BOOK TOUR DIARY JANUARY 24, 2008
Day one—5AM—nothing like leaving for book tour by starlight—it was clear and beautiful. We are grateful that our travels went smoothly. We left on time and arrived in San Francisco, not too much the worse for wear—well, Virginia needs Advil. Short seats, long legs and the guy in the seat in front of you leaning back like he’s at home in his La Z-Boy, are not a good match for six hours.
Our sad news—upon landing we found out that Karibu Books is closing.( Click here: Black Readers Are Jolted by a Chain's Demise - washingtonpost.com )We are STUNNED. We have always enjoyed visiting the stores in the DC-Maryland chain—their variety of books was impressive as was the knowledge of their staff—can’t believe we just used the past tense to describe them. We were looking forward to visiting with readers at their Bowie, MD store later in the book tour. This is quite a blow.
Meanwhile, back at San Francisco International Airport—we collected our luggage and went off to the rental car counter. Touchstone/Simon and Schuster rented us a car with GPS for our travels to Oakland (last night), then on to Sacramento (later today.) Well, they didn’t have a car with GPS so they gave us an SUV. Writers on the road in a truck—sounds like a comedy series. Virginia had the aching leg so Donna drove—she has never driven an SUV and neither of us ever used GPS. The car is talking to us, “Your turn is coming in .01 miles.” Could you tell us a little sooner!!! “You have missed your turn.” No kidding! After a few missteps we found our way out of the airport and into town.
And we had a great time at the Oakland branch of Marcus Books, with co-owner Blanche Richardson (her sister Karen is at the San Francisco store). Marcus Books is in it’s 48th year as a community fixture and is looking toward 50 years and beyond. We were honored to have been invited to be part of the 10th anniversary celebration for the Marcus Book Club. They originally formed around the publication of Tananarive Due’s My Soul to Keep, and they are still reading, opinionating and going strong. The When Sunday Comes Book Club from San Jose, CA and Turning Pages Book Club were also in the house. We had a great time—and we’ll post pics soon.
Day 2 begins!
Our sad news—upon landing we found out that Karibu Books is closing.( Click here: Black Readers Are Jolted by a Chain's Demise - washingtonpost.com )We are STUNNED. We have always enjoyed visiting the stores in the DC-Maryland chain—their variety of books was impressive as was the knowledge of their staff—can’t believe we just used the past tense to describe them. We were looking forward to visiting with readers at their Bowie, MD store later in the book tour. This is quite a blow.
Meanwhile, back at San Francisco International Airport—we collected our luggage and went off to the rental car counter. Touchstone/Simon and Schuster rented us a car with GPS for our travels to Oakland (last night), then on to Sacramento (later today.) Well, they didn’t have a car with GPS so they gave us an SUV. Writers on the road in a truck—sounds like a comedy series. Virginia had the aching leg so Donna drove—she has never driven an SUV and neither of us ever used GPS. The car is talking to us, “Your turn is coming in .01 miles.” Could you tell us a little sooner!!! “You have missed your turn.” No kidding! After a few missteps we found our way out of the airport and into town.
And we had a great time at the Oakland branch of Marcus Books, with co-owner Blanche Richardson (her sister Karen is at the San Francisco store). Marcus Books is in it’s 48th year as a community fixture and is looking toward 50 years and beyond. We were honored to have been invited to be part of the 10th anniversary celebration for the Marcus Book Club. They originally formed around the publication of Tananarive Due’s My Soul to Keep, and they are still reading, opinionating and going strong. The When Sunday Comes Book Club from San Jose, CA and Turning Pages Book Club were also in the house. We had a great time—and we’ll post pics soon.
Day 2 begins!
Labels: airplanes, audio books, book clubs, books, bookstore, Karibu Books, Marcus Books, travel
2 Comments:
I know--very sad to hear about Karibu! I'll be at Marcus Books in Oakland in March.
Enjoy your tour!
Yeah--we've been talking about it at every signing. Great news about Marcus--Have a wonderful signing and tell Blanche we said hi!
V&D
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