2025, Art, books, Gatherings, Travel

The Book Festival

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Barbara said last week (Where in the World is VS) that there was a book festival in Viroqua the weekend before.  Did anybody make the connection?

The first weekend of March I spent some time with my friend David, who lives in Viroqua.  His cousin lives in the Twin Cities, so I do get to see him several times a year.  In March he mentioned that this year he was the chairperson of the Ridges and Rivers Book Festival – he’s on the “board” and this year was his turn.  Is this right up my alley or what?

I put the festival on my calendar and then got busy reading.  There were about a dozen presenters and I tried to get ahold of the book that they were featuring; if not, some other recent book.  I volunteered to go down on Friday and help set up as a thank you for David putting me up.  There were a LOT of volunteers so it was actually short work.  I checked out the Viroqua Co-op for dinner – very big and nice for a small town.

On Saturday, the day of the festival, I had five presentations to go to.  The first was Keith Lesmeister talking about the EastOver Anthology of Rural Stories.  Very compelling speaker.

Next up was Maggie Ginsberg, whose first novel Still True won some awards in 2023 – she spoke well but quickly, maybe a bit nervous?

After lunch it was time for Erica Hannickel who has a fascinating book about orchids – her presentation was really well put together and included a great powerpoint with lots of pictures.

The fourth author was William Kent Krueger in the Historic Temple Theatre.  WKK hasn’t been my favorite author; I actually realized on Saturday morning that all of his books that I’ve read have been his standalones.  After listening to his talk, I decided to give his Cork O’Connor series a try.

The last author of the evening was also at the theatre – Michael Perry.  I’ve read several of his books but have never heard him speak.  He was SO funny.  His presentation was over 2 hours and all of us in the audience were just howling.

In between presentations, I walked through the book vendors and author tables.  Bought a handful of items – that was a foregone conclusion.  Had Fried Sweet Potato Swirls for lunch from a food truck and fabulous gelato from a coffee/gelato shop in town.  Really the only downside of the entire day was that I couldn’t expand time to see more of the author presentations.  Oh and the very scary 30 minute drive back to David’s house in the dark.  Geez, it’s dark in the country.

Had breakfast with my godson and his family on Sunday morning before heading back to the Twin Cities.  I will definitely go again next year!

Here’s what I read in preparation:

  • The Fastest Drummer: Viola Smith by Dean Robbins.  This is one in a series of great kids books that feature women.  Great illustrations as well.
  • Forty Acres Deep by Michael Perry.  Not his usual funny stories but a remarkable look at depression at a farmer struggling with depression. Absolutely 5 star material.
  • Halloween with Morris and Boris/Morris and Boris at the Circus by Bernard Wiseman.  These kids books came out in the 70s.  There are twelve of them altogether.  Charming and funny.
  • We Could Have Been Happy Here by Keith Lesmeister.  Short stories, heavy on the theme of missing parents (literal and figurative).  Very nice.
  • Still True by Maggie Ginsburg.  Two women in a small town – one in an unusual marriage, one in a more traditional marriage.  Both have secrets that could rip their lives apart.  Really intriguing.
  • The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger.  This is his latest standalone – and it’s actually my favorite of all that I’ve read.  A not-well-liked character is found dead by the river.  Lots of secrets uncovered as the death gets solved.
  • Driftless Gold by Sue Berg.  This was my least favorite read for the festival, although it wasn’t bad.  I think this slots into the cozy mystery genre a bit, although the main character is a male – solving a mystery involving some lost gold treasure.  This is part of series.
  • Orchid Muse by Erica Hannickel.  Fabulous look at our fascination with orchids, including some history, some art, some individuals who’ve made orchids their life’s work.  No mention however of Nero Wolfe!
  • EastOver Anthology of Rural Stories.  Enchanting collection of short stories having to do with rural life. I’m not always a fan of short stories, but these were all excellent.  The anthology was curated by Keith Lesmeister and I think he did a great job.

There were a few others I would have like to have gotten to, but couldn’t get them in time.  Maybe next year I’ll start earlier!!

What’s the last “festival” you attended?

24 thoughts on “The Book Festival”

  1. Back when our youngest daughter was Scottish Dancing competitively, we used to attend several Scottish Festivals every year, and traveled to Kansas City and Alma Michigan annually. Macalester College also held an annual Scottish Festival.
    Before covid, we attended several Sheep and Wool Festivals each year. The pandemic interrupted that somewhat and we haven’t been to the Wisconsin festival for a couple of years but this weekend is the Shepherd’s Harvest festival in Lake Elmo. I’ve been, but Robin prefers to go alone and linger wherever she pleases, as long as she pleases. I have never expressed restlessness or impatience in that situation and in fact I don’t feel that way but I respect her wishes.

    A couple of years ago we drove down to Amana, Iowa for a small wool festival.

    When we were in Kyoto we visited two temple fairs. Not exactly festivals, in that they were mainly an aggregation of vendors anchored by a Buddhist temple. . One was a craft fair, comprising exquisitely crafted items and one was a flea market with a mix of new and antique. As a result of our shopping at those two events we had to buy an extra suitcase.

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    1. Robin‘s desire to do her festival by herself actually has nothing to do with you. I go through this as well. Two years in a row YA came with me on what I call my “stage day” at the state fair where I just wander from stage to stage to stage. Neither of those days did she ever complain about where I was stopping or how long I was stopping or what kind of music it was or where we were sitting. Not a peep. However, it still felt like a weight to me that I might be needing to worry about what another person might want to do or enjoy. Even if they weren’t saying or suggesting otherwise. In fact after last year, YA and I discussed it and decided that I should do stage day by myself from here on in.

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      1. I understand that and she has articulated that. In the same vein, I always go to the Twin Cities Antiquarian Book Fair alone.

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  3. Officially: the Rosemount Writers’ Festival & Book Fair. Sold books and spoke on one of the panels (because I’m an “expert(?).”

    I used to go to the Tucson Festival of Books, early 2010s, but then it got so crowded I wasted half my time waiting in line to hear certain authors speak. Did the Twin Cities Book Festival a few times. Waaaaaay too much competition to sell many books but lots of energy with all the readers and writers rubbing elbows.

    Took my second Little Brother to the Renaissance Festival about 10 years ago, and to a Pirate Festival here in Owatonna around the same time. *Arrggh, matey!”

    Not a big fest goer by choice because I don’t thrive in crowds. But I firmly believe they are an important part of people feeling they belong to a community of some sort. We should have more to celebrate all the good things in life.

    Chris in Owatonna

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  5. I thought, VS, after I asked what you did there, and all you mentioned was the Co-op… and then figured out the festival had been that past weekend “No way she’d be there and not gone to that book festival” !

    I think my absolute favorite was my first Renaissance Festival, in Marin County CA circa 1972… But I love anything outdoors – the Minn. Ren Fest in Shakopee was just fine, sure hope they’re able to rebuild after the fire.

    And Art Fairs on college campuses (or wherever)…

    And then the festivals here in Winona – MidWest Music is this weekend, and then Beethoven and Shakespeare in June/July… Boats & Bluegrass in September.

    I agree with Krista – Rock Bend, when I attended, was awesome.

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  6. We went many times to the Winnipeg Folk Music Festival. It is wonderful. I also marched in the Tri-State Band Festival in Luverne many years in middle school and high school.

    Am I correct in thinking that Jacque had hip replacement today?

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    1. Yes, today. She said it was a day procedure so I assume she’s home by now. She told me she has a good amount of help/support all this week.

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  7. Guess who is back home from the hospital, Baboons?

    I have a new hip and I am back home. Hip replacements are now “Fast Track.” The procedure went well, and I am now in less pain than I was with the arthritic hip. But then I have a few pain meds.

    This was the Orthopedic Festival.

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  8. years ago, when I began my sales career, the first company that I took from a small backyard operation and developed into a superstar was from Viroqua Wisconsin. It was called Howard Johnson’s fertilizer and they occupied the old railroad depot as their office and plant facility. I didn’t visit Viroqua a lot, but I sure did a lot of business through Viroqua
    Hearing years ago that there was some suspicion that Viroqua was the garden of Eden. I can’t remember what the proof was, but it was convincing, and whoever it was it was making the presentation. I heard this while I was driving into Viroqua through the back roads from lacrosse.
    A pretty areaand I was able to envision adam and eve hanging out
    festivals I was at a Diddy on Saturday with Anna called mini bar, which is a tech symposium where 1600 presentations are made between eight in the morning and five in the afternoon and about 2000 people attend. You get to choose which presentations you’d like to participate in or attend with each lasting about an hour. It’s one of my favorite days of the year. This was the 19th annual and I think I started attending at about the seventh annual I hadn’t heard about it before that and I’ve only missed it once since.
    Rock band, even though I haven’t been there in a couple years and the other festivals that I have attended are ones that I just happened upon I got to do a German Oktoberfest a fistful of years ago I’ve done the Winnipeg folk festival a couple times. I’m not a big fan of the Renaissance fair but I’ve been there for five times and I have a friend who’s a poet that attended the Minneapolis book fair a number of years ago, and I got to stick my head in, but was busy with other stuff and wasn’t able to attend much of it. The Canton fair in China is called the spring festival and the fall festival held beginning on April 15 and October 15 every year and is from my experience, the largest hardware gathering in the world I haven’t been to it since before the pandemic and was thinking about going back this year, but the weirdness kept me away. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get back to it again i’m thinking hard because none of these sound very much like festivals when I think of the term festival, but maybe that’s my problem. They’re all wonderful events. Maybe I should hit the raspberry festival this year because even though I lived in hopkins for a couple years and have lived nearby forever, I have never been there.

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    1. Which weirdness keeps you away? – “the largest hardware gathering in the world I haven’t been to it since before the pandemic and was thinking about going back this year, but the weirdness kept me away” ?

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  11. Back in the mid-seventies I used to go to the Snoose Boulevard Festival held on the West Bank of the U of M. It was weekend long festival celebrating Scandinavian music and culture. The festival was the brainchild of Maurie Bernstein, an ethnomusicologist, folklorist, teacher, accordionist, and radiobroadcaster, and it was lots of fun. There were lectures, concerts, workshops, and dances in different venues all over the neighborhood. I’m not sure how many of these annual events were held, but I know I went to two, possibly three.

    I also attended lots of the folk music festivals hosted by Red House Records and other by the Minnesota Folk Festival, mostly in the Twin Cities area. I volunteered at numerous of the festivals put on by the MN Folk Festival. They were great fun, and a lot of work. I attended the Rock Bend festival only once, I think, but I enjoyed it.

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