Philadelphia Book Festival

This looks like a pretty rad event. Any time you can get Bernadette Peters and Barbwa Walters in the same room is bound to be entertaining.

The fun can't start without you!
Love books, music and the arts? Then the second annual Philadelphia Book Festival is where you want to be! For two days we'll be celebrating the reading and literacy with a block party chock-full of fun!

For the complete festival schedule,
visit freelibrary.org/bookfestival or
call 215-686-5322.


Scores of Scribes!
Get ready for a weekend jam-packed with more than 60 of the nation's top writers. Have your book signed by Barbara Walters (Audition: A Memoir), Gregory Maguire (Wicked), Eric Jerome Dickey (Pleasure), Food Network host Ellie Krieger (The Food You Crave), Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman (Standing Up to the Madness), Roscoe Orman (Sesame Street's "Gordon"), Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Jorie Graham (Sea Change), and "Yarn Harlot" Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (Things I Learned from Knitting).

Just added!
Bernadette Peters Reading & Performance
Two-time Tony Award-winning star of stage and screen, Bernadette Peters will join the Philadelphia Book Festival on May 17th at 12:00 p.m. to tell the story of a lonely little dog from her new picture book, Broadway Barks. Ms. Peters will perform "Kramer's Song" from the CD accompanying her book, backed by a trio of musicians featuring musical director Marvin Laird (Gypsy, Annie Get Your Gun). 12:00 p.m. Citi Main Stage


A Block Party of Booksellers
The streets around Parkway Central will be bustling with 100 exhibitors--including publishers, bookstores, cultural nonprofits, and independent authors--selling books, sharing their stories, and presenting in-booth talks and author signings.

Click here for the 2008 list of exhibitors, which includes (all the way from Jamaica!) Bazba Theatrical Players Limited, Drawn & Quarterly, DK, Quirk, Running Press, Camino, more than 40 independently published authors, a "Mini Parkway" with free family activities presented by the Academy of Natural Sciences, Please Touch Museum, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and so much more!

Plus, there will be live music on the Toyota Music Stage, fun for kids on the Target Children's Stage, and strolling performances All Around the Library!


Kick-Off for Kids!
The fun begins at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday with wearable balloon art and songs by Sesame Place's Elmo and Abby Cadabby and 11-year-old blind jazz sensation Rocco Fiorentino.

Host Tamala Edwards of 6abc will introduce the characters in our Storybook Parade, and all are welcome to grab a noisemaker and join Winnie the Pooh, Clifford, Toot & Puddle, a Wild Thing, and other favorites, including a cast of life-sized Star Wars figures, for a parade through the festival.

All afternoon kids can settle in to the Children's Story Hour Room for griot-style storytelling, cozy tales and silly poems by nationally known children's authors and illustrators including Kate and Jim McMullan (I'm Bad!), Elbrite Brown (Playing To Win: The Story Of Althea Gibson), and Alan Katz (OOPS!).


Putting their stories to music...

Discover music from around the world on the Toyota Music Stage.You'll be thrilled by Cantaré (Caribbean and South American Music), Guy Davis (American Blues), Benoit Bourque (Traditional Québecois Dance), Rani Arbo & Daisy Mayhem (Blues, Swing and Appalachian Fiddle), Ljova and the Kontraband (Chamber-Jam), Alô Brasil (Brazilian Music and Dance), Catherine Russell (American Jazz and Blues), the Marta Gomez Quintet (South American Folk), and Emeline Michel, the reigning Queen of Haitian song.


Catch the FREE Book Fest Trolley at 17th & Locust Streets (PATCO) or 18th Street & JFK (Suburban Station)!

Ways to feel smart, and ways to feel like an idiot and not even care...

I've long been a fan of NPR. Certain shows still thrill me--This American Life is still riviting, Wait, Wait don't tell me... is still wildly funny and the Jonathan Schwartz show always makes me happy. However, as far as news, politics and culture go, NPR seems to be getting dumber and dumber. There is no better example of this than KCRW's Le Show with Harry Shearer, which unfortunately sneaks into my home on Sunday afternoon--prime public radio time. This has forced me to look elsewhere for my smart talk radio, and I have found it. I knew of Slate magazine before, but I wasn't really an avid reader. Then I stumbled onto their "gabfest" podcasts. These are smart, intellegent, funny and current. Just listen.



Secondly, if you ever want to feel like a flaming idiot and not care at all, get a kitten. Suddenly, pooping is incredibly entertaining, grooming is adorable and drinking water is awww worthy. Meet Henry, the newest edition to the Philadelph-eli and Anna home.

Sugar Rush

One of the greatest things about South Philly is the food. There's bread and ravioli and cheese and olives and, most deliciously, pastries. Potito's Bakery, located at 1614 Ritner Street, isn't as nostalgic as Termini Bros., it's not as flashy as Vallari Brothers, but it is down right delicious. Everything is made on the premises, and everyone that enters the door is called "hon." My visit took a little longer than necessary as the woman helping me had to pause to scream at her son who was baking in the basement, but that only added to the charm. Most charming of all--3 sticky buns, two danishes and a birthday cake for under $12.