More than 300 authors appearing on 15 stages. Two children's parades. Theater performances, concerts, opera, even puppetry. A book market and street fair of 160-plus vendors . Navigating through all this free fun with 80,000 other souls who love literature.
Figuring out what to see and when amid all the choices of this weekend's Atlanta Journal-Constitution Decatur Book Festival can seem daunting, a challenge akin to conquering the complete works of the two Williams, Shakespeare and Faulkner. But it's really not hard.
The smart folks behind DBF want you to be sated with great choices, not overwhelmed by them. So they've put together Cliffs Notes (of a sort) to help you out. It's a detailed schedule available in two forms: a 32-page tabloid guide that was tucked into many copies of Sunday's AJC and is available across Decatur; and the even-more-comprehensive festival website at www.ajcdecaturbookfestival.com.
You'll find not only a stage-by-stage event schedule for both full days of festivities but also a dozen program "tracks." These are helpful groupings of author talks around particular themes that may suit your interests. This year's tracks are: Atlanta, Business and Marketing, Cooking, Emory, Health and Wellness, LGBT, Poetry, Religion and Spirituality, Romance, Science, Sports, and Writers Conference.
Not every DBF author talk fits a track, but the range of topics they cover is nonetheless wide. For instance, there's matters of the spirit -- such as "Everyday Dharma: Seven Weeks to Finding the Buddha in You" with Lama Willa Miller (5 pm. Sunday, City Hall Stage) -- all the way to matters of the flesh: Rosemary Daniell discussing the anthology "Sugar in My Bowl: Real Women Write About Real Sex" (1:15 p.m. Sunday, City Hall Stage).
Other promising appearances from the tracks include Paul Hudson and Lora Mirza talking about their book, "Atlanta’s Stone Mountain: A Multicultural History," (10 a.m. Saturday, City Hall Stage), Natalie Dupree and Cynthia Graubart on "Southern Biscuits" (noon Sunday, Cook's Warehouse Stage) and David Eagleman, closing out the first-time Science track with a discussion of his book "Incognito: The Hidden Life of the Brain" (5 p.m. Sunday, Decatur Conference Center Stage). (Eagleman is a neuroscientist who directs the Laboratory for Perception and Action and the Initiative on Neuroscience and Law at Baylor College of Medicine. Taking some ginkgo biloba in advance to sharpen one's own brain might be advised.)
Some notable author appearances from beyond the tracks include:
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