Book Club Girl

What an Amazing Experience -- The Book Bloggers Panel at BEA!!

As many of you who were there (or who followed along on Twitter) know, today's Book Blogger Panel at BEA was a resounding success. Many issues, from how to find the right blog, how to pitch a blogger and the nitty gritty like, so, what is a blog tour? were discussed. Thank you so much to the audience for your great questions. It was such a lively exchange! You can read one report of the panel from Publishers Weekly here.

I cannot thank Julie, Stephanie, Amy, Candace, Dawn and Natasha enough for coming on board and sharing their thoughts and their time with everyone in the room. They were mobbed at the end, it was so terrific! For those of you who weren't able to score a tote bag with the accompanying cheat sheet, as promised, I'm posting the contact info and blogger directories that were on that sheet here.

As soon as we have the recording of the panel sorted out, I'll post it so those who missed it can listen in. A big thank you to Michael for being our AV guy. And remember, there is still one more day at BEA, so there's time to meet more book bloggers at Firebrand's booth #4077 on Sunday!

The Book Blogger Panelists
Stephanie Coleman-Chan from Stephanie's Written Word.
Follow Stephanie on Twitter.

Candace Levy from Beth Fish Reads.
Follow Candace on Twitter.

Natasha Maw from Maw Books Blog.
Follow Natasha on Twitter.

Julie Peterson from Booking Mama.
Follow Julie on Twitter.

Dawn Rennert from She is Too Fond of Books.
Follow Dawn on Twitter.

Amy Riley from My Friend Amy.
Follow Amy on Twitter.

Here are the various blogger directories we discussed during the panel:
Book Bloggers Appreciation Week Directory
Independent Book Bloggers
Here Be Reviews
Kidlitosphere Central
YA Book Blog Directory
The YA Blogosphere
The Book Bloggers
Book Blogs Ning

Any other questions, please comment!

Book Blogger Panel Update at BEA -- Won't Be Live on Blog Talk Radio

Just an update for tomorrow's book blogger panel at BEA at 2pm. Turns out that we won't be able to broadcast it live via Blog Talk (no phone lines in the rooms at Javits), but we WILL record it and post it as soon as we can. I'll put a notice here and on Twitter when it's up. And we will have official live tweeters at the event, including Kathy from Bermuda Onion, Trish from Hey Lady Whatcha Readin, and Jenn from Jenn's Bookshelf so follow them on Twitter tomorrow and you'll find out what's being said! This is like a Follow Friday blog post!

The Curtain Goes Up....

The new Betsy-Tacy covers for the fall reissues of Heaven to Betsy through Betsy's Wedding have been revealed! Get a sneak peek of them here, on the newly revamped (and quite gorgeous) Betsy-Tacy Society website. Go here to preorder your copies which have forewords by Meg Cabot, Laura Lippman and Anna Quindlen!

Listen to Kelly Corrigan Discuss The Middle Place Now

Tonight's was an amazing show. Kelly Corrigan was just as compelling on air as she is on the page. Listen in now to the show and you'll also hear from Stephanie over at Stephanie's Written Word who called in (and brought us all to tears). I'm still thinking about so many things Kelly talked about: her reading of C.S. Lewis and exploring issues of faith, how we experience life during and inside a crisis, and how we need to not play games in our marriages, but learn to ask nicely and receive gracefully. I just talked to my husband about that (and he was happy to hear it). We're all looking forward to her new book, Lift, coming out in March 2010. If you're at BEA this weekend, you can attend Kelly's signing at 2 pm on Saturday (though we hope some of you come to the Book Blogger panel at the same time!). The website that Kelly created for people whose friends are going through cancer is CircusofCancer.org. Check it out and listen to the show now.

Winners of Lizzie Skurnick's Shelf Discovery!

I'm thrilled to announce the following winners of Lizzie Skurnick's Shelf Discovery: The Teen Classics We Never Stopped Reading, which goes on sale on July 21st. If you didn't win today and you're coming to BEA next weekend, you can meet Lizzie and get her to sign a galley on Friday at 11 am. And if that doesn't work, come to the Book Bloggers Panel in Room 1E15 at 2pm on Saturday and you just might find a Shelf Discovery galley in the free tote bag on your chair!

Jenne
Liyana
Julie E.
Anita Liberty 
Stacie 
Cassandra 
Stephanie Friedin 
Marlyn 
Crystal 
Gina 
Elita 
Lisa 
Dawn - She Is Too Fond of Books 
Missy Hatfield 
Mimi 

I Am Loving The Middle Place!

I just wanted to say how much I am loving Kelly Corrigan's The Middle Place which I'm reading this weekend in preparation for our online book club show with her on Wednesday night. God, I love this book. I am finding myself reading it while trying to do other things around the house, I just can't put it down. She so perfectly identifies the emotions of being a mother AND a daughter. I'm hoping that my mother is reading along as well and that she can tune in on Wednesday. If you haven't yet, set your reminder for the show here. Be sure to register on the Blog Talk Radio site before the show so that you'll be able to participate in the chat. And you can call in and ask Corrigan (and me) questions directly at 347-945-6149. Check out book club questions for the book here. See you Wednesday at 7 pm EST!

Thanks for the Memories Winners!

Winners of Cecelia Ahern's Thanks for the Memories are....

Cathy W.
teabird 
Anne
Erika Lynn 
softdrink 
Robin 
rhapsodyinbooks 
Gwendolyn
Ti
Lisa Munley 

Winners of Kate Jacobs' Comfort Food! And Now I Want Cupcakes Again.....

And the winners of Kate Jacobs' Comfort Food (glass of milk not included) are... (and yes, there was supposed to be just one, but the lovely publisher sent me three, so I'm sharing the wealth). Spread the wealth by following Kate Jacobs on Twitter so that you're up to date on all she's doing and her new book, Knit the Season, coming this fall.

MacKenzie
Gail Wood
Diane La Rue

Book Club Girl On Air and Books a Million Welcome Deborah Johnson, Author of The Air Between Us!

I'm thrilled to announce the next Book Club Girl on Air show in collaboration with Books-a-Million bookstores. In honor of their pick of Deborah Johnson's novel, The Air Between Us, as their June literary book club pick, we'll be inviting all of BAM's customers, as well as all of you, to participate in a book club conversation with Johnson on Wednesday, June 3rd at 2 pm EST.

Revere, Mississippi, with its population of "20,000 and sinking," is not unlike most Southern towns in the 1960s. Blacks live on one side of town and whites on the other. The two rarely mix. Or so everyone believes. But the truth is brought to the forefront when Critter, who is only ten, black and barely tall enough to see over the dashboard, drives Billy Ray—wounded in a suspicious hunting accident—to the segregated Doctor's Hospital. Dr. Cooper Connelly, the town's most high-profile resident, assures Billy Ray's family he'll be fine. He dies, however, and most people assume it is just a typical hunting accident—until the sheriff orders an investigation.

Suddenly the connections between white and black are revealed to be deeper than anyone expects, which makes the town's struggle with integration that much more complicated and consuming. Dr. Connelly takes an unexpectedly progressive view toward integration; the esteemed Dr. Reese Jackson, who is so prominent that even Ebony has profiled him, tries to stay above the fray. At times, it seems the town's only distraction is the racially ambiguous Madame Melba, a fortune-teller and "voyeur" with a past.

Booklist said of The Air Between Us: "this heartwarming novel will strike a chord with fans of Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees." You can browse inside the book here and check out the reading group guide here.

Set your reminder for the show with Deborah Johnson on 6/3 here! You can call in live and ask her your questions directly at 347-945-6149 or type them in via chat and we'll ask them. Be sure to register at Blog Talk Radio prior to the show to make sure you can participate in the chat right away. Can't wait to talk to all of you!

Winners, We Have Winners, We Have Lots and Lots of Winners

Starting with, winners of Scott McCloud's Zot!

Lauren
Julie E.
Seaside Book Worm
Samantha
Gabe

Congrats to all!

Meet 44 Book Bloggers at BEA!!

For those of you attending BEA, in addition to the 6 amazing bloggers who will be on the Book Bloggers panel at 2 pm on Sat in Room 1E15, you will also have an opportunity to meet 44 book bloggers at Firebrand's booth (#4077) throughout the weekend! Check out the complete blogger signing schedule here to make sure you hook up with your favorite blogger --  Meet Charlotte Abbott and Kat Meyer from Follow the Reader (11 am on Friday)! Ron Hogan from Beatrice makes an appearance at 1 pm on Friday. Trish from Hey Lady! Whatcha' Readin? will be there at 11 am on Sat. Erica Barmash from The Olive Reader makes an appearance at 3 pm on Saturday and right after that, say hello to Gayle Weiswasser from Everyday I Write the Book at 4! I can't wait to finally meet so many people who I only know via email/twitter and comments. Make sure to check out the complete schedule of blogger appearances here. Oh, and I'll be there at 3 on Friday!

"Not Your Mother's Jane Austen" Books & Bars Guest Post on Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

This month's guest post from Jeff Kamin at Minneapolis' Books & Bars focuses on their discussion of the New York Times bestseller Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and this month, they invited the author to join them for the discussion via Skype! I love the "you were there" feeling we now get to the discussion. I for one was fascinated to find out how many times Seth had to read Pride and Prejudice to write the book. By the way, since Jeff's last post, Books & Bars was named Minneapolis' best reading series by CityPages which praised it for becoming "an indespensable means for promoting reading within the community, giving new meaning to the term 'literary buzz.'" Kudos.

Seth Grahame-Smith chatted with Books & Bars via Skype video. It was our first video chat with an author and a rousing success we hope to repeat soon. A movie screen on stage held his image while we sat in the theater with a couple microphones to ask him questions. He could see us as though he was sitting towards the back of the theater and also see his own image the movie screen. We discussed his smash hit Pride and Prejudice and Zombies which pokes broader fun at the social changes taking place in Jane Austen’s classic and his other projects for about 45 minutes. Then had time to have our regular discussion without him (another 45 min), making for a good balance. Seth was thoroughly engaging and entertaining, even breaking some secret scoops for us. Topics included the process of writing a mash-up, late night humor, how anything + ninjas = awesome, the drunken washwoman defense, zombies as a metaphor (marriage, etc.), and much more. I’ll let you see for yourselves from the two 8-minute video clips. If you had a particular question you were wondering about, ask me, we may’ve gotten an answer.

Next month – non-fiction (!): June 9th we cover Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach.

Please comment here, there, in a car, by a bar, with a goat, on a boat, anywhere (otherwise we’re just yelling into a dark cave): Books & Bars, Mustache Robots, and Twitter.

Thanks for reading,
Jeff Kamin
Moderator, Books & Bars
jeff AT booksandbars DOT com

16 Days and Counting....

...to the biggest blogger blind date of the year... BEA! BEA stands for Book Expo America and is the annual trade show for publishers and booksellers, where publishers debut their Fall lists and trot their authors around to meet booksellers, sign books and ARCs, and attend parties. Booksellers come from near and far to meet said authors and talk with publishers. But BEA of late has started to feel like it might not be worth all the time and expense that publishers put into it, and what booksellers pay to get there to attend it. Throw in our current economic climate and what I suppose will be a scaled-down BEA with lower than usual attendance, I really wasn't looking forward to this year.

But all that has changed over the past months as I have learned about more and more book bloggers who are attending BEA, many of them for the first time. This year, there is an entirely new contingent of people going to BEA who read, review and recommend books to ever-growing audiences of book buyers! I'm a big geek and it's really exciting to me.

I'm thrilled that I'll be in the company of six of my favorite book bloggers on Saturday May 30th on a panel where we'll explore the publisher-blogger-bookseller relationship and what we can do to make it better and maximize all of our efforts to help readers find books that they'll love. Julie of Booking Mama, Natasha of Maw Books, Stephanie of Stephanie's Written Word, Amy of My Friend Amy and Dawn of She is Too Fond of Books, Candace of Beth Fish Reads and I will examine how things work now and how they could work better. For those of you not able to attend, we'll broadcast the panel live via Book Club Girl on Air. Set your reminder for the live broadcast  on May 20th at 2 pm EST here.

There will be other opportunities to meet bloggers during the weekend as well, stay tuned for a schedule of when bloggers themselves will be signing (though what we will sign, not too sure ;))

And, if you have questions for a book blogger, publsher or bookseller, that you'd like us to consider during our panel discussion, please feel free to post them here!

Making its Way to the Top of My Summer Reading Pile

Everyone seems to be asking me what my summer reading list looks like. It's rather funny because they want to know what my beach read will be. Beach reads...beach reads...I remember those, oh so fondly, but as the mom of a 3 year old and a 5 month old, I'm not sure when I will next loll on a beach reading a book uninterrupted. Between sand castles, digging holes and my ever-growing fear of waves and undertows, it may be QUITE a long time. Perhaps I can revise "beach read" to "deck read" as that's a more likely place for me to catch some time to read, while the kids are napping. So what's on my summer reading/deck read list? Well, I'll reveal it slowly, but at the top is a book I feel like I'm already late in reading, Kathryn Sockett's The Help

In her novel, Sockett tells the story of 22-year-old Skeeter, who has returned home after graduating college. Her mother would like her to get married, but Skeeter wants to know where Constantine, the maid who raised her, has gone, and no one is telling her. It's also the story of Abilene, a black maid who has raised 17 white children and having just lost her own son, is feeling as though she cannot go on as she has for so many years. Lastly there's Minny, Abilene's best friend, who's short, fat and sassy and unable to hold her tongue. As a result, she can't hold down a job and has just found one with a new arrival in town, who has secrets of his own. Skeeter, Abilene and Minny will come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk because they are all suffocated by the time they're living in, and the roles that society demands they fill.

This description makes me want to dive right into The Help, and I can't wait to suggest it at my next book club meeting. You can read an excerpt of it here, and check out the reading guide here. If you've already read it, I'd love to hear what you thought of it!

Dads! It's Not Too Late to Buy a Great Book for Mother's Day!

I know most of you Dads, like, ahem, my husband, probably haven't yet made a plan, or bought a gift for the mother of your children, but there's still time -- though time, as they say, is ticking. You have today and tomorrow only. So get moving. And nothing says "I love you and appreciate everything you do to help raise our children" like a good book AND the time to lie on the couch, the porch swing or hammock and actually read said book.

So, right now, do these things, in this order:
1) Book a reservation for brunch on Sunday -- yes, breakfast in bed cooked by the kids is sweet, but she'll only be thinking of the mess in the kitchen and won't really be able to enjoy it, so take it from me: take her out

2) Go to your local store and buy one (or more!) of these books:
Things I Want My Daughters to Know by Elizabeth Noble -- she will laugh AND cry and you'll look so compassionate and aware of British authors (the ladies love the Brits)
The Middle Place by Kelly Corrigan -- very popular with the mommies, she's probably seen the video, trust me and you'll look so sensitive
Belong to Me by Marisa de los Santos -- she read Love Walked In, I'm sure, and wants this new novel from de los Santos and you'll look as though you've paid attention to the books on her bedside table
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout -- just won the Pulitzer Prize and you'll look so "in the know"
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson -- the hottest book in book clubs these days and you'll look like you did your research

(all links bring you to my almost local bookstore, Clinton Book Shop in Clinton, NJ. You can also follow Clinton Book Shop on Twitter)

3) buy a card and pledge in the card to allot Mom 3, 4, or 5 (!) hours in which to simply read while you entertain the kids

Now, can someone send this post to my husband?

Backlist, Schmacklist: If You Haven't Read It, It's New to You!

I always loved NBC's '90s (or '80s?) marketing campaign to get people to watch reruns -- "If you haven't seen it, it's new to you!" Those of us in publishing who work on paperbacks, and thus the backlist -- the ever-growing library of everything a publishing house has ever published -- have long felt the same way. Yes, a book may have come one, two or five years ago, but if you haven't read it yet, it's new to you. In honor of backlist books, a new blog has launched, called, appropriately enough, Backlist Book of the Day. For 365 days a year, a backlist book will be featured, reviewed and otherwise called out to your attention. This is a great source for your next book club book, the next book to put atop that ever teetering TBR pile next to your bed, the next book to cook from, the next gift for a child's birthday party. Check it out.

Announcing My Next Book Club Girl on Air Show with Kelly Corrigan, author of The Middle Place!

Ever since it was published in hardcover, I have been so intrigued by Kelly Corrigan's memoir, The Middle Place. In the book, which has gone on to become a word-of-mouth sensation and a New York Times bestseller, Corrigan writes about caring for her ill father while dealing with her own cancer as a mother. As she puts it on her website, she explores "being a parent and a child at the same time, about the special double-vision you get when you have one foot standing in each place. It is about the family you make and the family you came from, and locating, navigating and finally celebrating the place where they meet."

I think there are very few of us who didn't have her extremely compelling video sent to us at the end of the year. And I dare anyone to watch it and emerge with dry eyes. I'm thrilled that Kelly will be joining me on Wednesday, May 27th at 7 pm to discuss The Middle Place with me and with all of you!

The first 15 people who comment that they'd like to participate in the show on the 27th will receive a free copy of the book. You can read an excerpt here, and watch the video with Corrigan below. Set your reminder for the show here.

Dickens' Old Curiosity Shop on Masterpiece Sunday Night

The Dickens adaptation juggernaut continues on Sunday May 3rd on PBS with The Old Curiosity Shop starring Derek Jacobi, who is well, one of the greatest actors of our time. Don't believe me? Check out I, Claudius.

It's Free Comic Book Day! 5 Copies of Scott McCloud's Zot! to Give Away!

In addition to being Buy Indie Day (I'll be buying indie at Words Bookstore in Maplewood, NJ) it's also Free Comic Book Day! I'm thrilled to be able to give away Scott McCloud's Zot! on this auspicious day.

Long before manga took the American comics market by storm, Scott McCloud, author of Understanding Comics, combined the best ideas from manga, alternative comics, and superheroes into Zot!—a frenetic and innovative exploration of comics' potential that helped set the stage for McCloud's later groundbreaking theoretical work.

Zachary T. Paleozogt lives in "the far-flung future of 1965," a utopian Earth of world peace, robot butlers, and flying cars. Jenny Weaver lives in an imperfect world of disappointment and broken promises—the Earth we live in. Stepping across the portals to each other's worlds, Zot and Jenny's lives will never be the same again.

Now, for the first time since its original publication more than twenty years ago, every one of McCloud's pages from the black and white series has been collected in this must-have commemorative edition for aficionados to treasure and new fans to discover. Includes never-before-seen artwork and extensive commentary by Scott McCloud.

Post a comment on either your favorite comic OR your favorite indie store (bookstore, music, etc) and you'll be entered into the random drawing. Retweet my tweet of this and you'll get two entries into the random drawing.

Can't Wait, Can't Wait, Can't Wait

Oh, this trailer for Julie & Julia looks so great! The book has been on my TBR pile for a long while, now that it's associated with the incredible female trifecta of Meryl Streep, Amy Adams and Nora Ephron it's rising to the top! Movie opens August 7th. Have already marked my calendar and made a date with A to see it, and a minor resolution to cook more.....