Space Station Mir

I made it to the rapidly filling tent where James McBride was about to speak as a light drizzle transformed into a ferocious downpour. When McBride took the podium, he complained that another author had had beautiful weather, but here he was, having to compete with the rain. I'd say McBride got the best of that rain though, as he talked about his new book The Good Lord Bird , his love of the abolitionist John Brown, his view that history is more complicated than we think, and his disregard for political divisions (he commented that he was thrilled to see Laura Bush in his audience the last time he spoke at the festival). Toward the end of his talk, he declared his belief that "What God wants to happen, will happen," and gestured. At the moment, the rain, which had been slowing, came to a stop! I don't know about any higher meaning, but McBride has impeccable timing. Having read and enjoyed his memoir, The Color of Water , in high school I was interested to hear Mc...

Did you know Margaret Atwood had a Twitter ? I didn't. From one side of a standing room only tent at the National Book Festival, I learned a lot more about Margaret Atwood than I knew before. Her father was an entymologist, The Complete Works of Shakespeare would be her reading of choice on the proverbial deserted island, and she won't divulge her favorite authors or her favorite among her own books. Atwood did divulge, however, her opinions on genetic manipulation, genre, and the cover of the just-released end to her dystopian trilogy, MadAddam . As Atwood put it, genetic manipulation and other future technological/biotechnological tools have a "good use, a bad use, and a use that no one expected." She spoke in praise of the recent attempt at a lab-grown burger and in support of continuing such projects. Growing up with an entymologist father and her own inclinations seem to have made her quite scientific in thought and opinion. When asked if she had grown up wi...