The Literate Housewife Review

A Fabulous Lunch with Lander Marks

While I was in Las Vegas earlier this month I had the wonderful opportunity to meet Lander Marks for lunch at the Venetian.  Even if my trip to Sin City hadn’t been for work, this would have been the highlight of my time there.  Not only is she the first author I’ve met, she is the first person I’ve met solely because of The Literate Housewife Review.  It’s as if our meeting gave full life to the blog that I’ve grown to love and cherish since early January 2007.

I consider myself to be an outgoing person, but sometimes when you’re meeting someone for the first time there is this build up inside and it can feel somewhat overwhelming.  As excited as I was, I was also a bit nervous.  The Venetian is a huge place, so by phone we agreed to meet at The Grill at Valentino.  She used a copy of Artist’s Proof for me to recognize her and my butterflies were gone the second we started to speak.  Lander Marks is as gracious and warm in person as she was during our interview.

We had the most wonderful lunch.  I had a ravioli with blue cheese dish that was the best meal I ate while in Vegas.  I even got the opportunity to meet the restaurant’s chef, Luciano.  He is a friend she met while creating a Las Vegas cookbook.  It was marvelous to say the least.

While we ate, we got to know each other a little better.  We talked about writing, reading, motherhood, politics and blogging.  She is starting a new blog called books4oprah2read.  She has big plans for this blog, such as including a place for reading groups and a place specifically for Jewish authors and readers.  I’m really excited to see where this blog takes her.

There is something deeply affirming about talking with someone who believes in you and what you do.  I left our lunch on cloud 9, as you can tell from the picture our waiter took before we returned back to the real world (if you can call anything in Vegas the real world).  Lander Marks is holding a copy of her book while I’m beaming in pink:

Oh Lord, it feels good to be a reader!