Book Talks 2024 -- J. Ryan Stradal

 The 2024 Fox Cities Book Festival was only a handful of days including the events centered around the Fox Cities Read book. Two authors were going to be at Gibson Hall for the main event. I decided that no matter what I was going to go see J. Ryan Stradel as I've read a couple of his books.

Gibson Hall is downtown Appleton. I've never been there as we are not really the live music type of people or bar people. They usually hold live music events. I was excited to cross Gibson Hall off my Fox Cities Experiences list. It was actually a nice intimate location for an author talk. There were tables for groups of people plus a few chairs for single people like me.

J. Ryan Stradal is from Minnesota and has written several books set in the Midwest including his latest Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club. He's also worked on several hit TV shows including The Bachelor/Bachelorette and Ice Road Truckers.

He talked about growing up in Minnesota but working at a supper club across the river in Wisconsin. He talked about how he got from the Midwest to California along with his break into reality TV. 

It was a very fun hour. He was very enjoyable to listen to. I could have listen to talk about his books and life for hours. He has such charisma. 

After he was done talking, he did sign books. Luckily, I was able to snag the last copy of Great Kitchens of the Midwest, his debut novel. I still haven't figured out how to talk to authors yet so I just had him sign my book.

Because I had other plans later, I was not able to stay for  Brendan Slocumb. I have not read him but I do have one of his book on my audio book hold list on Libby. 

Even though it was a much smaller book festival, I was glad to have such big names. Usually I have to live voraciously through friends and book Facebook groups with all their author visits. Hopefully I will have a chance to see a few more authors this year. 

Meeting Jennifer Chiaverini

 The Fox Cities Book Festival went the route of mainly local authors and a book fair versus more National authors with in person speaking events. I will be honest, I am not a fan of the new format. I want to hear authors speak about their books in a room and not just do meet and greets. 

They did offer a few author speaking events and one of them was Jennifer Chiaverini. Her latest book, Switchboard Soldiers, is on my to read list. As much as I wanted to see her speak, I was not a fan of the venue, The Brigade in Neenah mainly due to lack of parking. Thanks to the Book Festival letting us know where to park, I decided to go. It was free after all.

Jennifer Chiaverini lives in Madison and is originally from Pennsylvania. She told the story of how she met her husband, went from a really hard to pronounce German name to an even harder to pronounce Italian name, and moving to Wisconsin where we all would have been able to pronounce the German name.

Switchboard Soldiers is about the women that were recruited to be switchboard operators in Europe during WWI. She discovered this little, relatively unknown piece of history while researching another book and kept it in her back pocket. I love when authors get an idea when they go down a research rabbit hole.

The hour long conversation was filled with laughter as well. Jennifer is a great storyteller and she probably could have entertained us for hours but there was another author in the auditorium later in the day.

Afterwards, I waited in line to have her sign my copy of Switchboard Soldiers that I bought before going in to the presentation. I did it right as you had to buy the book first and then wait in line to have it signed. I could skip the first line and had to wait in the second line. This was especially important since there was not a lot of space upstairs for author signings and book selling.

I am glad I went. Hopefully in the future, the book festival will go back to author events at various locations throughout the Fox Valley so I can spend my Saturday author hopping. 

My 2017 Fox Cities Book Festival Adventure

Two years ago, I went to a few book festival events. Last year I don't think I attended any either because no one interested me, I had to work, or something else was planned. Well this year I am not sure what came over me but I actually picked several authors, read their books (or tried to), and actually went to events. Why? Good question. Probably because I actually wanted to and it was in October instead of April -- an easier month to do things like this in.

The Fox Cities Book Festival is a week long event that connects writers and readers. It has been going on for 10 years.. almost as long as I have been in the area. Over the course of the week, 50 authors appeared at 65 events at 13 different venues. This meant many events took place during the work day but they were always a couple events each night and plenty on the weekend. Many of authors had Wisconsin ties but not all of them. I only heard of one author -- Will Schwalbe who I heard a two years ago.

Right after vacation, I scoured the website to find what authors I wanted to see and what books I wanted to read.  I made a list of 11 books I wanted to read before the book festival. Some of them I had difficulties finding. I ended up reading six of them and two I thought I reserved but user error must have never saved them properly.

Once it got closer to the festival, I had to decide who I wanted to see and when. With many choices to choose from, I initially decided on 6 different authors and even rearranged my work schedule to go to one. Well, even with my planning I ended up hearing 8 different authors, 2 of which were not on my original list but Facebook events put them on my radar. Out of those 8, I actually saw 2 of them more than once.. more about that later. There were also 8 other events that piqued my interest but were either during the day or conflicted with another library event I wanted to attended. So for me it was 7 days, 8 authors, 10 events, 4 different venues.

Monday -- Wisconsin Supper Clubs by Ron Faiola

Danielle said she was interested in hearing this one and it sounded interesting enough that I decided to go. Menasha Library even provided snacks with the supper club theme -- cheese and crackers.

I was kind of hoping this was going to be more about the different supper clubs around the state but it was more of an introduction to supper club and the history of supper clubs. I suppose I have to read the book to actually learn about these supper clubs. The history part was interesting... the pictures were cool. I was kind of disappointed but I did find out that the supper club with the best pizza (and not just bar pizza) was in Almond. That is always good to know.

Tuesday and Wednesday -- City of Dreams: Dodger Stadium and the Birth of Modern Los Angeles by Jerald Podair

When I told the hubby I which author I was going to see and what his book was about, he was like buy the book. This is the book I tried to get through the Book Festival Scavenger Hunt and missed out so buying the book wasn't a problem... until they didn't take credit cards. The hubby joined me on Wednesday (with cash in hand) to hear him speak again and get an autographed copy of the book.

Being a baseball fan, initially I was intrigued by the title of this book. This is one of the books I never got to read before hand. When Jerald Podair read a section of the book about how the city of Los Angeles literally took the land away from the residents of Chevez Ravine and the political drama that ensued, I was intrigued but worried the hubby won't like the book because it wasn't all about baseball.

The hubby was truly intrigued by the history of behind getting the Dodgers to LA and the political drama. He believes the sub-title of the book isn't really what the book is going to be about. He truly thinks the book is baseball book even though the author says it's not. I doubt that the hubby will even read it but time will only tell.

Jerald Podair talked about the "So What?" factor of a non-fiction book and having a story within a story. If you tell him you are going to write about the Dodgers moving to LA, he will ask you "So What?" -- as in The Dodgers moved to LA. So What? It's been done and what's the point. That's where the story within a story comes in. The Dodgers moved to LA and people got kicked out of their homes to build the stadium, okay now you're getting somewhere. The hubby and I talked about the So What factor afterwards in regards to sports books and even his own stories. I think Jerald Podair hit the nail on the head with having a story within a story -- it gives the book or even the movie another dimension and makes it enjoyable... otherwise it's going to be like Black Hawk Down... 2 hours of pure shooting.

The hubby apologized that I had to sit through the presentation twice. Yeah, the presentation itself was the same but the questions were different. In this way, I liked going to hear the same author twice because it allowed me to learn more of the story, his story, and even other people's stories. Besides the librarian at Neenah felt bad that I didn't find the scavenger hunt book, gave me the free tote bag.. SCORE!

Thursday -- Roll by Darcy Miller (Pigeons and Publishing)
I have several guilty pleasures one of them includes reading middle grade and young adult novels. It is a nice break from the heavier adult reads and quick beach reads. Most of them are quick reads but usually have much more substantial plot line that a fun beach read. Roll is one of those books. It's a middle grade book that deals with a variety of issues -- friendship, disappointing your parents...

I didn't care that this was on the same night of book club.. I would just go to book club late. I really wanted to hear this author. She talked about her seven year journey of getting published and the pains and joys along the way. Yeah I knew the basics of getting a book published but I never knew what exactly a copy editor did or the purpose of a advance reader copy. Her message was don't give up.

Besides a lesson in book publishing, we also got a lesson in pigeon rolling. Yes pigeons do roll or somersault -- not all but certain species like the Birmingham Rollers. Since I am not one to crane my neck up at the sky while driving through Wisconsin, I never saw a pigeon roll. Thanks to a YouTube video, I now understand how pigeons roll.

We even got to meet some roller pigeons -- ones that are more of pets than actual competitors.

I felt horrible but I ditched out early. As much as I wanted to stay, I stayed as long as I could and still get to book club for a reason amount of time. If I was able to stay, I might have purchased her book (if I remembered cash). I know I will look for more books by Darcy Miller in the future.

Friday -- Sit, Stay, Heal by Mel Miskimen

I believe this is the first of all the book festival authors I read. After reading the book, I knew I had to go see Mel speak. I rearranged my work schedule to get out early to hear her speak at 2 in the afternoon. O.M.G. I am so glad I did. H.I.L.A.R.I.O.U.S.

All she did was read three segments of her book that pretty much summed her, her dad, her mom, and her grief of her mom dying. She is a great orator using different voices and facial expressions that you could actually picture her dad and mom.

This session was way too short. I would have listened to her for hours. I have already put her other book on my to read and really, really hope her current book gets published because it sounds hilarious.

Sometimes being a great speaker is as important as being a good writer. Being able to tell the story on paper is great but can you convey the same message and voice when you read it aloud. Mel was able to do this and so much more.

Saturday -- The Wood by Chelsea Bobulski

This was the other book that fed by Middle Grade/Young Adult novel addiction. It was not of the usual genre that I like -- it was fantasy and besides Harry Potter and a few others I am not really into the whole fantasy genre. However, there was enough reality mixed in that I could relate to the book. It is very Harry Potteresque where teenagers have to save their world from evil but also deals with every day teenage drama -- boys, school, after school jobs.

Chelsea talked about her own journey of getting published and how this book started out as a free writing piece that evolved into a novel that could only be wrote in chunks. And how it took several books before she was able to get one published. She talked about her journey as a writer and how she evolved as a writer through the journey.

This would have been another book I would liked to have gotten a signed copy but due to some miscommunication no books were available. I do have a very cool autographed bookmark... even if it is signed by a Buckeye fan.

Saturday -- Thousand-Miler: Adventures in Hiking the Ice Age Trail

When deciding what books to read this year, this one stood out for a number of reasons -- I liked to hike, hiking the Ice Age Trail is on the bucket list, and I actually know what the Ice Age Trail is. I loved this book and it actually makes me want to go out and hike more portions of the Ice Age Trail besides the minuscule part of the trail in Devil's Lake. I don't think I will ever be able to say I sectioned hiked the whole Ice Age Trail but I'd love to hike a couple of sections of the whole trail.

This is the first and only presentation that I went to that the author went over the hour and would have kept going if she wasn't cut off. Again another great speaker, her stories of the trail and the people she met were amazing.

Sunday -- Stories From Alaska by James M. Campbell

This was another author that I really wanted to hear speak because a. I love the outdoors b. I love Alaska c. I wanted hear more about his adventures in Alaska.

Despite having to miss the (dismal) Packer game, I headed to the library for yet another author talk. Honestly if it wasn't for this particular author, I probably would have stayed home and watched the game. I was over driving to libraries just to hear an author. I wasn't sick of hearing them talk... just the fact I had to get in my car and drive, park, and drive home.

I'm glad I went. James Campbell basically summed up his three adventures in the Alaskan wilderness with his 15 old daughter in 45 minutes. I loved the book and the way he spoke of it made it so much better. Again the questions added to the whole experience. I just wished I asked if Mt. Colleen ever got named or if it died in Congress.

When he started talking he mentioned another book about the Alaska Wilderness so I went to add it to Goodreads and discovered that he also wrote a WWII book that my dad read and has been sitting in my to read pile for a few years.. okay I got as far as page 10 in it and stopped. So I went home and after I went to Menasha, I decided I would go to Neenah and have him sign the book for my dad. So that's how I ended up hearing him twice in a matter of hours.. caught the tail end of his presentation in Neenah.. and he remembered me from Appleton.

Sunday -- Ginny Moon by Benjamin Ludwig

Last stop on my book festival adventure and the only reason I went was so I could go to Neenah to get dad's book signed. I figured if I was going out I might as well stop and listen to this author that kind of piqued my interested even though I didn't get a chance to read the book. I read Junnie's Marie and not Ginny Moon. I may have gotten the titles mixed up when I went to reserve the book or Facebook got me interested more than I thought.

Anyway I went and again I learned more about the writing process and the voice of a character. Benjamin Ludwig wanted to give a voice to someone who couldn't or didn't want to speak up through this book. He said Ginny spoke to him throughout the writing process but only her character. He still had to write the other characters from an outline.

What he read was good and it is on my to read list. I am not totally sold on the whole hearing voices thing but when you have a creative mind I guess it makes sense. If I knew it was about the writing process, I may have skipped out. I don't plan on publishing a book anytime soon, even if it's on the bucket list, and the whole writing process doesn't interest me. Maybe that's why I like those non-fiction books -- they have a story to tell and want to share that story and not bore me with the publishing details.

Now that I have had a good dose of Book Festival and authors, I am good for awhile. I am looking forward to next year and what authors can I connect with... what new books can I discover... what lessons and history can I learn. Maybe in the future I will ask questions or even volunteer... until then I'm good sitting in the back listening to the authors' stories even though publishing tales.

Fox Cities Book Festival -- Part 3

This afternoon, I took an hour of PTO and went to check out one last author at the Fox Cities Book Festival. Will Schwalbe, the author of End of My Life Book Club, was going to be at the Neenah Library at 3:30. If realized this earlier in the week, I could have flexed my schedule and won't have had to take PTO but such is life.

Let me start of saying how much I love Neenah Library. I had free 2 hour parking on the street and they had cookies and beverages. Nothing fancy, just Oreos and water and hot water for coffee and tea. This is first event that I saw refreshments. And they have band-aids so when you cut your finger on the book drop or the door, you don't have to leak blood everywhere.

Will was another fantastic speaker. He talked about his mom, books, and life. It was mostly about his mom and antidotes about her like how her dying wish was to build a library in Kabul, Afghanistan.

His message was simple. A book should make you want to do something when you finish reading it. That something doesn't have to big or flashy but the book should motivate you in some form. It might be taking the time to learn more about the topic you just read, not skipping over an article on Afghanistan or some other unknown place, or talking about the book. Your motivation could be bigger like writing your Congress person or donating time/money to the cause in the book. I have to agree. Books, even those summer beach reads, are more than just words on a page. They make you think, hope, dream, and pray. Books can take you places. They can help you discover new places, new ideas, new things about yourself.

Will's other message was just as simple as the first. Books are great conversation starters. "What are you reading?" can be a way to connect to people and maybe find something new to read. Maybe you have a relative/friend/co-worker you don't talk to much because you don't have much to say but if you ask them what they are reading, you may be surprised how the conversation will flow from there. I'm pretty sure this won't work on all people because the hubby is not a reader. If I asked him that question, the response I'd get would be the sports page or some rule book. However, the sports page can be a good topic of conversation and just maybe it might get him to read a sports book. Doubtful but I can try.

So my friends, what are you reading?

Fox Cities Book Festival -- Part 2

While paging through the book festival flyer, looking at upcoming events, I spotted a cooking demonstration.. Free Food. New tastes. Down the road. At at time I could go. Free Parking. What's not to like? I texted my friend asking if she wanted to join me. She did but ended up cancelling at the last minute for the fear of little boys trying to become superman... So I went to check out Shana Corandt's Cooking Demonstration myself.

When I walked into the Thrivent Lobby at UW-Fox Valley, my first reaction was "I feel like I'm on a cruise". If you ever went to one of the chef demos on a cruise ship, you know what I'm talking about. The chairs set up in a public area. The banquet tables covered with white table clothes. Older ladies standing around waiting for it to start.

Private Chef Shana and her partner, Liz, are featured on Fox 11's Grilling With the Girls (when it's actually warm enough to grill) and have their own business, Make Me Hot Meals. Since it is Earth Day, they talked a little about sustainable food sources before touching on nutrition. She showed us a Ritz Cracker box and a Brenton Cracker box and asked which one we thought was healthier. The Brenton box had veggies on it, we figured it was "healthier" and when she read the first 3 ingredients it was pretty much the same thing as Ritz..processed flour and other not so healthy stuff. Then Shana held up Organic Shredded Wheat Crackers and Triscuits. The first three ingredients on both were whole wheat flour, salt, and soybean/sunflower oil. My beloved Triscuits had real ingredients and were pretty healthy for you. I guess I will keep eating them at work

After our cracker talk, Shana and Liz started the cooking demonstration portion of the afternoon. They made for us grass-fed beef sliders on spring mix. The beef came from Jacobs Meat Market in Appleton and we were instructed to go there even if it was just for the conversation. The spring mix and pea shoots came from the Free Market in Appleton. All organic healthy stuff I normally don't eat. All the spices came from Penzey's. I love Penzeys. On top of the sliders, was spicy ketchup made with ketchup and chili garlic paste. Then it was topped with pea shoots.

Amazing little snack. I'm not sure the hubby would go for the Chili Garlic Paste but I liked it even though it left my lips burning the entire drive home. Pea shoots were something I never tried and are absolutely amazing little greens. I could gobble those little buggers up all day. I may have to go get me some this summer.

It is amazing to see the different kinds of events the book Festival puts on. There is something for everyone and this one proves that you don't have to be a reader to enjoy the Festival. If you like to cook this one would be the one for you.

Oh and Jay Busch from Busch's Baked beans lives in Appleton.

#6333 Read a Fox Cities Read Book

Every year as part of the Fox Cities Book Festival, there is a book chosen for Fox Cities Read. Fox Cities Read is a program where "the public libraries of the Fox Cities have come together with the goal of building a larger sense of community and to promote literacy"-- Fox Cities Reads website.

This year the book chosen was Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline. The ladies at the cookbook club were talking about it one night saying it wasn't as depressing as it sounds. I decided to reserve it for my Nook. It was a phenomenal book. The basis of the historical fiction book was to shed light on orphan trains that took orphaned, abandoned, and homeless children off the streets of New York and other Eastern cities and transported them to new families in the Middle West, usually as indentured servants. However, the book wasn't entirely devoted to Vivian, an orphan train rider. It was also about Molly, a teenager that was coming to age in the Foster Care system. Molly is volunteered to help Vivian clean out her attic as part of a community service sentence. During the time they spend together, Molly learns about Vivian past and in turn Vivian helps Molly through some difficult times.

Before reading the book, I did not know such a travesty occurred in our history...just another piece of history that would rather have been forgotten by the masses. I was quite interested in learning more about Orphan Trains and why Christina decided to write about an Orphan Train rider. 

Because Orphan Train was the Fox Cities Reads book, Christina made several appearances at the Festival including a meet and greet cocktail reception at the Appleton Public Library. I was lucky enough to find one that wasn't during the day or conflicted with Jessie Garcia. Tonight, I went to the History Museum at the Castle to hear Christina's final presentation. It was standing room only. I got there about 6:10 for the 6:30 presentation and there were only a few seats left. I did offer my chair to one older woman, who declined and stood the entire time. At least I offered.

My burning question "Why did you decide to write about an orphan train rider" was answered within the first 5 minutes. It turned out that during a blizzard while visiting her in-laws over Christmas in Fargo, ND, her mother-in-law pulled a dusty book off a shelf to try to entertain her grandson when she discovered an article written about orphan trains in Jamestown, ND. (The book was a publication celebrating the town's 100 year anniversary or something.) Her mother-in-law turned the page in that book and discovered her father and his siblings were train riders. No one every talked about it. After extensive research, Christina found this to be common, as the children were instructed to forget about their old lives.

What surprised me was the number of people int eh room that knew an orphan train rider. Like I said before reading this book, I never heard of orphan trains, yet at least 5 people in the room crossed paths with an orphan train rider or a relative of an orphan train rider. Okay so most of those people were much older than I am. 

Other surprising tidbits about how Orphan Train Riders were hiding in plain site throughout children's classics:

- An orphan train rider was mention in the Little House on the Prairie Books. She didn't say which one but now I must reread them to figure this out.

-- One of the American Girl book girls' best friend was an orphan train rider. Again not sure which one but based on the time frame of the Orphan Trains (1850s-1920s), it could be Kristen.

--There was a whole children's book series devoted to orphan train riders probably in the 1960s-1970s judging on the lady who mentioned it age.

Thank you Christina for opening my eyes to Orphan Trains and writing such a great book. 

#3756 Go to the Fox Cities Book Festival

For the last 8 years, the libraries of the Fox Cities have held a book festival aptly named Fox Cities Book Festivals. It is a seven day Literary Bonanza that includes many author visits over various genres, workshops, and children's activities. I love to read and to hear an author speak is always interesting.

Last year was the first year, I went to the book festival. I wanted to in the past years but never made the time. Debbie Macomber, one of my favorite authors, was speaking at UW-Fox Valley to close out the festival. Yarn Teacher and I went and it was a full house. We were lucky to get a seat in the front row of the auditorium. Some people sat on the stage and some were even turned away. It was a great experience. After Debbie was done speaking, like all of the festival authors, she signed her books. Now my autograph copy of her Cedar Cove Cookbook sits in my kitchen.

This year there are a few authors, I wanted to hear speak. Like years past, many of them were scheduled during the day when I'm at work all day. One of the authors, Jessie Garcia, was speaking at 7:30 at the Appleton Library on tonight. Since the hubby was supposed to be at far games this week, I figured I'd go to this event. Plans changed and the hubby's game was cancelled but that didn't affect me going. He actually dropped me off so I didn't have to pay for parking.

I grew up watching Jessie Garcia grow into her role as a sportscaster for TMJ4 in Milwaukee and was excited to hear her speak. I did not get a chance to read her book, My Life with the Green & Gold: Tales from 20 years of Sportscasting. I figured that didn't matter; she would still be interesting to hear speak. She did not disappoint. Jessie talked about getting into sportscasting as woman in the early '90s, some of her experiences as a sportscaster, and showed us some behind the scene clips of a day in the life of (inset Packer/Badger/Brewer Coach). If the library wasn't closing, she probably would have talked all night as she was a very interesting speaker and had many stories to tell.

I also plan on going to events on Tuesday and Wednesday nights and Friday afternoon. Look for me book Festival fun in the coming days.