Afternoon at the National Book Festival

Now that all of the author interviews from the National Book Festival are on YouTube I've discovered that there were people in line to hear Ruth Bader Ginsburg at 4:30 in the morning! Yes, she's a rock star but my days of camping out for anyone are pretty much over. 

Once the largest venue opened up and Ginsburg and her entourage were safely away I managed to snag a seat for the tail end of Chef Jose Andres' chat with NPR stalwart Diane Rehm. I will always have a soft spot for him and the courage he showed to cancel his deal with the devil...that would be his contract to run the restaurant at the what should be illegal Trump International Hotel in the District of Columbia. 

Andres has a huge heart and his warmth and love for people and food exuded from every pore. His charity, World Central Kitchen, has been feeding the hungry in decimated parts of the world for years now, specifically those in Puerto Rico after the devastation of hurricane Maria, at the borders where the tired and poor yearning to be free are amassed, and now up to 10,000 meals a day in the Bahamas. 

I was actually in that audience to ensure a seat for the next presenter, New York Times columnist and NPR commentator, David Brooks. I've been reading him for years, if only to try to understand what I perceived as the "other side's" opinion, but lately I'd noticed a distinct change in the tenor of his essays. Since the

election of Donald Trump, David Brooks has been evolving and showing his readers a softer side. His explanation is in his new book "The Second Mountain, The Quest for a Moral Life." His talk about his own failures as a man and as a friend and his search for meaning in life and relationships was by far the most heart-felt, thought provoking of the day. I can't wait to complete my literary fiction project for Library Journal so that I can take the time to dive into what I believe will be an instructive piece of non-fiction. If you want to watch Brooks' surprisingly funny, self-deprecating interview the link is here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4gNvAtL00U

Those of you who follow me may remember that Richard Powers' "The Overstory" was my choice for number one novel read in 2018. https://bit.ly/2mkH7Nb My favorite book reviewer, Ron Charles from the Washington Post, is always front and center at the National Book Festival, but even he exhibited a bit of hero worship as he spoke with Powers about the ways his life changed after researching and writing his Pulitzer Prize winner. Great fiction has the same power as a great teacher, to inform, to engage, and to enable us to see the world, in this case the natural world, in a whole new light. I know that I'll never look at a tree in the same way again. Sadly though, inspiration is no longer on Richard Powers' mind. When asked whether he believed that we humans can stop the tide of irreversible climate change damage, he gave a devastating, unnuanced answer. No!