Baltimore Book Festival Report

The Baltimore Book Festival was Sept. 28-30 and our book club was the winner of the Book Club Connection drawing! We won the following:

• 6 passes for Free parking passes
• 6 Exhibitor Hospitality Credentials to receive free snacks and beverages
• 12 Front row Seats for Author appearances of your choice
• 15 Festival Beer Tickets
• 3 Bottles of wine
• 60 Food Dollars

Most of our members had prior commitments and could not attend, but some of us made it. The weather was absolutely perfect for the Festival. Annette and Nicole (and families) attended on Friday and Saturday. They got to see two cookbook authors, Andrew Schloss, author of Mastering the Grill, and Earl "Bubba" Hiers of Uncle Bubba's Savannah Seafood (he's the brother of Paula Deen from Food Network). Plus they were able to browse the author tents, book sellers and food stalls.

My husband and I attended on Sunday. We got to see Martha Raddatz (more about her below), Stephen Hunter (author of The 47th Samurai), a crabologist from Phillip's Seafood (more about that below) and Cat Cora (of Iron Chef fame).

We were very impressed with Martha Raddatz. She is a correspondent for ABC and author of The Long Road Home: A Story of War and Family. She spoke about her new book which chronicles one battle in Iraq in 2001. It is a chronological account of the battle as well as the daily lives of the soldiers' families back home. She is an excellent speaker and had a great deal of information to share. As with any discussion of Iraq, there were several smart-a** comments from people during the Q&A session, but there were good questions as well. I was sad to see that my husband and I were by far the youngest people there to see this author. Most of those in attendance were 60 and up. It just goes to show the apathy of most of our generation.

My husband was chosen to be an assistant during the crab demo by Phillip's Seafood. He learned how to make crab cakes like a pro, and received a huge bag of Phillip's products - and two books - as a thank you. After that we watched Cat Cora's demo. She was entertaining and worked well under pressure ... especially when there was no butter or oil olive for her to cook her shrimp with! We met her afterword and had her autograph her cook book for us and even took pictures with her.

On the whole it was a very enjoyable day, and I'm looking forward to attending next year! Keep up to date with this annual event by checking out their website.