Bookish

A book blog with Maggie Galehouse

The Barbara Bush reading bash (with photos!)

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On Thursday evening (April 19), the 18th annual Celebration of Reading — benefitting The Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy and The Barbara Bush Texas Fund for Family — raised $1.9 million.

Donovan Campbell, Blake Mycoskie, Neil Bush, Sandra Brown, Former First Lady Barbara Bush, Maria Bush, Harlan Coben and David Feherty at A Celebration of Reading, April 19, 2012. (David Shutts Photography)

Featured authors Harlan Coben, David Feherty (who kept referring to the former First Lady as Mrs. B), Sandra Brown, Blake Mycoskie and Donovan Campbell entertained more than 1,800 guests at The Hobby Center.

Feherty, an Irishman and former pro golfer who writes books and serves as a sports commentator for CBS, talked about his American citizenship exam and delivered a brief, hilarious history of the world: highpoints included the Big Bang, conquistadors and Thomas Jefferson.

Both Sandra Brown (author of “Lethal” and more than 70 other titles) and Blake Mycoskie, the founder of TOMS Shoes, described meeting strangers who were familiar with their work. For Brown, that meant approaching someone in a bookstore who happened to be leafing through one of her books. For Mycoskie, it meant striking up a conversation with a woman at an airport who wearing a red pair of TOMS Shoes. Before she knew who Mycoskie was, the woman regaled him with details of his company’s “One For One” mission: for every pair of shoes purchased, another pair is donated to a child in need.

The running joke of the night was that none of the authors — with the exception of Donovan Campbell, who read a short passage from his heartfelt military memoir, “Joker One,” — actually read from their books. Instead, they spoke, often with great humor, about the writing process.

The evening’s most touching moments came early, when Nina Hayden, a student at the Adult Reading Center in Pearland, spoke to the crowd about the challenges of raising children and holding a job without basic reading skills. She had trouble getting through her comments, but persevered through tears, and the crowd gave her a standing ovation. The authors, who spoke after Hayden, were also moved by her personal story.

Categories: Local book events
Maggie Galehouse | Books editor, features reporter

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