Sunday Salon: Boston Book Festival Part 2

When better book bloggers are posting their Best of 2023 lists and choosing their First Book of 2024, I’m still trying to catch up on the Boston Book Festival back in October! The draft of this post was started on November 10th, and it’s been almost a month since I last posted.

I’m behind for the usual boring reasons – some good, some bad. Getting sick twice since Thanksgiving and overwhelming my poor immune system (bad); too much shopping online for gifts (bad); and getting ready for family visits during Christmas week (good).

I attended the Boston Book Festival with a friend, and one of our first stops was the Massachusetts Center for the Book’s booth, where you could spin the wheel and select a free book in the genre the spinner landed on. I had a lucky spin and got Fiction. I chose Meg Mitchell Moore’s Vacationland, as I’ve been trying to catch up on her books.

At WBUR Public Radio’s booth, they also had giveaway items. I picked up a cookbook that I absolutely did not need, but it looked like a good one, and it was freeeee!

And, before your next trip to Boston, check out the WBUR Field Guide for “tips, tricks, and information from people who live here: our reporters, your neighbors, and the occasional historian, economist or expert”.

Of course, we bought books, too, and then had to lug them around in our tote bags for the rest of the day, along with our freebies! I bought So Happy Together by Deborah K. Shepherd at the She Writes publisher’s booth. I can’t resist a road trip novel.

I bought another book from a Massachusetts author, but I’m giving it as a gift, so can’t mention it here.

Our last discussion panel of the day was “Love, Motherhood, and Ambition” with authors Sadeqa Johnson, Jean Kwok, and Elizabeth L. Silver, faciltated by Joanna Rakoff. All of the panelists said that a common question they’re asked is “who’s watching the children” while they are participating in an author event. In 2023!

I bought The Majority, thinking I might share it with family members who follow politics and the Supreme Court better than I do. Yes, I know The Majority a novel and that there are many great nonfiction books out there that I could read instead to learn facts about Supreme Court justices, not a fictionalized version of the facts. So sue me! (haha)

And what would a book festival be without the handouts and swag? Does anyone need to borrow a bookmark?

Sunday Salon is to encourage conversations about books and book-ish things. The weekly link-up and Facebook group are hosted by Deb Nance of Readerbuzz. Check it out!