Athens of the South

I was in Nashville this weekend.  It is a city that I love to visit.  I have family there, and it is a beautiful city with a lot of culture in a lot of different directions.  And it is a city with a great book tradition--including one of the oldest book festivals in the country, the Southern Festival of Books.  I was thrilled to participate this year.

Nashville takes its "Athens" nickname (one of many) seriously.  There are colonnaded buildings absolutely everywhere.  Here is the new, state-of-the-art symphony hall (2006).

Here is Mom with our wonderful tour guide in a gallery inside the symphony hall.

Here is a unique and very beautiful Egyptian Revival church from about 1849 in the heart of downtown.

Here is the setting for the Southern Festival of the Book.  Could you ask for more?  Amazing.

Yes, you can ask for more.  And you'll get it.  How about this for the location for book signings?  Absolutely spectacular.

I did a panel with a great moderator and a fascinating discussion partner--Kathy Hepinstall, who also has a great blog.  Her new book, Blue Asylum, takes place during the Civil War and focuses on a sane woman committed by her husband to an asylum on Sanibel Island, part resort, part madhouse.  It sounds like a great read!

Clovis hit the bottle pretty hard while we were in Nashville.  I guess he thought since we were in Tennessee, he should drink local.

He made a new friend, too.  A very pretty poodle named Checkers.

Here's Clovis being somewhat contemplative on our drive down.

Here is a very nice family portrait my cousin took last night!

Tomorrow, I am so excited to head to Alabama for some events in Decatur, including appearing on Valley Happenings with the wonderful Suzie Wiley early Tuesday morning and then a reading at the Decatur library Thursday evening!