Is it weird to say "Happy Labor Day"?
I think so.
I’m pretty sure the holiday was created to honor the worker bees who built this country, quite likely in not-so-very happy labor situations.
Changing channels just a bit: I’m involved as usual in the final countdown to the Carolina Mountains Literary Festival, which starts this Thursday evening.
It’s quite an excellent lineup as one would expect, and we’ve been doing this since 2006 (I jumped on board in 2007, because in 2006 my book club - Hell and Highwater - had already booked a beach house the weekend of the first LitFest before we even knew there was such a thing. After missing that first LitFest, we changed our annual beach date.)
Bizarrely, although I founded or co-founded 5 bookclubs in Yancey County since then, I do not belong to a single one. Go figure…
Anyhoo, the keynote speaker at LitFest this year is Angeline (rhymes with ‘shine’) Boulley (pronounced ‘bowl-y’ according to someone on our committee). Leastways, that’s how all the volunteers are being instructed to say it.
I thought I’d get around to reading her latest book by now, but with almost 400 titles already on my bookshelves at home - most written by LitFest authors from past years - and unread - I haven’t.
I can’t go to sleep unless I read something first, and it helps to be in a good mood, so even though I have got some great books by wonderful authors (many of whom I know, having been for years the LitFest Author Liaison), I usually pull from one of my bookshelves anything by Dave Barry. He is never not funny. I’ve read some of his books multiple times, and having searched for other titles by him, realize I’m going to have to save up to buy the ones I don’t already have.
If I were in charge of LitFest, I would insist that we have at least for ONE YEAR authors who only write humor. God knows we need it more than ever. I’d pick Dave Barry, Susan Reinhardt (who I am introducing this Saturday night at Town Hall), Carl Hiassen, Brian Lee Knopp and anybody he suggests, or who contributed to “Naked Came the Leaf Peeper”, Robert Gipe, or anyone else Ronni Lundy suggests.
If I’ve read all my Dave Barrys too recently to get a fresh laugh, there’s my absolutely favorite go-to - Brian Lee Knopp’s brainchild, “Naked Came the Leaf Peeper.” (2011) OMG.
Do order it; you will not be disappointed. Simply for being an advance reader, I was proud to be mentioned in the acknowledgements alongside the truly literary elite such as Charles Frazier, Ron Rash, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sarah Addison Allen, Ruth Price, and Linda Barrett.
xox
Lucy