Festival of Books 2024

Author Presentations – Free Admission – Seating is first come, first served

Saturday, August 31

Noon

Ruth Reichl, The Paris Novel
Who would turn down a trip to Paris? New York City book editor Stella might. She’s lived a quiet life after a traumatic childhood; travel is out of the question. Her mother’s unusual bequest – a one-way plane ticket and a note reading “Go to Paris” – is an impetus, but it is her boss’s encouragement, among several prods, that will transform Stella. A Paris shopkeeper challenges still-cautious Stella to buy a vintage Dior dress and wear it to an iconic brasserie. There she slurps her first oysters and catches the eye of an octogenarian art collector, Jules, who introduces Stella to a veritable who’s who of the literary, art and culinary worlds of 1980s Paris. This “mouthwatering” novel (The New York Times) is a testament to living deliciously, taking chances, and finding your true home. Joining Ruth in conversation will be Paige Orloff, writer and producer.

1:30pm

Andrew Leland, The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight
We meet Andrew Leland as he’s midway through his life with retinitis pigmentosa, a condition that gradually causes blindness. He grew up with full vision but his sight began to degrade in his teens. Apprehensive but doggedly curious, Leland embarks on a sweeping exploration of the life that awaits him, not only the physical experience of blindness but also its language, politics and customs. He negotiates his changing relationships with his wife and son, and with his own sense of self, as he moves toward life with a disability. A finalist for the 2024 Pulitzer Prize in memoir, The Country of the Blind represents Leland’s determination not to merely survive this transition but to grow from it. Brimming with warmth and humor, it is an exhilarating tour of a new way of being. Joining Andrew in conversation will be Alex Kitnick, Asst. Prof. of Art History and Visual Culture, Bard College.

3:00pm

Martin Baron, Collision of Power: Trump, Bezos, and the Washington Post
Marty Baron took charge of The Washington Post newsroom in 2013, after nearly a dozen years leading The Boston Globe. Just seven months into his new job, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos bought the Post, ending a venerated family’s 80 years of ownership. Just over two years later, Donald Trump became president. Now, the capital’s newspaper, owned by one of the world’s richest men, was tasked not only with meeting the demands of their new owner but also contending with a White House that waged a war of unprecedented vitriol against the media. Baron steadfastly managed the Post’s newsroom, leading to groundbreaking and award-winning coverage. The New York Times Book Review calls Collision of Power a “gripping chronicle of politics and journalism during a decade of turmoil.” Joining Martin in conversation will be Barry Meier, author of Pain Killer: An Empire of Deceit and the Origin of America’s Opioid Epidemic.

Sunday, September 1

11:30am

Anna Shechtman, The Riddles of the Sphinx: Inheriting the Feminist History of the Crossword Puzzle
Anna Shechtman’s compulsively readable memoir and history of the crossword puzzle is a “rigorous yet fleet-footed exploration of the crossword puzzle’s feminist legacy” (Publishers Weekly). One of the few women puzzle makers, Shechtman profiles the overlooked women central to the crossword’s creation and evolution, from the “Crossword Craze” of the 1920s to the role of digital technology today. As she tells the story of her own experience in the CrossWorld, she analyzes the roles assigned to women in American culture and the ways that they’ve used puzzles to negotiate the constraints under patriarchy. The Riddles of the Sphinx is an unforgettable and engrossing work of art, and a loving homage to one of our most treasured, entertaining, and ultimately political pastimes. Joining Anna in conversation will be Sam Huber, critic and editor of The Yale Review.

1:00pm

Stephen McCauley, You Only Call When You’re in Trouble
After a lifetime of taking care of his impossible but irresistible sister and his cherished niece, Tom is ready to put himself first. An architect specializing in tiny houses, he finally has an opportunity to build his masterpiece. That’s when his phone rings. His niece, Cecily, is embroiled in a Title IX investigation at the college where she teaches that threatens her career. And after decades of lying, his sister Dorothy wants him to help her tell Cecily the real identity of her father. Thus begins a journey that will change everyone’s life and demonstrate the beauty or dysfunction (or both?) of families. The novel is a showcase for Stephen McCauley’s distinctive voice and unique ability to create complex characters that jump off the page and straight into your heart. “Shot through with bright dialogue and smart observations,” says The Wall Street Journal.

2:30pm

Paul Muldoon, Joy in Service on Rue Tagore
Since his 1973 debut, New Weather, Paul Muldoon has created some of the most original and memorable poetry of the past half century. In Joy in Service on Rue Tagore he writes with the same verve and distinction that have won him the highest accolades. Here, from artichokes to zinc, Muldoon navigates an alphabet of image and history, through barleymen and Irish slavers to the last running wolf in Ulster. The journey involves the accumulated bric-a-brac of a life, and a reckoning along the way of gains against loss. Through modern medicine and warfare, disaster and repair, these poems are electric in their energy, while profoundly humane in their line of inquiry. McSweeney’s asks “Truly, is there any living poet with as skilled and rambunctious an ear as Paul Muldoon?”

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