lots of fun. Shannon Hale, who wrote Goose Girl and Princess academy, is one author we're excited about. Have a great weekend.

My R.I.P. Challenge Reads

September and October brought me unexpected pleasure this year thanks to Carl's R.I.P Fall Reading Challenge. It's fun to delve into a genre that I only occasionally read. And delve I did, with gusto.

Here's a list of the books I read for this challenge.
1. The Prodigal Son by Dean Koontz
2. Dracula by Bram Stoker
3. The Thirteen Tale
4. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
5. The China Garden by Liz Berry
6. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
7. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
8. Stardust by Neil Gaiman

I was richly rewarded by this experience. I never thought I would enjoy Dracula, but I loved it and, because of it, I read The Historian and Twilight, two other vampire books. From the books listed, my least favorite was Twilight and I liked it a lot. Thanks, Carl, for issuing the challenge.

Stardust

by Neil Gaiman
Rating: 4.5/5
This book was a joy to read. I received it as a present from Bellezza when I won a drawing during Buy Your Friend A Book week. Periodically while reading, I would be caught with the thought that this book came from Bellezza and that would make me smile. To think it had once set on a shelf in her house and that she also read it made it doubly fun to read.

I rated this book higher than Neverwhere. I think subconsciously the dark, damp world of the London underground may have affected my overall feelings about Neverwhere. Stardust was much lighter.

The story is about a falling star, the three different groups of people who see it fall and the meaning they attach to it. A member of each group sets out to find the fallen star, by doing so, that person will receive something of great meaning to them.

I would recommend Stardust to anyone who hasn't yet read a Neil Gaiman work. It is a wonderful fairy tale. Thank-you, Bellezza, for the very fine gift. I enjoyed it immensely.

The Hearing

by John Lescroart
Rating 4/5
Earlier this year I read Second Chair by Lescroart and enjoyed it enough to read another of his. Since finishing The Hearing I've done a little research on Lescroart. He has three mystery series: Dismas Hardy, Abe Glitsky and Wyatt Hunt. The Second Chair is the ninth in the Dismiss Hardy series and was written in 2004. The Hearing is the third out of four in the Abe Glitsky series and was written in 1999. What's funny about this is that both books included both men; one who is an attorney and the other who is a police detective. Hardy and Glitsky have a close friendship and sometimes help each other on various cases.

I haven't found that it has hurt me to read these two books out of order, but I think I'm interested enough now that I'll go back to the start and read both series. Lescroart writes well without adding gratutious sex and violence. Reading to find the solution to the crime is compelling and it's hard to put the book down.

Another interesting tidbit I learned about Lescroart is he writes his own songs and has a CD published. Country-type music. He has a nice voice.