Books

Last week I made another trip to the Savannah Book Festival. Part of me feels like it’s pretty silly that I’m such a devoted fan of this book festival when I have yet to show up at an Albany Book Festival. In fact, I just marked my calendar so that I remember to look into it for this year. But another part of me knows that it’s because it’s a particularly fabulous festival in wonderful venues centered around Telfair square with a big book tent and author signings and food trucks and don’t forget the fancy port-a-potties.

I told myself that this year I would not be a complete nerd and read a ga-jillion books to get prepared for the festival. I have so many books piled up that I want to read, and not too many of the books called out to me. But then, basically, I couldn’t restrain myself. I was hunting down books and sampling as the authors got announced — not all the books, of course, but the ones that seemed interesting. Then, as always, I had to rethink things when the actual Saturday festival schedule was announced. At any given moment, six or seven authors may be speaking simultaneously, and there are always heartbreaking clashes. For me, this year, I was bummed out to see that Sara Nović, author of True Biz, and David Ambroz, author of A Place Called Home. I had liked both of their books–a novel that taught me a lot about deaf culture and a devastating memoir of growing up impoverished and without a home, respectively. But then Nović had to cancel at the last minute, which was just as well, because after reading his heartbreaking memoir, I felt like I had to confirm that Ambroz was doing okay.

There are also always surprises, like when you go to an author you know nothing about and find that he’s funny or charming (Andrew Sean Greer) or that the wunderkind author is cheerfully self-deprecating (Chloe Gong) or when an author beats out a two-handed piano rhythm to explain how she finally figured out how to pace her complicated nonfiction story (Ilyon Woo).

So! I recommend it, again. I had aspirations to read up for an upcoming trip (you’ll hear about that soon), but between the book festival and my book club, I think the next book I start will be something entirely frivolous. With kissing. And then, after that, there are piles of books on my to-read pile.

But, if you are on the hunt for a new book and need some suggestions, I heard about this fabulous Literature Map site. Basically, you type in the name of an author that you really like, and it produced a whole bunch of other authors who write similar books. Here’s the map for one of my favorites, Kate Quinn:

What I especially like about this is that I recognize the names of some other authors I’ve enjoyed, like Kristin Hannah and Kathryn Stockett, and presumably the authors who appear between two authors you like, it’s a double-endorsement! Cool, right? It is fun to play around with, but I really haven’t tested the theory too much because I already have so many books lined up to read.