my books. my life.

Note: These recaps may take awhile to get out, but I promise they are coming. I hope you are not tired of them by the time I am finished.

Ben and I arrived in New York (or, more accurately, New Jersey) late Wednesday night. While everyone else had already spent a day or two at the Javits Center, Thursday was our first and only day.

Adult Author Breakfast

Emily, Ben, and I arrived nice and early for the Adult Author Breakfast. We paid extra to receive an actual breakfast but I guess what we were really buying were better seats (as Jon Stewart accurately described the breakfast as “muffin baskets”). In any case, the speakers more than made up for any deficiencies in the food.

Jon Stewart was MC of the event. As a long time fan of his, this may have been the real reason I wanted to go to the breakfast. He was funny, just as expected, making fun of his role as an “author” and teasing those who asked questions more properly described as statements. Jon Stewart has a new book coming out called Earth (The Book): A Visitor’s Guide to the Human Race.

Next up was Condaleeza Rice, our former Secretary of State and author of the upcoming book, Condoleezza Rice: A Memoir of My Extraordinary, Ordinary Family and Me. Most of you probably already know that my political views do not line up (at all) with Ms Rice’s and that I (like many) was not a fan of the administration she worked for. However, I have always respected her and I was thoroughly impressed with her tales of her family and the road that led her to Secretary of State. I think this book would be interesting for anyone, regardless of politics, and Jon Stewart accurately summed up my feelings when she was done by saying, “Don’t make me like you.”

John Grisham spoke next about his newest project, The Confession: A Novel. I have never read a Grisham novel (although I did listen to part of Runaway Jury with my parents on the drive from Michigan to Massachusetts once). I don’t know if I’ll read this one either, but I enjoyed listening to Grisham speak. I can see why he would have made a good Southern lawyer.

The final speaker was Mary Roach. I have still not read Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers but I certainly will be after hearing her speak about her upcoming book, Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void. After the breakfast we were able to meet Mary Roach and have her sign our copies of Packing for Mars (and I may have an extra one for a giveaway here soon).

BEA

After the breakfast, the three of us began wondering the floor. We were slowly overcome by books and tote bags, but it was so much fun visiting the different booths. I already discussed my three best snags of the day, but there were a few other highlights, including:

• Meeting RL Stine (which prompted a text to my brother saying that I just talked to RL Stine about him and a response of “where are you?”).
• Running into fellow Floridian Book Blogger Jenny in the bathroom, not being sure it was actually her so not saying anything, and then realizing on twitter later that she did the exact same thing. We found each other later.
• Meeting Kelly after a morning of her leaving a place right before we arrived. Kelly is one of the bloggers I most wanted to “meet.”
• Being pressured by an author and publisher into unknowingly picking up a signed copy of erotic stories.
• Meeting the wonderful people of Europa Editions.
• Having a near-perfect husband who carried all the heavy stuff all day (and yet my back was still in excruciating pain by the end of the day).

Book Blogger Reception

At the end of the day, I left a very tired Ben and Emily in the hallway to rest while I went in to the author reception hosted by the Book Blogger Convention. I met quite a few bloggers and it was great to put real faces with names (and twitter handles). I also was able to chat with some authors and publicists. I couldn’t stay long, but I’m glad I went because some people were not going to be at the convention the next day (although I STILL missed some people I was really hoping to meet).

The Rest of the Evening

After finally getting in a cab after what I think may have been an hour of looking for one, we headed back to Hoboken, added Emily’s boyfriend, Ryan, to our little group and went out to dinner. Upon returning to their apartment, I think everyone collapsed out of exhaustion.