“I was determined to be more than a casual visitor to India,” Miranda Kennedy writes in her new memoir, Sideways on a Scooter: Life and Love in India. “I’d been saving everything I earned at my job as a producer at a public radio show so that I could pick up and go overseas to try my hand at becoming a freelance foreign correspondent. The lack of transcendent, transformative experiences in my life so far had disappointed me: My days seemed a […]
It is my favorite time of year: temperatures begin cooling, kids head back to school, and literary festivals fill my days.
Local artist and author Joel Church has recently released Fingerprints, his first work of fiction, and he will be holding a book launch at Sova Wine Bar tomorrow (Wednesday) evening! I’ll see you there.
Yeah, yeah, I know it’s kind of far, but don’t miss the First Annual Gaithersburg Book Festival this weekend! Join authors and fellow literary fans on Saturday, May 15, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Gaithersburg City Hall Grounds. With a panoply of author workshops and book signings, all for my favorite price of FREE, who could ask for more? OK, maybe a free shuttle from the metro, but no more than that. From the website: The Gaithersburg Book Festival […]
More than a quirky and inspiring place to shop, Lambda Rising has offered incredible opportunities to an otherwise marginalized audience while also providing the cozy feel of a local bookshop. The ability of a bookstore to unite otherwise disparate elements of a community never ceases to amaze me, and that is why I am proud to support local bookstores.
Though I felt like a fish out of water, Nova Comics is an excellent source of specialty products in a world of bookselling that is increasingly left for the chains to rule.
The Woodrow Wilson Center held a launch on September 14 for Haleh Esfandiari’s new book. The book is an amazing account of one woman’s detainment and interrogation in an Iranian prison for months on end.
The Folger Elizabethan Theatre’s production of Shakespeare’s Much Ado about Nothing is a nod to one of DC’s many diverse cultural elements; the website explains that the “play’s musical language resonates with Caribbean rhythm in this colorful production.”
This is certainly the weekend for exciting local book events – not one, not two, but three book festivals! The 2009 Fall for the Book festival is a week-long event held at George Mason University, in Fairfax, Virginia: What began as a two-day literary event in 1999, organized by George Mason University and the City of Fairfax, has expanded into a week-long, multiple-venue, regional festival that brings together people of all ages and interests, thanks to growing community interest and generous supporting […]
As if my own encouragement to attend the 9th annual National Book Festival on the Mall were not enough, Washingtonian also recommends the event. The magazine lists several headliners: novelists John Grisham, John Irving, and Jodi Picoult; children and tween favorites Sharon Creech, Judy Blume, Jeff Kinney, and Jon Scieszka (currently the Library of Congress’s national ambassador for young people’s literature); nonfiction authors Ken Burns, Gwen Ifill, and Jon Meacham. Others to look for include Paula Deen, Lois Lowry, Jerry Pinkney, David […]
The 15th Annual Small Press Expo will take place on Saturday, September 26, from 11 am-7 pm, and Sunday, Sunday, September 27, from noon-6 pm, at The North Bethesda Marriott Convention Center in Bethesda, Maryland.
“Esfandiari recounts her harrowing experience in a newly released book called My Prison, My Home: One Woman’s Story of Captivity in Iran (HarperCollins).The story began in Tehran when, while visiting her 93-year-old mother, Esfandiari was stopped by knife wielding intelligence officials who accused her of plotting to overthrow the government. This incident, which occurred December 30, 2006, led to four months of house arrest and intense interrogation, followed by another four months in Evin Prison. She was released in August 2007, following a robust diplomatic effort that involved her colleagues at the Wilson Center and members of the U.S. Congress.”
Today’s the big day. After months of rumors, ruminations, and really excited Tweets, Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol has appeared in stores. This follow-up to the best-selling Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons is set in Washington, D.C. – though Brown’s version of D.C. promises to be more thrilling and fantastical than Georgetown University’s annual tuition and expenses. Louis Bayard reviewed an advance copy for the Washington Post, and finds that the book will please readers who enjoyed the Da Vinci […]
Haleh Esfandiari will be launching My Prison, My Home today at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, from 4-5 pm.
The 2009 National Book Festival, organized and sponsored by the Library of Congress, will be held on Saturday, September 26, 2009, on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., between 7th and 14th streets from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The festival is free and open to the public.
Margot Badran finds that “Esfandiari’s finely wrought memoir. . . gives us a window on a terrible and terrifying world and the trial by fire that some of our fellow human beings are forced to endure.”
Melody Schreiber 