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If music festivals such as South by Southwest and the Austin City Limits festival are testament to the city’s reputation as the Live Music Capitol of the World, the Texas Book Festival is proof positive that Austin is a hotbed of creativity in the literary world as well. Founded by Laura Bush in 1995, it has grown to become a nationally important event, featuring over two thousand authors, local, national and international, in twelve years of existence. Exciting, fun, musical and educational, this all-ages event is considered to be one of the premiere literary events in the country.

Located primarily in the State Capitol, the festival takes place every fall, drawing upwards of 40,000 spectators to delight in panels, concerts, demonstrations, and other activities in the House and Senate Chambers, as well as tents and stages erected on the sprawling green lawn of the Capitol grounds. Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and other high-profile politicos have given keynote addresses, and the late Governor Ann Richards was a regular as well. Kay Bailey Hutchison, Jim Lehrer, and Roy Blount Jr., and other such notables have made appearances as well.

A variety of themes are represented at the festival, with panels dedicated to mysteries, biographies, photography, retrospectives, periodicals, journalism, and many other topics. A “Lifestyle” tent hosts discussions and activities including parenting, wineries, birding, and yard art.

In keeping with the interests and expectations of Austinites, the festival emphasizes a high level of entertainment and music, dedicating one tent to musical performances throughout the festival, and hosting events at satellite locations including the legendary Continental Club. A concert featuring Austin’s finest musicians is held on the Capitol steps. Musician authors such as Joe Ely read from their works, as do those who write books about musicians, including Kathleen Hudson and Joe Nick Patoski.

Other aspects of the entertainment world are well-represented also. Actors including Eli Wallach and Marlee Matlin have appeared there, and Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi offered live cooking demos for exotic recipes. Food and cooking are also highlighted, with an entire tent equipped with cooking supplies and dedicated to cookbooks and examinations of food culture.

The Texas Book Festival has raised over two million dollars for Texas Public Libraries, and their commitment to children is clear. With one tent dedicated to children’s authors, one to children’s entertainment, and one to activities for the little ones, this festival is a perfect way to combine books and literacy with a fun and exciting event. Storytimes abound throughout the festival, and activities can include hula dance, puppet shows, drawing, and sing-alongs. When children’s authors are in town for the festival, they often take part in “Reading Rock Stars,” an affiliated program that brings them to public schools to read their works.

A truly Austin event in spirit, the Texas Book Festival is a lively, creative and exciting way to explore the literary world both on a local and national level.

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“What was I like as a baby?”

All moms know how their kids’ eyes light up when they hear stories about themselves as babies and young children.

All moms also know that when a mother takes the time to record these precious stories in written form, she preserves a mystery and a magic that is impossible to recapture any other way.

Still, even the most well-intentioned of us (myself included) have a hard time following through when we have something we wish to write down, particularly those everyday details that make up our lives. Sometimes we are swept away by the daily tasks of motherhood and sometimes we are simply too deep in the enjoyment of the experience itself to take the time out to write about it just then. Sometimes it all seems too much to do, but more often it is a gentle ebbing away of the time.

In Love, Mommy: Writing Love Letters to Your Baby, Judy Siblin-Librach leads us on a journey that helps us capture the major milestones (the birth story, the first day at school) as well as those that may not immediately come to mind (the first time your child caught a baseball, the way her hugs felt, the first time she went through a car wash).

Siblin-Librach’s writing style is elegant, perfectly capturing the depth of emotion that all mothers feel at one point or another. We are in good hands with a natural-born poet and mother who will lead us into creating and recording the lyrics of our own lives.

Part of the beauty of this book is the way Siblin-Librach makes it simple to write these life stories, whether or not you have ever enjoyed the process of writing in the past. The book is equally helpful in bringing back memories you may have thought were gone, just in case your baby has grown.

Siblin-Librach opens each chapter with incisive questions to prompt your writing, followed by sample letters from her own family. These examples can really help you to get an idea of all the different ways you can take a particular letter. The author includes notes to parents about how to write the letter, as well as tips and ideas to keep you inspired in this grand task. This book helps us to record the specific stories and memories, as well as the deeper story: the wisdom, the life lessons and the wishes you have for your child.

Judy Siblin-Librach has written a beautiful and heartfelt book that simplifies the process and that reminds us that it need not be a big deal to record these memories and to give ourselves and our children the greatest gift. In doing so, she has given a gift to all mothers and all those who will be mothers.

Susie Cortright is the founder of several popular websites, including http://www.susies-coupons.com , http://www.bestselfhelp.com and http://www.momscape.com where you can register to win gift cards from top online merchants.

Audio books are sometimes the better way to “read” books. For people with a busy life style it is the only way they can take in books. They will listen to these audio books while driving and while doing household chores, and some people listen to audio books while working out.

When audio books were first created they were not created as a way for busy people to read. They were created to help blind people that could not read print. This occurred in the year 1931. There were audio books that were created for a project called “Books for the Adult Blind Project”.

The American foundation for the blind first created audio books in 1932. In the year 1932 the first machine that allowed mass production was created and from that point on there were plenty of audio books created.

In 1935 the United States government approved a program for blind adults to be mailed free audio books and this was called the Blind Project.

Later on in the years with the popularity of the cassette tapes and recorders, the popularity of audio books also grew. They were made more readily available for people to get.

In the year 1970 the Books on Tape program started to rent audio books to people. This started a craze of audio books and by the mid 1980’s there were many audio book publishers. The business grew huge and now there are awards for audio books and a very big ceremony for it.

With the invention of CDs and MP3s the popularity of audio books has once again risen. People can download audio books off the internet for a few dollars and put it on their iPods and mp3 players. This enables them to listen to the audio books at any time it is convenient for them. Audio books are no longer only for the blind of the world.

Audio books not only come in the traditional books but also there are many top best sellers of the day. Self help tapes and CDs are also a very popular branch of the audio book world. People will listen to these items while on a long commute to and from work to help pass the time and make the most of their precious little time.

With all of the things that people must do each day from cook dinner to walking the dog and everything in between it is no wonder that the popularity of audio books has grown. We have become a society of people on the go. What better way for someone to read a book then to listen to it being read or told to them while they are going for a peaceful jog or a while waiting for the little ones practice to be over and on the way home.

Audio books are an industry that has seriously grown over the years. From people that are very young who cannot read yet to people who are elderly and have trouble seeing, audio books can be a blessing to them and that is why they are so popular.

Whether you are someone who once loved to read many books and because of failing eye sight you can no longer read a book without seriously straining your eyes or maybe not even being able to see the words at all or someone who has not learned to read yet an audio book will be helpful to you.

Audio books have many different types of people who use them and for many different reasons. Although they started out to help blind people read books and to this day are still used for the same reason, they also allow other people with needs to read books.

In need of broadening your horizon? Check out the popular titles that are on sales each month http://www.rightaudiobooks.com/specialOffers.aspx

Instead of searching book store after book store to find the right audio book that you are looking for you should try to download mp3 audio books online.

By using the internet and certain web sites you can download mp3 audio books at your convenience and you can find almost anything you are looking for.

When you are searching for a specific title of audio books or just looking for something that is new for you to listen to, looking online for a downloadable mp3 audio book will help you to find what you need.

There are many different web sites that you can go to and look for audio books. Downloadable Audiobooks are very popular now and many people use them every day.

By downloading audio books you will be able to use the audiobooks on many different devices. You can listen on your personal computer as well as on your mp3 player.

So if you are going to do household chore or go for a jog you can listen to your audio book while you are doing errands on an mp3 player.

People these days really just do not have the time to sit and read a book and if you do have the time to do so you should consider yourself lucky.

Many people use audio books instead of reading a book because you can listen to the story while you are doing other things. You can listen to an audio book while you are driving to and from work or running errands or even taking a long road trip or a drive.

You cannot however do any of those things while you reading a book, driving while reading would not be a very smart thing to do.

Downloadable audio books make finding the right audio book very easy. With the simple process of finding the right web site that you can download audio books you can then listen to your new audio books anywhere you go.

The plus side of downloading audio books from an online store is this “the title that you wanted will ALWAYS be in stock”. The store simply can’t and won’t run out of the specific audiobooks, unlike in the physical store.

By downloading mp3 audio books you can enable yourself to learn new things and even enjoy a good book like you have not been able to in a long time. Not everyone has the time to read a book anymore but they do not have to lose out on a good story. Downloadable audio books will allow everyone to once again enjoy good books.

You can find over 10,000 titles of popular books just like in your local bookstore at http://www.RightAudioBooks.com

Sinclair Lewis was well known for a wide array of fantastic novles that not only affected, but even changed, American society. “Mantrap” is barely remembered, as it was not one of Lewis’s major works, but it is a pleasant read and one of his early novels.

“Mantrap” is a 1925 novel of Ralph Prescott, a New York lawyer who goes into the wilderness where he finds himself competing with an experienced woodsman for the attentions of his (the woodsman’s) beautiful, but bored, wife.

This book, while not as directly political as many of Sinclair Lewis’s other works, does display the conflicting roles of men and women in the 1920’s. Ralph Prescott, a 40 year old bachelor is persuaded by E. Wesson Woodbury to join him for several weeks roughing it during the summer in northern Canada.

The plan is for them to travel through northern Canada while fishing, hunting, and meeting Indians and fur trappers and live the “simple,” rugged life of the great outdoors as a way of getting away for the summer.

Prescott decides to make the trip because he was working long hours and stressing himself out. He agrees to go, only to find out on the trail that he hates the bullying, self-important Wes Woodbury.

At one of their camping spots a Canadian fur trader named Joe Easter shows up. Joe owns a store at Mantrap Landing, and Ralph comes to regard Joe as a true friend, and then begs him to take him away from Wes Woodbury.

Joe agrees, and as their canoe heads toward Mantrap Landing, Joe tells Ralph about a visit he took to Minneapolis the year before, which was where he met and married his wife, Alverna, whom he brought back to live with him in the wild.

Alverna is bored and a flirt, and it doesn’t take long before Ralph is heads over heels in love with her. To break away from temptation Ralph decides to take off in a canoe with only a single guide to find his original host, Woodbury.

Alverna runs away from Joe and persuades Ralph to take her with him back to civilization. The two become lovers, and their guide steals their canoe and abandons them right before an understandably furious Joe Easter catches up with them, right before massive forest fires almost engulf all three.

The three survive, and each chooses their own path at the end, leading to a relatively light ending for a Sinclair Lewis novel, and a pretty easy read. This novel was written a year after Lewis himself spent some time in Canada, though his brother stayed their far longer.

This is an enjoyable read of Sinclair Lewis that works as good summer reading, and if you’ve ever wanted to see great north, the description in this book is worthy of any modern travel classic.

If you want to know more about Sinclair Lewis, please feel free to visit my website at http://www.squidoo.com/sinclairlewis, or for more on Mantrap, http://www.squidoo.com/man-trap-sinclair-lewis

Thanks for reading!

Shane Dayton