BEA 2010, Pt. 2

I wanted to save Thursday of BEA for a different post because I feel like, in some ways, more happened on this day than on the previous. So Thursday I woke up with a much better sense of how to navigate the exhibitions and make the most out of my time there. I debated getting up an hour earlier and taking the earlier train in so that I could somehow attempt to grab some 9am titles, particularly Cassandra Clare's The Clockwork Angel, which was heavily advertised beforehand as having only 300 ARCs available. In the end, however, I decided to uphold my deep-seated dislike of crowds and take my time instead.

I arrived at the Javits Center around 9:20, checked my bag in, and began to wander past the booths, to see if there were any ARCs left that I could still get. I wasn't expecting to get any, however. I meandered past the S&S booth, only to hear a bunch of publicists say to a lady, "You got the last ARC of Clockwork Angel!"

Damn! I couldn't believe that it was almost 9:30 and they had still been giving out ARCs. And then that I had JUST missed it. I was about to leave when I heard the publicists talking amongst themselves, wondering what to do with the last CA ARC that was under the case they had on display. "We should give it away," one of them said, and the others agreed with her.

Well, I decided to go for it. "Excuse me," I said, stepping forward. "Did you say you were giving that ARC away?" After a few exchanged looks, the publicists decided that yeah, they were going to give it to me. Insert a million exclamation points here! We chatted for a bit--I learned that they had an ARC snafu when one box of CA ARCs went missing, disappointing about 20 people earlier (though lucky for latecomers like me!)--and they even took a posed picture of me taking the ARC out of the case. We exchanged business cards, and it turns out some of the S&S people knew my blog! Check out the picture; Cassandra Clare even tweeted it later:

How crazy is that? That sort of thing hardly EVER happens to me.

(And then I tweeted about it and bloggers brought it up when I met them later that day. Crazy tech-savvy bloggers. lol)

I got to get books signed by a lot of authors I'd been looking forward to meeting or whose books I've wanted to read: Nightshade by Andrea Cremer (and yes, I did get her in on a surprise for Jenny of Wondrous Reads *grins*), Chelsea Campbell and The Rise of Renegade X (she had these cool H, V, and X embossers that she stamped onto each book she signed, and if you don't know what I'm talking about, you should read her book), Mistwood by Leah Cypess (loved her book! and she said she read my review!), and some more.

During those lines I met and/or stood with bloggers Cat (Beyond Books), Laura (Laura's Review Bookshelf), Khy (Frenetic Reader), Taschima (Bloody Bookaholic), Eleni (La Femme Readers), Susan (Wastepaper Prose), and oh goodness so much more and I'm sorry if I forgot you! (There will be another list coming up later in the post/afternoon.) I also got to talk to author Jackie Dolamore (Magic Under Glass), who is a lot of fun. She drew these awesome "name cards/bookplates" of herself in, like, 30 seconds flat, and she showed us an early idea for the cover of her next book. Gorgeous, by the way.

And then for lunch I went outside of Javits (Actually, the exclamation point should come for, I actually ate lunch!). I met up with author friend Lauren Mechling, and happily our mutual blogger friend Cat (Beyond Books) came along because the two of them had been trying to plan for a meet-up as well. So that was great fun. We had lunch at a small bakery. It was a great time; Lauren and Cat even took pictures! (As you can tell by now, I clearly didn't. I'm not good with taking pictures of people.)

As my college friends might say, ADORBS!

After lunch, we came back to Javits, and I got to meet up with Barb and Sarah of Blue Slip Media! This was lovely, because I have been talking to these two ladies for a long time, and Sarah and I have, like, the EXACT SAME reading tastes, and it was just so great getting to meet them in person. Afterwards, I stood in line for signed ARCs of Jennifer Donnelly's upcoming YA, Revolution (finally! she's written another YA!) with blogger Korianne. I also got to see Beth Kephart again, and meet bloggers Keyona (Only Sexy Books Allowed) and Donna (Bites) for the first time! And I can't forget Dominique (The Book Vault)!

I ended the day by getting an ARC of The Passage signed by Justin Cronin. According to the Random House publicist I talked to, they printed 10,000 ARCs for this book. TEN THOUSAND! I don't think I can even imagine that number. That's crazy. I hope to read that book soon.

And now some random (awesome) pictures:

The cover for the last book of the Vampire Academy series! A little weird, but it's VA, so whatevs!

A crazy costume at the EgmontUSA booth to... um... I forget?

And then...after an agonizingly delayed and slow train ride home, my BEA adventure ended. I slept 11 hours that night, and then took a 3-hour nap Friday afternoon, and STILL felt tired. Ah well. It was so worth it, and next year I might even go to Book Blogger Con, as I heard great things about it.

Now what you guys have been waiting for: pictures of the books I got! You can click on them to enlarge, I believe.

The right column is signed ARCs:

The right column is signed finished copies, plus a few on the left side:

Some of the books in the last picture I had gotten from the Strand or the Teen Author Carnival on Monday.

Overall, I had a fantastic time and would only hesitate slightly to go again (the slight hesitation comes from my fear of large crowds). I also learned a lot, probably enough to be able to give advice next year. It was a fantastic time and I'm very glad I decided to take the plunge and go this year--even though next year I might decide to stay in the city at nights, instead of commuting! Hehe.

BEA 2010, Part 1

Whew! I've finally recovered from BEA; moved back into my apartment for the summer; finished cleaning, organizing, and switching rooms; and figured out how to upload my BEA pictures onto my laptop. I'm ready to write my BEA wrap-up post!

It all started on Monday, May 24. I took the bus into NYC and walked the mile or so to the Javits Center to pick up my badge. The building pretty much took my breath away: a glass-enclosed structure spanning nearly four blocks, with book-related billboard advertisements.

Inside, I saw workers putting this together:

Isn't that so cool? It looked amazing too in person. I always admire people who can put these sorts of things together.

After that, I walked the three loooong-foreverrrr blocks to Penn Station, then took the train down to Union Square and the Strand (!) to meet up with some lovely bloggers and authors. Those in attendance included: Sarah Darer Littman, Amy Brecount White, Sharon from Sharon Loves Books and Cats, Drea from Book Blather, and Jess from Find the Time to Read. We had fun browsing the shelves and the ARCs. Then on our walk over to the Teen Author Carnival at the Jefferson Market Library, we met up with Holly Cupala and ran into Lauren Oliver!

Took this picture from Amy's blog. Here's Sharon and me standing next to Amy's book, which we found on the shelves at the Strand!

TAC was more organized than last year's, but still pretty hectic. The 30-something authors were divided up into three panels, each on a separate floor: Paranormal/Mystery, Real Life, and Love & Heartbreak. We only had 30 minutes or so with each panel, which overlapped into one another and made it a little crazy, but it was, as always, fun to listen to the authors talk about their thoughts about their books and the stuff they write about. I must say that the Real Life panel was incredible and set the standards high.

Afterwards, there was a loud and crazy signing session, where each author got their own "station" on several rows of children's bookshelves. I got to meet with and talk to authors Gayle Forman, Sarah Ockler, Kody Keplinger, Stephanie Kuehnert (finally!), Melissa Walker, Heidi Kling, Michael Northrop, Michelle Zink, Jeri Smith-Ready, Maryrose Wood, and probably some more. I love all of these people. Also met a bunch of bloggers, but probably not as much as I should've and wanted to, lol. I do remember having great conversations with Lenore and her husband Daniel, though.

Then the real BEA madness started on Wednesday, when the exhibits hall opened. I arrived there about half an hour late, at 9:30 (didn't want to wake up an hour earlier). By then, most of the 9am grab piles were gone, but I wandered around and got to pick up some exciting books, plus meet some people I've been in contact with for a while, such as Beth from Goodman Media at the EgmontUSA booth. I mostly just wandered around in the morning. Stood in line for Carolyn Mackler's Tangled, when I got to tell her how I've practically grown up reading all her books and love them all (and turns out her brother went to Swarthmore, and she also got accepted to Swarthmore, which just makes her cool points multiply, because NO ONE knows about Swarthmore, let alone goes there/applies there).

Check out the sweet huge typewriter at the Abrams booth!

When I stood in line for a beautiful limited edition signed hardcover ARC of Cornelia Funke's Reckless, I met James and Lee, authors who also run a podcasting-ish site called Authors Like Us. They were a ton of fun to talk books with, and it turns out we had a few mutual author friends/acquaintances as well.

After lunch I got to meet Talya, the lovely bookseller/ future librarian / blogger who contacted me after I WoWed S. A. Bodeen's The Gardener and offered to share with me her extra ARC! Needless to say, she is a wonderful person and we hit it off really well. We swung by the Flux/Llewellyn booth, but there was a signing there and so we scrammed out of there quickly because the crowd were heavy. We stood in several lines together, including the one for Lauren Oliver and Delirium (which I got. Haven't started it yet though. Though the temptation is GREAT)! Also met Angie of Angieville on line; it was so great meeting her in person. I also got Spirit Bound signed by Richelle Mead, which was pretty surreal. Unfortunately I was tongue-tied for the thing, and ended up not saying anything at all. *is lame*

The rest of the afternoon flew by in a flurry of author signings, and soon it was time for me to go and brave the rush-hour world of public transportation to get to the new Meadowlands Stadium for Bon Jovi's first concert! And Train opened for them, which basically put me on a high starting at 7pm. The concert was amazing--Bon Jovi is a brilliant performer. But that's not a story for here--though it's a good story!

Part 2 to come, um, maybe later today. Hopefully... Plus pictures of the books I got!

Waiting on Wednesday (65): BEA Edition

Really, one of the few problems with book blogging is just the sheer unreasonableness of the ratio of books read to books that one wants to read. Every week, my wishlist increases until there's no possible way I can WoW each and every one of them individually. So since BEA is--yeeeeiiiikeeesss!!!---next week (!!!), I'm going to talk about just a handful of books that I'm hoping I'll be able to find there.

Please note that this is just a sliver of the books on my BEA wishlist. I'm aware that I have a habit of always wanting to root for the underdogs, so I often try to WoW books that I haven't seen being very much publicized elsewhere before. But now, I'm going to indulge in my more mainstream desires, because these books are cool too and deserve all the attention they've gotten already. Wheeee!

Paranormalcy by Kiersten White
(HarperTeen / Sept. 21, 2010)

Sixteen-year-old Evie's job is bagging and tagging paranormals. Possessing the strange ability to see through their glamours, she works for the International Paranormal Containment Agency. But when someone--or something--starts taking out the vamps, werewolves, and other odd beasties she's worked hard to help become productive members of society, she's got to figure it out before they all disappear and the world becomes utterly normal.

Normal is so overrated.

This has an almost very "adult urban fantasy" premise, and Evie sounds like she will be an assertive and kickass protagonist. I can totally get behind that! And also, I'm pretty sure that the day after I saw this cover for the first time, I had a dream that inspired an idea for a possible future short story... So yeah, good karma all around. I'm definitely interested in reading this one!

Nightshade by Andrea Cremer
(Philomel / Oct. 19, 2010)

While other teenage girls daydream about boys, Calla Tor imagines ripping out her enemies’ throats. And she wouldn’t have it any other way. Calla was born a warrior and on her eighteenth-birthday she’ll become the alpha female of the next generation of Guardian wolves. But Calla’s predestined path veers off course the moment she saves the life of a wayward hiker, a boy her own age. This human boy’s secret will turn the young pack's world upside down and forever alter the outcome of the centuries-old Witches' War that surrounds them all.

This is another debut YA paranormal that's been getting TONS of great buzz all over. Personally, I'm a vampire girl, but the synopsis reminds me of Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause, which I love a lot, and it sounds like there will be BLOOD AND GUTS. COOL. *is in bloodthirsty mode, as per WIP's requirements* I'm envious of each and every person who's been able to read this already, and would probably go to great (unharmful) lengths to read this.

The Body at the Tower (The Agency, Book 2) by Y. S. Lee
(Candlewick / Aug. 10, 2010)

This is another colourful, action-packed Victorian detective novel about the exploits of agent Mary Quinn. At a young age, Mary Quinn is rescued from the gallows and taken to Miss Scrimshaw's Academy for Girls. The school turns out to be a front for a private detective agency. At age 17, Mary takes on her first case (A Spy in the House). In this, the second book of the series, Mary Quinn sets out to uncover the truth behind a suspicious death at St. Stephen's Tower, better known as the clock tower of the Houses of Parliament. The accident occurred after hours in a highly public part of town and despite the presence of night watchmen. Mary, disguised as Mark Quinn, becomes a builder's assistant to find out the truth about the body at the tower.

I thought Ying's first book, A Spy in the House, was excellent (see my review here), and I can't wait to read the next in the series. Unfortunately, I can't do any raving here without giving out spoilers (the solution to this is obviously for you all to read this so I can talk about this without giving key points away), but yep, I'm super-excited. And the care that Candlewick put into making these covers appealing and accurate to the story is astounding, something that all publishers should take note of and do.

The Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare
(Margaret K. McElderry / Aug. 31, 2010)

Magic is dangerous—but love is more dangerous still.

When sixteen-year-old Tessa Gray crosses the ocean to find her brother, her destination is England, the time is the reign of Queen Victoria, and something terrifying is waiting for her in London's Downworld, where vampires, warlocks and other supernatural folk stalk the gaslit streets. Only the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the world of demons, keep order amidst the chaos.

Kidnapped by the mysterious Dark Sisters, members of a secret organization called The Pandemonium Club, Tessa soon learns that she herself is a Downworlder with a rare ability: the power to transform, at will, into another person. What's more, the Magister, the shadowy figure who runs the Club, will stop at nothing to claim Tessa's power for his own.

Friendless and hunted, Tessa takes refuge with the Shadowhunters of the London Institute, who swear to find her brother if she will use her power to help them. She soon finds herself fascinated by—and torn between—two best friends: Jem, whose fragile beauty hides a deadly secret, and blue-eyed Will, whose caustic wit and volatile moods keep everyone in his life at arm's length...everyone, that is, but Tessa. As their search draws them deep into the heart of an arcane plot that threatens to destroy the Shadowhunters, Tessa realizes that she may need to choose between saving her brother and helping her new friends save the world...and that love may be the most dangerous magic of all.

Helloooo, gorgeous cover. Hellooo, super-long summary. Hello, guilty pleasure.

Matched by Allyson Condie
(Dutton Juvenile / Nov. 30, 2010)

In the novel, a 17-year-old girl, who has waited her entire life to be told by a group known as “the Society” who her soul mate is, has her world upended when she discovers she’s in love with someone other than the group’s pick.

I did tell you this was going to be the big-name WoW, didn't I? I'm really hoping this one is as good as its multi-digit book deal and early reviews indicate. Plus, the cover is genius: simple but memorable and cool.

The Magnificent Twelve: The Call by Michael Grant
(Katherine Tegen Books / Sept. 1, 2010)

I'm not sure if that's the final cover, and I haven't been able to find an official synopsis yet, but Publishers Weekly described it as a "humorous fantasy series" in their BEA Kids' Galleys to Grab article. Plus, it's by Michael Grant, whose Gone series I really enjoy and make for unputdownable vacation reads. I think this one's middle grade, too. As far as adventure goes, if the Gone series is any indication, I think this one will be really good!

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Oy, I'm EXHAUSTED and I don't know why, so I'm going to stop here for now. There are definitely a few more at BEA I'm hoping to find, especially Lauren Oliver's Delirium. You can check out the Kids' Galleys to Grab article and see if any of them are on your wishlist. Hope to see some of you in NYC next week!

Also, I'm sorry if I don't make much sense in this post. I'm trying to reread what I wrote and I can't even focus on what I just wrote. Someone get these stitches out of my mouth and put real food in me, quick!