BEA 2011 Day 3 + Book Blogger Con!

Day 3 at BEA was a bit more on the chill side. There weren't as many people around and that seemed to make everything a little more relaxed. In the morning rush (which was not as rushy unless you were getting squished to death in the Harper booth), I finally managed to snag a copy of The Revisionists by Thomas Mullen. I had heard ARCs would be available on Wednesday afternoon, but for all my lurking I didn't see any. Anybody who has listened to me go on and on (and on and on...) about Mullen's last book, The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers, must know that Mullen's new book would be a must have for me. When I finally spotted it on Thursday morning I snapped up a copy with glee (but don't worry, no one was harmed in my pursuit of this book - though I did hear some horror stories about bad behavior that wasn't mine).



The more relaxed atmosphere allowed me more time to wander the show floor at leisure. I got to talk with some people at the Europa booth. During my time blogging, Europa has worked its way into my heart as one of my favorite small presses. I love the look and feel of their books, along with, of course, their content, so I was happy to come away with two books, one of which is the first release of their new imprint, Tonga, You Deserve Nothing by Alexander Maksik.

I also waited in another one of those long lines that prompts the continual asking of the "Who are you in LINE for?" for Melissa Marr. By the time we got to the front of the line, the friendly librarian behind me in line and I agreed that we could be very rich if only we had charged a quarter everytime we said, "Melissa Marr."

By then, I'd run out of room in my shipping box, and did not wish to ship another, so I slipped away to mail my box and then hiked to lunch with a bunch of bloggers - Kim from Sophisticated Dorkiness, Heather from Age 30+ ...A Lifetime of Books, Jenny from Jenny's Books, Ash from English Major's Junk Food, Teresa from Shelf Love, Rebecca from Rebecca Reads, Memory from Stella Matutina, and Anastasia from Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog. And I've probably forgotten someone. If so, please forgive me (and remind me)! The walk was long, but the company and the food were both great, plus Ash and I discovered that red shirts with white polka dots are not as distinctive a wardrobe choice as we might have imagined.



Me and Ash in our polka dots
(Thanks again to Heather for the photo!)

Following was the Book Blogger Con reception where I met a bunch of bloggers, many of them new to me, but ultimately ended up with a pair of Colleens - one from Books in the City and the other from Col Reads. Books in the City Collen was going to take me on my first city bus ride to an Atria event at Simon and Schuster, but at the last minute, we hopped the shuttle bus with Kathy from Bermuda Onion, Julie from Booking Mama, and Candace from Beth Fish Reads.

The Atria blogger happy hour event was fantastic, with Mexican inspired cuisine catered by Aaron Sanchez that included some of the most incredibly delicious guacamole ever. It was wonderful (if a bit surreal) to be able to sit down and relax and chat and eat while meeting authors and publicists who actually circulated around to us. It was a nice way to wrap up a few very busy days at BEA.

But wait, the story doesn't end there. Once "my" Colleens left, I took up with Florinda and Jill from Rhapsody in Books to devour some delicious baked goods from Magnolia Bakery in bustling Rockefeller Center. The red velvet cupcake was to die for, seriously. But I still needed more sugar, so I hiked up to Serendipity 3 where Heather had signed me up to be her +1 at a get-together arranged by JKS Communications. I finally got to sip on a Frozen Hot Chocolate that I'd been meaning to try for so long among a few bloggers and a pair of authors. It was a great time, and I enjoyed hearing about the reasons the other bloggers at my table started blogging as well as hearing from the two authors, Joe Luniecvicz and Chitoka Webb, about their books. Another great event!


Me and the last of the frozen hot chocolate
(Again, I'd be lost without Heather and her camera.)

Evening. Morning. Next day. Book Blogger Con.

I won't say much here, really. I was about to head to Boston, so I could only attend the first half of the day at Book Blogger Con. I would be lying if I said that I wasn't totally beat and so didn't get nearly as much out of it as I could have. Just the same, Sarah Wendell of Smart Bitches, Trashy Books gave a great, entertaining keynote speech that not only kept me awake but engaged despite my dilapidated state after a few packed full days.

After that I sat in on the Ask a Publisher or Publicist panel, the first portion of which was composed of representatives of some of the major publishing houses, the second of publicists and representatives of smaller publishers. Here I learned that honesty is encouraged even if that means a (respectful) negative review because it has the potential to generate conversation, publishers *do* like to hear about your reviews of their titles that aren't brand new, many are eager to arrange to provide you some blog content if you're in need of a guest post or something, and that Michael Reynolds of Europa Editions would dance naked in Times Square to get some attention for Europa titles. No, really! He said that! Unless I was delirious by then...

Thus ends my BEA recap, but I'm sure you haven't heard the last of it. I'm looking forward to spotlighting some of the many books I gathered during my time at BEA. Until then - happy reading!

BEA 2011 Day 2

On the second day of BEA (the publisher gave to me, a partridge in a pear tree! Or not.), I rose early (but not nearly as early as some) to get in line for the show floor. I did this to practice for a long day of waiting in lines so long that people repeatedly asked, "What's this LINE for?" Some answers? Crossed by Ally Condie, The Leftovers by Tom Perotta, The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, and Chris Van Allsburg!

I was desperately in love with Chris Van Allsburg's beautifully illustrated books throughout my childhood, so I was eager to get in line for his signing. The publisher was giving away copies of The Chronicles of Harris Burdick in which numerous big name authors put stories to Van Allsburg's formerly wordless The Mysteries of Harris Burdick. It looks fantastic, and I can't wait for it to arrive in my box of books that will hopefully have arrived at my house by the time this posts. Additionally Chris was signing nice posters of the book cover. Honestly, I've been enamored of his work for so long, he probably could have been signing used paper cups and I would have stood in line for it, but the poster is much much much better.



After much line standing and book acquiring, I stashed my books in the shipping room and headed back to the hotel. After a short rest, and a lengthy effort at getting a cab, Heather and I finally made it to the (again, packed!) Harper Collins Celebration of Book Bloggers event. There were drinks and tote bags with books in them and, of course, bloggers galore. I finally got to meet, in passing, Shanyn from Chick Loves Lit who I'd been excited to meet ever since I interviewed her for last year's Book Blogger Appreciation week. I lurked (lurking is another of my many worthless skills) by a table until I was able to join it and spent some time chatting with Teddy Rose from So Many Precious Books, So Little Time and Jenn from Picky Girl among others.

Shortly thereafter, Heather invited me along to dinner with a bunch of bloggers at a nice Italian place called Bice. There were 11 of us there, but I spent most of my time talking with Sheila from Book Journey, Florinda from The 3 R's Blog, Alison from Alison's Book Marks, Ann from Books on the Nightstand, and Michelle from Red Headed Book Child.

Here we all are! (Thanks to Heather for the photo!)



Reagan (Miss Remmers' Review), Heather, Me, Sheila, Florinda, Michelle, Alison, Ann, Stacy (A Novel Source), and Natalie (Coffee and a Book Chick).

At the end of the evening, we stuffed illegally many of us into a cab, and headed back to the hotel.

And that was the second day! Stay tuned for Days 3 and 4 which I will attempt to squish into only one post. Crazy, no?

BEA 2011 Day 1

Greetings one and all, I am freshly returned from BEA, Book Blogger Con, and Boston and am ready to regale you with tales of books and bookish adventures. Unfortunately, immediately upon my return from my city adventures, I fell ill with a headcold, but hopefully this post will not reflect my foggy state of mind.

My trip got off to an inauspicious start when I drove my car to the train station in New Jersey (where I would be returning via Amtrak) and found the rather large parking garage to be completely full. After an hour long rigamarole that involved my driving around the garage at length anyway, being directed to an outer surface lot that was also full, and finally being parked on the grid lines in the best spot in the garage, I ascended the train platform to wait for an NJ transit train to deliver me to the city nearly an hour after I had intended to depart. While loitering on the platform, I got a call from my hotel roomie, Heather, informing me that my other hotel roomie, Amanda wouldn't be coming after all. Let's just say, by the time I got on the train I was sorely in need of some bookish cheering up.



Some hour later I arrived at Heather and I's compact Best Western hotel room, dropped off my bags, and hustled off to the Javits past carriage horses, and a collision repair center for taxicabs on one side and the vehicles of the masses on the other. I'm pretty sure there was a gentlemen's club nestled between the damaged automobiles, too. The street definitely had character, but at a half a block from the convention center, it beat all for convenience and value.

So onto the show floor I went, at which point a lunch time lull had descended allowing me to wander the floor and get my bearings and worry about where in the heck all the books were simultaneously. I made the mistake of wandering too close to the L. Ron Hubbard booth and its representative became the official first person I talked to. Somewhere around that time I finally happened on a book I was dying to have. I'd been looking forward to Chad Harbach's The Art of Fielding ever since I heard it was being buzzed at BEA. When I saw the author signing I stumbled into a very short line and walked away with this book in my hand.



Shortly thereafter I happened upon Diana Abu-Jaber's signing of her buzz book, Birds of Paradise, which I eagerly got in line for. Somehow, and surprisingly unawkwardly (I am usually very talented at being awkward) the subject of my blog came up, and I bestowed upon her my very first business card of the show. This was so unexpected that I hadn't even remembered to put cards in the back of my ID badge, so the formerly missing awkwardness ensued as I attempted to dig a card out of my bag.

Enough of this longwindedness, though. People at booths were talked to, a reasonable amount of books were acquired. I attended the standing room only YA Editors Buzz where I heard all about a bunch of really great sounding YA titles only one of which I actually acquired over the course of the show. How'd that happen? With the Adult Editors Buzz titles it seemed I couldn't turn a corner without tripping over a pile of them for the taking. I managed to grab a copy of Laini Turner's Daughter of Smoke and Bone, but am looking forward to acquiring the others by other means when the time comes, after hearing them so glowingly presented.

A few books later, I started a shipping box at the Javits and headed back to the hotel to meet up with Heather. We ate a delicious and expansive dinner at a diner with an immense menu and got to know each other before we met up with Reagan to attempt a subway trip to the very packed Bookrageous Bash. Despite our inexperience with the NYC subway, we made it there (and back!) in one piece without getting lost even once. We were rewarded with drinks and shouted conversations with newly met bloggers which was good times but kind of really hot and crowded and uber-loud. Nonetheless, what conversation I did manage to have with Reagan, Kim from Sophisticated Dorkiness, Cass from Bonjour, Cass!, and others was fun!

And then there was sleeping, and then there was morning, the second day....

In the interests of keeping this short-ish, I think perhaps it is wise to divide this recap into days. Look for more in the near future!

On My Way to BEA!

Greetings all! By the time this posts, I'll be on my way to BEA 2011 and after that on to Boston to visit a friend. My plans include much being out and about, so your best chance of finding me this week, if you're not at BEA, is probably via Twitter.

For the record, here I am, in polka dots. If you see me at BEA, please say hi! I'm really very nice, but can be on the shy side.



If you've already seen me and said hi and have come into possession of one of my overabundance of business cards, thanks for stopping by my blog!

My name is Megan and I've been blogging here at Leafing Through Life since 2007. I have a full time job in the medical field by day, but much of the rest of the time I love reading and writing about everything from literary to young adult fiction. If you're interested in finding out more about the types of books I like to read and review, please check out my review policy.

For a taste of my book reviewing, try these...

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray
The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue
Family Sentence by Jeanine Cornillot

Questions? Comments? Feel free to send me an e-mail at sweeme06 at yahoo dot com.

Here's wishing everyone, whether you're at BEA or not, a fantastic week!

BEA, Book Blogger Con, and Other Bad Excuses

Greetings, Blogosphere! Oh how I have been missing you!

You see, all winter, I did pretty much nothing but stay home and read and blog and read blogs. I even managed to form myself into a fairly consistent poster, if not a frequent one. Then April came, and I started doing things and making travel plans and the pace of life started to pick up. Then May came and the pace of life spun out of control and will probably continue to do so.

I finally decided that BEA and Book Blogger Con are indeed in the cards for me this year. I'm all registered up and ready to go. Okay, maybe not ready to go. Maybe in a planning fervor attempting to be ready to go. It's really not long now. I managed to totally luck out and now have two great roommates with a possible third to come.

Ironically, registering for BEA/BBC and all the plans that need making and the logistics that need working out make me into a terrible blogger. I've been so busy figuring what to do and who to see and when to see them and how to get there that I haven't had much time left for actual blogging. I'm sure I'll get back on my blogging horse. If not this week, then the week after, and if not that week then definitely after BEA. But trust me, I have not forgotten you, dear blogosphere, and I shall be back right after I finish dogsitting, planning travel to NYC and Boston, making caramel apples (ARGH!), trying to get a new job, having ginormous yard sales to raise a few extra bucks to pay for my travel extravaganza and so on.

That all said, if you're going to BEA and want to meet up for lunch or dinner or to wander the show floor together or some other enticing activity, please send me an e-mail at toadacious1 at yahoo dot com. I'm planning to be in NYC from around noon on Tuesday May 24th until around 1 on Friday the 27th, and I'd love to put some more faces with names. I fully intend to e-mail some people to twist their arms until they agree to hang out with me, but it seems the harder I try the more things are getting left until the last minute, so if you want a BEA buddy please don't hesitate to send me an e-mail, and we can skip the whole late in the game arm-twisting thing. ;-)

In other news, the book keeping me company this week that was from hell (the week, not the book!) has been Tabloid City by Pete Hamill. I'd heard that Hamill writes New York so well, and now I see that it's absolutely true. From what I've read so far, I'm eager to dig into Hamill's other books, many of which are languishing on my shelves. In terms of subject matter Tabloid City isn't exactly happy, but it's still probably been one of the best things about my week and a book that's getting me in that New York state of mind. Perfect timing!

I'm off to take my mom to the movies for Mother's Day shortly. Hope all you mommies are having a great Mother's Day!

Have a lovely day, all, and happy reading!

To BEA or Not To BEA...?

That is the question. (*hardeeharhar* Sorry, I'll be here all week. All month. All year, even.)

Hi, my name is Megan and I suffer from a debilitating condition called "Decision Making Impairment." It's likely that you know someone who suffers or that you yourself suffer from this troublesome disease. Do you find yourself unable to do something so simple as choose an entree on a menu that is too large? Does the though of making a major life decision make you want to go cry in a corner? Does the choice of where to spend oh, $1000 or so find you rocking back and forth manically trying to stop your teeth from chattering? Does your total inability to make decisions both large and small give you the compulsion to cook up dozens of internet polls so that people you've never laid eyes on in person who are far less engaged in your life than you are can decide with the click of a button what you should eat for dinner or how should spend your meager savings? If so, you may, like me, be Decision Making Impaired.

(P.S. If you're strapped for time, you could probably just skip the next few paragraphs of waffling/evidence of extreme Decision Making Impairment and pick up with the important questions at the bottom. Not that I recommend that or anything. Just saying. Thanks. - The Management)

I'm sure you're thinking, right about now, that I may be coming to some point with all this. Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but... No really, I am. You may have heard of this little thing called BEA. Book Expo America, and accompanying Book Blogger Convention, of course. So have I. In fact, last year I was there, and I had a fantabulous time. For real. There were bloggers and books and authors and more books and signed books and people I'd just met talking to me about books and people on stages having intelligent conversations about books and buzz about upcoming books and there were those pirates that were supposed to mail me that picture of me and them (and BOOKS!), but the picture never showed up, and you just can't trust pirates (even ones with BOOKS), but that is another story altogether. So, it was great. Last year it even brought me out of a months long bloggery slump. This year, I feel way more steady as a blogger, so maybe it'd be even better for me to go this year.

However, it cost me in the neighborhood of $1000 for my 3 day stay. You heard it here first one THOUSAND dollars for THREE DAYS (and that's WITH the discounted BEA hotel rate). I was into NYC on Wednesday morning around 7 AM and out by 6 PM on Friday evening with my bank account suddenly just about $1000 emptier, and I'm pretty sure my soul fell out while I was trying to squeeze my suitcase and me and a massive tote bag full of Book Blogger Con swag onto a New Jersey Transit train on the Friday before Memorial Day Weekend. Actually, I may have sold my soul to get a spot on the train. I think that may actually be how it works when the entire free world is trying to get out of NYC for a long holiday weekend.

So, here I am this year, thinking about BEA/BBC. Yes, I want to go. It's great fun. I even have the money, sort of. I even have about a trillion leftover business cards despite throwing them at everything that walks. Alas, I also have creeping doubts. Like, should I save my $1000 for something I haven't already done or something I should be doing but am not doing (*ahem* getting ahead on my student loans? Looking for a new place to live?)? Can I manage to negotiate the mostly impenetrable logistics of getting to New York City just from Pennsylvania any better than I did last year? Different people are going to be there this year. As a matter of fact, I don't even really have a clear idea of WHO is going to be there this year from the blogosphere or whether they will even hang out with me.

So, I need help, because for the Decision Making Impaired weighing her options, this has proved to be an insurmountable decision. At one point, I thought I'd decided to skip it this year, but I didn't shut the door tight enough on it and out popped BEA again calling out my name. So here I am, dear readers, begging your assistance in support of the Decision Making Impaired. I've resisted the temptation to compile a poll. You need not donate any money, but could I prevail upon you to answer me some questions that might nudge me in one direction or the other?

Like...

- Will you be at BEA/BBC? (I sooo miss the "Attendees" page on the Book Blogger Con website. I got a bunch of page views off of it in the aftermath of the event, too. *sad face*)
- If so, are you the sort of benevolent blogger/person who will hang out with me there? (On the show floor? Or, even better, for like lunches and dinners and stuff?)
- Are you going and secretly (or not so secretly) need a nice, well-behaved, non-snoring, only mildly insecure roommate (like yours truly) to help defray the cost of that overpriced New York City hotel room and to, you know, keep you company or whatever?
- Do you know of any amazingly simple ways I may have overlooked to get to NYC from Pennsylvania (and the reverse) without A) actually driving my car into the city, B) spending an additional small fortune, or C) having the life squished out of me in Penn Station?
- Have you any other assorted information and/or tantalizing details that might sway me in my decision-making?

Thanks in advance for any assistance you or your friends can lend to the severely Decision Making Impaired. We are forever indebted (if indeed you do assist us). I mean, uh, me.

Happy Sunday!

BEA Plunder the Vlog Part 2

Yes. It's me. Vlogging again. I considered the comments on the last post to be sufficient encouragement to try my hand at this again. If that wasn't your intention, dear commenters, do accept my apologies.

Here's the thing. I attempted to upload it to YouTube, two different ways and the video and audio still doesn't seem to me to sync up quite right. It's better than the last one, I think, but definitely still not quite right. Then I uploaded it to Photobucket and it came out quite nice, but it won't embed in this post. Then, in keeping with my M.O., I got frustrated and quit. The end result is that today...we have options. You can A) watch the not quite right version here if you're pressed for time and/or don't like having to do that extra click or B) click over to Photobucket and watch the better version there (unfortunately, I am also in the "better" version, but at least the words match up with the movements my mouth is making!). Of course, there is an option C) don't watch it at all, but who would want to do that when you have this golden opportunity to hear me awkwardly talk about books? Who knows when I'll get frustrated for good with all this video stuff and wander off to look at shiny things, never to be seen on your computer monitor again?

Also, if you choose options A or B, you might have to crank up the volume a little. I was A) making this at night when my whole household was asleep (it was late - which might also explain why I'm a little weirder in this video than the last one) and B) still learning how the webcam and accompanying microphone work without having the time to remake the same 9 minute video a dozen times.

I think that concludes all the apologies and disclaimers.

So now, either watch it here...



...or on Photobucket - definitely the better option.



Or, I suppose, you could just consult this list of the books I've rambled on about.

Let's Take the Long Way Home - Gail Caldwell
Dust - Joan Frances Turner
Cleopatra - Stacey Schiff
Molly Fox's Birthday - Deirdre Madden
If I Were You - L. Ron Hubbard
Salvation City - Sigrid Nunez
Oogy - Larry Levin
Voice of America - E.C. Osondu
The Last Princess and the Cup of Immortality - D.R. Whitney
The Gendarme - Mark T. Mustian
Saint Training - Elizabeth Fixmer
The DUFF - Kody Keplinger
Foxybaby - Elizabeth Jolley
The Sugar Mother - Elizabeth Jolley

BEA Plunder the Vlog Part 1

I have a cautionary tale for you.

So, on my first day in New York as I was just laying down to enjoy a late afternoon nap on my bed in the Holiday Inn, in the moment just before sleep (or, well, maybe just before the maintenance guy started pounding on my door because unbeknownst to me, one of my light bulbs was slated for replacement) I remembered that my new laptop came equipped with a webcam. With the rest of my thoughts firmly fixated on the piles of new BEA books I would soon have to share with my readers, I thought to myself, "Self, I've got a brilliant idea! You should make a vlog!" The cautionary part here, of course, is not to let yourself make decisions on four hours of sleep after hours of fevered traveling, ARC grabbing, and meeting people you've never laid eyes on (in person) before. All of this being under-rested and taking giant leaps outside your comfort zone in just one day may well impede your good judgement, and yet, you won't be able to totally dissuade yourself from following through on your half-baked idea in weeks following.

With this in mind, I present to you, my first vlog, in which I chronicle just a fraction of the books I picked up at BEA. Hopefully I did everything right, and you can actually see it. Now, if this goes well, perhaps I'll do another (and another?) chronicling the rest. If it doesn't? Well, look for some nice photographs and a lovely list of the remainder of the enticing fall titles to follow.



Okay, there you have it. Be gentle. ;-)

The Backwards and Disordered BEA/BBC Recap Part 1

The box of BEA plunder arrived to much fanfare the day before yesterday. It (plus reading many other fabulous recaps) has done just what I'd hoped - jogged my fragile memory of the first day and a half. I promise I'll get to the books soon in a way that I hope will be unique, well, unique for me that is. I'm busy reacquainting myself with them in all their awesomeness and will share in short order.

So. Here was the problem with my first day in New York City: I didn't actually start the day in New York City. I started my day at around 5 AM at a Hilton in New Jersey that I'd gotten lost trying to find the night before. Through no fault of the Hilton's, I slept like crap and got up way too early in order to get myself and my suitcase on NJ Transit before rush hour proper. Thankfully, things from this point began to go better, but I'll admit to being in a slight fatigued fog for a significant portion of the first day.



I arrived at the Javits Center well before the exhibit floor of BEA opened, grabbed my badge, and was directed to the press room to get a holder and a lanyard. I proceeded to do so in a state of awestruck wonder, bypassing long lines awaiting the opening of the exhibit hall. Still with much time to spare, I stood in a lengthy line for Starbucks and then began to consider the possibility of getting in the other long lines mentioned earlier until, penetrating through the fog, it dawned on me that, hey, if I go back to the press room with my good old press badge, I can skip the line completely. This positioned me well to get squished to death in the early morning "ARC grab" at the booths of major publishing houses, which, in my ignorance, I proceeded to do. I just managed to escape with my life, and, uh, an enormous bag full of books. I ended up skulking dazedly through the booths accumulating assorted plunder for an indeterminate amount of time. Once I'd begun debating the merits of dragging my tote bag behind me instead of carrying it on my shoulder, I paid a shamefully early visit to the shipping room where I snagged a box and prime spot for the plunder.



Already tired, I reconsidered going to a panel that I had ruled out in my scrupulous (and failed) schedule-making, the Dystopian Fiction panel featuring Ally Condie (Matched) and Sigrid Nunez (Salvation City) among others. It was there that I met my first bloggers I've ever actually met in person in the history of my blogging career who probably had no idea that this was such a banner moment: Amanda from The Zen Leaf and Trisha Eclectic/Eccentric.

Sadly, while the blogger meeting thing was awesome, the panel left a little to be desired, especially considering a certain author's comments whose name and comments I won't reiterate. I slunk off about midway through to cheat on the Dystopia panel with the YA Crossing Over panel, which featured, if you couldn't guess, authors who write books for both young adult and adult audiences. On the panel were Melissa Marr author of the Wicked Lovely series, Jennifer Donnelly author of A Northern Light and the upcoming Revolution, Jeri Smith-Ready (Shade), Stephanie Kuehnert (Ballads of Suburbia), and Michele Jaffe (Rosebush, Stargazer). I thought this one was really interesting. All gave an overview of their most recent or upcoming books and an excellent discussion was had on the difference between adult and young adult audiences, how these authors are making themselves accessible to both, and how all or most dislike that books are divided into young adult and adult categories in bookstores at all.

After that it was time for lunch with book bloggers! I met up with Amanda and Trisha again as well as with Nat from In Spring It Is the Dawn, Sheila from Book Journey, Laura from I'm Booking It, and Reagan from Miss Remmers' Review. The food court was packed and expensive, but we were all loathe to leave the Javits with so much BEA stuff going on on Wednesday, so we all sat down on the floor with our overpriced lunches, exchanged cards, and chatted - lovely ladies all!

(*subliminal message* Sorry....this post is huuuuge, too.)

After a few more minutes haunting the show floor, it was off to YA Editors' Buzz featuring buzzworthy titles for the fall such as Plain Kate, Firelight, The Duff, Matched, and, darnit, I'm forgetting one but I think it was about vampires. Anyhow,the editors were all very enthusiastic, shared funny stories about how they acquired the titles, and made me that much more excited that I did manage to lay my hands on all of the above except Plain Kate, which I'd also love to read at some point.

Shortly thereafter, my paltry amount of sleep from the night before proved to be totally insufficient and I ran out of steam. After one more drop at the box of plunder, I hopped the next shuttle bus for my hotel, and nearly fell asleep during the close to 45 minutes it took the bus to go the few blocks to my hotel. Frustrating though the length of the bus ride was, I did meet some nice people while we were waiting to finally arrive, and I did get back in time to fit a short nap before dinner.

A small group of bloggers including Amanda, Trisha, Avis of She Reads and Reads, Amy of Amy Reads, and I went out for some Indian food. We had a great time talking, watching a Bollywood video, and, even better, watching Trisha and Amy watching the Bollywood video. The food took a while, and we got way too much of it, but a good time was had by all. And I "borrowed" this photo from Amanda's blog to illustrate my story since I am a woeful failure at photo taking despite carrying my camera everywhere.



(From left to right - Amy, Trisha, me, Avis, Amanda)

Finally, Wednesday night Harper Collins had a reception for bloggers at the Algonquin Hotel where I met bloggers galore and an author or two, too. I'll spare you the lengthy list, but I know I had a great time meeting Kathy of Bermudaonion's Weblog, Amy of My Friend Amy, and Natasha of Maw Books among many, many others. It was a great time meeting so many bloggers all in one room, but it was also crazy hot, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't eager to try out my bed at the Holiday Inn.

Refreshed by a good night's sleep, I was at the Javits early for yet more of the same, except a bit more laid back than the first day, and I didn't feel like a total zombie. I did not run or push, but I did get a few (ha!) more ARCs and actually had the chance to slow down a bit, stop by some smaller publishers and actually talk to people at a few booths, an experience sorely lacking in my Wednesday experience and actually quite enjoyable. If I'm able to make another trip to BEA in the future, I definitely hope to get enough sleep for the first day, be less shy, and take more time to talk to the people I meet on the exhibit floor. I definitely didn't quite hit the ground running in that respect, and it's one of my only regrets when it comes to my BEA experience.

I think this brings us to where I left off with the shipping of the box and the standing in the lines enumerated in my previous post Part 2, if you missed it!

The Backwards and Disordered BEA/BBC Recap Part 2

I have returned in one exhausted piece from my New York City adventures this past week at BEA and Book Blogger Convention. According to UPS, my box of plunder is sitting around in Harrisburg somewhere to arrive on Wednesday, which renders me somewhat incapable of giving much of an all-encompassing impression of my first, oh, day and a half at BEA. I was in an overwhelmed stupor for about half my time on the show floor at BEA, so I'm not sure what all is even in the box, and I was so stingy with my photo taking, that I have little to share with you in that regard, either. Until the box comes, that is. I'm hoping the box will help me to recover most of my memories of Wednesday, when I was the most stupefied by everything going on around me. That said, I just hate not writing anything up about my excellent three days of insanity (including pictures!), so I'm going to do my recap in a couple parts. And, oh yeah, backwards! Well, sort of backwards. I figure, why not start from halfway through and regale you with the first part second? If you were at BEA, and your brain was melted by all the wonderfulness like mine (still) is, I'm sure all this might make sense to you. If not, do accept my sincerest apologies for this lack of coherence.

Since the box is the source of my "problems" here and probably will be for some time, given the ridiculous amount of books contained therein, we'll start with me mailing it. At about 11 AM on the second day, I said to myself, "Self, this is getting out of hand. Nothing else will fit in this box of advance copy goodness for shipment." Shortly thereafter, self replied, "Self, I don't care. Let's just make one more pass through X and Y booth before we mail off the box. Otherwise you'll get more and have to fit them in the suitcase. Or maybe you might have to anyway, but whatever. How often does this kind of thing happen to you?" So after I made one more pass, I mailed off the box. Well, I unpacked it, and repacked it to make everything fit, and then mailed it. 44 lbs, $50, UPS. And that is all I will say about the box.

With the box mailed, I knew I had to have some willpower to withstand the call of the exhibit hall for another few hours until the Book Blogger Con reception and the show being over. Again I said to myself (yes, I talked to myself a lot in NYC, okay? You should all be glad that I went all in for my own hotel room. It got loud at times. Heh.), "Self, you and I both know that you have little to no willpower to speak of. The only way to keep you from picking up 10 more books is to stand in line for hours at a time to get only 3 books that you really really really want." So, this is what I did. I waited in lines for signed copies of Jennifer Donnelly's Revolution, Justin Cronin's The Passage, and Sara Gruen's Ape House. Later, with some skill, I actually did fit them all, plus two, into my suitcase.

See Exhibit A:

It may not look like willpower, but it is. And no, I don't know how those other two slipped in. I definitely don't know how that top one slipped in.



Having achieved this great feat, I hustled downstairs for the Book Blogger Convention Reception, where I paid for my book lust by having the (really cute) tote bag with the above pictured books yanking my shoulder off for about 2 full hours (not counting the part where I lugged it back to the Holiday Inn).

Oh wait, hold on. Exhibit B:



See, I told you it was really cute.

The reception was incredible. The large room was positively bursting with bloggers, book publicity people, publishing house people, you name it. We were all mingling in this room like nobody's business. It was an unbelievable reminder of how far book blogging has come and how many people whose lines of work involve getting books into the hands of readers have come to see bloggers as a real force for this purpose. It was at once incredibly exciting and a reminder, at least to me personally, that when it comes to book blogging, we might actually have a bigger weight on a shoulders than we realize in an age when periodicals are backing away from book reviews and promotion at an alarming rate. Even if you forget about ARCs and review copies and all the complicated trappings that sometimes come with those, we're becoming a greater percentage of the population actively keeping love and enthusiasm for books alive right now and in the future (just by being us and loving what we love!).

Anyhow, my preaching aside, I met a lot of fantastic and interesting people, of which, surprisingly few were actually book bloggers, though I do remember spending some time with a few lovely ladies of the book blogosphere: Carrie from Nomadreader, Nat from In Spring It Is the Dawn, and Sheila from Book Journey and a puppy come immediately to mind. Great conversations were had, and the time just flew by, which is saying a lot, because for introverts as I and a great many of us are, time spent mingling in a large group setting doesn't usually lend itself to time "flying by."

I wish I could say that I did something wildly exciting after that, but as it so happens, I was pretty beat, and I retired to my hotel room to eat some takeout, briefly check in on the rest of the book blogosphere, and attempt to reorganize my suitcase to accomodate the additional books...and of course, rejuvenate myself for Friday's Book Blogger Convention!

To be continued....

As I'm writing this, I'm realizing that it's getting awfully long. Now I'm thinking I shall take up three posts with this rambling of which this will be the first but actually the second under the incoherent guidelines mentioned at the beginning of this post. So this is the first post, but I'm calling it the second because if these were in any actual order, this would have been the second post. Get it? No? Okay, good.

Be on the lookout for Part 3 (which is actually the second post!) in the very near future.

Because It's Never Too Late...

...to do what you should have done three days ago.

If you read this on a semi-regular basis, you probably know I'm doing BEA and the Book Blogger Convention this week, a good and legitimate reason for the lack of content you see here and hopefully, once I get home, a great source of content to be seen here for some time into the indeterminate future. I've been having a great time meeting so many book bloggers and publishing people and authors and all sorts of people who really love books, and it has been truly awesome. Really, if you ever get the chance to do this or make a chance to do it, it is an incredible experience! So, if all of you who are reading aren't here meeting me at BEA, I hope you'll bear with me for a moment while I write some stuff for a few new visitors who didn't lose my card. ;-)

Hi, I'm Megan, and I'm a book blogger! If I met you at BEA, thanks for stopping by my humble internet home. I'm sure it was a pleasure meeting you, and I hope to hear from you again in the future.

I work in healthcare, but my real passion is for books. I love to read and review books. I review books of all sorts from literary fiction to historical fiction to young adult and even some memoirs and other non-fiction and (cliche as it may sound) much, much more. Basically, I like to live vicariously through my reading, and whatever captures my interest is what I review here. I am always willing to consider books to review. I pride myself on thorough, honest (but fair and balanced!) reviews. If that's something you'd like to know more about, please check out my review policy.

I've been blogging here with more or less frequency since 2007, review around 40 books a year, and can also be found on Twitter. My best feature, if you can call it that, and also a good way to get a sense of what sorts of book I love are my annual Leafy Awards where I display my slightly warped sense of humor while attempting to, hopefully, honor my best reads of the year(s).

Anyhow, that's enough about me. Hope you had a great BEA (or Armchair BEA, as the case may be), and I'll see again you next week from the safety of your glowing computer screens!

BEA and Book Blogger Con: All Signed Up and Ready(?) To Go

I guess I'm really doing it. After about a month and a half of bargaining, cajoling, pushing, and prodding not to mention some grumbling, whining, and second (and third and fourth) thoughts, I've secured the time off I've been hoping for that will allow me to attend a couple of days of BEA along with Book Blogger Convention. I've paid my blogger con fee, and booked a hotel room that is supposedly a mere 3.5 blocks from the Javits Center. A few more logistics plus a lot more time spent telling myself it will be great fun and not utterly terrifying, and I should be ready to go!

I doubt such a thing could be much further out of my comfort zone or less in keeping with the crummy blogger I've been lately. However, NYC is such an easy trip for me that I think I'd beat myself up forever for missing out on the opportunity. That, and I try to make a habit out of not letting myself get too comfortable, so this should be just the ticket...right?

Anyhow, despite my reservations, I am really looking forward to putting some faces with some names and hoping I won't end up being the biggest BEA wallflower ever.

How about you? Will you be there? Are you a little nervous? And most importantly, can I interest you in meeting me? ;-)