Greetings from Miami
The Miami Book Fair this year coincided with a school break for my boys for the New Jersey Education Association's Convention in Atlantic City. I confess that I always find this break a tad annoying because we already have a long weekend in November. I usually start ranting in mid-October wanting to know how many of the teachers actually go to AC for the convention, how many just hit the slots and how many are just taking a vacation! Getting a flight out of Newark Airport on Thursday and back on Sunday night becomes a real trick as this weekend typically becomes a great exodus for many.
To avoid the airport madness we cut out right after school on Wednesday and used the extra day to get us some time with my aunt and uncle who live up in Delray Beach. The boys had not seen them in a while so they were up for this adventure. I have spent a lot of time in South Florida these past few years and thus I had a great time cruising up 95 in our rental Escalade showing them the sites.
After the family visit, a couple of lighthousing stops, a terrific Cuban dinner at Versailles and an afternoon lounging by the pool, it was time for me to get back to work on Friday night with the Caroline Kennedy event. It was standing room only with a very enthusiastic crowd. I had heard Caroline speak on a few occasions, thus I was looking forward to this. She was going to be talking about her new book, A FAMILY CHRISTMAS. She was interviewed by Mitchell Kaplan, one of the founders of the Book Fair (which this year was in its 24th year). This was humorous as Mitchell is Jewish and thus he was on some rather new turf talking Christmas traditions. Kennedy was very girl next door and unassuming, which made the conversation a lot of fun. There was a moment when she said something about "living at the White House," which actually gave me pause as it reminded me what a very different life she has had compared to the rest of us in that room.
Included in the book is a letter that she wrote to Santa and one that her dad wrote to a young girl in Michigan assuring her that the Russians would not be bombing the North Pole, as well as essays by a diverse group of authors on their reflections on the holiday and faith. She also shared the Kennedy family tradition of the children writing and illustrating a poem for gifts for the holidays, a tradition that she has continued with her own family. Nikki Giovanni, who had been the previous evening's speaker was in the audience and she read her poem from the book to close this section of the program, which was quite lovely. I left at the end of this program while many in the audience lined up for a signing.
Back at the hotel I picked the boys up and we headed down to Coral Gables to shop at Books & Books and enjoy dinner in the fabulous courtyard of the bookstore where each Friday evening there is musical entertainment. The boys loved it wishing we had a place like this in New Jersey. I reminded them that it was 45 degrees this night in Jersey while here it was in the 70s. From there I toured them around the Biltmore Hotel, which has my absolutely favorite hotel pool. We got back to our hotel and I had not sooner tossed the keys to the valet when I realized that I did not have my phone. Greg quickly grabbed his and called mine, which was back at the bookstore. They were cleaning up for the evening and leaving in 15 minutes thus we did the fastest 8-minute drive through Coral Gables that I ever have done.
We crashed after midnight with a plan to get to the Fair in the late morning. We took the People Mover from the hotel to the Fair, which made transportation really easy. Once at the Fair we lined up to see Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson who are perennial players at this event. I have seen them both on numerous occasions and almost ducked out to see Ann Packer talking about SONGS WITHOUT WORDS instead, but I wanted to share this moment with them. Barry, who is one of my favorite humorists, was in his usual memorable form. I think the boys will be repeating his standup lines in the weeks to come. Cory is a real fan of the prequel series that Barry and Pearson do together so he loved hearing the backstory on those books.
From there we decided we were going to split up to be sure that we could cover enough ground. I headed over to hear Laurie Perry talking about CRAZY AUNT PURL'S DRUNK, DIVORCED & COVERED IN CAT HAIR: The True-Life Misadventures of a 30-Something Who Learned to Knit After He Split. I had read Laurie's blog which is the diary of a thirtysomething woman whose husband leaves her, her cats, her drinking and the knitting hobby that she picks up to console and calm herself. She was on the panel with Michael Adamse whose book is GOD'S SHRINK and she tried very hard to include as many references as God in the chapter that she read. Of course, the God references were nothing reverant which led to lots of laughter. I was knitting a shawl and felt perfectly at home with other knitters in the audience
I then headed to catch MJ Rose who was talking about her new book, THE REINCARNATIONIST. While MJ and I are great friends I had not had an opportunity to hear her talk about this latest book and thus this was great fun. Given that I was trying to get to as many events as possible, I did not get to listen to her fellow panelists, Javier Sierra, Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes. Instead of raced across to the Fair to catch up to the boys at the Crime Fiction panel where Joseph Finder, Greg Iles, Ridley Pearson and Nick Stone were talking with Bob Williamson hosting. I only caught a few moments, but got a chance to say hi to Joe and to see Stacy Alesi who is also known as The Book Bitch. I love chatting with her and try to catch up with her at events like this.
At each of the events there were great crowds. Clearly the Fair hit a real stride this year with people enjoying the Street Fair and the panel events. The weather was gorgeous and the mood on the street was ebullient.
Our next event was one that Greg really wanted to get to. He is an intrepid traveler and thus the chance to see Patricia Schultz talking about 1000 PLACES TO GO BEFORE YOU DIE was on his agenda. He has missed seeing her on three other occasions and thus was determined to stand outside the room where she was speaking until a seat opened up. His determination paid off and we got in. She was speaking with Larry Portzline, who wrote a book called BOOKSTORE TOURISM where he talks about people can traveling to independent bookstores as destinations. Larry has executed many tours like this for readers. In April he is planning a cross-country tour to visit Indy store to promote them.
Patricia was just terrific --- an inspiring traveler. She talked about her travels, her research and what she learned as a traveler not a tourist over the years. My son's ears perked up when she said that she often travels putting a trip on a credit card to just be paid later not worrying about the fact it may take four years to pay off the perfect adventure. He ignored my vigorous head shaking about this as I saw the wheels turning in his head and the application being filled out! Truly a great talk.
From there we headed to the Authors Lounge. Jim Born was in conversation with Chris Matthews and I, who have been known to a) never recognize celebrities and b) put my foot in my mouth, managed to say to Matthews, "Do not believe a thing that Born says," having no idea who I was talking to. Brilliant move, but I recovered and from there we all moved into a nice conversation and Greg snapped a photo of Matthews and Born.
The boys have been hearing me talk about the Rockbottom Remainders for years. They are a band made up of authors and publishing folks including Barry, Pearson, Scott Turow and Kathi Goldmark, among others. They were playing at 5 and the boys had to see this. After all Scott singing Wild Thing is something not everyone get to see. They loved it. My favorite line came from Cory. He has been reading CLAPTON for his school book report. He said, you know now that Clapton wrote a book, he can join the band. And let me tell you, they can USE the talent of Clapton!
From the Fair we headed back to the hotel on the People Mover. No, actually we did NOT head back on the People Mover. We headed the WRONG way on the People Mover and actually managed to take a different line. The People Mover runs remotely, thus there is no one to ASK which way to go. Especially when everyone is leaving the Fair with the same lack of direction. My boys took this moment in stride and saw it as a chance to see Miami from above. See why I am happy I am their mom? They have HUMOR!!!
From there we headed out to the Holocaust Museum totally forgetting that this weekend there was a Car Show in Miami Beach at the Convention Center. Can you say GRIDLOCK? I felt like we were heading to the Jersey Shore on a hot summer weekend. The boys ended up doing a self-guided tour while I sat in the car playing with the iPod and trying not to get a ticket. From there we cruised the beach blocks a bit and debated whether to go see 461 Ocean Blvd where Clapton wrote the album, but luckily they are smart boys and getting to North Miami Beach, which was 25 minutes away sounded like a really bad idea to them!
Sunday we checked out of the hotel and headed to the Fair getting there in time to snag a standing room spot at the event where AJ Jacobs, Shalom Auslander and Cynthia Kaplan were on a panel called Comic Lives. THIS was humor at its best. I am not sure which of these authors was the most clever and comical. Shalom led off talking about his book FORESKIN'S LAMENT, which chronicles his childhood in a strict, socially isolated Orthodox community, and his fear of God who he says makes bad things happen. I rarely enjoy author readings, but Shalom can pull off this off wonderfully. I heard him read this same work in Baltimore and I laughed just as hard this time. The boys LOVED it.
From there AJ Jacobs picked up the chord for the laugh track and had the audience rolling as he talked about his book, THE YEAR OF LIVING BIBLICALLY where he spent the entire year leaving his life in strong accordance with the bible following the lesser known and better known commandments, which included growing a long beard. AJ's tales of the practice of stoning with small rocks truly had the crowd going.
I was not familiar with Cynthia Kaplan, but I DO know at least one person who will be getting her book, LEAVE THE BUILDING QUICKLY from me this holiday season. She read an extremely witty piece about traveling to Vermont for a Jew's version of Christmas, skiing in Vermont. On the drive up her husband hits a deer and her story of that experience will charm anyone who lives in a rural town like mine. We truly think deer are the stupidest animals alive! Her droll delivery had the audience rolling. By the time this panel was done my face was sore from laughing.
We built AJ's website, AJJacobs.com, but I never had met him so I seized the opportunity to say hi once the panel was done. Great fun.
From there we went to back to the Author's Lounge where I had arranged to meet Miriam Kassanoff who is one of readers. She wanted to meet Greg who is taking a Holocaust course at his school and give him a copy of her book STUDYING THE HOLOCAUST THRU FILM AND LITERATURE, which was just so kind of her. They had a nice chat and he ended up texting one his friends with some changes to a presentation that they were working on for the class based on some concepts that she shared with him. I also had the chance to catch up with Bob Morris before his panel. We had met at the South Carolina Festival of the Book last year and thus it was nice to see what he was up to. One of the nice things about these events is seeing friends like that.
From there the boys headed into the panel that Miriam was moderating with Rabbi Edwin Goldberg and Richard Hollander. And I went to the Thrilling Reads panel with Vince Flynn, James Grippando, Bob Morris and John Lantigua. GREAT panel with a group of authors who really hung their presentation together. Grippando was the only one in a white tshirt while all others were in black. Morris made note of this teasing that he had not gotten the "black" memo. When Grippando got up to speak he told us all why he had this shirt on --- to commemorate his dog Sam, who recently had died. He told a GREAT story that had the entire audience giving him sympathy. Vince Flynn did his extremely funny George Bush and Bill Clinton imitations, which had the entire audience rolling.
It was a GREAT GREAT weekend. I did not cover as much as usual as I was trying to give the boys a full experience, but it was great nonetheless. I cannot wait to go back next year for the 25th Year. And yes, the boys are lobbying to join me again. They just had a blast. It became quite a memory. As soon as we have next year's dates I am going to share them so you can see if you too can be part of this event next year!
To avoid the airport madness we cut out right after school on Wednesday and used the extra day to get us some time with my aunt and uncle who live up in Delray Beach. The boys had not seen them in a while so they were up for this adventure. I have spent a lot of time in South Florida these past few years and thus I had a great time cruising up 95 in our rental Escalade showing them the sites.
After the family visit, a couple of lighthousing stops, a terrific Cuban dinner at Versailles and an afternoon lounging by the pool, it was time for me to get back to work on Friday night with the Caroline Kennedy event. It was standing room only with a very enthusiastic crowd. I had heard Caroline speak on a few occasions, thus I was looking forward to this. She was going to be talking about her new book, A FAMILY CHRISTMAS. She was interviewed by Mitchell Kaplan, one of the founders of the Book Fair (which this year was in its 24th year). This was humorous as Mitchell is Jewish and thus he was on some rather new turf talking Christmas traditions. Kennedy was very girl next door and unassuming, which made the conversation a lot of fun. There was a moment when she said something about "living at the White House," which actually gave me pause as it reminded me what a very different life she has had compared to the rest of us in that room.
Included in the book is a letter that she wrote to Santa and one that her dad wrote to a young girl in Michigan assuring her that the Russians would not be bombing the North Pole, as well as essays by a diverse group of authors on their reflections on the holiday and faith. She also shared the Kennedy family tradition of the children writing and illustrating a poem for gifts for the holidays, a tradition that she has continued with her own family. Nikki Giovanni, who had been the previous evening's speaker was in the audience and she read her poem from the book to close this section of the program, which was quite lovely. I left at the end of this program while many in the audience lined up for a signing.
Back at the hotel I picked the boys up and we headed down to Coral Gables to shop at Books & Books and enjoy dinner in the fabulous courtyard of the bookstore where each Friday evening there is musical entertainment. The boys loved it wishing we had a place like this in New Jersey. I reminded them that it was 45 degrees this night in Jersey while here it was in the 70s. From there I toured them around the Biltmore Hotel, which has my absolutely favorite hotel pool. We got back to our hotel and I had not sooner tossed the keys to the valet when I realized that I did not have my phone. Greg quickly grabbed his and called mine, which was back at the bookstore. They were cleaning up for the evening and leaving in 15 minutes thus we did the fastest 8-minute drive through Coral Gables that I ever have done.
We crashed after midnight with a plan to get to the Fair in the late morning. We took the People Mover from the hotel to the Fair, which made transportation really easy. Once at the Fair we lined up to see Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson who are perennial players at this event. I have seen them both on numerous occasions and almost ducked out to see Ann Packer talking about SONGS WITHOUT WORDS instead, but I wanted to share this moment with them. Barry, who is one of my favorite humorists, was in his usual memorable form. I think the boys will be repeating his standup lines in the weeks to come. Cory is a real fan of the prequel series that Barry and Pearson do together so he loved hearing the backstory on those books.
From there we decided we were going to split up to be sure that we could cover enough ground. I headed over to hear Laurie Perry talking about CRAZY AUNT PURL'S DRUNK, DIVORCED & COVERED IN CAT HAIR: The True-Life Misadventures of a 30-Something Who Learned to Knit After He Split. I had read Laurie's blog which is the diary of a thirtysomething woman whose husband leaves her, her cats, her drinking and the knitting hobby that she picks up to console and calm herself. She was on the panel with Michael Adamse whose book is GOD'S SHRINK and she tried very hard to include as many references as God in the chapter that she read. Of course, the God references were nothing reverant which led to lots of laughter. I was knitting a shawl and felt perfectly at home with other knitters in the audience
I then headed to catch MJ Rose who was talking about her new book, THE REINCARNATIONIST. While MJ and I are great friends I had not had an opportunity to hear her talk about this latest book and thus this was great fun. Given that I was trying to get to as many events as possible, I did not get to listen to her fellow panelists, Javier Sierra, Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes. Instead of raced across to the Fair to catch up to the boys at the Crime Fiction panel where Joseph Finder, Greg Iles, Ridley Pearson and Nick Stone were talking with Bob Williamson hosting. I only caught a few moments, but got a chance to say hi to Joe and to see Stacy Alesi who is also known as The Book Bitch. I love chatting with her and try to catch up with her at events like this.
At each of the events there were great crowds. Clearly the Fair hit a real stride this year with people enjoying the Street Fair and the panel events. The weather was gorgeous and the mood on the street was ebullient.
Our next event was one that Greg really wanted to get to. He is an intrepid traveler and thus the chance to see Patricia Schultz talking about 1000 PLACES TO GO BEFORE YOU DIE was on his agenda. He has missed seeing her on three other occasions and thus was determined to stand outside the room where she was speaking until a seat opened up. His determination paid off and we got in. She was speaking with Larry Portzline, who wrote a book called BOOKSTORE TOURISM where he talks about people can traveling to independent bookstores as destinations. Larry has executed many tours like this for readers. In April he is planning a cross-country tour to visit Indy store to promote them.
Patricia was just terrific --- an inspiring traveler. She talked about her travels, her research and what she learned as a traveler not a tourist over the years. My son's ears perked up when she said that she often travels putting a trip on a credit card to just be paid later not worrying about the fact it may take four years to pay off the perfect adventure. He ignored my vigorous head shaking about this as I saw the wheels turning in his head and the application being filled out! Truly a great talk.
From there we headed to the Authors Lounge. Jim Born was in conversation with Chris Matthews and I, who have been known to a) never recognize celebrities and b) put my foot in my mouth, managed to say to Matthews, "Do not believe a thing that Born says," having no idea who I was talking to. Brilliant move, but I recovered and from there we all moved into a nice conversation and Greg snapped a photo of Matthews and Born.
The boys have been hearing me talk about the Rockbottom Remainders for years. They are a band made up of authors and publishing folks including Barry, Pearson, Scott Turow and Kathi Goldmark, among others. They were playing at 5 and the boys had to see this. After all Scott singing Wild Thing is something not everyone get to see. They loved it. My favorite line came from Cory. He has been reading CLAPTON for his school book report. He said, you know now that Clapton wrote a book, he can join the band. And let me tell you, they can USE the talent of Clapton!
From the Fair we headed back to the hotel on the People Mover. No, actually we did NOT head back on the People Mover. We headed the WRONG way on the People Mover and actually managed to take a different line. The People Mover runs remotely, thus there is no one to ASK which way to go. Especially when everyone is leaving the Fair with the same lack of direction. My boys took this moment in stride and saw it as a chance to see Miami from above. See why I am happy I am their mom? They have HUMOR!!!
From there we headed out to the Holocaust Museum totally forgetting that this weekend there was a Car Show in Miami Beach at the Convention Center. Can you say GRIDLOCK? I felt like we were heading to the Jersey Shore on a hot summer weekend. The boys ended up doing a self-guided tour while I sat in the car playing with the iPod and trying not to get a ticket. From there we cruised the beach blocks a bit and debated whether to go see 461 Ocean Blvd where Clapton wrote the album, but luckily they are smart boys and getting to North Miami Beach, which was 25 minutes away sounded like a really bad idea to them!
Sunday we checked out of the hotel and headed to the Fair getting there in time to snag a standing room spot at the event where AJ Jacobs, Shalom Auslander and Cynthia Kaplan were on a panel called Comic Lives. THIS was humor at its best. I am not sure which of these authors was the most clever and comical. Shalom led off talking about his book FORESKIN'S LAMENT, which chronicles his childhood in a strict, socially isolated Orthodox community, and his fear of God who he says makes bad things happen. I rarely enjoy author readings, but Shalom can pull off this off wonderfully. I heard him read this same work in Baltimore and I laughed just as hard this time. The boys LOVED it.
From there AJ Jacobs picked up the chord for the laugh track and had the audience rolling as he talked about his book, THE YEAR OF LIVING BIBLICALLY where he spent the entire year leaving his life in strong accordance with the bible following the lesser known and better known commandments, which included growing a long beard. AJ's tales of the practice of stoning with small rocks truly had the crowd going.
I was not familiar with Cynthia Kaplan, but I DO know at least one person who will be getting her book, LEAVE THE BUILDING QUICKLY from me this holiday season. She read an extremely witty piece about traveling to Vermont for a Jew's version of Christmas, skiing in Vermont. On the drive up her husband hits a deer and her story of that experience will charm anyone who lives in a rural town like mine. We truly think deer are the stupidest animals alive! Her droll delivery had the audience rolling. By the time this panel was done my face was sore from laughing.
We built AJ's website, AJJacobs.com, but I never had met him so I seized the opportunity to say hi once the panel was done. Great fun.
From there we went to back to the Author's Lounge where I had arranged to meet Miriam Kassanoff who is one of readers. She wanted to meet Greg who is taking a Holocaust course at his school and give him a copy of her book STUDYING THE HOLOCAUST THRU FILM AND LITERATURE, which was just so kind of her. They had a nice chat and he ended up texting one his friends with some changes to a presentation that they were working on for the class based on some concepts that she shared with him. I also had the chance to catch up with Bob Morris before his panel. We had met at the South Carolina Festival of the Book last year and thus it was nice to see what he was up to. One of the nice things about these events is seeing friends like that.
From there the boys headed into the panel that Miriam was moderating with Rabbi Edwin Goldberg and Richard Hollander. And I went to the Thrilling Reads panel with Vince Flynn, James Grippando, Bob Morris and John Lantigua. GREAT panel with a group of authors who really hung their presentation together. Grippando was the only one in a white tshirt while all others were in black. Morris made note of this teasing that he had not gotten the "black" memo. When Grippando got up to speak he told us all why he had this shirt on --- to commemorate his dog Sam, who recently had died. He told a GREAT story that had the entire audience giving him sympathy. Vince Flynn did his extremely funny George Bush and Bill Clinton imitations, which had the entire audience rolling.
It was a GREAT GREAT weekend. I did not cover as much as usual as I was trying to give the boys a full experience, but it was great nonetheless. I cannot wait to go back next year for the 25th Year. And yes, the boys are lobbying to join me again. They just had a blast. It became quite a memory. As soon as we have next year's dates I am going to share them so you can see if you too can be part of this event next year!
