Book Talks

Last weekend brought to town a multitude of authors for the 2007 Wisconsin Book Festival - and some who were already here. I also snatched up some bargains at the Friends of the UW Library and the Friends of the Monona Public Library book sales [the controversial The Origins of The Second World War by A.J.P. Taylor, the aforementioned History and Hope - Collected Essays by CV Wedgwood, Blood Done Sign My Name: A True Story by Timothy B. Tyson and Felix in the Underworld by John Mortimer - one of my favorites and author the Rumpole books The First Rumpole Omnibus (Rumpole)] .

On Friday evening I attended Voices from a Changing Africa: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Zakes Mda.

Each author gave readings from their most recent books. Zakes Mda is a native of South Africa who teaches creative writing at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio and read from Cion: A Novel . The reading centered on a the story of a town in SE Ohio that was established by runaway slaves, Native Americans, and immigrant Irish.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie read about a young Nigerian entering the employ of a white man on the cusp of the Biafran War (1967-1970) from Half of a Yellow Sun.



On Saturday I caught the talk by UW professor (and long-time friend) Jim Baughman on his excellent book, Same Time, Same Station: Creating American Television, 1948--1961 on the early days of television.



I also attended the speech given by Christopher Hitchens at the Freedom From Religion Foundation, Inc. convention. It was vintage Hitchens in that he made some very smart arguments, some very unfair characterizations, and intentionally 'pissed off' (his phrase) the audience by launching into a hateful tirade about the Bush's Iraq War and why he wants to obliterate Iran. I sort of knew what to expect and found it mostly entertaining in a train wreck kind of way, but there were a bunch of gobsmacked atheists in the crowd!

Finally, at the invite of fellow Monona Alder Bob Miller on Wednesday I attended The Ralph O. & Monona H. Nafziger Lecture "Iraq’s Elusive Peace: A Reporter’s View from Inside the Green Zone" presented by Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Washington Post National Editor and award-winning author of Imperial Life in the Emerald City. The event is sponsored by the UW J-School. Alder Miller is on the school's Board of Visitors and in 2007 was awarded The Distinguished Service to Journalism Award (See, Robert Miller). And yes, the woman's name really was "Monona" - in fact here's a link to her obit madison.com.

From the UW web site:

"Rajiv Chandrasekaran is the National Editor of The Washington Post and the author of Imperial Life in the Emerald City, a best-selling account of the bungled American effort to reconstruct Iraq. The book, which provides a firsthand view of life inside Baghdad’s Green Zone, won the Overseas Press Club book award, the Ron Ridenhour Prize and Britain’s Samuel Johnson Prize. It also was a finalist for the National Book Award."