BEA weekend from my eyes.

It was a fun weekend for me, attending Book Expo America at the Javits Center. Long but fun. Lots of walking around, handshaking, grabbing books, grabbing iced coffee, and taking rests. But between seeing old friends, and meeting so many new ones, I was pleased. I know the press has reported that attendance and giveaways were down from the last few years, but it felt like a rallying show to me in the eyes of the larger world and the doom-and-gloom feelings. I had a blast.

I had the pleasure of joining in the Blogger Signing Event hosted by Firebrand & Netgalley on Saturday at 4pm, which was really neat. I was sharing the table with bloggers: Stephanie of Stephanie's Written Word, and Gayle of Every Day I Write the Book. They were super-nice and it was a treat to be seated with them and talk about books & blogging about them.



Also, I wanted to mention again, one of the books I'm most excited to finish, the graphic memoir by David Small, STITCHES. I snapped a photo of the advance copy, I scored at the Norton booth.

Creepy, sureal, and yet happy and sad at the same time, I'm less than 100 pages in and already swept away by the honesty and cruelty of the story, and I'm attached to the sad story, a touching memoir with emotional art reminiscent of Bill Plimpton and Chester Brown, among others. Here is a photo of the author signing at the W.W. Norton booth - I was glad to see so much buzz generated about this terrific new book.


As Heidi MacDonald summed up at The Beat, it didn't matter one bit that this was a memoir written as a graphic novel to anyone grabbing up a copy. Everyone I spoke with seemed highly impressed with the format and style.

More to come on books I'm excited to read that I picked up at the show and other assorted highlights.