Los
Angeles Times Festival of Books
April 23, 2005, UCLA Campus
A perfect day! Well, what day wouldn’t
be perfect if you are surrounded by acres and acres of books and
having the chance to talk to, listen to or at least catch glimpses
of favorite authors. Add to that good friends and nice weather – what
more could you ask for?
At 9:30AM Judy and I met Liz outside of the first
panel of the day – no surprise if you’ve ever had to
stand in line with Liz – she was first in line. :-) Robin
was at a SciFi panel. The auditorium soon was filled with
women of all ages.
“Scheherazade's Daughters: Women in the Middle
East”
Moderator: Amanda Roraback, She’s
written a number of “nutshell books” on the Middle East – ie. “Iraq
in a nutshell”, Islam in a Nutshell” etc. The
panel guests were:
Afschineh Latifi, a
NYC attorney and author of the memoir, “Even
After All This Time : A Story of Love, Revolution, and Leaving Iran”
Afschineh was 10 and her sister 11 in May 1979, when
their father, a military officer under the Shah, was executed by
Khomeini's soldiers. This is the story of her mother’s strength
and courage as she sent Afschineh and her sister to Austria and finally
to Virginia to escape the Khomeini regime and of the girls struggle
to survive on their own and to grant one of her father’s
final wishes - that his children, especially his daughters (she
also has 2 brothers) would get an education.
Azadeh Moaveni, Times
reporter and author of “Lipstick
Jihad: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America and American
in Iran”.
In contrast to Latifi’s book – this is
the story of an American-Iranian returning to Iran.
Amazon.com: Time reporter Moaveni, the American-born
child of Iranian exiles, spent two years (2000–2001) working
in Tehran. Although she reports on the overall tumult and repression
felt by Iranians between the 1999 pro-democracy student demonstrations
and the 2002 "Axis of Evil" declaration, the book's dominant
story is more intimate. Moaveni was on a personal search "to
figure out my relationship" to Iran. Neither her adolescent
ethnic identity conundrums nor her idyllic memories of a childhood
visit prepared her for the realities she confronted as she navigated
Iran, learning its rules, restrictions and taboos—and how to
evade and even exploit them like a local. <Also read the
reader’s review by Dennis Littrell .>
Asne Seierstad, Norwegian
journalist and author of A
Hundred and One Days: A Baghdad Journal and The
Bookseller of Kabul.
Baghdad Journal is about her experiences
before, during and immediately after the invasion and fall of Iran. The
Bookseller is her account of her time spent living with a middle-class
Afghan family
Excerpts from Amazon Reader Gretchen Coppedge
(Dubai, United Arab Emirates): ...I would still recommend
The Bookseller of Kabul, Asne Seierstad's simple and well written
account of one family in Afghanistan. Seierstad writes as an observer,
a journalist, about a man and his relationship to the members
of his family, their relationships with each other, and the
family's relationship to the time and society in which they
live. The author reports her observations; and her portrayal
of Sultan Khan and his family allows the reader to react, judge,
mourn, and celebrate on their own terms. She does, as well,
share with the reader her own frustrations and anger with the
Khans, but never without an underlying appreciation for them
and the offer of their hospitality.
...I often despised Sultan Khan. I wept for Leila. I felt sadness
for his sons. I was able to weep and to feel anger thanks to Seirestad's
writing. She allowed me to form my own opinion. She offers an intimate
look into the lives of one family, and like what we see or not,
she provides the reader with an opportunity that should not be
missed.
It was an interesting and eye-opening panel of three
women with very different personal experiences of the state of
women in Iran, Afghanistan and Iraq. American’s tend to lump
all the countries and the conditions of the Middle East as one in
the same and from what they see in CNN’s Headline news. It
is really too much to re-tell in the hour long discussion. A
couple of impressions – Afghanistan is much more repressed
and the culture or rather their traditional family and treatment
of women much less westernized (for lack of a better term) than Iran. It
will be difficult to bring about changes in Afghanistan as the culture
is so ingrained in the patriarchal society and in the women themselves. In
contrast it is not unusual for present day Iranian woman to get
an education and work in professional jobs. One interesting audience
question was on the recent Iranian Nobel Prize winner Shirin Ebadi.
Moaveni commented that Ebadi is able to make strides by demonstrating
to the Iranian women how to make changes within the boundaries
of the Islamic faith.
Books, Books, and more Books!
After the panel we went to meet up
with Robin and to buy! books and get autographs from the panelists. I
bought Latifi’s book but now I’m kicking myself that
I didn’t
pick up Moeveni’s also.
Unfortunately, this is when Judy discovered she didn’t
have her wallet. She didn’t know if she left it at home
or if she lost it. So of course this was on her mind the entire
day, as it would be for any of us. On the drive home, her daughter
called and said her wallet was at home. Whew. :-)
By this time it was nearly noon and
Judy went off for a Poetry Reading panel and Liz and I waited for
Robin as he stood in line for a book to be signed. Unlike Judy,
Liz and I really are not into poetry. Liz
said "Unless of course it's
a limerick.", to which I remarked... “So unless a poem
begins with “There
was a...” it’s not worth listening to?”
As we waited, we wandered
around a few of the booths. Liz’s eyes and wallet flew
open when she spotted a used cookbook booth. As we continued,
we decided to play the rest of the day by ear. Although Liz
and Robin had stood in a Ticktron line for 1.5 hrs for
free tickets to various panels, we decided that if we made it to
the other panels great, if not, no matter. Needless
to say, we didn’t make it to any of the other panels. Which
made it a relaxing, no pressure day of not having to be anywhere
at a particular time.
The three of us hiked up the steps (I thought I had
a picture of them) to even more booths. WOW. As far as
you can see books, booths, books and about an equal amount of people
as books. I didn’t know so many people in LA read! It
was also nice to see a number of kids of all ages and ethnicities – girls
and boys with bags of books and freebies in their arms. The
three of us had different interests that would stop us in our tracks
- Liz was drawn to cookbook and travel books, me to mystery
book booths and Robin to SciFi, games and toys. However, we
all came to the conclusion that unless the book is old or to be autographed
we weren’t going to buy any new books. It wasn’t
worth carrying around all day. If you’ve never been to
the UCLA campus – it is a very hilly campus. You’ve
got to be in good shape if you have to run across campus to make
it to classes quickly. :-)
Many booths had 2-6 authors signing. The longest
lines we saw were block long lines for Ray Bradbury and at my local
bookstore’s (Mysterious Galaxy) booth – for Eoin Colfer,
the author of the Artemis Fowl books. But most were not long
at all, even at the official autograph booths.
All this walking we were ready to eat. But
the crowds around the eating areas were a bit much so we decided
to go back down the steps to a taco stand that we knew wasn’t
as crowded. As we made it down we spotted Judy resting on the
grassy hill – I know she was contemplating rolling down it
with the other kids... ;-)
Two Hot Tamales!
By the time we finished lunch it
was about 1:45. We
were unsure of what to do next. It was then I remembered
a 2 P.M. talk I wanted to go to at the outdoor Cooking Stage – The
Two Hot Tamales – Mary
Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger. They had one of the first
Food Network cooking shows and they own The Border Grill and Ciudad
Restaurants in LA & Las Vegas. The
cooking stage was just adjacent to where we were - so
off we went.
Oh, my gosh. I don’t
think we laughed or enjoyed ourselves more that day. Well,
at least I did. Their
topic was “The Hot Tamales’ Top
10 Ways to Improve Your Cooking”. The
banter and tips were non-stop and 10 minutes and 30 tips later,
they still hadn’t given us the first official tip! They’ve
been business and cooking partners for over 20 years – and
more often than not they finished each other’s sentences. It
was a wonder to see them work as a team. In fact they said
they didn’t know if they would make it to the festival. They
were busy preparing (and nervous and excited) to go on “Iron
Chef, America” vs. Bobby Flay in a few days. I can’t
wait and I hope to see them beat Flay! Their enthusiasm,
humor, and friendship was even more evident than I remember from
their Food Network show. They stressed – no stress
cooking. Just
have fun. And watching them was very fun. Oh, their
10 tips – I can remember 6 of them. There were so many
so fast, I sometimes missed which was a main tip! Hopefully,
the other three can fill in the blanks.
- Begin with a fresh mixed drink. It wasn’t clear if
it’s start cooking or start a meal with a drink. They
made Watermelon lemonaide (w/ or w/out alcohol).
- Start with an easy appetizer – dips.
- Use of marinades
- How to make fresh salads and dressings
- Eat Vegetables – quick sauté of
mixed greens.
- Easy chocolate dessert.
For an example of just a few of their
tips, here’s a
portion that I found on the web: 10commandments.pdf
So of course afterwards we went to go buy one of
their books and autographs. Well, I bought two. One for
me and one for my sister’s Mother’s day gift. Kathy
unfortunately was unable to come with us. Next year for sure...
Xena Kodak Moments!
After meeting them, we were thinking
what to do next... did we want to see anything else, was there another
Kodak Xena moment we should get? Yeah, she came along with
us. I don’t
know who’s idea it was, but someone said “How about
a pic with the Hot Tamales? Of course, me with the less nerve
was balking. But Robin said... look their line is almost
empty... and so Liz and Judy dragged me over there and said, don’t
worry you hold the camera, we’ll do the talking. Now,
I was really afraid! Mary Sue (the blonde) even though she
didn’t
quite understand right away, agreed quickly. Susan looked
up from signing a book and said “Xena!. My girlfriend
is a big fan”. Judy & Liz explained it was a tradition
sort of like “Flat Stanley”. Susan understood
immediately, explaining that her nephew sent her a "Flat Daniel"
(his name, if I remember correctly). It’s
a great picture! Susan made us promise to send her a copy. Which
I will do.
Afterwards, we took a walk down to
an area we hadn’t
visited and spotted a large Bruin statue. A Xena moment! As
we walked over, I was wondering how I would be able to take the
picture with all the people sitting about it. Robin said “Look!” Lo
and behold, there was an older woman placing a stuffed animal at
the paws of the large bear and taking it’s picture. Of
course Liz says to her – “It’s a Wisconsin Badger!” The
rest of us thought it was just a teddy bear. The woman explained
that her grandson was going to Wisconsin and that the badger had
been all over the states getting his picture taken. We explained
we were doing the same thing as Liz pulled out Xena from my backpack. The
woman insisted we needed to take a picture of Badger and “Tina”. :-). What
a crack up. Sidenote: Xena is off to Hawaii with Liz and
Robin in May/June. She should be back in time for a Southwest road
trip I’m
planning.
Robin said he wanted to pick up a
free autographed Canadian cookbook for a friend (we had picked up
copies for ourselves earlier in the day) – but they weren’t
going to be available again until 4:30. So instead of walking more,
braving the crowds and more sensory overload, we decided to pickup
something to drink and sit and relax as we waited for 4:30 to roll
around. Sidenote: Film
Critic Leonard Maltin was sitting at the next table. When
we kept an eye out, we spotted a few celebrities. Though there
was a lot of "They are someone, where have I seen them before?" Robin
got his book and we called it a great day! I
can’t
wait for next year - I've already entered April 29-30, 2006 on my PDA.
LA Times article: Reading
Between the Lines
