Sunday Salon: June 2, 2013

This has been quite a week - I was fortunate enough to attend Book Expo America (BEA) which was here in NYC from Wed through Sat. It was a great week of books, authors, bloggers and readers.  Did I mention books?

I LOVE totes and BEA delivered!

I need to creatively stash these throughout the apartment

 I need to go through all this and sort out how I will best feature it all on the blog (if you have suggestions on how you would like to hear about these books, please leave them in the comments). I want to bring these books to you because I am excited about them and also want to make sure I feature them relative to when they publish since I don't read quickly enough to read all this in time! 


Here are some highlights of my week:

 - great book blogger events thrown by Harper Collins, Atria and Penguin which included blogger friends Kathy, Diane, Gayle, Nicole, Candace, Alison, Jenn, Elizabeth and Julie

 - meeting amazing authors including Joshilyn Jackson, Joseph Kanon, Sue Grafton, Kimberly McCreight, Amy Hill Hearth, Koethi Zan (check out her bio on the website - I think it is so well written!), Elizabeth Gilbert and Wally Lamb

 - having breakfast with other bloggers at the home of author Adriana Trigiani (!!) - this was such a lovely morning. Her home is beautiful and she was such a gracious host to us all. She is also invited authors John Searles, Bruce Feiler and Susan Fales-Hill. It was great to meet and talk books, etc with them too!

- cocktails with author Dorothea Benton Frank where we chatted about her road to becoming an author, the city of Charleston, and her latest novel The Last Original Wife. I also discovered a great little place in the city - The Tipsy Parson - they had a wonderful menu of drinks and eats (even though the pepper jelly on the biscuits almost choked poor Dottie - it was so spicy!)

Ok - off to settle in with a book - hope you all have a great week!

Sunday Salon: May 26, 2013

Happy Sunday everyone! I am so happy to be in the middle of a three day weekend even though the weather does not yet say summer. I am spending the weekend in the city and enjoyed NOT being part of the mass exodus on Friday afternoon. I am taking advantage of my "staycation" by taking a NYC Photo Safari in Central Park tomorrow. I love to take photos but could use some basic guidance on composition and technique - that plus some companionship while taking photos sounds perfect!

BEA
Book Expo America takes place next week in NYC with the Book Blogger Conference on Wednesday followed by the convention through Saturday. I also got tickets to one of the author breakfasts - the one taking place on Saturday (least chance for a work emergency to pre-empt it) which includes Helen Fielding (of Bridget Jones fame), John Lewis, Chris Matthews and Diana Gabaldon. I have taken Wednesday through Friday off and am looking forward to taking advantage of some time on the convention room floor - last year I didn't make it there at all.  Some work events have started to encroach but I still have time blocked off and I am hanging on to it.

I put together two Pinterest boards for next week - one is BEA Essentials which includes items I have found helpful in prior years at the conference.  I also have a board entitled MY NYC which includes places and things to do in the city.  I will continue to add to both over the week so check back - also let me know your essentials and favorite places in the city and I can add them.

I realized one of the last times I was at BEA, that it can be hard to recognize people when you only know them by their blog headers and avatars, so I am including a picture of myself here - I look forward to meeting you at BEA!

Reading



This week I posted two reviews - The Love Wars by L.Alison Heller and The Paradise Guest House by Ellen Sussman.

Right now I am reading Commencement by J.Courtney Sullivan which is perfectly suited to this season of graduations and is making me nostalgic for my own college days.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!