Lazy Discussion: Book Con this Saturday in Chicago!

This Saturday is Book Con, but it is in Chicago. I wish they would rotate cities throughout the year. May can be New York City's month. I hope it's back in NYC next year.

Also, as my luck would have it, the year I can't attend is the same year a few of my favorite authors will be there. That just made me make a mock schedule of my imaginary day at Book Con:

8:00 AM -10:00 AM - Queue up for wristbands in the Autographing Area. 
Definitely get wristbands for Pierce Brown and Nicola Yoon. After I have those try for Scott Sigler and David Levithan.

11:15 AM - 12:15 PM - Unwritten: Stories You Haven’t Read (Yet)

Authors write more stories than they ever get published… and even more remain in their heads, unwritten. How do Authors choose one idea from the many? What makes a story worth telling, and what deserves to be cut? Learn this and more from bestselling Authors Pierce Brown (The Red Rising Trilogy), Justin Cronin (The Passage Trilogy), Naomi Novik (Temeraire series, Uprooted) and Scott Sigler (The Generations Trilogy). Moderated by editor at Del Rey Books, Michael Braff.

Speakers:
Justin Cronin, Scott Sigler, Pierce Brown, Naomi Novik, Michael Braff, 

Pierce Brown Autographing 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM, BookCon Autographing Area 
I could have gotten my copy of Golden Son signed.

Depending on the time and the queues:
Scott Sigler Autographing 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM, BookCon Autographing Area
A free galley will be provided for singing.

I want the sequel to Alive!

A must see panel:
1:15 PM - 2:00 PM - The Power & Importance of Historical Fiction for Teens

Following in the long literary tradition of Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl and Lois Lowry’s Number the Stars, Ruta Sepetys and Monica Hesse mine untold stories and perspectives of young people during WWII, making them fresh and relatable to today’s teens. In Salt to the Sea, Sepetys uncovers the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff, the single worst maritime tragedy in history. In Girl in the Blue Coat, Hesse tells a counterpoint to The Diary of a Young Girl, exploring how a non-Jewish teen in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam could navigate the outside world to join the resistance. This spirited discussion of historical fiction will be moderated by a journalist from Bustle.

Speakers: Ruta Sepetys, Monica Hesse, Sam Maggs.

I am currently reading Salt to the Sea and added Girl in the Blue Coat to my TBR pile.

2:45 PM - 3:45 PM - Reality Bites – Contemporary YA Takes the Stage

YA authors David Arnold, David Levithan, Jennifer Niven, John Corey Whaley and Nicola Yoon come to BookCon to talk about their beloved bestsellers and their latest novels, all grounded in reality. Greta Johnsen, co-host of WBEZ-Chicago's Nerdette Podcast, moderates.

I've read and enjoyed David and Nicola's books.

4:00 PM - 5:00 PM Ruta Sepetys In-Booth Signing 
Penguin Random House Booth: 2433
Cost for Autograph Free (Item provided for signing)

After meeting Ruta and already having a wristband I'd run over to the Autographing Area for

4:15 PM - 5:15 PM Nicola Yoon Autographing
Come meet Nicola Yoon! A free galley will be provided for this signing and Fans can bring their own books from home to be signed. 

And I would hope to hop on the queue for David Levithan. His singing is at the same time and place.

Then the day would be over. :(

Since I won't be there a friend and I will be doing our annual book crawl. It's when we weed out some of our books, go to the city to sell what we can at Strand and donate the rest to Housing Works.

Will you be at Book Con this Saturday? What are your plans?

The Book Con Wrap Up!

It has been a week since the first ever Book Con in New York City, and to say I'm still tired is an understatement! Held at the Jacob Javits Center, it was basically a mini convention of books.

Before it started on Saturday, that Friday night there was a kickoff event. A panel geared toward This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper and the upcoming movie adaptation of it. Along with Jonathan he was joined by the film's stars Tina Fey and Jason Bateman and the director Shawn Levy. It was a great panel. Jonathan ended up reading a few passages from the book and they showed the scenes from the movie. I really suggest reading the book before the movie comes out because this movie is going to be amazing.

The next day was book con! And let me say, the amount of people there was shocking. It didn't really help that it felt like two different conventions going on because technically BEA was still happening. I got there super early and planned my whole day around author signings. I wish I could have taken some pictures of the lines that were there because they were massive! Mostly everyone wanted tickets for Cassie Clare/Holly Black signings. I ended up getting a ticket for them and Maggie Stiefvater but when I saw all the other authors I wanted to meet, I gave the tickets to some girls who really wanted to meet them. All about paying it forward.

 

The moment I walked in, I was herded through the exhibit hall. I had books basically thrust into my face which wasn't all so bad. That was the only time that day that I felt like things were semi normal because after that everywhere I walked there were people just there.

A friend of mine, who was actually a BEA attendee, advised me to start making choices. I started the day with a list of 23 different signings I wanted to go to. Out of 23 I made it to 7. The lines were long but fun. The amount of people I got to meet who were just book lovers was amazing. Even one girl who had a BEA badge, let me borrow it so I could sneak over to the BEA only side of the center so I could get some Pinkberry. I hadn't eaten anything since the day before and by 10 am I was already exhausted.

 Danielle Fishel (left) and Sylvia Day (below)

These were two of my favorite signings that happened. Danielle was extremely nice and Sylvia was a doll. (Sidenote: The button I'm wearing says "My book boyfriend is _____" I put Augustus as in Waters. Apparently I wasn't so original in that choice.)

Because of my choice to do more signings, I didn't get to go to any panels except one. My friend got to go to the Veronica Roth and Alex London conversation though. From the pictures she took, it seemed like it was a good time. Again, with the amount of people present, I don't know how anyone go anywhere. The lines to just get into the rooms for any of the panels was horrendous. There was a panel for The Fault in Our Stars, which I wanted to go to but because everyone wanted to go to that, the line was maybe over 1,000 people it felt like. My friends and I decided to leave the line and go to a panel with Danielle Page, Marie Lu, Alaya Dawn Johnson and moderated by Veronica Roth where they discussed dystopias. The line for that panel was also extremely long but not as bad as some others. We ended up meeting a couple of new authors among the crowd. Erica Cameron, author of Sing Sweet Nightingale, who described her book as a cross between Alice in Wonderland and Beetlejuice. I was sold! The other was A.R. Kahler, author of The Immortal Circus and Martyr. He even told us that he used to be a circus performer. How cool is that?!

The panel ended up being really good and made me want to read more dystopias and their books. The ladies talked about what things they took from real life to mold the worlds of their books which I thought was really interesting. Marie Lu talked about how in Legend series, it is basically California. Alaya went into a deep explanation of how she came up with the concept of The Summer Prince. Danielle even talked how she used to work as a writer on a popular soap opera and the differences between that and writing books.

Overall, I would say Book Con was a success and it will probably be something I do again. Maybe next year I will be part of BEA instead.

I ended up getting a lot of books as well. Some I already had in my head to get and others I had never heard of but that is the fun of something like this. Discovering new reads.

My Book Haul

• Planning for Love by Christi Barth
• Rescue at Cardwell Ranch & Wanted Woman by B.J. Daniels
• The Cursed by Heather Graham
• The Last Breath by Kimberly Belle
• Wait for You by J. Lynn
• Avenge Me by Maisey Yates
• Unbreakable by Kami Garcia
• Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor
• Madame Picasso by Anne Girard
• Little Mercies by Heather Gudenkauf
• The 100 by Kass Morgan
• Bared to You by Sylvia Day
• Spellbound by Sylvia Day
• Somewhat Close to Normal by Ebonye Octavia Gussine
• The Good Girl by Mary Kubica
• The Prophet by Michael Koryta
• The Girl Who Never Was by Skylar Dorset
• Faking It by Cora Carmack
• One Last Thing Before I Go by Jonathan Tropper
• Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld 
• Life by Committee by Corey Ann Haydu
• Black Ice b Becca Fitzpatrick
• Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Telley

Here are a couple more pictures I took while there. (It isn't much)

(Taken by my friend)

Until Next Time!