I went to BEA last week, which is always an opportunity for me to re-connect with the book blogging world and get all excited about books again. Reading has fallen way down my priority list the last few months, pushed down by family stuff, Nats baseball, bad reality TV, and work (not necessarily in that order). But once again I’ve returned from NY recommitted to reading and to my blog.
I also have tons of books coming en route from NY. I picked up a bunch of ARCs, some signed books that I am excited about, and lots of stuff for my kids. I’ll post some pictures once the books arrive. I also went to some interesting panels, like Hot Fall Fiction, Editor’s Picks: Literary Fiction, Middle Grade Fiction Buzz Books, and more. There is a lot of exciting fiction coming out this year.
One great event I went to was a publicist speed dating session. I sat a table with a number of other bloggers/book people and every ten minutes, a new publicist would appear and tell us about 6 or so new titles. Pretty cool. Got a lot of promising books out of that one too.
I also went to the annual audiobook narrator/blogger meetup, which is one of my favorite parts of BEA. I LOVE talking to narrators about audiobooks and the process that goes into making them. Such a cool group of people.
As far as reading goes, I finally finished the second Jane Smiley installment in her new trilogy – Early Warning. I will review it this week. I’ve started the new Judy Blume novel In The Unlikely Event on audio, and picked up a new BEA book last night. So, I’m back!
Here are some pics of the middle grade and kids’ authors I met at BEA, which I took for my kids.
Wendy Mass and her husband Michael Brawer:
Stuart Gibbs:
Louis Sachar:
Rebecca Stead:
Sandra Boynton:
Rosemary Wells: