Tuesday's Book Fair -- your one-stop holiday shopping solution
The National Press Club's 35th annual Book Fair & Authors’ Night on Tuesday, Nov. 13, promises something for everyone on your holiday list.
From best-selling author Hedrick Smith and his new book, “Who Stole the American Dream?” to Deb Perelman, author of “The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook,” to Baratunde Thurston’s popular” How to Be Black” and Vaddey Ratner’s “In the Shadow of the Banyan,” you’re sure to find exactly what you need.
They will be among close to 100 nationally known writers autographing and selling their books at the festive event scheduled from 5:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. Admission to the annual fair is free for NPC members, $10 for non-members.
The event is a fundraiser for the National Press Club’s Journalism Institute, a 501 (c) (3) organization that provides training, research and resources for news professionals and scholarships for the next generation of journalists.
Your ticket may be THE ticket that wins one of these exciting prizes: gift certificates that range from Georgetown Cupcake, Chef Geoff's, Clyde's, Hillwood Estate, and Landmark Theater to a curator's private tour of National Portrait Gallery four tickets to a performance at Blues Alley.
No outside books are permitted. A full list of participants is listed on the Club’s website.
Special thanks go to our sponsors, Brown Capital Management, Dunbar Armored and CQ Roll Call for their support.
Among the more than 100 books and authors represented at the fair will several in the always-popular Humor and Literature categories include. They include:
HUMOR
Jill Smokler “Confessions of a Scary Mommy: An Honest and Irreverent Look at Motherhood - The Good, The Bad, and the Scary” $15
This collection of original essays takes an irreverent look at the underbelly of parenting. Each chapter begins with the best anonymous confessions from Smokler’s online Confessional and covers everything from husbands (“If he could be carried around in a Baby Bjorn all day, he would.”) to PTA fundraisers (“It brings out the worst in people…and who wants an overpriced roll of wrapping paper, anyway? How about something we actually want to buy? Alcohol, for instance.”).
Baratunde Thurston “How to Be Black” $24.99
Baratunde Thurston, of Jack and Jill Politics and The Onion, shares his 30-plus years of expertise in being black, with helpful essays like “How to Be the Black Friend,” “How to Speak for All Black People,” “How To Celebrate Black History Month,” and more, in this humorous guide to race issues. This fun read is also critiques the media's portrayal of blackness as one-dimensional. Through humor, Thurston teaches readers how to be black by reminding them that there really is no one way to do it.Show More
LITERATURE Ric Klass “Excuse Me for Living” $14.95
In his debut novel, Klass weaves together multiple story lines, highlighting the humorous and slightly odd details in life, all the while keeping his eye on the emotional core of the story. This book has been made into a major motion picture featuring a who’s who cast including Christopher Lloyd, Jerry Stiller, Robert Vaughn and Dick Cavett among many others.
Lisa Pell* “Who’s Your Daddy, Baby?” $19.95
Lori McGuire Pomay, a happily married career woman living in suburban Washington, D.C., undergoes genetic testing for in vitro fertilization and her world is rocked when she is told the dad she always knew could not possibly have been her biological father. This mid-life shocker sends her into an alternately hilarious, heartwarming and heartbreaking search for truth about her heritage. It's a journey maybe only a mother could create.
Vaddey Ratner “In the Shadow of the Banyan” $25
For seven-year-old Raami, the end of her childhood begins with her father returning home in the early dawn hours bringing details of the civil war that has overwhelmed the streets of Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital. Soon the family is forced to flee. Over the next four years, as the Khmer Rouge attempts to strip the population of every shred of individual identity, in this tale of human resilience, Raami clings to the last vestige of her childhood— the mythical legends and poems her father told her.
Peter Troy “May the Road Rise Up to Meet You” $26.95
Set against the dramatic backdrop of the Civil War, this is a story of four unforgettable characters that illuminate the quintessential American experience.