Day one of the Texas Book Festival featured some names you probably know better for projects off the page.
Jenna Bush and Laura Bush sign books at the Texas Book Festival. Photo by Bob Daemmrich
Today Show correspondent Jenna Bush Hager and her mother Laura Bush kicked things off at 10am on Saturday morning. For media hoping to snap a photo of the famous pair, the day started even earlier. Press was advised to arrive two hours early for secret service clearance.
Celebrating the one hundredth anniversary of the National Parks Service, Hager and Bush presented their picture book, Our Great Big Backyard, which encourages all to head outside and enjoy the great outdoors.
Orange is the New Black and Jane the Virgin star Diane Guerrero appeared a couple hours later to discuss her book In the Country We Love which details her experience dealing with the deportation of her parents at the age of 14.
Olga Campos moderates a session with OITNB star Diane Guerrero.
Nick Offerman was next on our list. Alas, the Parks and Rec star was delayed. Literally. Due to travel mishaps, the
actor and comedian ended up being rescheduled for the evening.
Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi followed. The award-winning cookbook author read an excerpt from her memoir and talked about her latest book The Encyclopedia of Spices and Herbs. As mentioned on Twitter, listening to her rattle off spice names was like hearing a foreign language. While I was totally lost, I was inspired nonetheless.
Ethan Hawke was our final session of the day. The Oscar nominee appeared with illustrator Greg Ruth to talk about the 10-year process of making the graphic novel . The work addresses the Native American experience of war through the eyes of the Apache nations.
Ethan Hawke exclaimed that he felt like Madonna with the head mic on.
Day two is under way now. Even if you aren’t able to attend the sessions, you never know what you may see while walking about the fest.
For more info on the Texas Book Festival, click here.
Scenes from the Texas Book Festival 2016 in Austin, Texas.
