BookItCon Recap + Haul

Hey guys! So last weekend I was lucky enough to attend BookItCon: Chapter Two, and I thought I'd share how my experience went. (Sorry if this goes into too much detail, I just didn't want to leave out anything!)

So when I got there, Nori immediately greeted me at the door, and it was so lovely to finally meet her! I can finally conclude that she is not a poodle and is indeed a wonderful human being. I got my wristband, tote bag of goodies (that I for some reason didn't even look at until I got home), and some raffle tickets. There were a ton of raffles to enter, but I was already running a bit late and wanted to meet everyone as soon as possible, so I held off on distributing my tickets until much later. But that's not really relevant right now...

Anyway, we were required to buy at least one book at the event from the Barnes and Noble Kiosk, so I quickly picked up a copy of Salt and Storm by Kendall Kulper (a book I hadn't heard about until recently that sounds AMAZING) and This Monstrous Thing by Mackenzi Lee (which I've been wanting to read since before it came out last year) before heading into the main room with all the autographing tables and panels and stuff.

I scanned the room looking for some of my blog friends, and almost right away I noticed Cat (Let the Pages Reign) and Deanna (Reading in the Rain) and had to say hello. I'd already met them in real life before, so it was nice to see familiar faces. After chatting with them for a minute or two, I got my book signed by Kendall Kulper and ran into Kelly and Melissa (Live, Love, Read) and Heather (Kelly's cousin) who I'd previously met at the PassTruth Tour stop in NYC back in January.

And then the time came to meet Rachel (A Perfection Called Books). Most of you probably don't know this, but I became friends with Rachel 2 1/2 years ago on Goodreads. In 2014, I had just joined Goodreads and had decided to explore some of the groups on there to connect with fellow readers like myself, and I became friends with some awesome people, Rachel included. I won't go into a ton of detail about all that stuff (I'll save my Goodreads life for another day), but anyway, it was so surreal finally meeting someone who I've known after so long.

My memory is a bit jumbled as to what happened next, but basically the series of events that followed: I set my bags down because I was carrying way too much stuff, I had the awkward bathroom encounter with Sush (S. Usher Evans) that I'd been trying to avoid which was proceeded by lots of hugs and laughs and book-buying, I met Mackenzi Lee and struggled to figure out how to hold a mechanical arm, I met Jodi Meadows and got to try on her magical cloak, I listened to the Surprises in Publishing panel, I met Julie Eshbaugh, and I met two of the Swanky 17s (A.V. Geiger and Amanda Foody). And I also met MC, who is an awesome blog person and twitter friend.

After the panels and signings were over, the VIP ticket-holders were invited to dinner at a restaurant across the street. I ended up sitting with Deanna and Cat, and it was super nice to catch up with them after so many months. Dinner was satisfying, but dessert was even better (the mini cupcakes were absolutely delicious). And after dessert, there was a live RQWN chat (a IRL version of Nori's famous twitter chats) followed by another raffle. It was super fun rotating between tables and sharing our answers to Nori's random questions (although as someone who is bad at meeting new people, I prefer her online chats to IRL ones).

After a few questions in the chat, Nori announced the raffle prize (13 books that released or were going to release from January 2016 - January 2017 and a poster), and I somehow won. So basically I came home with a TON of books:

So I guess that means I should do a haul.

Books I Bought:

1. The Mirror King by Jodi Meadows (I technically bought this a few days before the event, but I never officially hauled it and I bought it for the sake of BookItCon, so I'm including it)
2. This Monstrous Thing by Mackenzi Lee
3. Salt + Storm by Kendall Kulper
4. Fusion by S. Usher Evans
5. Empath by S. Usher Evans

ARCs I Received:

1. My Secret to Tell by Natalie D. Richards
2. Resurrecting Sunshine by Lisa A. Koosis
3. Spells & Sorcery by S. Usher Evans

Trade/ARCs from Friends:

1. Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco (thank you so much, Rachel! <3)
2. Bright Smoke, Cold Fire by Rosamund Hodge (thank you so much, MC! <3)
3. Bunheads by Sophie Flack (thank you for trading with me, Jacquelyn!) 

ARCs/Books I Won:

1. The Edge of Everything by Jeff Giles (ARC)
2. Spindle by E.K. Johnston (ARC)
3. Scythe by Neal Shusterman (ARC)
4. What Light by Jay Asher (ARC)
5. Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake (ARC)
6. The Thousandth Floor by Katharine McGee (ARC)
7. Run by Kody Keplinger (ARC)
8. The Memory Book by Lara Avery
9. Queen of Hearts by Colleen Oakes
10. South of Sunshine by Dana Elmendorf (ARC)
11. Girl Last Seen by Heather Anastasiu and Anne Greenwood Brown
12. Of Better Blood by Susan Moger
13. Anna and the Swallow Man by Gavriel Savit

I also got a ton of swag including stickers, bookmarks, postcards, posters, and a bunch of other things that I didn't take photos of. But anyway, I am so excited for all of these books and am so grateful to Nori for making BookItCon happen! I had an absolute blast!

Event Recap: NYC Launch for A World Without You by Beth Revis

Hey guys! So last weekend, my friend Izzy and I went to the NYC launch at Books of Wonder for Beth Revis' new book, A World Without You. The event was in the late afternoon (4:00-6:00 pm), but since it was a Sunday, we went into the city early, getting in around 12:30.

Once we got into the city, we ate at a delicious Japanese restaurant, wherein I had ramen for the first time (I've had tons of other noodle soups before, but never ramen, for some odd reason). Anyway, after that, we headed straight to Books of Wonder to pick up our books before the signing so we'd be able to get early numbers in line for the signing. Since it was only 2ish, I thought we were going to be early in line, but we got numbers 23 and 24.

Izzy at The Strand

After that, we walked around Union Square, got some soft serve ice cream from a Mister Softee truck (which was delicious), and headed over to The Strand, a local bookstore that sells both new and used books, often for reduced prices. We perused for about
an hour and a half before heading back to Books of Wonder.

Once we returned to Books of Wonder, we found seats and waited for the event to begin. (Side note: the wait wasn't too bad since there was a Pokéstop right across the street that we were able to collect from numerous times before the event started.)

Also, I remembered Gaby (who works at Books of Wonder) tweeted about setting up a Blind Date with a Book shelf in Books of Wonder, so I scouted that out and ended up buying a book. It was really fun, and I'll probably talk about that experience another time :)

And finally, to the event. Beth Revis was joined by Lindsay Ribar, author of Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies (among other books). I actually haven't read either of the authors' books, but I have been dying to read A World Without You, so I knew I had to come to the event. Anyway, per usual, the event started out with a Q&A session.

The main difference for this Q&A was that the authors asked each other questions for a good portion of the time, which I thought was really great. Beth and Lindsay worked really well together and asked each other some great questions about setting and inspiration. One problem I had, however, was that some of the questions addressed specific things in the book that I didn't truly understand since I hadn't read it yet (it was non-spoilery, but still).

photo credit: Izzy

Anyway, after a while, the authors opened up the questions to the audience, and they were asked about how they deal with distractions. Lindsay told us that she dealt with them poorly, and typically waited until the distractions began to bore her (distractions including Candy Crush), while Beth said that she invested in a good pair of noise-cancelling headphones. When asked about writer's block, both agreed that it was best to keep writing, even if it means backtracking to the dark alley where things went wrong and try to fix it.

After the Q&A was over, they started clearing out the chairs for the signing, and announced that the numbers actually started at 22. Meaning that I was actually supposed to be second in line. And I was not prepared at all, especially when 22 wasn't there and I had to go up first.

Both authors were extremely nice, funny, and entertaining to listen to, but once I got up there to meet them, I had no idea what to say or do. I just smiled awkwardly and thanked them for coming to NYC,  got my book signed, then took a photo and left. All in all, despite my awkwardness, it was a super fun event!

Fantastic Reads Event Recap

On Wednesday, I was lucky enough to go to the Fantastic Reads event at Books of Wonder with Roshani Chokshi, Renée Ahdieh, Marie Rutkoski, and Sarah McCarry. I'd been dying to meet Roshani Chokshi for months after I fell in love with The Star-Touched Queen (it's one of my absolute favorite books!) and she's such an amazing human, so I was so excited that there was an event close by so I could actually meet her!



Fortunately, I was able to catch an early train, so my friend Izzy and I arrived at Books of Wonder around 4:15, a few hours before the event. We bought our books and got our numbers (luckily I was 31st instead of 89th like the last event I went to!) before briefly meeting up with Mariam and Ashley (from Flying through Fiction) and then heading out to grab a quick bite to eat before finding seats for the Q&A session.

Once we got decent seats, we reconvened with Mariam to catch up (and I may have squealed excessively loud when Renee Ahdieh walked by us on her way to the back of the store). I also met Emma (from Emmmabooks) and she was lovely. I'd seen her at other events before, and for some reason I thought she was intimidating (honestly I feel like most BookTubers are), but she's actually so sweet. I have no idea why I was scared to talk to her.

While we were talking to Emma, Roshani Chokshi passed by, and she RECOGNIZED ME (only because I'd told her in advance what I was going to be wearing to the event, but still!) She had to go to the back before the event started, but she gave me a quick hug and then we headed back to our seats.

We waited around a little while longer before the Q&A started, and then my friends Brittany (from Brittany's Book Rambles) and Raisa (from Wonderland Novels) showed up and we exchanged hugs before all the authors came out to start the Q&A.


The authors were all such wonderful and engaging speakers. I loved learning about their writing processes and their inspiration—it was so interesting hearing how Marie came up with the idea for The Winner's Curse (a book I still have yet to read but am planning to do soon)! She said that "the winner's curse" is an economic term for when someone wins at an auction because they had to pay more than what everyone else thought the item was worth in order to win, and thus they lose the most money in doing so (or something along those lines) and how she started with that title and wanted to see what would happen if the thing won was a person instead of an item, and the thing lost wasn't necessarily money. I love that she came up with the title first because that's what I usually do when writing—it's weird for me, I either come up with the title before the story unfolds, or I struggle to find a title to fit my story—but I digress.

Fun fact: Marie was planning on making it a stand-alone (with that same ending and everything!) but she decided against it because of how her readers might feel. Although all of the authors at the event mutually enjoy paining their readers, apparently.

After the Q&A, I chatted more with my blog friends and Izzy, and then we got in line for the signing.

I met Roshani first, and it was just as amazing as I expected! I had so much fun hanging out with her, even though I already forgot what we talked about.  All I remember is that she was so so so sweet, humble, and friendly, and that I was so excited when I gave her my drawing of Maya. Anyway, there were other people waiting, so I had to leave to meet the other authors, but I wish I had more time to talk with her.

So next, I met Marie and awkwardly stood there in silence as she signed my books because I've actually only read her MG series and even though I remember loving those books, it was years ago so I had no idea what to say. Yeah, that didn't go as great as planned, but an awkward silence (in my opinion) is better than me stumbling through a conversation that goes nowhere.

Finally, I met Renée and we talked about race (something she mentioned briefly during the Q&A). It was really cool finding out having something in common with an author I look up to and whose work I love. I meant to gush about her books because the last time I met her (at BookCon last year), I hadn't read any of her books, but I kind of forgot to tell her (so maybe next time)! But nonetheless I enjoyed talking to her and am glad I actually had something to say (since my first signing with her went much like my interaction with Marie did).


It was overall a wonderful event and experience!! After the signing I took a ton of photos with my blog friends and we hung out for a bit before Izzy and I had to catch a train home. I'd definitely say it was more successful than the last event, as I was less tired and thus more engaged and interactive, and I actually talked to the authors (or most of them) without making a complete fool of myself. And, of course, it was wonderful because I met two of my favorite authors (Roshani and Renée) at the same time.

PassTruth Launch Party Recap

Hey guys! On Monday, I was lucky enough to attend the PassTruth Launch Party at Books of Wonder in New York City. If you guys know anything about me, I am a HUGE fan of Susan Dennard, so naturally I begged my parents to let me attend her Q&A/signing with Alex Bracken and Erin Bowman. I apologize in advance if this post gets super ramble-y but I met a ton of bloggers/twitter-ers/BookTubers I knew from online so I'm probably going to ramble about that for a while. I'll write about the actual event event stuff in purple in case you want to skip over my ramblings about all the people I met.

It was merely an hour's train ride to get to the city, but since I had school earlier that day, I caught a 4:15 train and got into the city at 5:20ish. By the time I grabbed a bite to eat and got to Books of Wonder, it was 5:45 and it was PACKED.

Let me backtrack a bit to right before I entered Books of Wonder though because SARAH J. MAAS WAS LITERALLY RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME BEFORE I WALKED IN AND I SQUEALED IN FRONT OF MY DAD AND HE HAD NO IDEA WHAT WAS GOING ON BUT LUCKILY IT WAS DARK AND SARAH DIDN'T SEE/HEAR ME FLAILING BUT OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG YOU GUYS. *takes deep breath*

Once I was inside, I finally had a minute to set down my giant bag of seven books from home and picked up the copy of Truthwitch I ordered for my dear friend. Apparently everyone came way in advance though, because I received my ticket for the signing and I found out I was 89th in line.

I then rushed over to the Q&A area right before the Q&A started to meet up with my twitter/blog friend Mariam (from Flying Through Fiction), and ended up meeting her co-blogger Ashley, as well as Raisa (from Wonderland Novels) and Brittany (from Book Rambles).

The Q&A started, with Erin Bowman as moderator. The questions started off mostly with book/writing-related questions, such as inspiration and research, and later questions from the crowd were thrown in (BB8 or R2D2? Which Hogwarts Houses would your characters be sorted into? If your character could choose any companion to help them from another story/movie/etc. who would it be?) The Q&A lasted about 45 minutes before they started setting up for the signing. The event cleared out significantly after the questions were over, but there were still at least one hundred people waiting to meet Susan, Alex, and Erin. Around 7ish, the signing began, starting with the first 20 people.

I proceeded to hang out with Mariam, Raisa, Ashley and Brittany for a while before spotting Danielle from Simply Thoughtful Books (on BookTube). I had spotted her as well as some other BookTubers, bloggers, and people I recognized from BookCon and Twitter during the Q&A, and knew I had to say hello. She was surprised that I recognized her, but she was just as sweet in person as she is in her videos.

I returned to my blog friends for a while before Mariam introduced me to some people on our PassTruth NYC group chat on Twitter: Kelly and Heather, mainly, and then sort of Melissa and Jana (I apologize for not actually properly introducing myself!) I ran into Danielle again and asked for a picture with her since she's one of my favorite BookTubers and afterwards we proceeded to talk about BookTube, Something Strange and Deadly, Illuminae, and various other things. Anyway, I highly highly recommend you check her videos out since she's so genuinely nice and funny and is such a sweet person.

Most of my friends/acquaintances/I-don't-know-what-to-call-them-because-I-knew-them-online-for-several-months-but-not-in-person-until-this-event got their books signed way before me because they all somehow managed to get one of the first fifty tickets, but I was never alone without anyone to talk to.

And then basically every one of them left since they had places to be. I totally understand since they all have pretty long commutes back home, but it was uncomfortable for a while since I was starting to get really tired (it had been a long day) and I was pretty drained from talking to so many people. I'M AN INTROVERT, I'M SORRY.

Eventually, around 9ish, they finally called the numbers in the 80s. I COULD FINALLY JOIN THE LINE! After a few more minutes, I finally met Susan (my favorite author ever) and kind of internally flailed the whole time. I dropped my five books off at the table for her to sign, and gave her my Truthwitch fan art (if you missed it, I shared it in this post). I was so nervous the whole time, but she is honestly one of the sweetest people I've ever met and I'm so grateful that she didn't act like I was a total spaz (even though I definitely was one).

I then got to meet Erin Bowman, and she was also super sweet! I felt a bit awkward because I hadn't read Vengeance Road (or the Taken trilogy) yet, but she was really friendly and I really hope I get to meet her again one day (after I've read her books!) Unfortunately Alex had a huge line so I couldn't meet her (since I had to head home because it was a weeknight and I had school the next day), but overall the experience was amazing (and also exhausting). It was so worth it because I finally got to meet my favorite author (yay!) and got to meet some of my amazing online friends in person.