Meeting #8: Beyond Book Club Austin2
October 25, 2018 – October 28, 2018

For our 8th book club meeting, we made the rare decision to repeat one of our former book club locations. We all descended upon Austin, Texas, a repeat of our second ever book club gathering. Once again, we ate our fill of tacos, burritos, and BBQ. Once again, we were hosted by the gracious and inimitable James Dwyer. However, there were a few key differences between our fledgling second trip and our return to the city that keeps it weird.

This trip, we were privileged enough to attend the Texas Book Festival, hosted in Austin, and one of the country’s preeminent literary festivals. We met authors, chatted with the literati, ate, explored, and enjoyed the best that Austin has to offer. It’s safe to say that our second time around was just as good as the first, and possibly better.

For our first day, the fitness inclined among us hit the desert streets for some run-time. After that, we enjoyed our first of many breakfast tacos at local gem, Torchy’s. (A chain near and dear to our collective hearts). We then spent our day enjoying some solid city exploration, along with our first book discussion of the weekend – The House of Broken Angels, by Luis Alberto Urrea. We had our discussion in the Austin Public Library, a great public space and new addition to the city’s downtown. After our discussion, there was really only one thing left to do – prepare for the Texas Book Festival’s annual gala! The boys of book club were introduced to their new fancy book club bowties (which took some time learning how to tie), and we headed to the gala.

At the gala, we were beyond fortunate, and we had the chance to meet an author! And not just any author – but Luis Alberto Urrea himself! He gave a keynote speech at the gala, and then took the time to meet with our book club and share some of his wonderful stories. We also had the opportunity to meet Jake Silverstein, emcee of the gala, who also took the time to stop by our table and learn about book club before giving us a gala shout-out from the podium! We then danced the night away and enjoyed Austin’s great night life, in full black tie. (a great way to go out).

The next day, once we were all up, bright eyed and bushy tailed, we headed to our first event of the festival. We were doing some volunteering with the book festival, helping to staff a children’s literary event, doing arts & crafts and reading with children. It was a great time and a really nice way to give back to the festival. After the volunteering session, we had the once in a lifetime opportunity to have a private tour of the governor’s mansion and sit down for lunch with the first lady of Texas, not to mention meet the governor himself! They were gracious hosts, and we had a wonderful meal in the historic governor’s mansion.

For the rest of the weekend and the festival, we attended events and explored the city some more, including the always great Rainey street. One of the highlight events was a Q&A with Scott Kelly, astronaut and author, who spoke at length about his experiences in space and what he’s learned. It was riveting stuff. On Sunday, we said our goodbyes, and had our traditional MVP vote. This time, the winner was thoroughly deserved – the first lady of Texas herself, Cecilia Abbott! After our vote, we headed home, another great book club (with some wonderful new and unique activities!) under our belts.