Just this afternoon I have returned from the Book Expo in New York.  What a whirlwind week of books, book events, author events, blogger friends and get together.  This is truly one of the highlights of my year and I highly recommend it to anyone who is debating if they should go.  YES.  GO.  😀

Over two or three posts I am going to share with you the BEA experience I had this year so hopefully you can see it through my eyes.  One of the cool things about BEA is that each person has such a unique experience.  As people start to post about the books and events there is no doubt in my mind that I will be shocked to see a book I covet that I did not know was there.  There will be bookish get together that I did not know about as well. 

I arrived on Sunday morning flying from Minneapolis to Chicago to New York.  The first time I have ever flown alone.  (True story!)  I shuttled to my hotel, dropped off my bags and walked around the Times Square area until I connected with my room-mate for the week, Gail from Ticket To Anywhere.  Together Sunday evening we went to the Simon Schuster YA event. 

These 5 books and authors were presented at this wonderful party that has delicious horduerves and drinks being served.  Oh course I was super excited to hear from Lenore Applehans, who blogs at Presenting Lenore and has her first book coming out – Level 2!!!!  (I am so excited!!!)

I even did a little video but thought I was recording and I wasn’t so tried again… and only captured a bit of what she was saying:

All the authors and their books sounded wonderful and as each person spoke I would nudge Gail and say “Oh I want to read that book!”  At the end of the night we were presented with a swag bag with a copy of each book!!!  SQQQUUUEEE!!!!!

Dont these books look wonderful?  You might think I am being bias by featuring only Lenore and that is a little true – but it is also due to the fact that I was finishing up some work business on the phone on Sunday evening and I had to keep popping out of the event so the only one I was able to hear talk in their entirety was Lenore. 

I am going to write more soon…. I wanted to write more tonight but honestly… I have been up since 3:30 am to catch my flights and I am a bit wiped out.  More tomorrow…. promise 😀