RECAP TUCSON BOOK FESTIVAL

Where Words And Imagination Come To Life

The Tucson Festival of Books Foundation is a non-profit organization. It made its debut March 14-15, 2009, on the campus of The University of Arizona. It's more than a book festival as Tucson celebrates books and literacy at one of the largest book festivals in the U.S. There was quite a crowd this year, even more than last year. It's like being at the Minnesota State Fair. I read over 140,000 attended. 

Navigating the festival requires some stamina as presentations are spread over the campus in classrooms, ballrooms and outside in tents. In my estimation, it's a requirement to have Plan A and Plan B in place in case you don't get into your preferred session. I easily walked 5 miles each day. 

This two-day event in its 24 the year, featured over 350 authors participating in some 300 presentations with countless opportunities to meet authors, poets, screenwriters, and journalists. There were book signings, panel discussions, staged entertainment, food vendors with lots of choices,
culinary demonstrations, children's and Science City programming

and dozens of free activities for all ages on the University of Arizona Mall. All genres in both fiction and nonfiction, adult and children, were represented. 

Hands down, it's my favorite March activity here in Arizona. I used some restraint but did spring for a few new books. 

Along the way, I did some catching up with a few Western authors whose books I have reviewed in the past. 

Author Manuela Schneider

Cody was once a rodeo legend, but one devastating day in Cheyenne shatters everything—his career, his best friend’s trust, and the life he’s worked so hard to build. A bitter divorce and the sting of betrayal leaves deeper wounds than his physical injuries ever could. Lost in a haze of whiskey and regret, Cody watches his parents’ ranch slip away, taking his hope for the future with it. But when an old friend offers a lifeline—a job on a remote Montana ranch—Cody takes the chance to rebuild. Just as life starts to mend his broken spirit, danger follows him to this quiet refuge as two relentless killers target the very people who’ve welcomed him in—adding a new layer of peril to his already fragile path to redemption.

Author Jane Botkin

For fans of Little Miss Sunshine and Secrets of Miss America, this memoir from a national award-winning author reveals the reality of being the first Guyrex Girl in the 1970s. Beauty pageant stories have never been this raw, this real.
Growing up in West Texas, Jane Little Botkin didn’t have designs on becoming a beauty queen. But not long after joining a pageant on a whim in college, she became the first protégé of El Paso’s Richard Guy and Rex Holt, known as the “Kings of Beauty”—just as the 1970’s counterculture movement began to take off. A pink, rose-covered gown—a Guyrex creation—symbolizes the fairy tale life that young women in Jane’s time imagined beauty queens had. Its near destruction exposes reality: the author’s failed relationship with her mother, and her parents’ failed relationship with one another. Weaving these narrative threads together is the Wild West notion that anything is possible, especially do-overs.

 Author Janelle Molony

The official trail diary of a pioneer woman, Sarah Jane Rousseau. For Sarah Jane Rousseau, an accomplished pianist from New Castle Upon Tyne, this seven-month journey means leaving all her gentrified comforts behind. However, it's a sacrifice she is willing to make if she ever wants to walk again.
After years of trying everything he could for his wife, Dr. James Rousseau is desperate to find a cure for Sarah's debilitating rheumatism. He hopes that a climate cure in California's warm, dry air might be the answer she needs.

Author Joni Franks

Children's book: 

In this spell-binding fairytale, "The Crooked Forest," you will be transported to a place between places, separated from reality by a crossroads leading to the mystical Crooked Forest, a botanical mystery as old as the earth. Willow struggles to access her true inner strength when an unforeseen tragedy tests her bravery. Left alone and feeling heartbroken after being separated from her mother, Willow navigates the life path she has been handed, overcoming obstacles and realizing her true potential and her destiny to become a heroine.

Johnny Boggs, editor of Western Writers of America Round-Up Magazine, moderated a panel where one of the authors Steve Friesen, discussed his new book "Galloping Gourmet Eating and Drinking with Buffalo Bill."   

Galloping Gourmet explores an unfamiliar side of a familiar character in American history, William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody. In this entertaining narrative, Steve Friesen explores the evolving role of eating and drinking in Buffalo Bill’s life (1846–1917). Friesen starts with Buffalo Bill’s culinary roots on the American Plains, eating simple foods such as cornbread, fried “yellow-legged” chicken, and hardtack. Buffalo Bill discovered gourmet dining while leading buffalo-hunting expeditions and scouting. As his fame increased, so did his desire and opportunities for fine dining: his early show business career allowed him to dine at some of the best restaurants in the country.

Perhaps your vacation plans next year might include a trip to Tucson for the second week in March to experience the festival firsthand.