A bookish weekend

I’m back from a long, lovely, bookish weekend with my husband, celebrating the completion of the fifth and final installment in our History Lives series. Early Friday, we made a beeline for the closest big university town—Ann Arbor, MI—where we browsed five bookstores (including our favorites, Dawn Treader and Shaman Drum), buying nine books between us; did some fountain-side reading at the U of M’s Matthaei Botanical Gardens; wandered in and out of diverse shops; and generally strolled and ate our way across town.

Because of the international nature of our series, it was appropriate to eat our official celebration dinner at an ethnic restaurant, and for that we chose The Blue Nile, locally famous for its authentic Ethiopian cuisine. It was perfect! We tried everything (yum), and our server, Annie, was friendly and attentive.

Saturday morning, after making our way through the farmer’s market, we checked out the sumptuous papers and bookbinding supplies at Hollanders. I may not be able to turn down this beginner bookbinding class—anyone want to sign up with me? And it was there that I learned about this year’s Kerrytown BookFest on September 7, with author presentations, writing awards, demonstrations, workshops, and more. You know I will be there!

Among the books I purchased were used copies of Rex Stout’s Fer-de-Lance and Might as Well be Dead (both Nero Wolfe books—the first of which I’ve already finished reading, and have determined I will now read the remaining 72 in the series; I own and love the A&E series based on these) and Debra Dean’s The Madonnas of Leningrad. I also bought new copies of Annie Dillard’s The Maytrees and Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Letters and Papers from Prison (I determined to read this after researching him more deeply for the final History Lives volume). I’ll be reporting on all of these once I catch up on all the other reviews I still owe you!

Everybody needs down time, and we sure did after those final sleepless writing weeks. And no better refreshment is to be found than walking, exploring, and reading! Hope you all enjoyed something book-related as well.

15. July 2008 by Mindy
Categories: My writing, Resources | 2 comments

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