Chapter 8 - Savannah, Part 2

To pick up from last week's blog there is so much to see and do in Savannah. We ended up skipping one of our author selections (sorry Alice McDermott) for lunch at McDonough's across from The Savannah Theater. Actually our food fest started Saturday morning at a newish restaurant called Toast. It is on Broughton Street and will definitely be on our agenda in future trips. So Claire and I had appetizers at McDonough's, ice cream at Leopold's cart in Telfair Square, and then hurried to line up to see Grady Hendrix.

Grady Hendrix - Hendrix is the author of Horrorstor, The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires, My Best Friend's Exorcism and many others. His latest (just out in paperback) is How to Sell a Haunted House. His presentation was a talk (complete with Powerpoint presentation) on how to sell a haunted house! It was a very clever way to give an overview of the story and within it he told a little bit about himself. Apparently he spent 5 years answering phones for the New York Paranormal Society which I'm sure gave him plenty of stories to write about.

Alex Prud'homme - Alex Prud'homme is a freelance writer who just happens to be the great nephew of Julia and Paul Child. He co-authored Julia's memoir My Life in France as well authored many other books. His latest book is Dinner With the President: Food, Politics and a History of Breaking Bread at the White House. In this book Prud'homme focuses on 22 presidents from George Washington to Donald Trump and how they used meals at the White House to strengthen their political positions and foreign policy agendas. One of the best stories he told was of Richard Nixon who routinely had pineapple slices topped with cottage cheese for lunch and was not a big alcohol drinker. When he went to China and attended the state banquet there not only did he practice with chopsticks ahead of time but he went on to eat an assortment of Chinese delicacies as well as match Premier Zhou glass for glass of Maotai, an alcoholic drink often described as "pure gasoline".

While I did pick up James L. Swanson's The Deerfield Massacre, we didn't get to see him as dinner at Collins Quarter called. Sunday was spent with breakfast at The Funky Brunch and some quick antiquing until it was time to take Claire to the airport and head home.

By the way, along with the wonderful authors speaking at SBF on Saturday we also saw Mary Kay Andrews and Patti Callahan Henry who were both their gracious selves!

Another wonderful Savannah Book Festival in the bag and we can hardly wait for next year!