Woo! Half way through day 2 of Book Expo and it has already been wild.
It seems scaled down this year. Maybe there are less booths or maybe there are less people, but the event seems smaller. Not less chaotic though. Most of the people in lines are librarians and media types, and the presence of bloggers in waaaay down to which is super sad. This has always been one of the best places to really connect with the publishers and authors. And I can’t tell you how many books I’ve found at that I probably wouldn’t have picked up at the bookstore and then raved about until people were ready to put me in an asylum.
So far the books I’ve gotten that I knew I was excited for were:
All The Crooked Saints by the YA rockstar Maggie Stiefvater
Warcross by Marie Lu
Beasts Made of Night by Tochi Onyebuchi. He was so nice. Alexandra was the first person he ever signed a book for. #picsoritdidnthappen
Books we were not expecting were:
The Mortal Coil by Emily Suvada
The Awkward Path to Getting Lucky by Summer Heacock. She was so nice. We bonded over Fitbit step counts. Currently mine is at 12,000 and it’s only 2:30.
Beserker by Emily Laybourne
We are currently sitting down. Who knew that the words “sitting down” could get me so excited. This is event is my crossfit.
Second half of the day we figured out late that it was free to dumb our books in the rolling bags we brought. Duh. HOW LONG BEFORE WE LEARN. This is a thing we do every year. 50 lbs gone so maybe my headache will go away.
No wonder we are lagging.
I am super excited. I got Dangerous Minds: My Friendship with a Serial Killer signed by M. William Phelps. If you watch a lot of true crime on YouTube you totally know the guy. In his book he finally reveals who his contact is. I watch the show with my co-worker a lot as we work so she is going to FLIP when I give it to her.
Managed to pick up Sarah Porter’s new book without much incident. I am surprised at how quiet the line is. Last year Vaasa in the Night was gone before you could say “Russian fairy tale retelling”. Maybe supernatural horror isn’t quite as popular as a YA genre, as it is in adult fiction? Doesn’t matter to me. Vassa was phenomenal so I am 100% down for this little beauty.
But we are not done yet. We managed to score tickets to Hilary Clinton’s Main Stage tonight.
I never thought I would see the end of the day. I am exhausted, waiting to shower, and ready for bed. Please, sweet Morpheus, bed.
Listening to Hilary talk about the memoir she is writing about the recent election was extremely interesting and worth the extra time. It’s so bizarre to see her in the room without a screen in between. That woman is accomplished in ways I can’t even imagine. For anyone who doubts that check out the Stuff Mom Never Told You Podcast episode on her.
It was fascinating to examine the crowd of people who showed up to see her: mostly women; mostly white women. I have no idea whether that says something about her own demographic or the demographics of people in the publishing industry. Either way, there is no doubt that she would have been a President for everyone, and a President who cares had she been elected. It’s truly unfortunate.
The books we collected today have now been sorted. We are getting masterful at this. We can definitely get all out books on the plane and there were almost no books that we didn’t want. Our self-control is impressive. #noregrets
It’s always significant which is the first Book Expo book you start reading out of all of them. Mine is Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo.
Cheers guy!
