Book Festival Fun

Did you know there’s a fabulous book festival right around the corner? If you’re in the San Francisco Bay Area this Saturday and Sunday June 3 – 4, come visit me at the third annual Bay Area Book Festival, in Berkeley.

On Sunday June 4 from 10 am to 6 pm I’ll have a book booth there (booth #321, on Center Street), with signed copies of Girlhood in America: Personal Stories 1910 – 2010. This is a chance to get your copy of the only book where over 50 women and young girls from around the country show the phenomenal changes of a century—in their own voices. There’s a story in the 1910s about riding in a first car in 1912, a story about being the daughter of Quakers in the 1940s and being asked by a teacher to buy war bond stamps, stories from every decade that remind or amaze with what none of us has ever known.

And there’s more! I’ll also have some fun toys to check out from the days many of us remember, like Slinky and Silly Putty, Barrel of Monkeys and jacks, and candies that in the 1920s were new and advertised as “made clean – kept clean – wrapped dust proof”—WHAT?! Tootsie Rolls! A first individually wrapped candy. Every chapter of Girlhood in America features interesting tidbits like these, for every decade from 1910 into the first decade of 2000.

All weekend there will be great talks by top-notch authors — see the website for details — and lots of author and indie bookstore booths to explore in the summer sunshine.

The Bay Area Book Festival is located in the heart of downtown Berkeley, near Center Street and Milvia. You’ll find public parking nearby, and the closest BART is the downtown Berkeley station on Shattuck Avenue.

Stop by my booth (#321 Center Street) on Sunday June 4 to say hello, get a copy of the book, and have some fun!