jeffrey toobin and erica jong

Jeffrey Toobin and Erica Jong

You're probably thinking, now there's an odd pairing! What do Jeffrey

Toobin and Erica Jong have in common? Well, they were my favorite part

of the Book Fair!

Toobin was promoting his newest book The Nine: Inside the Secret World

of the Supreme Court. Of course I had seen him on TV and heard him on

NPR numerous times, but he was always in *serious mode*. At the fair,

his presentation was in the form of a conversation between him and my

favorite local broadcaster, Michael Putney, and Toobin was relaxed and

funny as hell. I mean the man made a conversation about The Supreme

Court - not a body known for its hilarity - a hoot! I'm actually

considering adding the book to my Christmas list - that's how

entertaining he made it sound.

Erica Jong, on the other hand, I had seen at the Book Fair before -

years ago. She was fabulous today, at 65, promoting her memoir

Seducing the Demon: Writing for My Life. She talked about she had

wanted to be a writer ever since she was little girl and would kiss

the pictures of writers on book jackets. She's wonderfully candid,

charming and funny. She also talked about being in the process of

writing a sequel to her classic Fear of Flying, where Isadora will be

in her 60s and dealing with aging in general and specifically

sexuality and aging, the loss of parents to death or dementia,

declining health, etc.

There were other lesser known authors that I saw and who have caused

me to add yet more books to be

never-ending-I'll-have-to-live-to-be-100-to read-them-all book list.

I also attempted to listen to Ralph Nader, but, I don't know if it was

because it was late in the day and I was tired and had to get home to

change for an evening out with friends, or if he really is such a bad,

rambling speaker - but I lost my patience with him and left within the

first 15 minutes of his presentation. I like the guy, i really do, but

he makes me anxious.

So, another Book Fair is over. It was wonderful, we were blessed by

beautiful weather and I had, a s always a phenomenal time. C-Span 2

will be airing several of the presentations for a while, so maybe you

can catch one. Next year will be the 25th anniversary of the Fair - I

can't wait to see what they have planned.