Que the Rocky Theme. Can you hear it? If not, mosey on down to the bottom of this post and hit play on the video so you can have the music to go along with the theme of this post.
I’ll wait…………………………………………………………………………..
Picture it… I have been working hard to get caught up on the reviews for the books that I have finished and wait for me in a pile. I read and read and add them to a pile. “Review me! Review me!” their little voices cry, but I have procrastinated and busied myself with other things…. and the pile grew and grew….
And now… I am Review Conqueror Girl (picture blue tights, a red cape, and a large coffee cup). I am able to review tall piles of books in a single swipe of my keyboard! Ok…. maybe not a single swipe of the keyboard, but you get the picture. I am moving forward.
Today I will be posting my review of The Opposite of Me as well as my wonderful meeting with author Sarah Pekkanen. I will also be posting my review for The Girls From Ames by Jeffrey Zaslow.
Have an awesome and productive day – I hit the gym tread mill this morning and this afternoon I am rollerblading with my friend Wendy!
This is one of the highlights of the BEA week (and there were so many wonderful things to BEA that this comment is not to be taken lightly). The time with Adriana Trigiani on Wednesday May was….. magical.
Let me back up a bit and let you know how this all came to be.
In February a contest was being held through TLC Book Tours. To be a part of it I was asked as well as many other bloggers to review the first two books in Adriana’s Valentine series – Very Valentine and Brava Valentine. Having read her before and enjoyed her first in Viola in Reel Life , a review I gushed about, I said yes. We were to read and review both books by a certain date and then be entered into a chance to have tea with Adriana while in New York for BEA.
I was one of 6 bloggers that won this chance to have tea with Adriana and I was (and still am) so excited!!!! Adriana (pronounced A-dree-on-uh Tree-johnny) was a blast. She picked us up at the Javits in a limo.
Yes. A limo.
Woo Hoo!!! 😀
We went to a wonderful place called Alice’s teacup where our group was escorted upstairs to a beautifully made table with a set of Adriana’s books wrapped in ribbon and with a card as our place setting. The tea was fantastic and we were introduced to three yummy flavors from a chocolate strawberry tea that was smooth and silky to one that had milk and honey that was creamy and delicious.
Over finger sandwiches and melt in your mouth scones ( I think we agreed the pumpkin was to die for!), as well as a variety of other treats, Adriana chatted with us about the upcoming books to movies (SQUEE!!!) and who is planned to play what role. So exciting!!!
We had so much fun with Adriana – she is down to earth, extremely funny and real. I enjoyed my time with her and the other book bloggers. I am excited to read more of her books and have been recommended many times to read her Big Stone Gap Series, which I plan to do this summer.
Whew! I am up and active, just took me a bit longer to put together what I wanted to this morning then I thought it would. That’s me eternal optimist….LOL 😀
This morning, with the help of Coffee Cup (x3), I attempted to put together a slide show of my New York pics. Yesterday afternoon I posted my BEA recap (check it if you haven’t – it was fun!), but I couldn’t put all my pictures in that post so here is the slide version.
Later I am posting the Tea with Adriana event so don’t miss that – I know my post wont do it justice, but I am going to try.
Have a super day – it is gorgeous here in central Minnesota. I rollerbladed 8 miles yesterday with me friend Wendy (I missed that while I was gone!) and hope to get in some biking later this afternoon.
Ok…. so it is not really on a stick. I just said that. In Minnesota our joke about our State Fair each year is that you can get just about anything on a stick. And it is true. You can even get a deep-fried candy bar – on a stick. I do not kid. And BEA dipped in chocolate would be wonderful… but I digress…
BEA was an event that will stay with me forever. My first time to New York. My first encounter with anything bookish that is so big and soooooo amazing. I will try to give it justice in this post and hopefully not leave out anything.
Sunday May 23
I arrived in New York in the morning with Reagan from Miss Remmers Reviews. We taxied to our hotel and were able to turn in our luggage but not check in yet. SO – we did what those in New York do….. we walked. We walked down to Time Square (just a few blocks from our hotel) and down to Central Park which was gorgeous! We walked into the park… and around within the park and upon stepping out of the park we promptly took a right turn instead of a left and walked 30 blocks out of our way. After catching our error – we turned around and walked the 30+ blocks back and then rewarded ourselves with a yummy lunch before finding our way back to the hotel.
Sunday evening Esme (Chocolates and Croissants) rolled into New York and we all went out to eat together and made our introductions.
Central Park
Monday May 24
We spend the morning and early afternoon checking out New York. Around 3 pm we head to Strand Book Store, home to 18 miles of books. We then stop for frozen Yogurt on our way to the Jefferson Library for the Teen Author Carnival – 30 authors and 3 different categories and panels. This was a lot of fun to listen to the authors and purchase books.
Frozen Yogurt StopAuthor panel Me and - do you know who this is? 😉Amy (My Friend Amy) me, and Natasha (Maw Books)
After the event, we stopped at Olive Garden on the way back to our hotel. Since my readers told me I could not go to chain restaurants while in New York we decided that we could cover it up by changing its name….. so we called it Evilo Dengar (Olive Garden in code).
After dinner we asked the hostess how to hail a cab. I asked if we were to stand out in front of it and she laughed and said only if I wanted to be ran over. She came outside with us and taught us how to wave down a cab. That was really funny. The cab driver told us that even though she told us to wave that was touristy and we were to hold our hand out straight as that is how the professionals do it. (Already we are learning so much!)
Reagan hails a cab
Tuesday May 25
Up early we went to the Javits Center to sit in on a discussion on the Value Of A Book and panel. Afterward we had seen on Twitter that the Class of 2010 Debut authors were going to be at the Javits Center in the lounge. Reagan, Esme, and I went to see what that was about and I am so glad we did. We were the only ones to show up so we had these authors all to ourselves. They gave us t shirts and swag and we talked to them for over an hour. It was a blast!
Me and the class of 2010Signed Book!!!
After this, Esme decided to go explore and Reagan and I decided to go read in Central Park. We went back to our hotel and changed, grabbed our books and off we went. It was a beautiful day and I finished The Opposite Of Me while in the park.
Me, Reagan, Esme
Me reading in the parkReagan reading in Central Park
From there we went back to the hotel, cleaned up and started our walk to the Class of 2010 Author Event. This was a blast! It was many of the same authors we had met this morning, and more. After they shared about their books, we had a chance to buy books and have them signed.
After the signing, we met some other Bloggers and a group of 12 of us went out to dinner. (How super cool is that?) It was so much fun to get to meet a few of the people who’s blogs I read as well as a few that were new to me but I will be sure to check out!
Wednesday May 26
Up at 5 am to go the Javits for the tickets for author signings. Reagan and I went to this, for me mainly just to experience this early excitement. We did well and the line was still short when we got there. (Our hotel was 5 blocks from the Javits so it was within walking distance and the weather was perfect).
Early bird gets the ticket...
After that craziness I grabbed a cup of coffee and hung out in the lounge and waited for the doors to the event floor to open. When they did – seriously look out. I think I was drove by a heard of people to a booth where they slapped a book in my hand and I had to fight my way out of the crowd. (Note to self….next year, stand back until the crowd clears).
It’s hard to explain what this was like – other than to say it is a book lovers paradise. Publishing Houses and authors galore, I tossed my agenda to the wayside and decided just to experience BEA. I met with the Publishers that send me books, talked about upcoming releases, made new connections and picked up books along the way. I mailed one box home before 2 pm when I was to meet with Author, Adriana Trigiani.
I sam not going to go into a lot about the authors tea that I enjoyed with 5 other fabulous bloggers as that is my Wednesday post (stay tuned tomorrow for that one!). I will however let you know it was FABULOUS… and let you have one teaser photo:
Adriana and I
After the tea we went back to the Javits where I walked around tired and happy until Reagan was ready to walk back to our hotel. We quickly changed and were off to the Book Blogger Get Together sponsored by Harper Collins – and it was amazing!!!
Alison (Alison's Book Marks) and I
**Note: I am not giving you all the pics I have – there are too many, I am just giving samples here and plan to do a slideshow yet this week of all my pics.
After this fun meet up I went to dinner with Reagan, Heather (Age 30+ a Lifetime Of Books), and Barbara from Reading Group Choices. We had a blast chatting and chatting and what I thought would be an early night, was not…. and I had a blast.
Thursday, May 27
Reagan had left at 4 am to catch her plane back to Minneapolis as she had a wedding she was in. Late night on Wednesday so did not push myself to get up super early. We got to the convention center around 9 am. Again we separated and off I went to see all the booths I did not the day before. A second box of books was building downstairs in the UPS center with my name on it.
At 2 pm I met Sarah Pekkanen (woo hoo!) when she picked up Kathy (Bermuda Onion) and I for a tour of Simon and Schuster Publishing. This was a great experience and I am not going to go into great details as this is my Thursday post along with the review of Sarah;s book, Opposite Of Me. However, I will share a sneak peek picture:
Books to be printed (Sarah's next book is on this wall - lower left corner!)
After the tour we went back to the Center for the Book Blogger Reception from 4 – 6 pm. This was also a lot of fun, more bloggers to meet and the exchanging of business cards was happening left and right. There were also many authors in this reception and I had a wonderful time mingling with them as well. At the end of this event my roomies and I had an invite to dinner with a couple authors and publishers. I also met my two new roomies at this event – Care from Care’s OnLine Book Club and Kim from Sophisticated Dorkiness. They were so much fun!
Me, Sarah Pekkanen, and Heather (30+ A Lifetime of Books)
Friday, May 28
The Book Blogger Convention was today and this was so cool. They had a wonderful breakfast set up for us and there was a bit of social time before the convention started.
Pre Convention breakfast
The convention itself was informative and fun. I wrote a lot of notes and appreciated hearing the different panel speakers share topic discussions such as social justice, marketing, Bloggers and Authors, Integrity and Ethics, and more. This was a great wrap up to the week.
That evening we were invited to join a group of 22 bloggers for dinner and we had excellent food and company!
My yummy dinnerKim, me, and Carrie (The Roomies)Amy, Nicole, Kim, and CarrieFriday night dinner with Bloggers
I can’t describe what this entire event was like. It was bigger and better than I had imagined. The Book Bloggers are an incredible group of people and I enjoyed my time with each of them.
Saturday, May 29
When I booked my trip to New York I had agreed to stay one day extra to do a show with Esme (Chocolates and Croissants). I wish I had a picture of the two of us but I do not. We went to lunch with Carrie and Kim in the late morning before they left. We then went and saw the King Tut exhibit which was really interesting.
After a nap (me) and shopping (Esme) we went out to eat at a wonderful restaurant called Yum Yum. It was Thai food and it was… well… yum yum. Then we went to the show Mama Mia which was a perfect ending to an amazing week.
King Tut ExhibitMama Mia - highly recommended!
Thank you to everyone I met during this time in New York. I had so much fun and will probably be floating around my home town for the next several weeks. (Maybe months) 😀
Good morning. It is good to be back in Minnesota with Coffee Cup in hand and still trying to stretch out all the kinks from my whirlwind trip to New York last week for BEA.
Yesterday I accomplished….. not much. I had arrived home around 7:30 pm on Sunday evening and by 7:45 was heading to dinner with my hubby to a small restaurant about 2 miles down the road from us so we could catch up. Yesterday morning I spent cleaning up emails on both my accounts….. I had way more that any sane person should have and it took me past noon to get them manageable.
Then I spent quite a bit of time catching up on blogs and attempting to clean out my suitcase and do laundry. After grilling last night for dinner, I sat down with my son Justin and he and I watched Kite Runner together. This movie has been owned by me for over a year but I have refused to watch it until I had finished the book. Now that I have done both I feel as though I have been left with something incredible – I hope me review will do it justice.
My plan today is to give you a recap of BEA, and then after that if I can squeeze it in I need to also start getting reviews up for books I have read but have yet to do the reviews. I have a lot of catching up to do and just havent had a lot of time to do so.
Warning – my BEA posts will probably take at least the next three days as today I will post the overall recap, tomorrow I need to share the authors tea event with Adrianna Trigianni and on Thursday I want to share the meeting of Sarah Pekkenen author of Opposite of me (book review will also be that day).
So there is somewhat of a plan. This morning I am helping train someone in our business office and then off to my own office to catch up from everything that went down last week – whatever that may be. 🙂 This afternoon I hope to either bike or rollerblade as I have missed both terribly.
Have a super day! I leave you with a little video from Time Square.
What Are You Reading, is where we gather to share what we have read this past week and what we plan to read this week. It is a great way to network with other bloggers, see some wonderful blogs, and put new titles on your reading list.
I love being a part of this and I hope you do too! As part of this weekly meme I love to encourage you all to go and visit the others participating in this meme. I offer a weekly contest for those who visit 10 or more of the Monday Meme participants and leave a comment. You receive one entry for every 10 comments, just come back here and tell me how many in the comment area.
Congratulations! Please choose an item out of the PRIZE BOX and email me your choice with your mailing address as well! journeythroughbooks@gmail.com
With BEA (Book Expo America) last week I did not really accomplish a lot in reading or reviews. I finished two books:
I have not written the reviews yet, but plan to do these and a few other reviews I need to catch up on this week.
What’s Coming Up This Week?
Honestly, I arrived home from New York about 2 hours ago and haven’t really had time to give a thought to what I will be reading this week. There will be reviews and I will be doing a few BEA posts including both of my author experiences (WHICH ROCKED!!!).
I didn’t get around to all of you last week but will this week and have a lot of visits to catch up on. Please sign the Linky below as I am excited to see what you are reading!
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In about an hour I will be heading to the airport on my way home from New York and BEA.
Ahhhh…. just saying those words makes me smile. It has been more fun than I could have imagined. I accomplished everything I had hoped to, including an idea for a book…. and a thought is brewing….
Now I am ready to get home. I have had 8 pretty full days in a row and I just want to catch up with my husband, see my son and play with my dogs. I want to blog from my kitchen table (instead of a small table in the breakfast area of our hotel) and I want to use my Coffee Cup. 🙂
This mornings post I want to give a shout out to my 4 roommates I had throughout the week. I had such a great time getting to know them all:
Reagan from Miss Remmers Reviews: Reagan is fun and funny. She was a blast to get to know. She can break a trail through any crowd in New York! It was wonderful to just sit in Central Part with her and read.
Esme from Chocolates and Croissants: Esme is an amazingly busy all the time woman. She was always on the go and explored the nooks and crannies of the Time Square area of New York. She made me laugh and knows how to choose amazing Thai restaurants.
Care from Care’s Online Book Club is a hoot. She introduced me to book titles that made me want to record everything she said. I have to stop in to her blog more often and see what she is reading! We had a lot of fun planning our amazing race video…. 😀
Kim from Sophisticated Dorkiness is so incredible. She reads books that are fascinating and almost primarily non fiction. I wrote down titles she was speaking about and will have to make a stop at my library soon!
Stop in and check out their blogs if you haven’t already.
Ok – I am off to catch me a taxi! Its Monday What Are You Reading will be on as scheduled and I cant wait to spend some time tomorrow visiting and catching up with you and seeing what you are reading!
You actually forget to make a morning meanderings post. GAH!
So here I am later that planned – but hey, I am here! 😀 Still in New York today – last day and I am ready to come home. BEA has been wonderful and I am so glad to experience it but the running from 7 am to 11 pm has taken its toll and I look forward to being home again with my hubby in my own chair and in my own bed.
Yesterdays BBC (Book Blogger Convention) was wonderful and I took some good notes that I will apply once I get myself organized. I have shipped 4 boxes of books back to my house. (I know, right???)
Then last night we went out to dinner at a wonderful restaurant with 22 other bloggers and that was a wonderful wrap up to the end of the Blogger stuff. I made some wonderful friends this week and I look forward to reading their blogs and hopefully seeing them again next year.
Today I had an early lunch with my roommates and we said good-bye to Carrie (Care) and Kim. Now Esme (Chocolates and Croissants) and I are going to the King Tut Exhibit and later to Mama Mia.
Another full day, but again making the most of time here in New York.
Thanks everyone for your comments this week. When I have had time to read them they have made me smile. For those of you who were unable to attend BEA – stay tuned… I have a surprise I will be chatting more about when I get home.
Good morning! This morning In New York is warm and overcast. I am in the hotel lobby having my COFFEE of course, oatmeal and scrambled eggs. I feel good.
Yesterday was another whirlwind day. We were at the convention by 8 am and I spent my morning and early afternoon talking to publishers and authors. Grabbed a few books along the way – shipped two boxes of books home and will have a third to do that same with today.
At 2:00 pm Kathy from Bermuda Onion, and I, met with author Sarah Pekkanen. She is just a wonderful,fun, full of likfe person. We went to her publishers office at Simon and Schuster and were toured by the assistant to her editor. We sat in the editors office, and were each given a bag of new released or soon to be released books. (Oh, but more on that later!)
We were back at the convention center by 4 pm where I met my two newest of the roomies – Kim from Sophisticated Dorkiness and Care from Care Online Bookclub. Both are super fun!
Care and Kim
We were at the Blogger gathering from 4 to 6 pm and it was a nice mix between authors and bloggers and I just had a lot of fun mingling and meeting.
Afterwards we all gathered back at the hotel and Esme (Chocolates and Croissants) had an invite from an author for all of us to join them for dinner so we did. That was a lot of fun as they asked us questions on blogging, reviews, tips for authors and marketing. Did I mention I just the mix of authors and publishers and the conversations between us all. It’s like we are one big team!
Then back to our room for a wonderful earlier night then we have been having. I think we were all zonked out by 10:30 pm.
Today is the Blogger Convention and I am excited to see the panels and take notes. I am charging up Flip Video and have my camera ready to go! Hope you are all having fun – would love to hear what you have going for the weekend!
You may have noticed that I am not posting reviews for the afternoons like I usually do and said I would continue as the BEA week went on. In fact, you may notice that even my morning meandering has a little sleep in its eyes this morning. BEA is beyond fantastic. I am having so much fun talking with authors, picking up books, and meeting other bloggers.
I am not even sure I can put into words how much fun I am having.
My lack of review posts is that honestly, I am not around. I have been going to BEA (yesterday Reagan and I were there at 5:30 am) to get tickets to author signings). I run around all day seeing publishers and authors and going from event to event.
Highlight reel of yesterday:
In BEA from 5:30 am – 2 pm
Meet Adrianna Triggiani at 2 pm. (So much to tell you about this tea I had with her but it will have to wait. I will just give you a one word hint now: Limo.)
Back to BEA at 5:30 and back to hotel to clean up by 6 pm
Basically – I was back in the hotel at 11:00 pm at night completely shot but had so much fun I wouldn’t have traded a second of it!
And today… I will do it again.
Coffee Cup and I are currently in the hotel lobby grabbing a quick bite to eat and a rare relaxing moment. Next stop is the post office where I am going to sent a media mail box to my house of the books I have picked up.
So now I am off to another day of adventures! Enjoy your day, stop in and say and know that soon it will be business as usual and will be back with reviews and posts that I cant wait to share! 😀
I will be more detailed later about who is in this picture but for now – Adrianna is in the middle!
Book Journey 