nomadreader

I love living in Des Moines, but one of the things I miss most about Atlanta is the literary community. I absolutely adore the bookternet and the connections with readers and writers I've made through this blog, Twitter, Instagram, and Litsy, but I do miss that in-person bookish community. Authors don't come to Des Moines on book tours (some go to Iowa City, home of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, but that's two hours away.) We do have an excellent public library, and they sponsor an annual series of events called AViD: Authors Visiting in Des Moines . There's usually one or two authors I'm interested in seeing, and it's wonderful. This week, the 2019 line-up was announced, and it's a great one. It's also the first year of the DSM Book Festival , which is really exciting. Without leaving Des Moines, these are the authors I plan to see this spring (in chronological order): Nnedi Okorafor and Susan Orlean , Saturday March 30  I r eviewed The Library ...

Loving the Des Moines Life is a periodic series highlighting the things, bookish and non-bookish, I most love about living in Des Moines. Last night marked the beginning of Des Moines Public Library's 2013 AViD (Authors Visiting in Des Moines) series . The series is a big deal in the city of Des Moines because we are never a stop on a book tour unless the author lives here or grew up here (hello, Bill Bryson and John Shors!) Many authors stop in Iowa City, which is two hours from and rarely a round trip drive I want to make after work. I did a terrible job of attending AViD events last year, but this year I committed to attend all six to support the literary community in town. It was extra fun to have my friend Jessica, who blogs about fitness at Miss FitGab , join me. First up: Cheryl Strayed! I adored Wild  when I read it last summer ( my review ) and have been meaning to read her novel Torch,  which was written before Wild, and her collection of wisdom Ti...